You should use the extract below and your knowledge of the whole play to answer this question.
Write about the importance of cultural identity in Leave Taking and how Pinnock presents this in the play as a whole.
BROD
Well, she should. [To VIV] You mother don't like to talk 'bout
back home. Me, I dream about the land a wood and water. Pure
rainforest.
ENID
Then why you nuh go back there you have such a longing for
it? I don't dream about back home because this is my home.
BROD
A few years ago, I woulda say the same thing. All my life I
think of meself as a British subject, wave a flag on Empire Day,
touch me hat whenever me see a picture a the queen. Then them
send me letter say if me don't get me nationality paper in order
they going kick me outta the country. You mother, same thing.
Ennit, Enid?
VIV
Kick us out? Where would me and Del go?
BROD
Call me a alien. As if me live the last thirty years on the moon
instead of on this blasted estate. I had to pay fifty pounds to
become a citizen. After me spend the whole a me life standing to
attention whenever me hear the national anthem.
ENID
So, we pay the fifty pound and now we nationality secure.
BROD
Secure what? Till them change them mind again? 'This is my
home.' [Kisses his teeth.] I make sure me Jamaican passport up to
date. An' you better do the same.
ENID
You read Viv school report?
VIV
Mum.
ENID
All 'A's. My daughter going to university. How many a my
sister children back home going to university?
BROD
And you know why they ain't going to university? Because
they too poor. An' why they poor? Because a colonialism.
Imperialism. Vampirism. They suck the blood outta the island,
suck them dry.
ENID
If me sister and her husband did get up off them backside
and work that piece a land then maybe they come to something.
BROD
That dry piece a land can't grow nuttin, Miss Enid.
ENID
Them fall down a imperialism. Them catch cold a imperialism.
When unno going to take responsibility? Me, I don't rely on
nobody but meself.
In your response you should:
refer to the extract and the play as a whole
show your understanding of characters and events in the play.
[40 marks]
5 of this question's marks are allocated for accuracy in spelling, punctuation and the use of vocabulary and sentence structures.
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