English Literature - Anita & Me - Tracey Rutter - Quotes

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Chapter 3

  • "whippet" - Meena - Comparing Tracey's apperance to the thin physique and pleading look of a whippet (dog) has connotations of a fraile and weak frame.
  • "a thin, sickly child" - Meena - Suggests Tracey is often neglected.
  • "cowering, pleading look" - Meena - Suggests she is in need of help to make up for her mother's and sister's negligence.
  • "Whereas Anita was blonde and pale, Tracey was dark and pinched, the silent trotting shadow whimpering at her big sister's heels, swotted and slapped away as casually as an insect." *PTOx2 - Meena - Tracey is treated with utter disregard. Provoking sympathy for her.
  • "Where's me mum?" - Tracey - She is entirely dependant on other people and scared without her mother.
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Chapter 9

  • "the pinched, wan features had rearranged themselves into a compact, heart-shaped face of such sweetness and sorrow that I felt like gathering her up from the kitchen lino and feeding her something hot" - Meena - Suggests that Tracey seems fragile and weak, almost as though she has been neglected. Provokes sympathy for her. "gathering" implies that she is in pieces. - (wan = miserable)
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Chapter 11

  • "a fleeting shadow attached to Anita's snapping heels" * - Meena - Shows she is entirely dependant on Anita and completely lost. "fleeting" makes her seem unnoticeable and thus, easily forgotten/neglected. - (fleeting = brief)
  • "Whilst I was a happy spectator, secure in my role as Trixie’s beautician, Tracey never enjoyed her sideline vigil. She stood apart from us resentfully, a silent, wet blanket ready to douse our flames, her eyes never leaving Anita’s sunkissed, fiery face." * - Meena - Tracey was never included. Shows how she is unwanted by so many, including (apparently) her mother. This again provokes sympathy for her. - (By vigil, it means, Tracey's time watching over Anita, keeping track of what she does.)

*Tracey is often juxtaposed to Anita, enhancing her frailty.

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Chapter 13

  • "the ghost hovering in the dark maw of the tunnel" - Meena
  • "thin white figure" - Meena - White suggests innocence.
  • "a shadow in Anita's wake" - Meena - Her necessity to be near Anita and watching over her shows hpw she cares for Anita as she is the only family she has left.
  • "nothing less than transparent" - Meena - She is weak.
  • "her hair was fine and see-through as a gossamer, her body a cobweb hung out on bones, her skin so pale I thought I could see the blood pumping slowly through her veins." - Meena - Appears as though she has completely lost all her energy and is frail. Imagery of a cobweb further shows her as unwanted. - (gossamer = a thin cobweb)
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