The Lonely Londoners can be seen to interrogate the relationship between the marginalised immigrant characters and the ‘colonial ‘centre’ of London’ () through Selvon’s use of language which gives voice to the marginalised characters. The language used throughout the novel is a hybrid between the Standard English and oral vernacular. By using this hybrid, Selvon resists conforming to dominant ideologies, instead it rejects notions of cultural assumptions and power based on Standard English, the language of the colonials, and takes control of this language. This can be seen in the renaming of places in London by Big City: ‘Where you going, Big City?’ ‘Nottingham Gate.’ ‘Is not Nottingham, boy, is Notting Hill.’… …show more content…
By doing this, the characters are empowered through reverse colonialization of London (), reshaping it into their own space. This power through language is enhanced through the nicknames and terms used by the boys (). Through the use of slang, mainstream European readers are left out of the in-group who easily understand and interact by the use of slang (Wyke, 33). This not only excludes the mainstream European reader, but also questions the assumptions of centrality. Because the reader is unaware of the terms being used, the reader is excluded from the in group due to their own limited view (Wyke, 33). Therefore, the reader is placed on the outside of the acting dominant language in the novel, much like the characters of the novel are placed on the margins of Standard English, and power is inversed. However, it also brings up questions of who this book is being written for? Lamming discusses this, …show more content…
The contrast of the language used as well aims to highlight the oppressive nature of winter. The summer brings life to the text, ‘blazing summer’, ‘grass with the daffodils and tulips in full bloom and a sky of blue oh id does really be beautiful then to hear the birds whistling and see the green leaves’. The vivid, colour descriptions of the heat and sounds help to bring about a much more welcoming London. However, the winter comes back to oppress the boys, there is no life, only a struggle in order to survive the ‘grimness’. Here, unlike the stream of conscious, the sentences are punctuated which highlights the control Standard English discourse hold over the boys. Thus, Selvon explores the relationship between margins and centres through language in relation to weather. It is during the summer that the boys feel liberated, that links them back to Trinidad, yet winter comes back with the centre of power, represented by Standard English, and imposes its
Setting, including physical location and time, is essential for establishing the backgrounds and identities of characters in a piece. Even within countries like the United States, where English is the national language and spoken by almost everyone, regional influences on language exist. The way a character speaks and communicates is an important part of their personal identity as a character, as well as an expression of their regional and cultural background. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Sweat, the dialect of the South used by the characters is a ready example of the influence of culture on one’s language. The heavy influences of culture are apparent in many texts, and a change in time or location would alter the language and mannerisms of speech
Joshua Ferris, the author of the short story, “The Breeze”, closely links seasonal conditions and activities to different lifestyles. Specifically, Joshua links outdoor activities and spring in Manhattan to a life that needs “more adventure” and “thrills”. He also chooses to link indoor places and winter to the picture of a life that is “limited”, “dying” and “misspent”. Light and dark are also used as a binary within this story. What shows the connection between the ideas described is how the author uses repetition and patterns to emphasize his most important details.
cold, harsh, wintry days, when my brothers and sister and I trudged home from school burdened down by the silence and frigidity of our long trek from the main road, down the hill to our shabby-looking house. More rundown than any of our classmates’ houses. In winter my mother’s riotous flowers would be absent, and the shack stood revealed for what it was. A gray, decaying...
Parker, Robert Dale. How to Interpret Literature: Critical Theory for Literary and Cultural Studies. New York: Oxford, 2011. Print.
L’Engle, L'Engle. “Focus On The Story, Not Readers…” Writer Apr 2010: p. 24-25. MAS Ultra-School Edition. EBSCOhost. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
And this is where we start with our image. Then Oliver adds, “began here this morning and all day” (2-3) which immediately changes your image to this beginning of the day where the snow is only just starting to fall. Also, Oliver seems to personify the snow by saying “it’s white rhetoric everywhere”(4-5) by giving the sense of knowledge to the snow. Oliver is showing this knowledge that the snow has by playing with this word “rhetoric” meaning having the art of persuasive speaking, so it shows how this snow is grabbing our attention. And then it continues with “calling us back to why, how, whence such beauty and what the meaning;” (6-8) this changes your image of snow greatly to making you think of snow as a greater power leading you to seek questions. This is an automatic change from snow to self. Then it transitions back to the focus back on snow, “flowing past windows,” (9-10) and you are then again transferred back to this image of snow fluttering through the wind, but you also have your thoughts of the unknown and you are relating it to the snow all of this unknown is just floating
To begin, the story opens with a family receiving a visit by a stranger on a November evening. Since the author uses words like “chill, damp, deepening dusk” (Oates 325) to describe the condition of the
Lukes, K. B.A. (Hons.) (Alberta), M.A. (Brit. Col.), English. English 424 Section:3 Term 93/3 Class Lectures Sept. 1993
Parker, Robert Dale. How to Interpret Literature: Critical Theory for Literary and Cultural Studies. New York: Oxford UP, 2008. Print.
In both, out of some onomatopoeic words for a bird song and realistic sceneries of nature, the true beauty and ugliness is doubted. While we all suppose spring to be the most beautiful fantastic global fete, the poet shows us a mocking unpleasing view out of that. Or on the other hand he shows us a delicate heartsome scene in the lifeless vapid "Winter."
The setting for this novel was a constantly shifting one. Taking place during what seems to be the Late Industrial Revolution and the high of the British Empire, the era is portrayed amongst influential Englishmen, the value of the pound, the presence of steamers, railroads, ferries, and a European globe.
Dawson, Ema, and Pierre Larrivee. “Attitudes to Language in Literary Sources: Beyond post-colonialism In Migration Literature.: English Studies 91.8(2010): 920-932. Literary Reference Center. Web. 30 Jan. 2014
Contemporary Literature 34.4 (1993): 620. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. Lindberg-Seyersted, Brita. " `Bad' Language Can Be Good: Slang And Other Expressions Of Extreme Informality
Stevens’ message reveals itself as the poem unravels: there is never one true understanding of a reality outside of one’s interpretation. The author suggests that one can’t help but transfer their own beliefs and ideas onto what they see; in this case, the “listener” is projecting an impression of misery onto the scenery that lies before him. For example, the first two stanzas are filled with decorative language that serves to describe the visual image of a winter landscape. Using phrases such as “crusted with snow” (3) instead of “covered” with snow provides an evocative illustration of the snow’s roughness. Other phrases such as “shagged with ice” (5) and “rough in the distant glitter/Of the January sun” (6-7) force the reader to experience the miserable portrayal of winter. These are not the descriptions of an observer who “beholds nothing that is not there” (14-15), but rather the objective, poetic appreciation for the snowy