No.38 A Walk to the Jetty (Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE English Literature): Revision Note
Exam code: 0475 & 0992
A Walk to the Jetty analysis
In the exam, you will be asked to answer one question from two options. Both questions will be on a different text from the selection of ten texts in Stories of Ourselves Volume 2.
Because there are so many text options, make sure you read through the exam instructions carefully, and look for the questions on Stories of Ourselves.
The following guide to A Walk to the Jetty by Jamaica Kincaid contains:
Plot summary
Themes, ideas and perspectives
Writer’s methods
Key quotations
Plot summary of A Walk to the Jetty
Written in 1985, Kincaid’s novel Annie John is set in Antigua during the 1950s and 1960s, a time during which Antigua was under British colonial rule. Its last chapter is called A Walk to the Jetty.
In this chapter, the young female protagonist, Annie, is preparing to leave her childhood home in Antigua to embark on a voyage to England. On her last morning in her childhood home she reflects on all the things she will leave behind. She is reminded of happy times, but she is also very happy that this will be the last time she sees her house and her parents. Annie says she does not want to go to England, but she will go anywhere to get away from home.
After a tense breakfast, during which she looks at her parents with “disgust” and tells her mother she will never marry like she did, Annie and her parents set off for the docks. On the way, under a blue sky, she takes in all the familiar sights, reminding herself that this will be the last time she will see them. She remembers moments of her childhood, friends she used to love, and, as she goes, she smiles politely as people say goodbye and wish her luck, feeling a disconnection to them all.
Eventually, she arrives and must walk on to the jetty. She worries, as she always has, that she will fall through the wooden planks into the water. Annie’s nervousness about her trip is mixed with her desperation to leave. When she boards the ship she must remember to wave goodbye to her parents, and, then, she and the ship grow smaller as they enter the open sea. The chapter ends with a nervous Annie listening to the strange sounds of the waves.
Examiner Tips and Tricks
In order to answer the question in Section B of the CIE Literature in English Poetry and Prose Paper 1, it is best to have a thorough knowledge of the plot. You will need to be able to support your points with references from the story, and consider how themes and characters develop (or not).
Themes, ideas and perspectives in A Walk to the Jetty
For top marks, you need to form a critical understanding of the text’s themes and ideas. This is best when it includes personal judgements and evaluations of the themes, ideas, and perspectives of the text. Here are some of the key ideas you will need to understand in Jamaica Kincaid’s A Walk to the Jetty.
What are the key themes in A Walk to the Jetty?
Theme | Analysis |
|---|---|
Identity |
|
Family relationships |
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Cultural differences |
|
Writer's methods in A Walk to the Jetty
How does Jamaica Kincaid present her ideas and perspectives?
In Kincaid’s A Walk to the Jetty, a young girl presents her perspectives on her childhood in Antigua. Kincaid illustrates the cultural differences between Annie, the narrator, and her family and friends as she prepares herself for a new life in England. Kincaid may imply that it is necessary to criticise — and even reject — your childhood in order to move away from it.
Technique | Analysis |
|---|---|
First-person narrator |
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Symbolism |
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Examiner Tips and Tricks
Examiners reward essay responses that sensitively consider the writer’s use of language, structure and form. This means you should explore how literary techniques convey meaning, reveal deeper ideas, and imply certain attitudes.
Consider things like the writer’s choice of narrator. Who is telling the story and what does this character represent? Remember, the narrator is not the author. Authors create characters that will effectively explore their themes or raise certain issues with which they are concerned. For instance, in A Walk to the Jetty, Jamaica Kincaid shows the intimate thoughts of a young teenage girl in order to raise themes about changing family values.
A Walk to the Jetty key quotations
The mark scheme for the CIE IGCSE Literature in English Paper 1, Section B asks you to showcase your knowledge of the story in the question. To do this, you should refer to the text through references and quotations. You will not be required to remember direct quotations, though. Summarising, paraphrasing, referencing single words, and referring to plot events are all considered valid supporting evidence for your points.
