Originally Flashcards
We
First person plural - decision impacted on her entire family
Our own
Assonance of our own highlights sense of ownership and her sense of belonging
Red room
Connotations of anger and passion reflecting her own thoughts on this decision
Fell through the fields
Fell and fields and personification emphasises the speed of change and lack of control in the making of this decision
Our mother singing our fathers name
Ambiguous - is she praying or is the children’s father missing?
My brother cried, one of them bawling Home Home
Contrasts in atmosphere from quite upbeat in the start and now the brothers emotions are emphasised. They are obviously distressed
Home home
Repetition and capitalisation reinforces the misery and overwhelming sense of loss and separation
As the miles rushed back to the city
Again sense of speed and things happening out of control
The street, the house , the vacant rooms
List emphasises just how much has been left behind
I stared
Contrast in her emotions from her brothers. She is almost shocked and speechless whereas her brothers are very vocally upset
Blind toy
Blind exposes her uncertainty and anxiety. She can’t see where she is going
All childhood is emigration
Suggests childhood is a journey. Like a journey we move through different stages which can be scary and difficult to adapt to.
Some are slow
Childhood can feel like a long development
Others are sudden
Short abrupt sentence emphasises some impacts of childhood. Changes in our like have very quickly
Accent wrong
Having the wrong accent conveys that communication and fitting in is much harder than they thought. Not only speaking the same language that matters
Seem unfamiliar, leading to unimagined
Seem and unimagined exposes her inability to negotiate her way successfully through this new strange and unfamiliar area
Eating worms and shouting words
Underpins her sense of confusion as she is confronted by behaviour and language that is alien to her.
My parents anxiety stirred like a loose tooth
Her parents are too struggling with this move but their fears are not strongly expressed to provoke an action. Their fear for their kids and how they are fitting in?
I want our own country
This childish lament shows she hasn’t really moved on and still feels a connection with her past. Suggests her wish to return to her childhood days
But
Opens with conjunctive to indicate a change in the writers line of thought as she meditates on the inevitability of change and adaption
You forget, or don’t recall, or change
2nd person directly exposes the nature which is fragile of her childhood memory. She is reflective as she considers her transition. Change is difficult to pinpoint
Seeing your brother swallow a slug
Refers back to the boys eating worms - implies that her brothers have fully sunk in to their new home. Alliteration - shows how easy this adjustment was for him
A skelf
Use of Scottish word - reveals that she still feels attracted t her Scottish roots. While her brothers have adapted well, she still feels out of place and like a splinter she doesn’t fit in with everyone. Memories of her former life continue to trouble her
Shedding its skin like a snake
Simile - conveys the idea of change again. Leaving the old behind and adapting to suit the new
Sounding just like the rest
Definite implication that despite these outward signs that she had adapted she continues to feel out of place
Do I only
The deliberate inversion of the I only emphasises her feelings of isolation and separateness from the other members of her family at this time
Lost a river, culture, speech, sense of first space
Structure - she lists all the things she thinks she may have lost but poses it in a question highlighting her uncertainty. Duffys crisis of identity
Now, where do you come from?
Here she challenges both herself and us to consider our own notions of self identity
Originally? And I hesitate
Two very different questions- is where you come from the same as where you were born. Poet is still no closer to finding out about her identity. Mixed feelings about her true origins
