Small Island Literary Elements

Fiction

1948 London, including flashbacks to World War II and before in Jamaica

There are four different narrators:
Hortense Joseph (maiden name: Roberts)
Gilbert Joseph
Victoria "Queenie" Bligh (maiden name: Buxton)
Bernard Bligh

Sometimes, the first-person narration changes with every chapter, sometimes one narrator recounts their childhood or experiences during the war for up to 5 chapters in a row.

Tone and mood change with each narrator, Queenie's narration for example includes typically British vocabulary, while Hortense's features very high vocabulary as she thinks herself to be upper-class and well educated. Gilberts narration seems very foreign to the British setting, as he often includes Jamaican expressions like "Cha" or "Nah, man" in his thoughts.

Hortense, Gilbert, Queenie and Bernard are the protagonists

The Jamaican couple is trying to set foot in post-war England, but struggles with racism and is unable to find work.
The English couple struggles with their loveless marriage and the fact that Bernard voluntarily stays away from Queenie for two years after the war, whilst she engages in an affair and hosts people of color in his house.

The story reaches its climax when Queenie gives birth to a black baby, which clearly is not her husband's. Gilbert is accused of being the father of the child by both Hortense and Bernard and is beaten up by the latter.

The story is mainly concerned with the present of 1948 and the past.

Racism is sometimes described by the white characters as an inconvenience, not understanding how deeply it can affect a person.

When Hortense discovers, that Queenie's baby is black, she does not state the obvious in her narration. Also, when Gilbert first glances upon the baby, he does not specifically say that it must have been a black man who fathered it, but simply says that "this means trouble". The reader is left to make the connection between Queenie and Michael Roberts.

Sound is a strong metaphor throughout the book. More than once, silence is described as being "too loud". Arthur is afraid of loud sounds and this fear dominates his life. Also, Queenie is very annoyed by his loud clock that he keeps rewinding.

It seems paradox that though Levy takes the time to write from the perspective of the people of color in London and Jamaica, she never gives a voice to the Indians, whom Bernard totally destroys in his narration. They are described as annoying, talkative and dirty people who steal anything they can get their hands on.

Parallelism is often used in flirting, for example when Gilbert and Queenie meet, he tells a joke, and after she does not laugh, specifies: "This was a joke, Mrs. Bligh" to which she says: "If it had been a joke, I would have laughed, Mr. Joseph." The same is uttered again later, only this time it is Gilbert who tells Queenie that he would have laughed, would it have been a joke.

N/A

The atom bomb ending the war is personified as a God by the soldiers, to whom this means they get to return home.