quotes

• "My tender papa, my flying papa, the papa with hope and infinite variety"

  - Meena, Chapter 4

  
  

  "...the lines around his warm, hopeful eyes, lurking in the furrows of his brow, shadowing the soft curves of his mouth"

  - Meena, Chapter 5

  Meaning and context

  • The first quotation shows Meena's strong admiration and love for her father:

  ◦ She describes him as gentle and hopeful, as well as complex

  • Later, her reflections shift to consider her father in a deeper way, as an individual:

  ◦ She sees that past hardships have left a darkness in his face

  ◦ Although she still describes him as "hopeful" she also recognises shadows "lurking" on a furrowed (worried) brow

  
  

  Analysis

  • A triple describes both the characterisation of Meena's father and the protagonist's feelings towards him:

  ◦ Meena appreciates his gentle, optimistic and exuberant personality

  • The possessive pronoun and colloquial term of address in "my flying papa" conveys close family bonds:

  ◦ This shows Meena's earlier, more innocent perceptions of her father

  • However, later, an oxymoronic description of her father portrays Meena's growing realisations about her family:

  ◦ This shows Meena's growing awareness as she gains knowledge about her family's heritage
• "I rarely rebelled openly against this communal policing, firstly because it somehow made me feel safe and wanted"

  - Meena, Chapter 2

  
  

  "Life isn't all ha-ha-hee-hee with your friends. They will leave you when times get bad, and then all you will have left is your family, Meena. Remember that"

  - Shyam, Chapter 6

  Meaning and context

  • Meena refers to the network of close South Asian friends who are referred to as aunts and uncles

  • Here, Meena expresses her mixed attitude towards the many members of her "family"

  • Later, Mr Kumar, Meena's father, describes family love as unconditional and long-lasting

  • Syal shows how Meena's family try to guide her to taking more responsibility:

  ◦ However, this also shows the challenges Meena faces choosing between the fun her friends offer and the disciplined life her family wants for her

  
  

  Analysis

  • Syal uses contrasting language to convey Meena's attitude towards her family at the start of her journey:

  ◦ The phrase "communal policing" implies an omnipresent disciplinary force

  ◦ Whereas she also describes this with emotive language connoting to the security this brings ("safe and wanted")

  • In Chapter 6, Meena's father reminds Meena of the value of family when she gets into trouble again

  • This line foreshadows the conflicts Meena encounters with her friends

  • It is worth noting Syal's use of the phrase "Life isn't all ha ha hee hee":

  ◦ Meena's comedic and hyperbolic narration of events point to her early immaturity

  ◦ Her father appears to criticise her immaturity here
• "If Anita's father, Roberto, had delivered a speech like that to her, she would have flicked her hair and said Bog Off! The words sat poised on the tip of my tongue all the way home. I did not have the courage to free them"

  - Meena, Chapter 6

  Meaning and context

  • Meena complains about her father's lectures and harsh discipline

  • She compares her father with Anita's father, implying she would prefer more lax parenting herself

  
  

  Analysis

  • Syal begins to draw comparisons between the different families in the town:

  ◦ She implies Anita's upbringing has not taught her respect for her parents

  ◦ This line is ironic as the child protagonist is unwittingly praising Anita Rutter's neglectful and abusive parents

  • This line also portrays the good values Meena's family attempt to pass on to her:

  ◦ The fact she does not behave like Anita implies the respect she has for her family

  • Meena's strong desire to rebel from her family is implied in her animation of Anita's imagined response (she would have "flicked her hair")

  • Meena's words hint at her belief that she feels weak and stifled in her family:

  ◦ She says she does not have the "courage" to "free" her words
• "Anita made me laugh like no one else; she gave voice to all the wicked things I had often thought but kept zipped up inside my good girl's winter coat"

  - Meena, Chapter 6

  
  

  "I had fought for this friendship, worried over it, made sacrifices for it, measured myself against it, lost myself inside it, had little to show for it but this bewildered sense of betrayal"

  - Meena, Chapter 11

  Meaning and context

  • In the rising action of the story, Meena expresses her fascination with Anita:

  ◦ She believes they share a similar need for rebellion and are both misunderstood

  ◦ She admires Anita for her confidence and ability to say what she likes

  • Later, though, Meena realises that Anita was not a true friend and recognises how much attention she has given the doomed friendship

  
  

  Analysis

  • Meena's metaphorical language describes her feelings of being stifled:

  ◦ The onomatopoeic "zipped up" draws attention to the way she hides aspects of her identity and puts on a façade (in a "good girl's coat")

  • By Chapter 11, Meena realises the true nature of her relationship with Anita:

