Small Island: Identity/Roots Flashcards
‘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
‘There was a ______ of a ______ life for I’
‘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
‘Her skin was so dark’
‘The _________ of _____ _______’
‘Her skin was so dark’ (Celias complexion))
‘The colour of warm honey’ (Hortense’s complexion)
- Shadism towards own race
- Hortense directly compares her skin to Celias (highlights her sense of superiority)
‘No ________ person should ever ____ the _____________ of a _____’
‘No living person should ever see the underside of a tree’ (Hortense pp.55)
- A persons true nature/roots should be concealed
‘_______ women whose ___________ __________ them like an ________’
‘White women whose superiority encircled them like an aureole’ (Hortense pp.69)
- Aureole = halo, angelic associations with fair skin
‘______ chocolate ____’
‘Bitter chocolate hue’
- Complexion of mother + grandmother
- Negative/unpleasant associations of dark skin compared to lighter tones
‘you should learn to speak properly as the King of England does’
- ‘proper’ mannerisms/speech associated with England
- Hortense refers to: Wandsworth’s daffodils, Ode-keates, Romeo and Juliet
- intertextuality
- Overreach of British culture/language
‘You a __________. You _____ a ___________. You ____ a _____________’
‘You a Jamaican. You born a Jamaican. You die a Jamaican.’ (Elwood)
- Perpetual ties to home country
- Cannot escape cultural identity even in death
‘This is a ________ ________’
‘This is a small island’ (Gilbert)
- Existence of Jamaica not sufficient enough for him
- Lack of opportunity/advancement
‘_________ of rice’
‘___________ days when the __________ _____ ran out’
‘shortage of rice’
‘miserable days when the condensed milk ran out’
(Hortense)
- Conditions of Jamaica post-WW2
- Deprivation of resources
- Push factors in Hortense’s immigration