Dare to Explore?

Language is described as a means of survival in the first chapter of the novel. British English is associated with public success while Trinidadian is associated with the home and family in this chapter. The character in the novel finds it difficult to reach a happy medium between the language she is to speak at home and in the public. The exploration into the double life she is living raises many questions concerning language and identity. At what cost is one willing to give up a native language for the sake of being successful in the public eye? The character finds herself speaking in British English in front of her friends and being laughed at because she pronounced the “th” sound in the word “there”. Each time she uses British English she disconnects more and more with her own language and thus her culture. “The more I succeeded in this role, the more I felt segregated from my peers,” (Dowdy 8). This then raises the question – does a decrease in the use of a native language trigger a loss of identity? As the character disconnects more and more with her family and friends, does she lose a sense of who she is? In the case of the text, the character’s native language was still present, and she demonstrated this when she became the “good girl” in school. When the character was otherwise imitating the English language, the author described it as putting barriers or “chains” on a native language. Do these chains have the power to completely lockup a native language? Once a native language is locked away for some time, is there ever a point when it simply fades away? And at what cost is one willing to explore this?