significant moments in small island Flashcards
hortense seeing her room for the first time - realism, disortion of desires for western life as she faces a sense of realism
‘Could you not have found a place with fewer stairs?’
‘show me the rest, then’
in the fireplace the gas hissed with a blue flame
‘Just this? Just this?’ - disillusionment in a host country
He left me alone to stare on just this
hortense’s dreams about england
‘tablecloth embroided with bows’
‘nothing fancy, no show’
‘my husband fixes the creaky board on the veranda’
‘i sip hot tea’
‘daffodils blooming with all the colours of the rainbow’
‘i am greeted with manners… politeness and refinement’
gilbert’s mother country speech- reflects feelings of disillusionment and betrayal towards england , expresses his dissapointment with the treatment of black soldiers
‘everything that you have is worthy is sent to mother as gifts’
‘how come england did not know me?’
‘she offers you no welcome. yet she looks down at you through lordly eyes and says ,’who the bloody hell are you?’
queenies romantic relationship with bernard
‘peck from a chicken’s beak’
‘he’d sigh as if lowering himself into a hot bath’
‘corners of his mouth filling with two spots of spit as white as breadcrumbs’
queenie’s romantic relationship with michael
the zebra of their legs twined and untwined
‘he polished her’
it wasnt queenie bligh- it was a woman like a ‘starlet on the silver screen’
gilbert’s unsuccessfulness in interviews
‘we have white women working here, what if you accidentally found yourself talking to a white woman?’
‘God slipping from me like a freshly lauched ship’
‘i can feel them watching me close as a pickpocket’
gilbert at the post office
‘one more word from you c** and you are out’
‘his forehead was frowning, two sharp parallel lines dramatically creasing on his head’
gilbert- i couldve whacked his nose until it cracked and bled
three white men looking back on the story- the day the darkie, unprovoked attacked this nice gentleman
i stood pitiful as a whipped dog
hortense goes to the council about teaching
‘what are these? she asked with a ruffling up the words’
her smile was stale as a gargoyle
i could not stand up. my legs were too weak under me
you cannot teach in this country. you’re not qualified to teach here
gilbert’s speech to bernard
why woudl queenie think to entrust the baby’s upbringing to people like you? that poor little half caste child would be better off begging in a gutter’
you wanna know what youre white skin make you mna, it makes you white, that is all, not better
am i to be the servant and you to be the master all the time
we both just finish fighting a war.. and on the same side,,you and me, fightinf for empire, fighting for peace
hortense and gilberts relationship
525-526
i realised that gilbert joseph, my husband, was a man of class, a man of character, a man of intelligence
queenie on her perception of the ‘other’ from a young age
his lips were brown, not pink like they should be
hortense feelings marginalised
as if i had been speaking in tongues
tries to give address of house to taxi driver but he does not understand her
language barrier
hortense’s assumed superiority
my father was a man of class, a man of character, a man of intelligence- her father
warm honey, bitter chocolate hue- compares her skin to her mother-
hortenses internalised ideology
short blonde hair sat stiff as a halo- hortense idolising the teacher who teaches the richer people in her town
hortense rejecting her internalised roots
no living person should ever see the underside of a tree
the roots, the gnarled, tangled mess
