VERY SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Claudette Williams was born in Jamaica in 1955 and died in London at the age of 69. In her late years, she got Alzheimer, but she died as a consequence of a heart attack.
Claudette
lived in Jamaica until she was ten, when she joined her parents and her older
brother in London. Her parents had migrated to Great Britain some years before
and were working in the public transport. While in Jamaica, Claudette lived
with his younger brother under the care of an aunt.
In
London, after her schooling, she trained as a teacher and then trained teachers
at the university.
She
was a social activist and a feminist, and was focused mostly in educational
topics.
Her
short story Invisible Mass of the Back Row was published in an Anthology
of Modern Short Stories for secondary schools.
SUMMARY
Hortense,
our narrator and protagonist, tells us about her childhood in a Jamaican
school, about her move to London and meeting her parents after some years, and
of her attending a school in London.
In
Jamaica, Hortense lives with his aunt, because her parents had moved to London,
and they are waiting to be settled there before sending for her.
The
title alludes to the last row of pupils in a classroom in the educational style
of the 1950s. Usually, the back row was where the worst
students sat, as the front one was reserved for the best ones.
In
the first part of the story, an inspector visits Hortense’s classroom during a
lesson and asks her a question about Christopher Columbus. The answer she gives him doesn't match what the educational system was waiting for. Thus, the
inspector gets angry with her, and her teacher hits her knuckles with a ruler.
Hortense
feels that the educational system is unfair, and she and her friends want to retaliate on a pupil of the first row. However, a teacher appears, and she has to
forget her plans.
Later,
after having lunch with her friends, she gets home and finds a letter from her
parents sending for her.
She
gets to Great Britain and there she has to learn a new language, or rather a new way to
speak English.
At
school, she finds herself in the same position as in the Jamaican school: in
the back row of the classroom. But there she also discovers new friends, new books,
new ideas and new concerns. Once again, during a lesson, the teacher asks a
question about Christopher Columbus, and Hortense’s answer is again rebellious;
but now her answer got the support of a deeper understanding of her people's social
situation.
QUESTIONS
-Do
you think Christopher Columbus is a positive historical figure, or a negative
one?
-In
older times, bad pupils used to be placed in the back row. What is the best way
to sit pupils in a classroom, according to you? Why?
-Fear
is sometimes a strong and unavoidable emotion. Do you think other people (or
animals) can feel it?
-In
your opinion, are imperialist countries always in debt to the colonies? Do you
think some countries are richer than others because they have been robbing
them?
-Hortense has read some books and then her
ideas have changed. To your view, can a book (or some books) change your
life/ideas? What book has changed you, even if it was only a little?
-What
do you know about Toussaint L’Ouverture, Sojourner Truth, Nanny, Cudjoe and Paul
Bogle?
VOCABULARY
galvanised, back-chat, tight-rope, dis=this, pickney=child, fi=for, unno=you all, puppa= daddy, meek=make, dem=the/their, marga/mawga=skinny, beeline, chu=true, pan=on, warra warra=euphemism for a curse, cinnamon, red herring, crackers, teck=take, mop, banter, oat=oath, unny=you all, choke, numbness, pokey, fa=for, dey=there, thaw