Telling Tales

Mother disconnected at pond - perimeter

"set back from the perimeter"

(D) Kerry’s reaction

“I’m going” “I’m not going near that old bitch again”

Mother and son not understanding - face Ralph

"now we are going to face Ralph, now we are going to show our solidarity"

Generational diff. - curry

"You don't make curry anymore, the way you did for Alec, the way Vera taught you"

Switching of generational roles - ??

What am I going to do?

(P) Catastrophising, she isn’t teacher

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

(P) Teachers as separate group

“knot of teachers”

(K) Furze blooms on honeymoon imagery

“It destroyed the day” - honeymoon representative of new stage of Ireland, marred by horrors of the war

(K) Fishing imagery

“We used more hooks” - represents rebellion against colonial relationship of England to Ireland, who prevented their license and took their eels

Mature thoughts of child, distrust between him and mother - suicide

"Suicide can be murder"

(A) significance of Ghosts + photo of mother

Haunted by idea of old Japan (mother, Watanabe, business). Thinks photo of mother is ghost - suggests he feels haunted by the guilt of leaving.

Generational connections - curiously

"Would often gaze curiously into my face"

(A) Fugu fish

“ever since my mother died through eating one” - popular as a way of showing bravery “anxious not to offend” - conservative Japanese culture

(A) Father as conservative + causes conflict

“My sister relaxed quite visibly” “you were swayed by certain - influences” tension between conservative values and Western modernisation

Grandfather's stubbornness, coping

"You must accept it - you can't get it back - it's the only way"

Boy's innocence, father's ghost - return

"When he would return"

Grandfather's chemistry representative, repeated - change

"Anything can change"

Boy's linking of maths to concepts

"People change too, don't they?"

Ralph's effect on family - motor

"Soon after mother met Ralph" "the motor cut"

GF towards mother - work

"Would not let mother work"

Mathematical terms - sad

"Delicate equilibrium" "Sad symmetry"

(A)awkwardness of convo. - pauses

"Punctuated by long pauses"

(A)Tensions because of father - sister

"My sister relaxed quite visibly once he had left the room."

(A)Embarrassment he couldn't recognise mother, repeated - couldn't

"I couldn't see very well"

(A)father's values - blood

"Pure samurai blood"

(A)Watanabe in father's eyes - fine

"A fine man. A man of principle"

(A)Father's attitudes to world - deal

"Dealing with foreigners"

(A)Old values, patriarchal - help

"Kikuko, come here and help"

(A)Infantilizing

"She's a good girl"

(A)Kamikaze

"there was always the final weapon"

(A)Father as progressive - other

"There are other things besides work"

(A)Mysterious father - shadow

"One side of his face had fallen into shadow"

(K) Disconnection between father and son, suspicion - voice

"I was wary of the big words. They were not in his own voice"

Tensions in korea - silence

"I knew this silence was fixed forever as I rowed in silence till he asked"

(K) Father's attitudes, deception - room

"There's no room for ambition in this poky place"

(K) Atmosphere - smell

"In the smell of shit and piss"

(K) Father's financial concern - sum, calculating

"I know. I heard the exact sum." “There was something calculating in his face”

(K) Awkward irony- own

"It'll be my own funeral"

(K) Father as deceptive - chance

"I'd be giving you a chance I never got. I fought for this country" “land of opportunity”

(K) Father rejecting patriotism. - fool

"This fool of a country"

(K) Father rejecting compliance - school

" 'comes from going to school too long' he said aggressively"

(K) Father memory - destroyed

"It destroyed the day."

(P) Classism - er

"Oh, er - Mrs, er - Carter"

(P) demeaning herself - colleagues

"Colleagues don't wear blue overalls and white caps and work for £3.89 and hour."

(P) Exclusion from culture - here

"I'm half-Polish. They don't know that here. My name's not Polish or anything."

(P) Excitement of reconnection - knew

"A Polish song. I knew it, I knew it."

(P) Tie personified

“a terribly hopeful tie”

(P) Poem from Stefan

“Mother, I’ve lost the words you gave me. Call the police, tell them there’s a reward, I’ll do anything”

(P) Childhood - baby

"I spoke Polish till I was six, baby Polish full of rhymes Mum taught me. Then my father put a stop to it."

(A) Father as stern, tough - jaw, brows

"large stony jaw" "furious black eyebrows"

(C) boat even after he is dead at end

"unstoppable, unsinkable"

(C) effect of grandpa's death on mother

"as if she had recovered from an illness"

(P) Valerie's xenophobia

"It's the way he talks" "it's the accent"

(P) Stefan's tie

"was much too wide and much too bright"

(P) Valerie mocking tie

"And his ties!"

(P) Tie as flag

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

(D) Sandra as ingenuous to cruel reality, naive

“curtains drawn and dark shut out” - darkness as physical. foreshadows epiphany. “Could not draw the curtains” - cyclical structure

(D) Sandra as passive, 20th century gender stereotypes

“She walked through flowers, the girl, ox-eye daisies and vetch and cow parsley, keeping to the track at the edge of the field” . More effective conflict when she encounters it. “i’lll come too”. “

(K) growing up

"I knew my youth had ended"

(A) Father as understanding- weakened

I fear it must have weakened his judgement

(C) Ralph control

"lorded" "tucking into bigger and bigger meals" “lurching frame”

(I) language, empowering, last line

"Voices are raised, claiming, proclaiming, learning the new language in dis here England"

(I) happiness of going to England

"No more hot, sweaty classroom. No more Teacher Henderson."

(I) Newness - new identity forged

"I greet my new clothes, […] inhaling the new cloth smells"

(I) Homesickness - pain

"pain of parting""silence of parting"

(I) England as unwelcoming

"A pokey, steamy place at the back of a cold, cold house"

(I) Jamaica as safe

"Smells mingle and whirl, creating a comfortable oasis under the gigantic cotton tree"

(I) School as prison

"the freedom of released bodies bouncing against the partition and liberated voices rising. They magnify our imprisonment. […] The jailers are quick to realise that this battle has been lost. For now."

(I) Unfamiliarity of mother

"You can choose from Mother, Mummy, Mum"

(I) feeling of belonging

"This is home away from home"

(I) empowerment through education

"They assert our right to be"

(D) Sandra and Mrs Rutter's idiolect

"Doing the floors and that" "primroses and that"

(D) Harmless portrayal of old people

"Adopt a granny""poppet"

(D) Mrs Rutter as harmless

"She seemed composed of circles, a cottage-loaf of a woman"

(D) Mrs Rutter as nice to them

"Tea, my duck?" "I've got a sympathy with young people"

(D) Sandra as naive

"One day, this year, next year, sometime" "There'd be a man"

(D) Sandra as judging

"His chin was explosive with acne" "are all people who help other people not very nice looking?"

(D) Mrs Rutter as evil

“rain teeming down, raw November night, and that sight under our noses” "good riddance to old rubbish"

(D) Sandra and Ms Rutter as similar (shape)

“you’re in lovely shape […] take care to stay that way”

(D) Childhood innocence. Contrast between mythical vs realistic ideas of evil

"There were not […] wolves or witches or tigers"

(D) Darkness is everywhere

"The darkness was out there and it was a part of you and you would never be without it, ever"

(D) Misjudged Kerry

"His anger eclipsed his acne" "Mum says boys matured later"

(I) Chasm, military

They demand a response, demand to be respected and obeyed

(I) discomfort from inspector

The inspector's eyes pierce me through

(I) Cultural richness

Our senses are assaulted by saltfish fritters, fried dumplings […]