Hello and welcome to the lesson.

Thank you so much for joining me today.

So today's lesson, we are going to look at some of the characters from "Small Island" and explore their different life experiences and how this links to ideas of power.

So, let's get started.

So by the end of the lesson, you will be able to explain how the writer, Edmundson, presents colonial attitudes through little Hortense and explores the themes of power and hierarchy.

So before we delve into the lesson, there are a few key words and some big ideas we need to look at to help with our understanding.

These are colourism, hierarchical, illegitimate, superiority, and ostracised.

In a moment, the definitions will appear on the board.

Pause the video to give yourself time to read these and make sure you have an understanding.

Off you go.

So the outline of the lesson, exploring power through Little Hortense, looks like this.

We're going to start by exploring this concept of colourism and how it is presented in "Small Island".

We're also gonna draw on the experiences of the author, Andrea Levy, as well to do this.

And then we're going to move on to look specifically at Little Hortense and Michael, and their different life experience.

So, shall we get started? So in a moment, I'm going to ask you to discuss this extract, but let's just read it through together first.

So Little Hortense goes to her.

Miss Jewel takes hold of one of Little Hortense's arms and Miss Jewel says, "This your papa's skin." And Little Hortense, "My skin is the colour of warm honey." "You a lucky, lucky chile.

This skin is a golden life.

You wa gold life, me sprigadee?" Little Hortense, enchanted, "Oh yes, I wa golden life." Okay so it's over to you now.

Pause the video and discuss, what are the keywords in this extract? Great.

Some of you were really quick there with identifying those keywords.

So let's just share what we have found.

So one of the key words is this idea of warm honey.

So Hortense describes her skins, very specifically, as warm honey.

And if we think about this description, it gives this feeling of like luxury and comfort.

And then we also get this repetition of golden.

So this is obviously a key word with that repetition and both Miss Jewel and Little Hortense repeat this word.

And this really illuminates the connotations of wealth and success, the idea of gold and it suggests that Hortense is destined for a superior life.

So quick question for you, which word is repeated by Miss Jewel to describe the life Hortense will have? Well done to everyone that said golden.

Yeah, we get that repetition of gold with its connotations of luxury, success, and wealth.

Excellent.

Let's keep going.

At the start of the lesson, we introduced this idea of colourism and we need to just make sure we understand what that means and how it is presented in the text.

So in colonial history, people of colour with lighter skins was seen as superior, so higher up or better.

Slaves, with lighter skin tones, would receive preferential treatment as their features were deemed more European.

And as a result of these colonial attitudes, Black aristocratic communities would find ways to ostracise those with darker skin tones.

So colourism doesn't mean that racism doesn't exist.

It goes hand in hand with that concept.

And what it describes is a form of discrimination and is a result of this dominant colonial and Eurocentric historical attitude.

And in "Small Island", colourism is explored as part of the complexity of life experiences.

Andrea Levy, who was the original writer of the novel "Small Island", wrote an essay called, "Back to My Own Country," which talks about her own life experiences.

And in this, she talks about her own experience of colourism and what this looked like to her.

So let's just read this together.

So she says, "My family is fair-skinned.

In Jamaica, this had a big effect on my parents' upbringing, because of the class system, inherited from British colonial times.

People took the colour of your skin very seriously.

My parents had grown up to believe themselves to be of a higher class than any darker-skinned person.

This isolated them from other Black Caribbeans who came to live here.

They wanted nothing to do with them." So this is really interesting when we think about the character of Hortense and how Levy may have used her own experiences to influence this character's construction.

So let's just look at that extract from "Small Island" again.

So here's the extract.

Let's just read it through again to remind ourselves and as we do, think about what we have just read from Andrea Levy's essay.

So it goes, "Little Hortense goes to her.

Miss Jewel takes hold of one of Little Hortense's arms." "This your papa's skin." "My skin is the colour of warm honey." "You a lucky, lucky chile.

This skin is a golden life.

You wa a gold life, me sprigadee?" "Oh yes, I wa a golden life." And there's that word there, enchanted.

So, I would like you now, to discuss how does this link to ideas of colourism and Levy's own life experiences? Pause the video to give yourself time to discuss this, or you may just want to quietly think by yourself.

Excellent.

Well done, everyone.

That's a really difficult thing to discuss and I really appreciate how you discussed it so sensitively and with relation to Levy's own life experiences.

So let's just share some of those key ideas.

So we know that Little Hortense is aware of this shadist society, so this idea of colourism from a young age.

She knows that her skin is the colour of warm honey and it shows her awareness.

