Quotations: The Emigrée

“There was once a country … I left it as a child”

• Fairtytale - like opening, but not a fairy story (symbolises dream - like?)

• Interrupted like her stay in her home country

• Do we question the narrator’s view of her country given the evil things that have happened?

“It may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants, but I am branded by an impression of sunlight.”

• Metaphor for the disease of corruption and evil of the country

• ‘branded’ a permanent verb

• Often negative but positive here - shows her love as a sign of pride

• ‘branded’ - form of torture? nationalism?

• ‘impression’ - her memory has faded?

• ‘sunlight’ repetition - emphasised unchanging memory

• Memory is bright, happy, hopeful and vivid

“It may now be a lie, banned by the state - but I can’t get it off my tongue. It tastes of sunlight.

• Language used to connect her to her country

• Now seen as an act of rebellion by tjose in charge of her country

• ‘tongue’ - language (native tongue) but also organ of abstract taste

“I comb its hair and love its shining eyes, - My city takes me dancing through the city”

• Affectionate, almost maternal love for her city

• Personification of the city, highlights a close bond

• ‘dancing’ is a verb connotation joy, showing the radiance the city exerted

“My city hides behind me”

• Defensive of her country, even after the corruption that has taken place

• Caesura - reinforced the point of her stubborness