Small Island Flashcards
‘Opportunity _______ in England as ________ as the _____ on ________ trees’
‘Opportunity ripened in England as abundant as fruit on Jamaican trees’
- Use of simile to compare/ highlight contrast between England and Jamaica
- Shows hopes and dreams in host country
- Gilbert describes England positively + seems restless
‘I would soon be ______ in England and able to ____ ___ above these people’
‘I would soon be living in England and able to rise far above these people’
- Hortense associates sense of superiority with mother country + looks forward to her new home
- She will be able to look down upon those she views as inferior
‘You will not be allowed to _____ here’
‘You will not be allowed to teach here’
- Hortense seeks out teaching job but is told she does not have the qualifications
- She is humiliated and faces blatant discrimination
‘Why no one in this _______ understand my _______’
‘As if I had been ________ in _______’
‘Why no one in this country understand my english’
‘As if I had been speaking in tongues’
- Hortense attempts to assimilate into her preconceived stereotypes about the English
- Idealised views of mother country mismatch the reality
- Barriers to her assimilation
‘I never ________ England to be like this. So _________’
‘I never expected England to be like this. So cheerless’
- Hortenses disappointment of England experessed
- Expectation vs reality
‘Leave ____, leave ________, leave ____’
‘Leave home, leave love, leave familiar’
- Anaphoric triplet of ‘leave’
- Emphasises countless sacrifices made for mother country yet doesn’t feel appreciated
‘Even the ________ can find no _____ but ____’
‘Even the sunshine can find no colour but grey’
- Pathetic fallacy (highlights Englands coldness)
- Hortense misses Jamaicas warmth, literally and metaphorically
- Relfelcts negative attitudes of host country
‘She offers you no _______ after your journey. No _____. No ______’
‘She offers you no comfort after you journey. No smile. No welcome’
- Gilbert experiences mocking, discrimination and displacement from host country
- Expectation vs reality
- Repetition of ‘no’ = all that Gilbert is missing/in absence of from England
‘Do you want to _____ in the ___ with me? ______ room’
‘Gilbert Joseph, my husband, was a man of _____, a man of _________’
‘Do you want to sleep in the bed with me? Plenty room’
‘Gilbert Joseph, my husband, was a man of class, a man of character’
- Hortense finally letting Gilbert in (physically and metaphorically)
- Find community/solace in each other
- Share affection and growing intimacy
- Gained belonging through close relationships
‘Her skin was __ _____’
‘There was a ______ of a ______ life for I’
‘Her skin was so dark’
‘There was a chance of a golden life for I’
- Hortenses overinflated sense of superiority/inflated sense of self
- Shadism towards own race
- Disassociated sense of identity
‘They had _________ ways to us and knew _______ of _______’ - Blanche
‘You’ll soon get ____ to our ________’ - Queenie
‘They had different ways to us and know nothing of manners’
‘You’ll soon get used to our language’
- Representative of British monocultural and colonial views
- Ignorance towards other races/cultures
- Institutionalized racism
- Possessive pronoun ‘our’ isolates immigrants from their host country
- Unintentional racism = racism embedded in England
‘We cant ___ your ____’
‘When are you _____ back to the ______?’
‘We cant use your sort’
‘When are you going back to the jungle?’
- Gilbert subjected to racial prejudice/discrimination when searching for a job
- Hostile host country
‘Me __________’
‘Me springadee’
- Hortense uses nickname for the baby that her mother used to call her
- Highlights existence of hybrid identities
- Birth of the baby represents multicultural England
- Represents new beginning where races can mix and integrate
