Small Island - Examples of quotes that support certain themes or statements about the texts PDF

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Summary

Examples of quotes that support certain themes or statements about the texts and why they are affective....

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Task 5: APPLYING CRITICAL VIEWS TO YOUR WIDER READING. “Modern literature shows isolated characters as being profoundly damaged” Choose one of the texts you have read for Task #4 and find evidence from the text that both supports and/or refutes (disagrees with) the critical view above. Supporting/refuting textual evidence Gilbert experiences intense discrimination whilst deployed in the United States (chp 14)

Quotes from the text

Analysis of the quotes

“no white women will consort with the likes of you,”

When Gilbert presents himself at the base, the American officers retreat into their office, where he hears them say that since he’s black, they can’t send him into the base to collect the items. The officer says that the British sergeant sent a black soldier on purpose, just to annoy him. Both officers are unaware that Gilbert heard them shouting racial slurs.

“These niggers are more trouble than they’re worth.” “I am loyal to my flag but you would never catch no self-respecting white man going into battle with a nigger.” “He’s coloured”

Explanation of how this supports/refutes the critical view This supports the statement as Gilbert, through discrimination, is being isolated and therefore damaged by the constant harassment he must face – purely because his skin is darker than his fellow service men. He experiences isolation through the colour of his skin and how he is physically different in appearance in the US base, and also through the criticism that he receives as a result of this.

“No, no, no – am I gonna reorder the entire US Army just because some stuck-up limey sends me a nigger?” Gilbert is trapped by his race and by his heritage and religion from his father’s side (chp 11)

“ Anthropoid—I looked to the dictionary to find the meaning of this word used by Hitler and his friends to describe Jews and colored men. I got a punch in the head when the implication jumped from the page and struck me: “resembling a human but primitive, like an ape.” Two whacks I got. For I am a black man whose father was born a Jew.” Gilbert, later in the text, recognizes in a picture of Germans watching a Jew walk down the street the “expression of disgust” with which these white congregants looked at his father.

Celia is isolated because of the darkness of her complexion which Hortense very offensively points out.

‘Her skin was so dark. But mine was not of that hue – it was the colour of warm honey. No one would think to enchain someone such as I. All the world knows what that rousing anthem declares: ‘Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.’ (p. 72)

Gilbert’s heritage means that he’s experienced racism in multiple forms, both as a black man in a colony ruled by whites, and by observing his father’s inability to fit in among either Jews or Christians. Rather than pitying himself for his troubles, he considers how they link him to other people. This trait differentiates him from characters like Bernard, whose grievances make them insensitive to the views of others.

Gilbert is isolated in all ways of life, through his race and through his heritage. In 1940s Europe his father was considered the worst specimen imaginable for Germans, both black and born Jewish. Levy recognises this and intentionally includes the newspaper picture he sees of a Jew.

Colour plays an important role in the Caribbean as a determinant of how you will do in life. The lighter your skin is the better odds you have. Hortense compares her complexion to a college friend, Celia, in a rather native and prejudiced way. This also reflects on the way she feels about Britain. She strongly feels herself to be part of the nation and does not grasp how she is black even if her skin is a bit lighter. Hortense thinks highly

Hortense suggests that because of Celia’s dark complexion, she would be more likely to be ‘enchained’ as apposed to herself. This isolates Celia and considering these comments are coming from another individual within the black community, readers can only assume how horrendous the comments may be from those outside of this minority. This could mean that she would have also experienced discrimination.

Gilbert quotes his father, who said:

‘’Remember,’ he’d say, ‘you could have been Jewish.’ This to him was the worst curse that could befall anyone.’

of herself because of her upbringing and her skin colour and as a result fails to understand how she is acing like a racist because she regards herself superior to her best friend....