Orignally - Duffy Flashcards
“We came from our own country”
~ “we and our” - plural pronouns. Suggests group or family who are going through this together. shared experience.
~ Word choice – “own” shows the possession - speaker seems attached to what is being left behind.
“in a red room”
~ alliteration – red room is actually a car.
~ sounds childlike – doesn’t understand what is happening
“which fell through the fields “
~ suggests speed. Lack of control.
~ speaker is not happy or comfortable, all is happening too fast.
“mother singing our father’s name”
~ enjambment, ambiguity.
~ singing usually connected with happiness: fact that she is singing father’s name suggests he is not is there and it is not clear where he is.
“My brother’s cried one of them bawling”
~ Brothers very unhappy, unhappy to move or other reason?
~ “bawling” - loud and constant complaining.
“Home, home”
~ italics, enjambment
~ longing for home.
~ highlight how upset and desperate brothers are.
“Miles rushed back”
~ personification
~ reflects how speaker feels - wishes to return home. She seems envious.
“The city, the street, the house, the vacant rooms.”
~ list and word choice.
~ helps convey all left behind.
~ makes loss seems greater.
~ as location becomes more specific, it focuses on the home left behind and the life she lead in the now “vacant” rooms.
~ word “vacant” reminds us of emptiness she feels.
“I stared”
~. Using “stared” and not “look” suggests she is focused on her toy, perhaps because it reminds her of home, but it also makes her seem more sad and detached.
” at the eyes of a blind toy.”
~ personification and symbolism.
~ toy reflects how she feels - doesn’t know where she’s going, can’t see the way.
~ associate eyes with understanding – as though she is seeking comfort and reassure from the toy but is getting nothing.
” all childhood is an emigration”
~ metaphor and caesura.
~ childhood is a journey like a journey we move through changing stages.
~ highlights extreme changes which occur as you go through life.
~ caesura helps to highlight idea of reaching and and then a new stage – a change
“Some are slow, leaving….. You know stays.”
~ alliteration- hard hiss sound adds sense of dragging.
~ sentence length and structure.
~ long sentence suggests difficult journey which takes time.
~ continues arms extends metaphor - Childhood can seem like a long, complex journey.
“Others are sudden”
~ simple, short sentence.
~ abrupt. Reflects what we often feel - that changes in life happen quickly and unexpectedly.
“You accent wrong”
~ suggests speaker feels out of place as her accent is wrong - unlike everyone around her.
~ another phase of childhood - feeling out of place.
“Seem, unimagined, don’t understand.”
~ each word suggests a sense of unfamiliarity or uncertainty.
~ suggests move brings confusion - like our progression through childhood