  ◦ The long list presents her overwhelmed emotions

  ◦ Alliteration in "bewildered" and "betrayal" emphasise the painful realisation
• "She needed me maybe more than I needed her. There is a fine line between love and pity and I had just stepped over it"

  - Meena, Chapter 9

  Meaning and context

  • This quotation shows Meena gaining clarity about her friendship with Anita

  • By this stage of the story she sees Anita's vulnerabilities as a result of her home-life

  • Here she makes it clear she has gone from admiring Anita to pitying her

  
  

  Analysis

  • Syal's parallelism draws attention to the function of their friendship: it is based on a shared need

  • Meena's mature reflection is conveyed with the simple emotive words "pity" and "love"
• "I put my face right up to his; I could smell the smoke on his breath. 'You mean the others like the Bank Manager?'"

  - Meena, Chapter 13

  Meaning and context

  • Here, Meena confronts Sam, a boy she has befriended:

  ◦ Although Sam is a dangerous bully she challenges him on his part in beating up an Indian bank manager and his racist comments

  
  

  Analysis

  • The lines show her brave challenge of her friend:

  ◦ She draws attention to how close her face is to Sam's with sensory language ("I could smell the smoke")

  • This line shows Meena knows Sam respects her and highlights Meena's changing attitude to friendship:

  ◦ Where before she submitted to the confident children in the town, now she is not afraid to stand up to them
• "You're so lovely. You know, I never think of you as, you know, foreign. You're just like one of us"

  - Daljit, Chapter 2

  
  

  "I knew I was a freak of some kind, too mouthy, clumsy and scabby to be a real Indian girl, too Indian to be a real Tollington wench"

  - Meena, Chapter 6

  Meaning and context

  • At the beginning of the novel, Meena relates how her mother would respond to discriminatory comments from the English people in the town:

  ◦ She says her mother would "graciously accept this as a compliment"

  ◦ But she adds that "afterwards, in front of the Aunties" she would make them laugh by "gently poking fun at the habits of her English friends"

  • In Chapter 6, Meena compares Indian daughters to the more "mouthy" children The word "wench" refers to the colloquial term for a rebellious and confident girl

  
  

  Analysis

  • Through Meena's digressive narration she shows readers typical conversations that take place between immigrants and the English townspeople:

  ◦ This highlights attitudes in the town and exemplifies the problems Meena has fitting in

  • In Chapter 6 Meena expresses her sense of isolation as a result of her dual culture:

  ◦ She uses the word "freak" to convey how strange she feels

  ◦ Her use of the phrase "real Indian girl" implies her sense of being an imposter

  ◦ She believes she cannot live up to the family's expectations of an ideal Indian daughter

  • Meena's language conveys the differences in culture around her:

  ◦ She wants to be like the other girls in the town:

  ▪ Yet this is in contrast to what her family wants of her, shown with the adverb of quantity "too"

  ▪ While they want her to be quiet, she is "too mouthy", while they want her to be neat and graceful she is "too clumsy" and "too scabby"
• "But to be told off by a white person, especially a neighbour, that was not just misbehaviour, that was letting down the whole Indian nation"

  - Meena, Chapter 3

  
  

  "The songs made me realise that there was a corner of me that would be forever not England"

  - Meena, Chapter 5

  Meaning and context

  • Meena says that every immigrant who behaves poorly is responsible for representing India negatively

  • By Chapter 5 Meena realises that she is influenced by both Indian and English culture:

  ◦ She realises that while she feels predominantly English, there will also be a part of her that belongs to her

  
  

  Analysis

  • Meena often tells the reader about Indian culture through comedic narration

  • Early on, she alludes to the high standards immigrants feel bound to in order to prove their worth:

  ◦ Meena says too that "It was continually drummed into me" that she had to behave perfectly as an Indian girl to "prove you are better"

  • Later, Meena is moved by her father's singing and this reminds her of her ancestral heritage

  • The word "forever" highlights the indestructible bonds of family and culture
• "...friends could suddenly become tormentors, sniffing out a weakness or a difference, turning their own fear of ostracism into a weapon with which they could beat the victim away, afraid that being an outsider, an individual even, was somehow infectious"

  - Meena, Chapter 6

  
  

  "Anita, the same skinny harpy who had just narrowly missed gouging out another girl's eyes, was now whispering lover's endearments"

  - Meena, Chapter 9

  Meaning and context

  • The first line comes as Meena begins to realise the hostility and aggression around her

  • At this stage of Meena's development she begins to see that her friends will do anything to avoid isolation

  • Later, Meena sees Anita's complexities:

  ◦ She describes Anita as a violent "harpy" (a monster)

  ◦ Meena expresses her surprise at Anita's loving and gentle side with the horse

  
  

  Analysis

  • Meena describes the group of friends as aggressive and dangerous:

  ◦ They appear cunning and harsh, "sniffing" out any "weakness"

  ◦ The competitive nature of their relationships turns to violence, implied by the word "weapon"

  • However, while the violent behaviour continues, as seen in the second line with the present-tense continuous verb "gouging", Meena begins to see deeper reasons for this

  • When Meena describes Anita as "skinny", she juxtaposes the description of her as a monster against a more vulnerable and powerless image

  • Syal portrays Anita's tender side to present the way her real nature has been impacted by her circumstances
• "...no one wanted to think about the gangs of no-hope teenagers ...trapped in a forgotten village in no-man's land between a ten-shop town and an amorphous industrial sprawl."

