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 ______ was so _______’
‘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
- Metaphor
- shameful parts of life that are best left unseen
‘_______ 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 _________ as the ______ of __________ does’
‘you should learn to speak properly as the King of England does’
- Hortense to Miss Jewel
- ‘proper’ mannerisms/speech associated with England
- Hortense refers to: Wandsworth’s daffodils, Ode-keates, Romeo and Juliet
- intertextuality
- Overreach of British culture/literature
‘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
‘I have ______ and ______ for you and me’
‘The __________ like to serve chip with _____’
‘I have fish and chips for you and me’ (G)
‘The English like to serve chip with egg’ (H)
- Embracing British cuisine/customs
- Adoption of British roots
‘No _________, no ________ than me - just ________’
‘No better, no worse than me - just white’
- Gilbert to Bernard
- Stating the insignificance of his race despite his colonial/mono-cultural mindset
- Diminishing his self importance
‘______________ my RAF _____, concerned only with the __________ of my skin’
‘Overlooking my RAF blue, concerned only with the colour of my skin’
Gilbert
‘Is this ___________ where he is ___________?’
‘Is this perchance where he is aboding?’
Hortense
- Grammatical error, use of elevated language
- Does not use patois
‘c___’ ‘r__s’
‘we ____________’
‘cha’ ‘ras’
‘we Jamaicans’
Gilbert
- Still uses patois, remains connected + identifies with Jamaica
‘_____________ colours’
‘Caribbean colours’
- Blanket given to Hortense by Jamaican women before arrival to England
- DIsplays it on her bed in England = attempt to reconnect/strengthen cultural ties to Jamaica
- Outward displayal of cultural identity
