Small Island: Isolation/Disappointment Flashcards
1
Q
‘_____________ my ____ against the ____’
A
‘Straightened my coat against the cold’ (Hortense)
- Last line in the novel
- Embracing the coldness (hostility/isolation) rather than cowering away
- Sense of resilience
- Facing reality, no longer living in idealised veneer
2
Q
A
‘Just this? You bring me all the way just for this?’ (Hortense)
- ‘this’ = Euphemism
- Minimal/disappointment with mother country
- ## Disillusionment
3
Q
‘You will not be __________ to _____ here’
A
‘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
4
Q
‘Why no one in this _______ understand my _______’
‘As if I had been ________ in _______’
A
‘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
5
Q
‘I never ________ England to be like this. So _________’
A
‘I never expected England to be like this. So cheerless’
- Hortenses disappointment of England experessed
- Expectation vs reality
6
Q
‘Leave ____, leave ________, leave ____’
A
‘Leave home, leave love, leave familiar’
- Anaphoric triplet of ‘leave’
- Emphasises countless sacrifices made for mother country yet doesn’t feel appreciated
7
Q
‘Even the ________ can find no _____ but ____’
A
‘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
