Home Flashcards
Key Quotation 1:
“Lock the car. dear.”
Key Quotation 1: Analysis
Wife is uncomfortable aware “black polished car” will attract unwelcome attention.
Unlike her husband she doesn’t trust the locals whom she consider to be from a lower social class.
Key Quotation 2:
“The town had changed a lot since they had left it”
Key Quotation 2: Analysis
Changed significantly in the 35 years since the Jacksons emigrated to South Africa.
Sense of community is being eroded as local shops replaced by supermarkets and people moved to featureless estates.
Key Quotation 3:
“The lover’s lane had disappeared.”
Key Quotation 3: Analysis
Community eroded as the name “lover’s lane” suggests social contact companionship and even intimacy.
However, the lane has been removed just as these qualities are disappearing from the community and the people.
Disappearance of lovers lane may also be symbolic of the tense relationship between the Jacksons.
Key Quotation 4:
“And the wallet bulged from his breast pocket”
Key Quotation 4: Analysis
The wallet is physically close to him and money, materialistic possessions mean a lot. Social status / class too.
Lots of notes in the wallet.
Jacksons still not happy.
Key Quotation 5:
“He wanted to tell someone how well he had done”
Key Quotation 5: Analysis
Jackson is desperate to show off his wealth and success in South Africa.
Key Quotation 6:
“Do you mind..”
“Remember..”
Key Quotation 6: Analysis
Jackson at the start of the story uses Scots phrases such as “Do you mind” however as the story progresses changes to more anglified phrases such as “Remember..”
Key Quotation 7:
“those days of poverty”
Key Quotation 7: Analysis
“Those” emphasis past nature and significant financial situation change from their initial youth.
Key Quotation 8:
“I was treated like a black.”
Key Quotation 8: Analysis
Jackson brooding over the way in which he was mistreated and dismissed by the factor.
Jackson is a hypocrite as he was once a victim of social class discrimination and maltreatment but now he’s a perpetrator.
Key Quotation 9:
“The wee nyaff. The Scottish words rose unbidden to his mouth like bile.”
Key Quotation 9: Analysis
Highlights that Mr Jackson origniates from Glasgow and the run down tenements as his dialect is the same.
However, he later rejects this comparing the dialect to “bile” just as bile is a bitter substance and causes a burning sensation so too is the Scots dialect which he feels is disgusting and harmful.
He rejects the Glasgow tenements as his home and instead chooses Africa.
Key Quotation 10:
“Blacks weren’t like us.”
Key Quotation 10: Analysis
Technique of irony to showcase Jacksons oblivious to the way he was treated by the factor and the way in which black people are being treated in his new homeland.
He feels angry that he was victimized yet he fails to acknowledge that he has anything in common with blacks in south Africa who were being treated far more cruelly than he was.
Key Quotation 11:
“The interior of the cinema came back to him in a warm flood”
Key Quotation 11: Analysis
Jackson experiences genuine nostalgia for the place he used to live.
He reflects fondly on his visits to the cinema with his now wife.
Key Quotation 12:
“he heard the mice scuttering behind the walls”
Key Quotation 12: Analysis
Vermin infestations and a reminder about the dirty appalling living conditions in the tenements.
