👨🏾🤝👨🏼 checking out me history Flashcards
Who is the poet of Checking Out Me History?
John Agard
Summary of Checking Out Me History
The speaker begins to list the historical figures he is told about. In the next stanza, in italics, the speaker talks about Toussaint L’Ouverture, a figure of the Haitian revolution. In the next stanza, the poem reverts to plain text and lists further white figures. This pattern repeats until the last stanza. Finally the speaker concludes by stating tha despite not being taught about members of black history, it is okay as they are researching their history themselves.
5 key quotes in Checking Out Me History
1) ‘Dem tell me’
- REPETITION: creates an accusatory tone, showing the speaker’s anger of the miseducation.
2) ‘Bandage up me eye with me own history / Blind me to me own identity’
- Has INJURY-LIKE CONNOTATIONS which imply that the speaker feels he has been hurt by the sheltered upbringing.
- METAPHOR: Deliberately held back to his own history
3) ‘balloon / moon / spoon / Nanny de maroon’
- Rhyming of ‘oon’ sound. Building up, climaxing to the final line of the verse which emphasizes the importance of black figures like Nanny de Maroon.
- She led a
- The nursery rhyme references and childish rhyme scheme mock the presentation of history. The semantic field of childhood implies that the speaker feels he has lost his childhood and is stuck in the past.
- Stark contrasts to verses about black historical figures
4) ‘hopeful stream / to freedom river’
- Positive natural influences on the speaker’s life. METAPHOR
- Just as a stream may be smaller than a body of water, that inevitably must reach a larger river with hopefulness and direction, it represents a desire for a better life in the future. So too did Nanny de Maroon offer a pathway to freedom for slaves, both racially and literally within society.
- The short sentences show righteous anger and that he is frustrated that he wasn’t taught characters from black history
5) ‘But now I checking out me own history / I carving out me identity’
- ‘carving’ is an active strenuous task and we need to actively seek out and fidn our identity to have a sense of who we are and validates us.
- The speaker is now at the end of the verse, meaning that he is the final person because his new-found history has empowered him with a new-found sense of his identity
Context for Checking Out Me History
JOHN AGARD
- Born in Guyana and recieved British education due to the country being colonoized up until 1966. he was given a eurocentric viewof history whilstt being denied his own cultural identity
- His formative years were lived under British rule, however, eventually he saw his country becomme independent and realized how much of his identity he was deprived of
DIALECT
- He dialect was Creole language
Form and structure of Checking Out Me History
ORAL POETRY
- Telling a story for others to remember it. Tell that it is not just white people who are important in history
DIALECT AND NO PUNCTUATION
- Agard refuses to conform to the rules of the English language. Standing against the oppressive domineering control
- Punctuation is a restriction, a set of rules enforced on us. Agard’s refusal to accept the restrictions that are forced on him.
- Creole / Guyannese language and pronunciation reflects his identity to keep his dialect alive and forces the reader to acknowledge his true identity there should be no segregation between black and white history. If he wrote in Standard English then he would just be white-washed and the poem would be inauthentic
ITALICS
- Verses about black historical figures are italicized to make them stand out as important
Key themes in Checking Out Me History
- Identity and culture
- White-washed education
-The narrator resolves to take control of their education - Anti-colonisation figure
Poem to compare with Checking Out me History
THE EMIGREE
- S: Both attach great emotional signifiance to their cultural identity. Both clinging to their language
- D: COMH uses angry tone and Emi positive imagery to create an idealized childhood
