Summary Of Small Island By Andrea Levy

Small Island by Andrea Levy is narrated by two couples that deal with changes brought by and after World War II. The British couple, Queenie and Bernard, house the Jamaican couple, Hortense and Gilbert. Levy does not fail to show the character’s ignorance and flaws, allowing the readers to relate even more. The four of them all struggle within, trying to make sense of it all. Race and gender impacts both of the couples the most, shaping their opinions and lives.
This book introduces how it felt to be British, but more importantly Black and British. Jamaicans were expected to be welcomed in with open arms by the ‘Mother Country.’ Gilbert and Hortense both had very high hopes for Britain. As they grew up, they were told wonderful things about

Gilbert believed that once he put that blue RAF uniform on he would be considered an honorable man in Britain. However, that was not the case. He was still looked down upon because he was Black, forced to sit in the back of the movie theater, and unable to converse with white women in public. Gilbert even thought that he would be able to find work, being that he was a former RAF Airman. But yet again the color of his skin stood in his way, “In five, no, six places, the job I had gone for vanish with one look upon my face”(258). Nonetheless, Levy does not construct racism to be black and white. She includes Bernard perspective on why he is so prejudiced. It was evident that he still held many grudges against the foreigners he encountered throughout the war. Rather than becoming mute like his father, he became more racist because of the war. He developed the mentality of a majority of the English:
The war was fought so people might live amongst their own kind. Quite simple. Everyone had a place. England for the English and the West Indies for these coloured people… I’ve got nothing against them in their place. But their place isn’t