Mrs Midas 10 Marker: Isolation/Loneliness

Question 1

“Your accent wrong”

Answer 1

Communication is more than just speaking the same language. Speaker does not fit in and shows a sense of isolation.

Question 2

“Big boys eating worms and shouting words you don’t understand”

Answer 2

People here seem aggressive and scary to the speaker who was just a child back then. Sense of not fitting in and further isolation.

Question 3

“In his dark room he is finally alone”

Answer 3

‘Finally’ suggests photographer desperately wants to be isolated after experiencing the war taking place.

Question 4

“Corners, which seem familiar, leading to unimaginable pebble-dashed estates”

Answer 4

Highlights how speaker can’t find her way around new place. Lost and isolated physically and socially.

Question 5

“They do not care”

Answer 5

Photographer isolates and separates himself from ‘them’ (people back home) as they haven’t witnessed the war and suffering like the photographer has.

Question 6

“He sought approval without words”

Answer 6

Photographer doesn’t understand language (isolated from war victims) so had to get approval from looks. This memory has a big impact on him further isolating himself from people back in his home country who didn’t experience this.

Question 7

“I say her phrases

in my head”

Answer 7

‘In my head’ has connotations of ‘quiet’ ‘unheard’ and ‘concealed’ creating a sense of isolation as Duffy sits on the train thinking about her mother.