She shows that she, like Levy, has been brought up to think that this makes her superior.

And Miss Jewel actually encourages Hortense to see herself as superior due to her lighter skin and she describes her as lucky.

And this emphasises the colonial ideas of a shadist hierarchy, very much like Levy describes in her essay.

She talks about the kind of British colonial class system.

So you can see how she's using those ideas in the character of Hortense.

And then we've talked about this repetition of golden in this.

So Edmundson, in her reproduction of Levy's novel, is portraying the perceived superiority of Hortense's lighter skin and she links it to the idea of wealth and success, you know, that it's golden, that her skin colour will give her this superior, wealthy life.

And again, it really shows the impact of colonial history and how that affects people's views of the world.

What I would like you to do is look at these student responses and I want you to decide which one uses the context of colourism.

But before you do, let's read them through together first.

So let's read the first one.

"Edmundson repeats the word golden which has connotations of wealth and success to describe Hortense's future, which shows that she feels superior." Now let's look at Izzy's response.

"The repetition of a golden life with the connotations of wealth and success shows the impact of a colonial history and the legacy of a shadist hierarchy.

Hortense believes she's superior because of the colour of her skin." So pause the video and decide, which one of these inferences uses the context of colourism? Well done to everyone that picked that second answer there.

Yes, we've got those words, colonial history and the hierarchy and legacy.

So we can see how this response has linked the inference to contextual information.

Okay, we are onto our first task.

So we have Jun here and he has started to write a paragraph.

Can you help him to complete his paragraph using the key words there? So pause the video so you've got time to fill in those blanks.

Off you go.

Well done, everyone.

I actually have Jun's completed paragraph here.

So what I would like you to do is just use it to check your own work.

So if you have any missing key words or any blanks in your paragraph or you have some in the wrong place, now's your time to add them or to swap around any wrong answers.

So let's read through the paragraph.

It says, "In 'Small Island,' Hortense views herself as superior due to the shade of her skin colour.

This is an example of colourism, which Andrea Levy also experienced herself as a child.

This shows the impact of colonial history and hierarchical structures." Well done, everyone.

Let's move on.

So we are at the second part of our lesson and we are now going to look at Little Hortense and Michael's different experiences.

So in scene one, we learn a lot about Hortense's upbringing and where she is sent to live.

So let's look at the description of where she goes.

So it's described as, "A long track, a white house nestled amongst palm trees.

The biggest house I've ever seen." I would like you to discuss, why is she being sent to the big house and what does it represent? Pause the video so you've got time to think about these ideas.

Great work.

There were some excellent inferences happening there.

I really like how some of you started to zoom in and talk about keywords in the quote.

That's a really great thing to do.

So we've got this idea, this description of this long track.

It's really quite a vivid image, isn't it, of a white house nestled amongst palm trees.

And it really gives this image of this grand house which represents wealth and status.

There is a reason that that detail has been put in there to suggest this kind of power, status, wealth.

And then we get Little Hortense's reaction as well.

She says, "It's the biggest house I've ever seen." And it suggests that this is unfamiliar to her.

This is a totally new experience.

And Edmundson here is hinting that she is not from a wealthy background.

And then, we learn in this scene that Hortense's mother leaves her to go and live with her, she says her papa folk.

So Miss Jewel relays that information.

And what this suggests is that her mother views social position as more important than maternal connection.

So we could also be suggested that as an illegitimate child of parents from different classes, Hortense's mother believes that this is the only way for Hortense to have opportunities.

So if we think about when this part of the play is set, the mother really understands that for Hortense to have a better life, that she needs to go and live with her papa folk who have status, wealth, success, all of those sorts of things.

So question time, Little Hortense's father is described as? Yeah, that's right.

He's described as a government man, and that detail is put in there so that we, as an audience, understand that he is of status and power and we also know that Hortense doesn't know her father.

Okay so now, I want to look at some quotes that describe Little Hortense or link to Little Hortense and Michael.

And what I would like us to think about is what do these quotes suggest about the different life experiences of these characters? So let's look at the first set of quotes together.

So we have Miss Jewel, "Your mother gone work in another country." And Mr. Philip, "Your father wishes you to be raised in a decent home." So pause the video and discuss, what do these quotes suggest about the experiences of Little Hortense? Off you go.

Excellent.

Well done.

I really like how some of you are picking up on some of those subtle mentions of Hortense's experiences.

So let's share some of those ideas.

So we know that Hortense is placed with the wealthy cousins of her father, and this emphasises how in this time, in this setting, the importance of social status, class, and wealth.

