Starter quiz
- A matriarch is a woman who rules, leads or controls a family. Which of the characters in 'Leave Taking' are presented as matriarchs?
- Enid ✓
- Viv
- Mooma ✓
- Mai ✓
-
- In 'Leave Taking', why is the character of Mai important to the Caribbean community in North London?
- for her knowledge of the naturalisation process
- she is someone people turn to in times of crisis ✓
- for her support of Brod, and others like him
- for her willingness to take in other people's children
- for her skills as an obeah woman ✓
-
- In Scene Four of 'Leave Taking', Enid tells Viv things about her mother. What do we find out?
- She stole some stockings from her uncle's wife
- She would sometimes disappear to spend time in secret places alone ✓
- She brought up her children in rural poverty ✓
- Enid used to call her "Miss Bible Drawers"
- She completed hard manual labour every day of her life ✓
-
- In Scene Five of 'Leave Taking', Viv offers to help Del with the her baby when it is born. How does Del respond?
- She accepts both the help and the money
- She accepts the help, on the condition that Viv moves in with her and Mai
- She says she doesn't need help because she is getting back together with Roy
- She rejects it saying she needs to get on with her own life without Viv's help ✓
- She gets down on her knees and thanks her
-
- In 'Leave Taking', the characters of Del and Enid are often present in conflict. How does Pinnock draw attention to their similarities?
- Their position as obeah women
- Their determination to bring up their children by themselves ✓
- Their rejection of their cultural roots
- Their strength and independence ✓
- Their protectiveness over Brod
-
- In Scene Six of 'Leave Taking', Mai says of her clients, "expect me to reach into their souls and stick the broken pieces back together. They have sucked me dry. [...] My ______ dead."
- 'battery' ✓
Exit quiz
- Who does Pinnock dedicate 'Leave Taking' to?
- Madani Younis
- Simone de Beauvoir
- Alice Walker
- Enid
- her mother ✓
-
- In her introduction to 'Leave Taking', Pinnock says that when she re-reads her play now, she sees her "younger self consulting with my ...".
- 'mother' ✓
- In Scene Six of 'Leave Taking', Enid says to Mai, "I feel a pressure all round here. Like something sitting on my chest, ______ the life outta me."
- 'crush' ✓
- In her introduction to 'Leave Taking', Pinnock says, "my mother became a ______ to four young children at a time when there was still stigma attached to divorce."
- 'single parent' ✓
- An ______ is a short quotation at the beginning of a text which suggests some of its important themes.
- 'epigraph' ✓
- Pinnock begins 'Leave Taking' with two epigraphs from which two feminist critics?
- Alice Walker ✓
- Nada Pinnock-Graham
- Rupert Brooke
- Nanny of the Maroons
- Simone de Beauvoir ✓
-
Worksheet
Loading worksheet ...
Presentation
Loading presentation ...
Video
Lesson Details
Key learning points
- ‘Leave Taking’ is dedicated to Pinnock’s mother.
- ‘Leave Taking’ starts with two epigraphs from two feminist critics.
- Enid, Mai, Mooma and Del are all presented as strong matriarchs.
- Enid, Mai, Mooma and Del’s experiences could reflect the expectations of strength placed on Caribbean matriarchs.
- ‘Leave Taking’ could be interpreted as social commentary on the experiences of women.
Common misconception
'Leave Taking' is a commentary on the experiences of all women.
Pinnock presents the unique stories of her created characters. The centrality of women suggests she is making some sort of social comment, but she is not generalising about every single woman's experience of the world.
Keywords
Feminist critic - an academic who explores how texts present the role and place of women in society
Social commentary - a text which explores and critiques particular problems in society
Matriarch - a woman who rules, leads or controls a family
Epigraph - a short quotation at the beginning of a text which suggests some of its important themes
Centrality - the quality of being the most important or significant to something, or being central to it
+