The best way to revise quotations is in connection to a theme. Below you will find explanations and analysis of some key quotations from Jamaica Kincaid’s A Walk to the Jetty, arranged by the following themes:
Identity
Family relationships
Cultural differences
Identity
“Everywhere I looked stood something that had meant a lot to me” — Annie
Meaning and context
Annie looks around her bedroom on her last morning in Antigua and sees all the things that used to be so important to her
Analysis
Annie’s observation of the things that used to represent a part of her identity as a child is in past tense:
The fact that they “had” meant a lot to me implies that this is no longer true
Kincaid shows the rather emotionless response of a teen girl desperate to leave home, and feeling a disconnection with her past
“All the things I used to feel are as false as the teeth in my father’s head” — Annie
Meaning and context
Annie recognises her changing identity:
She feels completely differently about everything now
The truths she used to believe are now as “false” as her elderly father’s fake teeth
Analysis
Kincaid’s humorous simile raises ideas about the the word “false”, which is used to emphasise her father’s age and to represent untruths in her previous beliefs
Annie is presented as self-aware, and, perhaps, a little alarmed at how much she is changing as an individual and forming a completely new set of values
Family relationships
“I felt that someone was tearing me up into little pieces and soon I would be able to see all the little pieces as they floated out into nothing in the deep blue sea” — Annie
Meaning and context
When Annie boards the ship to leave her family and home forever, she is distressed, describing her feelings as if she was being torn apart into small fragments
She says that the person she was is being reduced to “nothing” by the voyage as it is ripping her from her family and past
Analysis
Kincaid’s metaphor of Annie becoming fragments of herself describes the process of growing up and finding independence as painful and frightening:
The sea represents the distance created between Annie and her home
She compares herself to paper, suggesting that she is fragile and easily destroyed by the water:
It’s as if her identity is breaking up
The long sentence reflects Annie’s sense of becoming overwhelmed and panicking
“The road for me now went only in one direction: away from my home, away from my mother, away from my father, away from the everlasting blue sky” — Annie
Meaning and context
Annie tries to remember that she has no choice but to leave
She focuses on her future (the “road”) which can only lead her away from all that she knows, and everything that represents her childhood
Analysis
Kincaid reveals Annie’s anxious thoughts as she veers between desperation, sadness, and determined self-control
Her strength of will is conveyed in anaphora where she lists the things from which she needs to be “away”
Cultural differences
“I placed a mark against obeah women, jewelry, and white underclothes” — Annie
Meaning and context
As Annie looks at everything for the last time, she decides whether they are good or bad, to be remembered or discarded
One of the things she decides to discard, or place a “mark” next to, is the “obeah women” who give her clothes and “jewelry” that contain magical spells
Analysis
Kincaid shows the tensions between old and new culture, and the influence of British colonialism on a teenager in Antigua, a British colony in the Caribbean
Annie is keen to distance herself from the spiritual traditions which her mother continues, such as warding off evil spirits with special clothing and jewellery
“...my mother had, as a special favor, let me use her own talcum powder, which smelled quite perfumy and came in a can that had painted on it people going out to dinner in nineteenth-century London” — Annie
Meaning and context
Annie describes how she was allowed to wear her mother’s special “talcum powder”, which came from “London”
She describes the fragrant scent and how its tin has pictures of Victorian English ladies and gentlemen painted on it
Analysis
Annie’s coming of age is symbolised by the move from Antigua to England:
She is happy that she is able to use the fancy talcum powder from England rather than the “baby-smelling” powder she usually uses
Kincaid shows how England represents Annie’s future, one she believes will be sophisticated and very different to her childhood home
Sources
Wilmer, M (ed.), 2018, Stories of Ourselves: Cambridge Assessment International Education Anthology of Stories in English Volume 2, Cambridge University Press.
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