Originally Flashcards
what is the theme?
isolation (growing up)
what is the tone?
distressed then reflective
what evidence is there that the children were upset about the move?
“bawling, Home, Home”
“a blind toy, holding its paw”
which techniques are used in “bawling, Home, Home” to emphasise the brother’s distress?
- word choice of “bawling” suggests loud crying
- capitalisation and repetition of “Home” emphasises the strength of how much he wants to return there
analyse the unusual imagery of “a red room which fell through the fields”
the red room is the car journey. “Red” connotes danger and anger while “fell” suggests danger and a lack of control. As a child she would have found this move very scary and would have had no say in it.
“the city, the street, the house, the vacant rooms”
List emphasises the large amount of familiar places they left behind. To them it would have felt like everything they had ever known.
which line encapsulates the central idea of the poem?
“All childhood is an emigration” Growing up means leaving behind the familiar and experiencing the new. “emigration” is a metaphor but ties this idea into her experience of moving country. This line universalises the idea so we can all relate to it.
which words/phrases emphasise her isolation and difficulty fitting into her new environment?
“wrong”, “seem”, “unimagined”, “don’t understand”, “no one you know”
“big boys eating worms and shouting”
Word choice of “big” and “shouting” makes them seem threatening. Hard alliteration reinforces this. This alien behaviour is confusing to her.
“my parents’ anxiety stirred like a loose tooth in my head”
Simile shows that even grown ups find change and not belonging difficult. The idea of a loose tooth fits well as it suggests constant low level irritation but also losing baby teeth is a normal change and part of growing up.
which phrase is repeated to show she felt like she belonged in Scotland?
“our own country”
which phrases show she eventually adapted to fit in to her new home?
“you forget, or don’t recall, or change”
“my tongue shedding its skin like a snake”
“skelf of shame”
She still retains some of her old Scottish dialect, showing he still has some small sense of her roots and original identity. The metaphor of “skelf of shame” suggests a small amount of discomfort. Alliteration draws attention to her use of the word.
“Do I only think I lost a river, culture, speech, sense of first space and the right place?”
List shows the vast amount of things which make up an identity and sense of belonging to a city, lots of things she left behind in Glasgow. The rhetorical question involves the reader in thinking about the issue of what makes an identity and also shows her own confusion.
why is the ending effective?
Ends on a short sentence for impact. “hesitate” shows she still has confusion about her identity and where she belongs.