  - Meena, Chapter 6

  Meaning and context

  • Meena describes the gangs of teenagers, such as the one Sam Lowbridge leads

  • She goes on to describe the town as a "no-man's land", an empty space between two enemy groups preparing to battle

  • She describes the town as "amorphous", meaning it is without shape or structure

  • Here, Meena also refers to the town's industrial nature, presenting it as desolate

  
  

  Analysis

  • Syal draws attention to the cause and effect cycle in disadvantaged communities

  • By connecting the town's desolate landscape alongside a desolate people, Syal suggests unemployment and decline has damaged the citizens

  • In particular, Syal shows how the children are neglected, just like the town:

  ◦ This makes them trapped and hopeless

  ◦ Syal implies abuse and aggression can result from such desperation
• "I'm not lying, honest, papa!"

  - Meena, Chapter 1

  • Meena insists to her father that she is telling him the truth and that she did not steal money from her mother to buy sweets

  • This line opens Syal's novel, and introduces key themes about character development:

  ◦ Syal introduces Anita's conflicts with juxtaposition in "lying" and "honest"

  ◦ Anita's problems with her father centre around honesty here and further on in the narrative

  • Syal creates sympathy for the child protagonist as she is introduced as "pleading" with her father
• "'Coz this ain't naff old Wolverhampton anymore,' I said. 'This, Pinky, is Tollington. Right?'"

  - Meena, Chapter 6


  • Meena proudly tells her old friend Pinky that she should adapt to their new town Tollington like she has done, and that their old town, Wolverhampton, is unfashionable (or "uncool")

  • Syal conveys the challenges of dual-culture through her protagonist:

  ◦ Meena rebels against her parents' preference for Indian friends and instead chooses English friends

  ◦ Here, she shows pride for Tollington, implying a dismissal of her old life

  • Her need to conform and fit in with her new friends is conveyed in her changing dialect:

  ◦ Syal presents Meena's new identity through her use of British slang such as "naff"
• "It was an accident. I saw it. Tracey's lying if she says anything else"

  - Meena Kumar, Chapter 13

  • Meena tells the police that Sam was not responsible for Tracey's fall in the pond as she wants to protect him from their judgement and give him a second chance to change Theme: Violence and abuse

  • Meena's reference to "lying" highlights her development regarding the idea of honesty:

  ◦ Her insistence that it was accidental conveys her sense of justice

  ◦ Her response implies compassion as she does not seek vengeance
• "Them's gippos, them is. Tinkers. Yow'll catch summat. Mum told me"

  - Anita Rutter, Chapter 5

  • Anita warns Meena not to go near the caravans because her mother told her that the travellers ("gippos") who live there will give her germs and that they are "Tinkers" (thieves)

  • Syal illustrates parental and societal influence through Anita's attitudes and beliefs:

  ◦ Anita's attitudes have been taught to her by her mother

  ◦ Anita hears and sees discriminatory behaviour from her peers, like Sam

  • Syal's depiction of the casual discrimination in the town highlights how it is normalised:

  ◦ Here, Anita appears unaware of the ideas behind her words

  ◦ She perpetuates racist attitudes with her advice that all the people in the caravans are unhygienic
• "I mean, they'm miles better than Fat Sally's poxy Biba scarves...How come yow never wear these then?"

  - Anita Rutter, Chapter 10

  • When Anita visits Meena's house, she compliments her Indian scarves ("dupattas"); she says that they are much nicer than the worthless British brand that

  • Sally owns and asks her why she never wears them Syal raises questions about cultural identity:

  ◦ Anita's question portrays her naivety about the challenges of dual-cultures

  ◦ Anita seems unaware that Meena feels alienated by her Indian identity

  ◦ Meena narrates that uses the scarves as "slingshots"

  • Syal's ambiguous presentation of Anita highlights the influence of peer pressure:

  ◦ Anita's racist behaviour in public juxtaposes what she is like in private In Meena's room, Anita belittles her culture using the colloquial "poxy"

  ◦ She praises the superior Indian silk with the hyperbolic "miles better"
• "Nah, I only watched, the lads like did it, you know, and us wenches, we just shouted and held their lager..."

