TJNOTES
TJNOTES
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE EMIGREE AND
CHECKING OUT ME HISTORY
studied? TJNOTES
How is the theme of identity explored in Checkin’ Out Me History and one other poem you have
Both Checkin’ Out Me History and The Emigree explore the idea that your identity is shaped by the
place you originate from. Agard and Rumens write in the first person, enabling the reader to relate
to the ‘identities’ they construct in a more personal and direct way.
TJNOTES
In Checkin’ Out Me History, Agard reflects on his own experiences of a colonial British education
system in Guyana, where the teachers “blinded” him to his “own identity” through offering a one-
sided, Eurocentric version of historical events. The opening stanza immediately creates a critical,
accusatory tone through the harsh, plosive sounds of the verbs “Bandage up me own eye/ Blind me
to me own identity”. Agard seems to suggest that the singularly “white” education he received was
harmful to him, as the words “bandage” and “blind” connote injury and pain. Furthermore, Agard’s
TJNOTES
lack of vision is later juxtaposed with the heroes he idolises; Touissant is described as a “slave with
vision”, Nanny as a “see-far woman”. This emphasises the injustice of his metaphorical blindness, as
a child he cannot be like these visionary, inspirational heroes of his “own” cultural heritage, as he
has been “blinded” to their existence. The importance of understanding one’s cultural history is
clearly underlined by the comparison to sight here; Agard seems to suggest that his identity was
damaged and undeveloped by the colonial education system, inviting the British reader’s sympathy
TJNOTES
and perhaps feelings of guilt or responsibility.
By contrast, the speaker in The Emigree seems to see her country of origin with absolute clarity, the
memory is described as “sunlight clear”. In fact, she is “branded” by it, which tells us that the
memory is a permanent, visible part of her identity. In the second stanza, she recalls the “white
streets” and “graceful slopes” glowing ever “clearer” as time passes. The positive adjectives used
(“sunlight”/ “white”/ “graceful”) are suggestive of her naïvely nostalgic view of her homeland – she
views it as a place of warmth, purity and perfection and refuses to accept the “worst news of it”.
TJNOTES
Unlike Agard, who complains that the best of his culture was kept hidden from him, the speaker in
The Emigree faces a conflict in her identity as she struggles to reconcile the reality of what has
happened to her homeland – corruption and war - (“sick with tyrants”/ “a city of walls”) with her
own untainted memories of the place.
The reader may mistrust the speaker’s portrait of perfection, especially as the poem opens with the
line: “There once was a country….”; the fairy-tale phrasing “there once was…” detaches the place
TJNOTES
from reality. Its mythical status is sustained as we never find out the name of the country and the
speaker maintains a child-like tone throughout. I feel invited to wonder whether the streets were
ever really “white” and “graceful”, or whether the speaker has romanticised her homeland in her
mind, in the same way that many of us may falsely look back on our childhood as an innocent, purer
time. Rumens raises challenging questions about identity here. On one level, the speaker is
desperately holding on to her memories of her birth-place, like the child in the poem carrying the
metaphorical “hollow doll”. Her identity seems to have been forged in this place of light and
TJNOTES
warmth, raising the question: why is she unable to find her identity in the place where she now
lives? On another level, I think that ideas about childhood and adulthood are being deliberately
juxtaposed to emphasise the disconnect many of us feel between our identity as a child - innocent,
pure, untouched – and our identity as adults – trapped, corrupt, conflicted.
TJNOTES
TJNOTES
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE EMIGREE AND
CHECKING OUT ME HISTORY
studied? TJNOTES
How is the theme of identity explored in Checkin’ Out Me History and one other poem you have
Both Checkin’ Out Me History and The Emigree explore the idea that your identity is shaped by the
place you originate from. Agard and Rumens write in the first person, enabling the reader to relate
to the ‘identities’ they construct in a more personal and direct way.
TJNOTES
In Checkin’ Out Me History, Agard reflects on his own experiences of a colonial British education
system in Guyana, where the teachers “blinded” him to his “own identity” through offering a one-
sided, Eurocentric version of historical events. The opening stanza immediately creates a critical,
accusatory tone through the harsh, plosive sounds of the verbs “Bandage up me own eye/ Blind me
to me own identity”. Agard seems to suggest that the singularly “white” education he received was
harmful to him, as the words “bandage” and “blind” connote injury and pain. Furthermore, Agard’s
TJNOTES
lack of vision is later juxtaposed with the heroes he idolises; Touissant is described as a “slave with
vision”, Nanny as a “see-far woman”. This emphasises the injustice of his metaphorical blindness, as
a child he cannot be like these visionary, inspirational heroes of his “own” cultural heritage, as he
has been “blinded” to their existence. The importance of understanding one’s cultural history is
clearly underlined by the comparison to sight here; Agard seems to suggest that his identity was
damaged and undeveloped by the colonial education system, inviting the British reader’s sympathy
TJNOTES
and perhaps feelings of guilt or responsibility.
By contrast, the speaker in The Emigree seems to see her country of origin with absolute clarity, the
memory is described as “sunlight clear”. In fact, she is “branded” by it, which tells us that the
memory is a permanent, visible part of her identity. In the second stanza, she recalls the “white
streets” and “graceful slopes” glowing ever “clearer” as time passes. The positive adjectives used
(“sunlight”/ “white”/ “graceful”) are suggestive of her naïvely nostalgic view of her homeland – she
views it as a place of warmth, purity and perfection and refuses to accept the “worst news of it”.
TJNOTES
Unlike Agard, who complains that the best of his culture was kept hidden from him, the speaker in
The Emigree faces a conflict in her identity as she struggles to reconcile the reality of what has
happened to her homeland – corruption and war - (“sick with tyrants”/ “a city of walls”) with her
own untainted memories of the place.
The reader may mistrust the speaker’s portrait of perfection, especially as the poem opens with the
line: “There once was a country….”; the fairy-tale phrasing “there once was…” detaches the place
TJNOTES
from reality. Its mythical status is sustained as we never find out the name of the country and the
speaker maintains a child-like tone throughout. I feel invited to wonder whether the streets were
ever really “white” and “graceful”, or whether the speaker has romanticised her homeland in her
mind, in the same way that many of us may falsely look back on our childhood as an innocent, purer
time. Rumens raises challenging questions about identity here. On one level, the speaker is
desperately holding on to her memories of her birth-place, like the child in the poem carrying the
metaphorical “hollow doll”. Her identity seems to have been forged in this place of light and
TJNOTES
warmth, raising the question: why is she unable to find her identity in the place where she now
lives? On another level, I think that ideas about childhood and adulthood are being deliberately
juxtaposed to emphasise the disconnect many of us feel between our identity as a child - innocent,
pure, untouched – and our identity as adults – trapped, corrupt, conflicted.
TJNOTES
