Prejudice in Small Island Asia Tanganelli 11th Grade

In “Small Island” Levy presents the complexity of being an immigrant in the British society after World War II. As a result of the Windrush scandal, many immigrants were tricked into the idea of the “Mother country” being the perfect country for their families; this idea however was challenged by the narrators in the novel [Gilbert, Hortense, Queenie and Bernard] as Levy unveils the daily struggles and injustices endured by coloured people due to prejudice and racism.

Prejudice is shown in the prologue when Queenie describes her first encounter with a black man through her perspective as a child “A monkey man sweating a smell of mothballs”. Broadly this description highlights a child’s impression of an African man, demonstrating the subconscious prejudice that Queenie, like other children, had. The phrase “monkey man” emphasises Queenie’s unfamiliarity of the man’s features. The animal “monkey” has negative connotations of being dirty and foolish; this description of the man however contrasts the reality of the situation as the immigrant is a prince and therefore is more educated and polite than Queenie and her family. The fact that the event is being narrated by a child implies the intensity of the racism in England as a child...