checking out me history and london

Question 1

both challenge and critisise the institutions that restrict identity

Answer 1

checking out - attacks the education system for hiding black history ‘dem tell me
wha dem want to tell me’ - repetition shows how the speakers identity has been controlled by a whitewashed education system.

london - blake criticises the government and the church for limiting peoples freedom - ‘chartered’ suggests the government controls natural things as well, showing how deeply power imposes everyday life

Both poets expose how powerful institutions try to control what people know, feel, and believe, but they focus on different systems

Question 2

effects on control of identity

Answer 2

checking out me history - reclaims his identity through black historical figures - metaphor shows active resistance and self-liberation.

london - blake shows people who are mentally and emotionally trapped, with no clear way to fight back - “mind-forged manacles” — metaphor suggests that control is so deep it affects how people think.

Question 3

how is conflict shown in checking

Answer 3

conflict of cultures - british and carribean - The speaker is caught between the colonial history he was taught and the true heritage he was denied.

“Dem tell me / Wha dem want to tell me”

🡒 The repetition and dialect reinforce the oppressive control of colonial education vs the speaker’s attempt to reclaim his roots.

Question 4

how is conflict shown in london

Answer 4

conflict between freedom and oppression

Question 5

how to compare both with conflict

Answer 5

“blind me to me own identity” – suggests forced ignorance
“Mind-forged manacles” (mental chains), “black’ning church”, “blood down palace walls”

Question 6

conclusion

Answer 6

london is showing the power or conflict between instituitions on society as a whole

checking is showing a more personal conflict or power by colonialism by reclaiming his own identity through his own personal voice