Originally

Question 1

We

Answer 1

First person plural - decision impacted on her entire family

Question 2

Our own

Answer 2

Assonance of our own highlights sense of ownership and her sense of belonging

Question 3

Red room

Answer 3

Connotations of anger and passion reflecting her own thoughts on this decision

Question 4

Fell through the fields

Answer 4

Fell and fields and personification emphasises the speed of change and lack of control in the making of this decision

Question 5

Our mother singing our fathers name

Answer 5

Ambiguous - is she praying or is the children’s father missing?

Question 6

My brother cried, one of them bawling Home Home

Answer 6

Contrasts in atmosphere from quite upbeat in the start and now the brothers emotions are emphasised. They are obviously distressed

Question 7

Home home

Answer 7

Repetition and capitalisation reinforces the misery and overwhelming sense of loss and separation

Question 8

As the miles rushed back to the city

Answer 8

Again sense of speed and things happening out of control

Question 9

The street, the house , the vacant rooms

Answer 9

List emphasises just how much has been left behind

Question 10

I stared

Answer 10

Contrast in her emotions from her brothers. She is almost shocked and speechless whereas her brothers are very vocally upset

Question 11

Blind toy

Answer 11

Blind exposes her uncertainty and anxiety. She can’t see where she is going

Question 12

All childhood is emigration

Answer 12

Suggests childhood is a journey. Like a journey we move through different stages which can be scary and difficult to adapt to.

Question 13

Some are slow

Answer 13

Childhood can feel like a long development

Question 14

Others are sudden

Answer 14

Short abrupt sentence emphasises some impacts of childhood. Changes in our like have very quickly

Question 15

Accent wrong

Answer 15

Having the wrong accent conveys that communication and fitting in is much harder than they thought. Not only speaking the same language that matters

Question 16

Seem unfamiliar, leading to unimagined

Answer 16

Seem and unimagined exposes her inability to negotiate her way successfully through this new strange and unfamiliar area

Question 17

Eating worms and shouting words

Answer 17

Underpins her sense of confusion as she is confronted by behaviour and language that is alien to her.

Question 18

My parents anxiety stirred like a loose tooth

Answer 18

Her parents are too struggling with this move but their fears are not strongly expressed to provoke an action. Their fear for their kids and how they are fitting in?

Question 19

I want our own country

Answer 19

This childish lament shows she hasn’t really moved on and still feels a connection with her past. Suggests her wish to return to her childhood days

Question 20

But

Answer 20

Opens with conjunctive to indicate a change in the writers line of thought as she meditates on the inevitability of change and adaption

Question 21

You forget, or don’t recall, or change

Answer 21

2nd person directly exposes the nature which is fragile of her childhood memory. She is reflective as she considers her transition. Change is difficult to pinpoint

Question 22

Seeing your brother swallow a slug

Answer 22

Refers back to the boys eating worms - implies that her brothers have fully sunk in to their new home. Alliteration - shows how easy this adjustment was for him

Question 23

A skelf

Answer 23

Use of Scottish word - reveals that she still feels attracted t her Scottish roots. While her brothers have adapted well, she still feels out of place and like a splinter she doesn’t fit in with everyone. Memories of her former life continue to trouble her

Question 24

Shedding its skin like a snake

Answer 24

Simile - conveys the idea of change again. Leaving the old behind and adapting to suit the new

Question 25

Sounding just like the rest

Answer 25

Definite implication that despite these outward signs that she had adapted she continues to feel out of place

Question 26

Do I only

Answer 26

The deliberate inversion of the I only emphasises her feelings of isolation and separateness from the other members of her family at this time

Question 27

Lost a river, culture, speech, sense of first space

Answer 27

Structure - she lists all the things she thinks she may have lost but poses it in a question highlighting her uncertainty. Duffys crisis of identity

Question 28

Now, where do you come from?

Answer 28

Here she challenges both herself and us to consider our own notions of self identity

Question 29

Originally? And I hesitate

Answer 29

Two very different questions- is where you come from the same as where you were born. Poet is still no closer to finding out about her identity. Mixed feelings about her true origins