The Significance of Protagonists in Small Island

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Small Island is a novel with the genre of post-colonial literature and deals with issues such as multiculturalism and how themes of racism, displacement and expectations can stem from this. As such, it is effective for Levy to have used four different protagonists to represent the variety of opinions within society at the time. Like her name might suggest, as monarchs are bound to their royal duties, Queenie is restricted by the expectations of society and could be said to be a victim of circumstance. However, it first appears to the reader as though Queenie is a positive symbol for change in the mind frames of the British people as ‘she has a big house and is happy to take [Gilbert] and a few of the boys in as lodgers’ and ‘[she doesn’t] mind being seen in the street with [Hortense]’ exemplifying a liberal viewpoint that is atypical of the historical time therefore contrasting strongly with her husband’s previous opinion that ‘They’d be happier among their own kind’ also exhibiting his profound discriminatory views by differentiating one group of people from another in a belittling way by using the words ‘their own kind’, contrasting sharply with Queenie’s acceptance of others and therefore showing her in a revolutionary way. Thus Queenie represents the minority of people who challenge the conventional attitudes of the British public towards black people and other immigrants or the idea of defiance against such a notion, by actively engaging with them and defying those who condemn her for these actions which is perhaps best illustrated when Queenie asks outraged ‘Why do coloured people have to sit where you say?’ and Gilbert appreciates her intentions and ‘wanted so to be pleased that this sweet Englishwoman was speaking up for [him]’ Furthermore, Queenie is conceivably the character who embodies multiculturalism the most due to the fact that she actually gives
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