Explain how Churchill uses language to establish a particular character’s identity, class, or social status
Angie is a young girl who takes it upon herself to create a relationship with her aunt Marlene who in reality, is her birth mother. Churchill portrays Angie as skittish and naive, possessing a childish disposition. She attempts to portray this by ascribing a persuasive tone to Angie’s speech alongside elements of rhetoric and repetition.
Angie’s sentences are short, often condensing several ideas into one line. In the lines; “How can he be six? He’s six years older than me. / If he was six I’d be nothing, I’d be just born this minute.”, we can see that she expresses her thoughts in quick jolts of phrases. Moreover, Churchill attributes a childlike nagging to Angie that she often uses to get her way. This can be seen in lines such as; “I want to wear it. I want to wear it.”, “Do you want to see it? Shall I get it? I can get it for you.” etc. Churchill creates several opportunities such as these throughout the text in an attempt to establish Angie’s puerile tendencies.
In addition to his, Angie can often be seen reflecting her childish intuition through her remarks in instances such as; “Swear?”, “Say you’re a liar.”, “Say you eat shit.”. These are all childish tactics used by Angie and put in place by Churchill to give the readers an insight into Angie’s thought flow and her inherently persuasive nature.
Angie can also be seen often dwelling in rhetorical means of conversing, this is a characteristic of her speech regardless of who she is talking to. Through the element, Chruchill allows Angie’s character to further build on her persuasive nature, we can see instances of this in lines such as; “Do you like me?, You do like me.”, hence allowing Angie to express her thoughts without any interference.
Another feature of Angie’s speech is her repetition, she often resorts to this to assert her point. In the scene wherein Angie and Kit argue, Angie says the following; “You’re scared that’s all.”, “You’re scared of blood”, “You’re scared of blood”, “You’re scared.” Through the repetition of this idea, Churchill aims to reflect a manipulative yet equally childish side to Angie’s character.
When Angie converses with Kit, she resorts to a more aggressive manner of speech as compared to the one she uses with her aunt Marlene. She expresses this when she says; “Because she goes to America, now shut up.”,”you silly cunt” etc. However, in front of her aunt, she refrains from being so bold and instead adopts a softer tone and attempts to appear likable to please her aunt. Angie’s behavior around her aunt Marlene is centered around her eagerness to share her life and build a connection with her. This contrast in behavior is one of the ways Churchill attempts to depict her insincerity and make Angie’s character more realistic.
Angie’s distaste for her mother Joyce, and her eagerness to build a rapport with her Aunt Marlene allow for an in-depth exploration of her character. Churchill portrays a pivotal moment in the novel when Angie ends act 3 with one word: “frightening”. This maintains her character till the end and exposes the readers to a situation wherein Angie is forced to react to a revelation. Through this scene and many others, Churchill exposes the readers to events that have transpired in Angie’s life that have shaped her character allowing for an accurate interpretation of how the world sees Angie.