Invisible Mass of the Back Row

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  • Invisible Mass of the Back Row
    • Methods
      • First person narrative
      • Setting
      • Poem
      • Symbolism of clothing
      • Short sentences
      • Repetition
      • Imagery
      • Heat and cold
      • Jamaican patois
    • Themes and ideas
      • Identity
      • Power
      • Honour
      • Society
      • Adults and children
      • Stereotypes
    • Context
      • Parallels with Williams' own life
      • Christopher Columbus and his discoveries
      • Educational discrimination
    • Quotes
      • "'What was Columbus doing here anyway?' The trapped words inside my head tumble out. The rebel inside me is alive.
      • "English cold. English ice. Frozen faces, frozen information, frozen places."
      • "I could kill this woman with her sharp pointed nose, mean eyes and frightened face."
      • "The silence of parting quiets even the most active of tongues."
      • "But first there is Lorna Phillips to take care of. Somebody has to pay for this."
      • "Yo red pickney always sit a de front of de class."
      • "living with my aunt is like walking a tight-rope"
      • "Like a stranger, I greet my new clothes."
      • "I stand up, my limbs shaking uncontrollably...My belly aches. I am petrified. Words fail to come out."
      • "The Inspector's face is frozen. Miss Henderson...pounces with the ruler."
      • "It is the pain of the Inspector that has fuelled my blood; the pain of the ruler was nothing."
      • "My uncle says all a dem collude to humiliate, not just me, but all a we, all of de people that look like me."
      • "Who will look after Cousy's grave?"
      • "The blow brings me back to the steam bath."
      • "a power surges through me"
      • "Words gush out of my mouth. 'Is what Columbus did want? Who Invite him here?'"
      • "Today she will pay for being teacher's favourite, for being 'red', for being rich, for having everything I don't have."
      • "Our senses are assaulted by saltfish fritters, fried dumplings..."
      • "Aunt Dine always smells of cinnamon...Miss Mavis has the most beautifully oiled, ivory coloured skin"
      • "I am cold in the blazing sunshine."
      • "Will I one day move from the back row?"
      • "I sit huddled in strange clothes, close to the paraffin heater."
      • "I settle down to school life and cultivate the culture of the back row. We graduate in hair plaiting, makeup and cussing."
      • "No one told me I would need a new language in dis England."
      • "Indignantly, the back row comes into its own."
      • "The back row claims a victory."
      • "Voices are raised, claiming, proclaiming, learning the new language in dis here England."

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