Small Island Section One

Small Island by Andrea Levy

Andrea Levy

                -British Author, born in London to Jamaican parents

                -many of her novels deal with this conflict of identity in immigrant families

                -sought to contribute to the new community of black, British authors

Chapters

      Prologue - Queenie

              -How does the British Empire Exhibition offer Queenie insight into other cultures?

                “Practically the whole world there to be looked at” (page 3)

               -What was wrong with the opinions she was gaining of the different colonies?

     One – Hortense

                -What are Hortense’s feelings towards Celia Langley?

                -“This is when her voice became high-class and her nose point into the air” (page 9)

                -How does Hortense deal with the cultural differences?

                -How do others react to Hortense’s arrival in England? (page 12, 13)

                -“Perusing me in a fashion as if I was not there to see her stares.” (15)

     Two – Gilbert

               -How does the transition into Gilbert’s perspective shape the development of the plot?

               -“Is your white glove.  You touch an angel with white glove it come up black.” (23)

                -How does Gilbert’s Jamaican heritage affect his life in England?

                -“Wow! Friendly.  Every Jamaican man know that word breathed by Jamaican woman is a trap that can snap around you.” (23)

                -“’…one thing about England you don’t know yet because you just come off a boat.  You are lucky’” (27)

     Three through Eight – Hortense, Before

                 -what do you make of the transition of the book to “Before,” why the ambiguity?

                 -How does the life described by Hortense in this chapter contrast with life in England?

-“We new girls were to be cultivated into teachers and only after three years of study would we be ready for release into the schools of Jamaica.” (52)

-What does Hortense learn about the English culture in her program?

-How does war affect Jamaica? Does it serve to unify or ruin a country? How does this relate to what we saw earlier in the novel, in England?

-“Those men who left for the war with spirited cheer returned looking around them as bemused as convicts.” (70)

-“She [Celia] will live there.  She will do that.  England, England, England was all she ever talked of.  She wore me out with it.  But I knew that when the day came she would think nothing of leaving her friend alone at that wretched parish school as she sailed the ocean in the arms of her big-talk man.” (76) How does this reflect Hortense’s own feelings about going to England?

                Nine – Queenie, 1948

                                How does Queenie’s perspective on the war differ from that of Hortense?

                Eleven through Fifteen – Gilbert, Before

                        -How do Gilbert’s experiences in the military shape his development?

-“This was war. There was hardship I was prepared for – bullet, bomb and casual death – but not for the torture of missing cow-foot stew…” (105)

-Talking about his father at Christian church, “Laughing too hearty at jokes that were barely funny.  Patting backs just before they turned round from him.  Fawning to these white people who stood haughty and aloof in his presence.” (109)

                -How does this show Gilbert’s opinions on assimilating vs. not assimilating?

-“Maybe he wanted to feel the hair of a coloured man. Or rub the skin of a darkie to see if rubbing it could make it turn white.  Or maybe he wanted to touch me for luck.” (137)