University of Nelson Mandela
Module code LLEV211
Trumpet by Jackie Kay Practice Essay
Question One:
So when he takes off he is the whole century galloping to its close. The wide moors. The big
mouth. Scotland. Africa. Slavery. Freedom. He is a girl. A man. Everything, nothing. He is
sickness, health. The sun. The moon. Black, white. Nothing weighs him down. Not the past or
the future. He hangs on to the high C and then he lets go. Screams. Let’s it go. Bends his
notes and bends his body. His whole body is bent over double. His trumpet pointing down at
the floor then up at the sky. He plays another high C. He holds on. He just keeps blowing. He
is blowing his story. His story is blowing in the wind. He lets it rip. He tears himself apart.
He explodes. Then he brings himself back. Slowly, slowly, piecing himself together. (Trumpet,
1998)
How does Joss’s ‘blowing’ of ‘his story’ in the passage above compare to the stories told
about him by other characters in the novel? Your essay should include close reading of
the extract as well as discussion of other parts of the text
, The fabric that caresses your body before you leave the house every morning determines
what you present to the world (Davies, 2006). An author, play writer and poet, Jackie Kay
examined the subject of gender fluidity through her novel, Trumpet, which was inspired by
the American musician Billy Tipton who lived his entire life as a man, but was later revealed
to be biologically female after his departure. The purpose of this essay is to contrast how Joss
Moore presented himself in the sections of the novel titled "music" and "letter" compared to
how the other characters perceived him and the stories they told about his life. This will be
accomplished by focusing on figures such Millie Moore, Colman Moore, Big Red, Sophie
Stones, and others who shared a piece of their lives with Joss. Furthermore, the essay will
also discuss how Joss perceived himself in a world where he was seen for so many things but
truly himself.
Although the novel does not give the reader and Colman the answers they are looking
for regarding Joss's sexuality, Jackie Kay's use of narrative writing techniques such as space
and gap allows the reader to use their own imagination in what might have occurred. The
author never makes it clear whether Joss was a lesbian, transgender, or non-binary, she uses
her characters to speculate about his gender identity and draw conclusions about him based
on how he behaved and what was discovered between his legs. This essay will first focus on
Millie Moore, a woman who resisted the label of lesbian following the loss of her lover. She
battled with her sense of self because how she was perceived as a wife hinged on Joss being
her husband or being portrayed in that way. If she had accepted that her husband was not a
man and merely indulged in masculinity and that his clothes were what made him a man then
she would see herself as her lesbian, which was something she refused to. Despite being the
only person Joss shared this secret with, Millie refused to acknowledge Joss as a woman. She
loves the idea that he is a man and that she is with a man. On her wedding day, she wears a
"green dress" (Trumpet, 1998) to indicate that she is not a virgin, which portrays Joss as a
man. “I can’t see him as anything other than him, my Joss, my husband.” (Trumpet, 1998)
She refuses to see Joss as a woman during and after his death as she still refers to him as her
husband and continues to tightly wrap his bandages across her boobs. She remembers Joss
“looking more like her” when he was sick, speaking more about Josephine than his usual
avoidance of who she was in the past, almost to show that they both were separate people,
living different lives. “He always spoke about her in the third person.” (Trumpet, 1998)
Millie portrays Joss as a gentleman who resisted his sexual urge out of respect, a man who
