Originally.

Personal experience of moving from Scotland to England and struggling to retain identity. Examines the problems of identity and relationship with where you are from Identity as a state of mind rather than a geographical location Childhood to adulthood also examined as a state of transition

Feels like the country belongs to them; they have a strong relationship with the place. Out of control. Alliteration/metaphor – childlike impression of car. Connotations of anger/danger Assonance Refers to a family – shared experience. We came from our own country in a red room which fell through the fields, our mother singing our father's name to the turn of the wheels. My brothers cried, one of them bawling Home, Home , as the miles rushed back to the city, the street, the house, the vacant rooms where we didn't live any more. I stared at the eyes of a blind toy, holding its paw. Suggests a positive tone. Also ambiguous. Everything is rushing past in a blur. Personification Repetition showing distress. Italics for direct speech Not a home anymore, it is merely a house. Symbolic of their situation, not knowing where they are going. Personification. She is quiet and withdrawn, not like brothers.

Metaphor – journey/changes in life and growing up Metaphor – journey/changes in life and growing up. Caesura – complete pause in the line – highlights the idea of coming to an end before a change. Sentence structure reflects the idea of slowness. Alliteration – hard hiss sound. Enjambment – adds to length of time All childhood is an emigration. Some are slow, leaving you standing, resigned, up an avenue where no one you know stays. Others are sudden. Your accent wrong. Corners, which seem familiar, leading to unimagined, pebble-dashed estates, big boys eating worms and shouting words you don't understand. My parents' anxiety stirred like a loose tooth in my head. I want our own country , I said. Sentence structure reflects sudden change. Sense of confusion, uncertainty. Aggressive impression of strange boys. Alliteration and harsh sounds shows aggressive boys. Repeats idea of belonging/identity. Italics indicate direct speech. Simile – something irritating, always there and can’t be ignored. Whole family affected.

Conjunction indicates a change. Echoes the idea of the ‘big boys’ showing the brothers fit in now. Conjunction indicates a change. Lists to emphasise change being difficult to define. But then you forget, or don't recall, or change, and, seeing your brother swallow a slug, feel only a skelf of shame. I remember my tongue shedding its skin like a snake, my voice in the classroom sounding just like the rest. Do I only think I lost a river, culture, speech, sense of first space and the right place? Now, Where do you come from? strangers ask. Originally? And I hesitate. Simile for change. Leaving the old behind. Scots word – splinter. Something small but stick under her skin. Still has Scottish roots. 2 different questions. Where she comes from and where she is from originally. Lists all the things she thinks she’s lost. Questions shows uncertainty. Abrupt sentence emphasises her uncertainty about identity and where she belongs.