NAME JOURNEYS

• Themes

  Memory-thirteen

  Lonliness/isolation- thirteen/ deawingroom/ lines written

  oppression- thirteen

  prejudice- thirteen

  belonging+connection- lines written

  identity-culture+lang-wider view

  identity- family+heritage-portable paradise

  migration-portable paradise
• “Name journeys”

  Name= identity+ reflects personal journey throughout life

  Speakers cultural identity + her name are in question throughout the poem ; her name is= entire self + her struggle to be seen and accepted
• “Like rama I have felt the wilderness but i have not been blessed”

  Simile: speaker compares themselves to the Hindu deity Rama = establishes the themes of isolation + punishment + suggests a desire to reconnect with the speakers heritage.

  Metaphor: “wilderness” symbolises the speakers feelings of isolation and the disorientating sense of displacement from their homeland
• “Like her I have been chastened through trial by fire. Sita and I

  spiritual sari sisters entwined

  in an infinite silk that would swathe”

  Comparison between herself and sita, Ramas wife: Purity + loyalty was tested by walking through fire

  Sense of connection between Dita + speaker reinforcing the importance of Hinduism to her identity

  The speakers faith has protected her (swathe linking to covering) in an inhospitable world
• "where the Punjabi in my mouth

  became dislodged as milk teeth fell

  and hit infertile English soil"

  -image presents language as physical thing that can be held within us, but also lost / pushed aside.

  -loss of specific parts of themselves 'Punjabi' + 'milk teeth' acts as metaphor for the loss of their Indian identity + their sense of belonging. -reference to the speaker’s ‘milk teeth’ falling

  serves as a symbol of the passing of her childhood. Here, speaker confronts a harsh coming of age as she simultaneously grows up + loses her mother tongue.

  -Passive voice: 'became dislodged’ - makes speaker seem powerless to prevent loss of language.

  -Adjective: By describing English soil as 'infertile' suggests that her heritage couldn't thrive in a culture where it was not valued.
• "my voice a mystery

  in the Anglo echo chamber –

  void of history and memory"

  ‘Anglo echo chamber'- suggests minority voices are drowned out. The internal rhyme makes the phrasing sound like an echo itself.

  • Language of emptiness: 'Void of..'.- India was under British rule from 1858-1947- the speaker may be hinting at British people's failure to acknowledge the lasting effects of colonisation
• The speaker is on a train to London when another passenger engages them in polite conversation. The passenger is a Quaker who describes a poem she delivered in support of ‘racial brotherhood’.

  The speaker thinks about the ‘empty’ streets of London and recollects their life in Jamaica.

  The Quaker askes the speaker where they’re from and reveals her ignorance about the Caribbean. Despite this, the speaker shows compassion and is moved by the conversation