  - Anita Rutter, Chapter 11

  • Anita is overheard telling Tracey that she was involved in the attack on a Pakistani man, but that she and Sherrie ("us wenches") just encouraged the "lads" and offered support by holding their beer and shouting

  • A turning point in Meena's development comes when she hears Anita's cold narration of a racist attack

  • Syal illustrates how violence is allowed to occur as a result of peer pressure:

  ◦ Anita's casual response to the violence implies a disregard for suffering

  ◦ Her desire to be liked by the "lads" extends to becoming complicit in their crimes

  ◦ Anita proudly explains how the girls behaved in a submissive way
• "And she gets into so many fights, Shailaji, comes home with ripped clothes and scratches...What if she starts that at school as well?"

  - Daljit Kumar, Chapter 5

  • Meena's mother complains to her friends about Meena's behaviour, and is concerned that the violence may affect her schoolwork

  • Syal's presentation of Daljit highlights challenges facing displaced parents:

  ◦ Daljit worries about the negative influences Meena has around her

  ◦ She often insults the parenting styles of the "ignorant English"

  • The relationship between Meena and her mother is tense at times:

  ◦ Meena overhears her mother's negative comments about her

  ◦ Daljit is focused on Meena's education and her Indian identity

  ◦ But Meena is focused on her friends and exploring her identity
• "Just because it doesn't happen to us, does not mean it is not happening! And they leave us alone because they don't think we are really Indian"

  - Daljit Kumar, Chapter 7

  • Daljit tells her husband that he should not be so amused at the racism he has witnessed just because their own personal experience is better

  • Syal portrays Daljit as a good role model for Meena:

  ◦ Her sense of justice and fierce desire for equality is presented throughout the novel

  ◦ Perhaps Meena's response to Sam later is a consequence of her mother's dialogue here

  ◦ Despite Sam's kindness to her, she tells him that she is as Indian as the people he abuses
• "Oh don't be silly, Shyam! She's much too young to be bothering about such things. She doesn't even know what a boyfriend is"

  - Daljit Kumar, Chapter 13

  • When Meena hears her mother tell her father that she is too young for a boyfriend, she notices that her father remains silent, implying that he knows better

  • Syal's presentation of family relationships is light-hearted and often ironic:

  ◦ Syal creates dramatic irony with Meena's first-person narrative

  • Readers know, like Meena and her father, that she has, in fact, had a boyfriend

  • This may suggest that Daljit's perspective on Meena is too idealistic

  • It highlights the different relationships Meena has with her father and mother
• "but my father refused to let me go. Mindless rubbish, he said, give people politics not songs"

  - Shyam Kumar, Chapter 4

  • Shyam discusses his potential career as a singer, and explains that, as a result of the challenges his family faced due to political unrest, his father believed singing was meaningless ("Mindless rubbish")

  • Syal highlights the challenges Meena's family faced due to the Partition of India:

  ◦ Shyam speaks about the family's displacement and suggests that his father became politically engaged

  ◦ The juxtaposition of "politics not songs" suggests the father's strong opinions, emphasised with "refused"

  • Syal presents Shyam's dramatic and exuberant nature as a reason for his close relationship with Meena
• "'She was just experimenting,' papa smiled, giving a jolly namaste to our visitors. 'Meena, go upstairs and wipe it off, good girl'"

  - Shyam Kumar, Chapter 5

  • When Meena comes home heavily made-up, her family is shocked, but her father tries to minimise her embarrassment and explains that she is only exploring her identity

  • Syal portrays Shyam as a gentle and tolerant father:

  ◦ Unlike Daljit, he does not express worries about Meena to others

  ◦ He calls her a "good girl" to show her that she has not behaved badly

  • His justification, that she is "just experimenting", implies he understands Meena's need to rebel or explore:

  ◦ This may be because of his own repressed creativity
• "Harinder P. Singh. All this time we have had a brother around the corner...all this time"

  - Shyam Kumar, Chapter 13

  • Shyam is surprised to learn that the person who lives in the notorious "Big House" is a fellow Indian, who he calls a "brother", and that he has been there for so long without them knowing about it

  • Syal examines the effects of discrimination:

  ◦ Shyam's words suggest the isolation that Mr Singh has experienced in the house "all this time"

  • One of the aspects of the Kumar's cultural identity is their close-knit community:

  ◦ Meena narrates that they call their friends "Aunt" or "Uncle"

  ◦ Shyam's term "brother" to describe a stranger shows the solidarity in the displaced community

  ◦ Syal illustrates the parents' need for a sense of belonging in England