Checking Out Me History Flashcards
‘Bandage up me eye.. blind me.’
-Bandage (verb) connotes damage or wounds that are covered by a bandage to heal - Agard uses it with a harmful intent as his identity is being stolen and hidden from him.
-The colloquial language continues; possessive pronouns are constantly repeated (‘me’) to reiterate HIS identity is being stolen and the education system are failing him.
-The idea of an ‘eye’ reinforces the concept of his identity being HIDDEN from him - he isn’t being taught it, nor can see it; education system demonises his identity as insignificant.
-‘Blind’ (verb) demonstrates his education is fragmented and that he isn’t aware of hid own culture and identity.
‘I carving out me identity.’
-‘Carving’ (verb) juxtaposes the previous connotations of ‘bandage’ - ‘carving’ connotes severe harm or damage, which is symbolic of the difficulty and hardships Agard has to go through to learn about his own history and identity.
–> IF the education system taught about his culture and history, it wouldn’t be a hardship.
-Final use of possessive pronoun ‘me’ declares Agard is now claiming his identity.
Sentence is used in the last quatrain of the poem; all previous quatrains were used to demonstrate Agard’s lack of education - last quatrain shows Agard’s rebellion against education, offering a solution to the problem. (Structure)
FORM
Formatted as a dramatic monologue (Speaker represents Agard) - speaker is able to take bake control of what matters most to him.
STRUCTURE
Uses 2 different structures; juxtaposes British history with black history.
Stanzas about the history the speaker was forced to learn use a simple rhyming couplet to imply the lack of relevance and repetitiveness.
Enjambment to show how Agard is rebelling and isn’t conforming to what is expected of him - he has no restrictions.
CONTEXT
Agard was born in Guyana whuch was a colony and received british education.
Agard only realised how much of his identity he had been deprived of when Guyana gained its independence.
Agard is suggesting that COLONIAL EDUCATION cannot be trusted as it does not have the interests of the colonised people in mind.
