Small Island (1-150)

Jamaica

Main Characters:
Queenie Bligh (old white lady in England who's husband is missing)
Hortense Joseph (married to Gilbert in order to go to England, light skinned/honey)
Celia Langley (ex-best friend of Hortense, black)
Gilbert Joseph (married to Hortense for money, black)

Supporting Characters:
Bernard Bligh (missing husband of Queenie, white)
Arthur Bligh (father-and-law of Queenie, white)
Miss Jewel (Grandmother of Hortense, black)
the Andersons (People Hortense stays with while working at Half Way Tree Parish School, black?)
Michael Roberts (son of Hortense's dad's cousin, white)
Miss Ma & Mr. Philip Roberts (parents of Michael and cousin of Hortense's Dad, white)
Miss Morgan (principal of school, white)
Alberta (mom of Hortense, black)
Lovell Roberts (dad of Hortense, white)

Did you know who was black and who was white immediately?
-how do you think this affected the plot?


What do you think of the characters?  Especially Hortense.  She seems to be the main character or at least one of the main characters of the book, but she doesn't come off as a particularly likable person.  Everyone who is extremely kind to her, she treats badly or thinks negatively toward.  (Celia: p.78, 80, 64  the Andersons: p.72, 73  The old woman who had helped her before she went off to England: p.88)  Why is this?

Hortense seems to be obsessed with being white.  She is proud of her important, white father, Lovell Roberts. (p.31, 51)  She is proud of her light complexion, indirectly saying that the darked-skin people are below her and won't go as far as she (p.32, p.56, p.59, p.72)  She marries Gilbert in order to live like the white people live and she constantly asks if this is how the English live (p.18)  Why?


Wedding Night (85-87)
-Gilbert tries to have sex with Hortense
-Hortense has never seen a penis before
-Hortense is scared and thinks penises are ugly
-Gilbert is nice to her and lets her sleep on the bed while he sleeps on the floor


What do you think of the multiple narrators?  How does this enhance the plot?

Do you think Bernard Bligh is still alive?  What about Michael?

English racism vs. American racism (Ch.14; p.124 & Ch.16; p.144))
-America is painted as much worse
-true?
-Andrea Levy was born in England...is this just what they're taught?  Or was England really more tolerable?


Gilbert apparently looks like Michael, but Gilbert is light black (p.108) and Michael is white (p.42)... ?

Why does Gilbert want to return to England so badly when he complains while he is there(p.117, 138)?

Nottingham vs. Notting Ham (p.133)
-how do you pronounce the difference?