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Small Island CH22 Summary

The document provides a summary of Chapter 22 of the novel Small Island. It describes Hortense feeling haunted by memories of Celia Langley mocking her situation in London. When Hortense meets her landlady Queenie, there is an awkward interaction between them due to their differing personalities - Queenie is friendly and nosy while Hortense is reserved. Their misunderstandings, like when Queenie asks if Hortense's "cat got [her] tongue" and Hortense thinks she means an actual cat, highlight their clashing natures. By the end, Hortense surprisingly asks Queenie for help making tea, dropping her usual superior persona.

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140 views2 pages

Small Island CH22 Summary

The document provides a summary of Chapter 22 of the novel Small Island. It describes Hortense feeling haunted by memories of Celia Langley mocking her situation in London. When Hortense meets her landlady Queenie, there is an awkward interaction between them due to their differing personalities - Queenie is friendly and nosy while Hortense is reserved. Their misunderstandings, like when Queenie asks if Hortense's "cat got [her] tongue" and Hortense thinks she means an actual cat, highlight their clashing natures. By the end, Hortense surprisingly asks Queenie for help making tea, dropping her usual superior persona.

Uploaded by

SV
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Small ​Island 
Date: 30/03/20 

Chapter 22 
We start the chapter off with a contrast of the room in a ‘grey morning light’ with ‘no 
bird song’ and the bright Caribbean colours of yellow blue red and green of her blanket 
that bring about a Miraculous sound of the bird singing.This is an aspect of Expectation 
vs reality in that the readers and Hortnse expect England to be a vibrant country but it is 
actually the Jamaica that is bringing color to the ‘mighty city’ 

In this Chapter we see Celia Langley embarrassingly haunting Hortense as she 


constantly hears Celia mocking her about the circumstances she is in now and she 
pleads that ‘Don’t laugh on me,Celia Langley.’ Here we get a sense of Hortense mentally 
troubling herself due to her high prestige and socioeconomic values which lead her to 
constantly hunt her in manifestations of other people in her own mind. 

As Hortense meets Queenie who seems very friendly and engaging as noted by her 
remembering Hortense’s name from the previous day. Here Hortense’s values about 
‘politeness and ‘good breeding’ guilt trip her to tolerate Queenie as she consciously 
makes remarks such as ‘I did not wish to appear rude..’, ‘I did not wish to appear and 
‘...before she thought me impolite’ Here we see Hortense a conservative character due 
to her upbringing. 

 
2 
 

There is a very awkward atmosphere when Queenie and Hortense are conversing as 
Queenie comes off quite nosy in contrast to Hortense’s reserved responses.For 
example she answers ‘I suppose so.’after Queenie asks if Gibert and Hortense were 
‘newly weds. 

This makes Hortense come off as an unfriendly person as also emphasized by her 
‘nodding and smiling like a half-white while all the time opening the door so this woman 
would live me in peace.’ We see that Hortense is desperately and passively trying to 
chase Queenie out so as to have some ‘peace.’ 

There is also a contrast in Queenie's tone as it is more lighthearted than Hortense’s. 


This is evident when Queenie jokingly asks ‘Cat got your tongue?’ and Hortense instantly 
thinks that Queenie is pointing to an a
​ ctual​ cat and so she asks ‘Have you lost your cat?’ 
This response showcases Hortense’s serious and uptight nature.Furthermore with 
regular misunderstanding between Hortense and Queenie about the ‘basin’, Queenie 
offering to show Hortense around and telling her she’s not bothered to be seen walking 
with a ‘blackie’ and Hortense being oblivious to this and asserting superiority of her 
being an ‘educated woman’ and Queenie only being a woman living off of ‘letting... 
rooms.’creates a comical tone to the scene and makes the reader perplexed to how 
Gilbert was interested in women with such clashing personalities. 

At the end we see a shift in Hortense’s tone as she’s now asking Queenie for help to 
‘make a chip’ The reader finally sees Hortense asking for help and notputting up her 
‘educated woman’ persona up in the most ridiculous occasion of ‘making a chip’ 

END 

  

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