Invisible Mass of the Back Row
- Created by: PhoenixStorm
- Created on: 23-05-18 16:59
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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."
- Methods
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