And we know that Michael was born into this life because he's Mr. Philip's son, whereas Hortense is an illegitimate child, illegitimate working class child in 1939, has none of these things, okay? So her mother has to make it happen and her mother understands this.

So we can see the differences between the life experiences already.

Okay let's look at the next two sets of quotes together.

So Hortense describes Michael as, "He was allowed to play all day, but I had chores to do." And then Michael says, "I am going to the best school in the world, Hortense.

And you will be staying at the penny-a-week government school." So again, pause the video and discuss, what do these quotes suggest about the different life experiences of Little Hortense and Michael? Off you go.

Great.

Excellent.

I love how some of you are really starting to see those differences between the life experiences.

So I know lots of you talked about, you know, Hortense's day-to-day life and Michael's day-to-day life.

So we see that as a son of a wealthy man with status and power, Michael is afforded better education opportunities.

And what's interesting here is that Hortense is still treated as lower class, despite being family and living in the same house so she still has her chores to do, whereas Michael doesn't have to do any chores.

She stays at the government school, whereas Michael gets to go to a fancy school.

So we can see here, those differences in those experiences.

And what's interesting is earlier, we know that Hortense views herself as superior due to her skin colour.

However, what's interesting about Hortense is that actually, her illegitimacy and working class status reveal this is not true.

So true or false time, Hortense's mother and father are from different social classes.

Yeah, well done to everyone that said true.

And then these two? Yeah, great.

So Hortense is sent to live with her father's wealthy family to give her a better life.

So her mother goes to work in Cuba and she just wants those opportunities for her daughter.

She understands that this is the only way for this to happen.

Okay we are onto our second and final task.

So below, we have some student statements about Hortense.

So let's read the statements first.

"Hortense's lack of status in society is due to her illegitimacy and working class mother." Next statement, "Hortense is viewed as superior due to the values of a shadist society." And the third one, "Hortense and Michael have different life experiences." So what I would like you to do is to choose one of these statements and annotate it with evidence that agrees with it.

Then in another colour pen, annotate it with evidence that disagrees with this.

Now think back to the examples that we've looked at in today's lesson to really help you annotate those statements, okay? It's time to pause that video and let's get going with that task.

Oh well done, everyone.

Thank you.

It's great to see you tackling lots of different statements.

So that's really great.

So let's just see, how we could have approached this task with evidence.

Let's do agrees first.

Okay, so here's the evidence that agrees with, "Hortense is viewed as superior due to the values of a shadist society." So my agrees evidence looks like this.

Hortense is described as warm honey.

So I've used that evidence that we looked at at the first part of the lesson.

And this description has connotations of luxury and shows her awareness at a young age of a shadist society.

So again, I've developed that comment about the warm honey and added that in that information about the connotations, which again, we looked at in detail in the first part of the lesson.

And then, "Hortense has her papa's skin, which linked to status and power." So again, this agrees with that statement.

"The repetition of golden shows how ideas of success and wealth are linked to colonial ideologies." And then finally, "Miss Jewel describes her as a lucky, lucky child due to the colour of her skin." So there's lots of evidence here for that agrees side of the statement.

Now let's look at some examples of disagrees.

So, "Despite her feeling superior, Hortense has less opportunities than Michael." So, for a good example of this is access to the best education.

So despite Hortense's feelings around her superiority, they actually aren't based in any kind of evidence.

And then, "Hortense's mother views social position as more important than maternal connection," again, revealing that Hortense isn't perhaps as superior as she thinks she is.

And then, "Hortense is expected to behave in particular ways." So I've used that evidence where she's reprimanded for climbing trees and forced to change her behaviour.

So if you remember, Mister Phillips says it's unladylike and ungodly.

And then, "Even though Hortense views herself as superior due to her skin colour, her illegitimacy and working class status reveal this is not true." Excellent work, everyone.

I've been so impressed with what you have achieved today.

There are some really big ideas to grapple with there and some really big concepts and I've really appreciated the way that you have dealt with those and engaged with those.

So really well done.

So shall we remind ourselves of everything that we have learned today? So we know that Hortense is encouraged by the colonial system of shade hierarchy to see herself as superior because of her light skin.

We know the values of this shadist society are instilled from childhood, when she's taken from her birth mother.

We know that Hortense is placed with wealthy cousins of her father, that social position is more important than maternal connection.

And although her tense views herself as a superior due to shadist hierarchies, her class and illegitimacy means she has less status in society.

So again, excellent work everyone, and really well done.

I cannot wait to see you in another lesson soon.

So until then, goodbye.