This essay is graded A* (96%, 24/25) AS Level discussing pressing issues in Levy's novel such as identity and the character's sense of belonging, covering all the main characters and some secondary ones as well. Peppered with quotes selected from different parts of the novel, this essay is rich in ...
Comment closely on the ways Andrea Levy explores ideas of identity and
belonging in “Small Island”.
Andrea Levy explores ideas of identity and belonging in “Small Island” in a time
when these were juggled at each crossroad of events. All characters and even
Britain deal with identity and belonging in different aspects of their lives.
Levy explores ideas of identity and belonging partly through the novel’s
bildungsroman form. She describes the moral growth of the characters, a
significant change from youth to adulthood and within this, the alterations of
their identity and sense of belonging. As a young farm girl, Queenie refuses to
give beggars food in the midst of winter but we observe a shift in her attitude
when she is in London and the war is ongoing. She says to Bernard “she’s lost
everything… can’t you just give her the benefit of the doubt?” Queenie shows
empathy towards the less fortunate and we see she has switched from a
passive role to an active one. Hortense’s character also evolves, in turn
allowing her to belong more as, by abandoning her haughtiness, - “is this how
the English live?” - she actually gets involved in life by cleaning and cooking, all
the whilst getting closer to others. With Gilbert on the other hand, we don’t
see so much as change but more of an adaptation of his personality – we get
the feeling he can be appropriate when needed and irresponsible when
maturity isn’t required at the time. With this evolution of the characters’
personalities, Levy explores the changing of their identities over the natural
course of time.
Ideas of identity and belonging are exposed in “Small Island” when the Second
World War shakes them up. War does this as people have been fighting for so
long they lose track of themselves; Bernard, disorientated after war, has sex
with a young prostitute and defends himself saying “I am an Englishman… me
Englishman… English-man”. The triple repetition clearly marks this is his only
defence of his identity, it is the only thing about him he has always been
certain of, but he realises then that it no longer defines him nor justifies his
actions. He breaks it down, finally separating “English” from “man”: breaking
apart what he has become from the inherent decency of being English. From
war Bernard learns his true identity doesn’t lie in his nationality, leaving him
feeling dislocated and his identity fractured. Contrary to him, war gives
Queenie wings: she has a job, is independent with a whole home to herself and
she “felt like a daffodil waiting for spring”. This simile offers the reader her
view of war being a new beginning, as if she were reborn and had only
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