“I was promised that I would see a sheep being sheared in New Zealand…Hong Kong smelt of drains, and India was full of women brightly dressed in strange long colourful fabrics. And all of the women had red dots in the middle of their forehead...”
This is a quote from Queenie when she is young and on her day trip to the British Empire Exhibition in Wembley, London. The quote highlights the spatial set-up the of the exhibition, with British territories getting a small section to represent themselves and their culture. But the quote also highlights that the British Empire only saw their territories at face value, and nothing else. This played into the mentality that the British Empire, and therefore its citizens, were simply superior than others.
“Then one day you hear mother calling— she is troubled, she need your help. Leave home, leave familiar, leave love…The filthy tramps that eventually greets you is she…She offers you no comfort after your journey. No smile. No welcome. Yet she looks down at you through lordly eyes and says, ‘Who the bloody hell are you?’”
One of the main motives of this mass migration known as the Windrush was England’s need of labor to rebuild from the second World War. When Britain had found itself in a second World War, citizens from it’s different empires went over to help the efforts. This is the motherland calling them back. So the citizens, in this case Jamaican, left their land and went to fight for a country they thought they knew, but had no real connection to. After seeing the life of the British, many chose to return after the war to build lives for themselves there, including Gilbert. On their return to the island of Britain, they did not receive a hero’s welcome because of their skin color. There was a misconception that the native citizens wanted the help of the empire citizens like they has during the war, but the welcome they extended was anything but friendly. The native citizens were unwilling to give up the image of England.
“My coat clean, my gloves freshly washed and a hat upon my head. But Mrs Bligh stare on me as if something was wrong about my apparel, before telling me once more, ‘I’m not worried about what busybodies say. I don't mind being seen in the street with you.’”
Hortense traveled to England with many misconceptions of the motherland that she had been feed back home in Jamaica. This included proper English etiquette and how one should dress while in public. Little did those far away in Jamaica know, nothing they thought about the motherland was true. So not only does Hortense stick out in the streets of London with how she dresses, but also simply because of who she is and her skin color. Even with more conservative clothing, Hortense would not be able to hide that she did not fit in. So Queenie’s comment about not being worried about being seen with Hortense has two weighted meanings: one, because Hortense’s outfit does not fit into the London standard, and also because Queenie is white while Hortense is not.
