My Polish teachers tie - quotes and analysis

‘I wear a…’

‘I wear a uniform, blue overall and white cap with the school logo on it’

‘I wear a uniform’ - establishes class, reduced to job role, sense of hierarchy, low self esteem

‘The school logo on it’ - branded, labelled microcosm of a school as everyone is classed into groups

Simplistic language - everyday character, differences in educational hierarchy

‘I saw him…’

‘I saw him thinking, trouble. The kids chucking chips again.’

‘Trouble’ - harbinger, enfantilises her

Prejudiced, forming opinions based on appearance

‘He…’

‘He stitched a nice smile on his face and said, ‘Oh, er-Mrs, er-Carter. Is there a problem?’

Condescending tone

Stuttering and pauses highlights her insignificance and emphasises social class divide

‘Er’ - uses filler language, lack of care and knowledge

‘He sounded…’

‘He sounded different, not like Steve. Not just polite anymore, but all stiff, and a bit hurt’

Carla’s perspective (1st person) - bias, unreliable, misinterpretation due to fear, shame and insecurity

‘Hurt’ makes reader wonder

‘He’d still be…’

‘He’d still be smiling because that’s what you do in a foreign place when you don’t know what’s going on’

‘Smiling’ - masks fear and anxiety, friendliness is seen as a social survival tool

‘He’d think I was…’

‘He’d think I was trying to make a fool of him, making him believe I was a teacher’

‘He’d’ is the subject however it’s Carla’s imagination of the future

Shows anxiety and paranoia

‘His tie was…’

‘His tie was wider than normal ties, and it was red with bold green squiggles on it. It was a terribly hopeful tie’

‘Wider’ - abnormality, doesn’t fit in, anomaly

‘Terribly hopeful’ - personification presents him as naive, innocent, sad, pathetic, reduced to more childlike features

‘Tie’ - shows the connection between his culture and Carla

Clothing imagery (clothes usually fit well but his doesn’t) - culturally and physically doesn’t fit/belong

Attracts ridicule ‘bold’ emphasises xenophobic attitudes introduced

Different cultures do things differently

‘All he wants…’

‘All he wants to talk about is poetry. It’s hell for the kids’

‘It’s hell for the kids’ - idiom, hereditary as she is the one who has indoctrinated these ideas

Highlights lack of acceptance and generational xenophobia

‘I took his…’

‘I took his hand. It was sweaty, as I’d known it would be. He was tense as a guitar string’

‘He was tense as a guitar string’ - simile highlights his discomfort, precursor to music that puts him at ease

‘His big…’

‘His big bright tie blazing, and he sang a song I knew. It went through me like a knife in butter. A polish song. I knew it, I knew it.’

Plosive alliteration - highlights powerful and forcefulness

Simile - highlights ease and naturalness

‘Tie’ - motif of connection

‘It was a…’

‘It was a flag from another country, a better country than the ones either of us lived in’

‘Flag’ - symbol of unity and hope for the future