Small Island 4/25/14

Gilbert, Queenie, and Arthur attend a picture show...or try to.  This takes place in England, but because there are American soldiers there, the theater is separated: whites in front, blacks in back.  Gilbert refuses to sit away from Queenie and Arthur.  A fight starts between the blacks and whites.  American police officers show up and in the middle of the brawl, Arthur is shot.  Final sentence from Gilbert in that chapter: "Arthur Bligh had become another casualty of war -- but come, tell me, someone...which war?" (p.160)

Why do you think Queenie didn't reply to Gilbert's letters? (p.162)

Gilbert looks forward to Jamaica:
"No more shivering with winter cold--my teeth would have no reason to chatter.  Let me forget the dreadful sausage and boiling potatoes.  The barracks and the Naafi. And, no, thank you, I do not want another cup of tea.  Bring me back sun and lazy, hazy heat--curry goat, spice-up chicken, and pepper-pot soup..."(p.162)
But, after his arrival, he realizes the island is small compared to the world, and he wants out.
Can you relate?
He wanted to go to England so badly that he was willing to marry to get there.  "...she let me know that I would have to marry her for the money....  If Hortense had money to buy me then, come, let us face it, my price was not too dear." (p.174)  If you could relate to that small-town-I-want-to-leave feel, would you marry someone to do it?  Even with no love involved on either side of the relationship?


Brooch:
-Thinks of giving it to Hortense.  Shows that he does care about her?  Shows that he wants to be a good husband?  Thinks it will help him get her to like him?  Feels obligated to her?
-Jewel was simply a cluster of flies on a piece of doggy doo-doo. Is this symbolic of anything?  Of his bad luck in England?


Bees.  (p.168)
Was Elwood being overly optimistic after the incident with the mule?  Or was Gilbert simply being pessimistic?(p.171)  But, on the other hand, is Gilbert being overly optimistic about the world?  Or is Elwood too in love with Jamaica to notice the world at all? (p.173)


Queenie meets Hortense (p.188)
Is Queenie acutally rude to Hortense by walking  in univited and "perusing the place as if it was her home?" Or did she have the right to do those things because she owns that house and feels a friendship with Gilbert...
Queenie offers to show Hortense around the shops, and Hortense's thoughts are: "Pity had me soften. 'Thank you,' I said." (p.190)  Did Queenie really just want company, or was she doing Hortense a favor by offering this?  Was Hortense's evaluation of the situation correct?  (Since she is so terrible with social interactions, probably not...)


Queenie's past (p.195)
-What did you think of her character?
"Harry, his twin, shouted, 'Queenie, we can't leave Jim down there, it's all dark.  Jimmy don't like the dark.'  And I told him, 'Don't be daft, he's dead.'"
"I was a cut above the miners'children."
Kids would ask if she had brought my mom's pies, and she would show them, and eat it in front of them, but would refuse to let them have any.  She also hit her brother for sharing with a hungry boy who's father just died.
Told the miner's kids to go away and quit begging, and was annoyed when her mom made her make soup to serve to them.
Didn't seem to care much after her aunt died... didn't mention it, at least.
Married a man who really liked her only to avoid working on the farm again.

Queenie began working at the rest centre and helping people and caring about people.  What changed her?
Started caring about Arthur.


Marriage as Escape:
-Gilbert married Hortense to escape the confinement of Jamaica
-Hortense married Gilbert to escape into white society
-Queenie married Bernard to escape working on her parents' farm.
-Why did Bernard marry Queenie?


Why wouldn't Bernard open the house? (p.217)

Why were the bombed, simply population and not people?


Michael Roberts.
-Why was Queenie acting so self-conscious around him?  Because she was attracted to him?  Or because he was black? (p.240)
-Fling.  Enjoyed sex for the first time.  Then, rude to Arthur in the morning.
-do you think the wallet was really important?  Do you think she simply wanted to see him?


Gender:
-(Speaking about Hortense): "How come this woman who was inches shorter than I could look down at me from so high a height that I felt like a dwarf?" (p.173)  Strong women.
-"What's the point of the lass being at school when there's work to be done around here?" (p.201) Women don't need education.
-"She'd run the shop on her own for years... 'But it's not what Montgomery would have wanted for me.  I was his Duchess."(p.207)  "Did he or did he not open doors for me?  Only a gentleman would do that.  He walked on the outside of me going down the road." (p.211)  Women deserve to be treated like princesses.
-As Bernard cries, "I thought only women felt emotion--all men far too practical for such silliness." (p.212)  Men don't feel emotion/shouldn't show emotion.
-"Didn't I have enough to do to look after him and his father, what with the shopping, the cooking, the cleaning?  And, silly woman that I am, didn't I know that there was a war coming?" (p.217)



Class:
-Gilbert asks Hortense if she can put money in the meter.  With out replying, she remembers, "It was not I who was the fool."  (p.182)  Also claims she will be able to make him chips...but then asks Queenie for help.
-"The impression I received was that she was talking to me as if I was an imbecile.  An educated woman such as I." (p.183)
-"He then had the cheek to ask me if I wanted to go for a walk with him.  Not on your life.  Any boy I was going to walk out with would have to court me in a collar and tie, with a freshly scrubbed neck and a wage packet about him."(p.2013)
-"They'd be happier among their own kind." (p.222)
-"I want to know the name of your superior.  I want to make a complaint.  I'm not happy to have those people living here.  This is a respectable street.  Those kind of people do not belong here.  Let me tell you, there will be a great deal of trouble if they stay because I am not happy about it, not happy about it at all." (p.236)


Race:
-Hortense compares Queenie to Mrs Ryder... not a good comparison from her perspective.  (p.187)