AQA Power and Conflict

Identity in Power and Conflict10 key quotes across the anthology.

How conflict, displacement and culture shape — and threaten — a sense of self.

All Identity Quotes

“The sun shines through their borderlines”
Tissue — Imtiaz Dharker
PowerIdentity

Context: The speaker considers maps and the human-drawn borders printed on paper.

Analysis

The sun shining "through" the "borderlines" suggests that nature's power transcends the artificial divisions humans impose to claim land and control. Dharker critiques how maps and borders — mere marks on fragile paper — cause real conflict. Natural light renders these divisions insignificant.

Language Techniques:

SymbolismEnjambmentPolitical undertone

Exam Tip

Use for power, control and the artificiality of human-made divisions. Strong link to conflict over land and borders.

“turned into your skin”
Tissue — Imtiaz Dharker
Power of NatureIdentity

Context: The final lines connect paper to human life and the body ("tissue" as living tissue).

Analysis

The pun on "tissue" — paper and living human tissue — fuses the fragile material with the human body, suggesting life itself is delicate and transient. Ending on "your skin" makes the message personal and universal: human beings, like paper, are fragile and impermanent. True power lies in this shared vulnerability.

Language Techniques:

PunDirect addressVolta

Exam Tip

Use for the link between fragility and humanity. The "tissue" pun is exam gold — paper and flesh are equally delicate.

“There once was a country... I left it as a child but my memory of it is sunlight-clear”
The Emigrée — Carol Rumens
IdentityLoss and Memory

Context: The opening of the poem, in which a speaker recalls a homeland she left as a child.

Analysis

The fairy-tale opening "There once was a country" frames the homeland as an idealised, almost mythic place. The compound "sunlight-clear" makes her memory bright and pure, untouched by the country's later troubles. Rumens explores how memory preserves an unchanging, idealised version of home despite political reality.

Language Techniques:

Fairy-tale openingCompound adjectiveMotif of light

Exam Tip

Use for memory, identity and idealisation of home. The recurring "sunlight" motif represents the unbreakable positive memory.

“It may be sick with tyrants, but I am branded by an impression of sunlight”
The Emigrée — Carol Rumens
PowerIdentity

Context: The speaker acknowledges her homeland may now be oppressed, yet her memory stays positive.

Analysis

The concessive "It may be sick with tyrants" admits the country's political oppression, but "branded by... sunlight" shows her identity is permanently marked by positive memory. "Branded" suggests something painful yet indelible — her belonging cannot be erased. Rumens contrasts oppressive political power with the personal power of memory.

Language Techniques:

ConcessionMetaphorJuxtaposition

Exam Tip

Use for the conflict between political tyranny and personal memory. "Branded" is ambiguous — pride and pain together.

“They accuse me of being dead, of speaking in the wrong language”
The Emigrée — Carol Rumens
IdentityAnger and Protest

Context: In the final stanza, faceless forces persecute the speaker for her origins.

Analysis

The vague pronoun "They" represents nameless, oppressive authority — censorship, hostility to immigrants, or tyranny. To be accused of "speaking in the wrong language" shows how identity and language are policed and erased. Despite this persecution, the poem ends defiantly with the city that "takes me dancing".

Language Techniques:

Ambiguous pronounPersonificationSinister tone

Exam Tip

Use for oppression of identity and language. The undefined "They" makes the threat universal — relevant to refugees everywhere.

“Dem tell me bout 1066 and all dat, dem tell me bout Dick Whittington and he cat”
Checking Out Me History — John Agard
IdentityAnger and Protest

Context: The speaker lists the British history he was taught, while Black history was omitted.

Analysis

The repeated "Dem tell me" creates an accusatory, rebellious tone against the white establishment that controlled his education. The use of phonetic Creole spelling ("Dem", "dat") asserts the speaker's own cultural identity in defiance of standard English. Trivial British myths are foregrounded while important Black figures are erased.

Language Techniques:

Phonetic spellingRepetitionJuxtaposition

Exam Tip

Use for power, control of education and cultural identity. The non-standard spelling is itself an act of resistance.

“Toussaint a slave with vision, lick back Napoleon battalion”
Checking Out Me History — John Agard
IdentityPower

Context: The speaker celebrates Toussaint L'Ouverture, a leader of the Haitian Revolution, in an italicised stanza.

Analysis

Agard reclaims hidden Black history by celebrating Toussaint as a visionary who defeated Napoleon's forces. The colloquial "lick back" energises the achievement with pride and defiance. The italicised, lyrical form of these stanzas separates true heroes from the dismissive British curriculum.

Language Techniques:

AllusionColloquialismStructural contrast

Exam Tip

Use for reclaiming suppressed identity and history. Note how the form changes for Black heroes versus British myths.

“But now I checking out me own history, I carving out me identity”
Checking Out Me History — John Agard
IdentityPower

Context: The defiant final couplet, where the speaker takes control of his own story.

Analysis

The shift to "now I" marks the speaker's empowerment — he actively reclaims agency over his identity. The verb "carving" suggests deliberate, effortful self-creation, like sculpting. The rhyme of "history"/"identity" binds the two: knowing his true history is essential to knowing himself.

Language Techniques:

Active verbsRhyming coupletTone shift

Exam Tip

A powerful closing quote about empowerment and self-definition. "Carving" implies identity is something actively made, not given.

“a shaven head full of powerful incantations and enough fuel for a one-way journey into history”
Kamikaze — Beatrice Garland
PatriotismIdentity

Context: The opening describes a Japanese kamikaze pilot setting off on his suicide mission in WWII.

Analysis

The "powerful incantations" suggest the pilot is psychologically conditioned by propaganda and ritual to sacrifice himself for honour. "A one-way journey into history" elevates the suicide mission to a glorious, mythologised act — the cultural pressure of patriotism. Garland sets up the conflict between duty and the instinct to live.

Language Techniques:

Religious dictionEuphemismForeshadowing

Exam Tip

Use for patriotism, honour and cultural pressure. Contrast the glorified "history" with the dishonour he later faces for turning back.

“he must have wondered which had been the better way to die”
Kamikaze — Beatrice Garland
IdentityLoss and Memory

Context: The final lines reflect on the pilot's fate after he returns home and is shunned by his community.

Analysis

The bleak rhetorical reflection shows that by choosing life, the pilot suffered a social "death" — shunned by family and community for his shame. The poem critiques a culture in which dishonour is treated as worse than death itself. The shift to his family's narrative voice distances and silences him, enacting his erasure.

Language Techniques:

Rhetorical reflectionIronyShift in narrative voice

Exam Tip

Powerful closing quote on the cost of rejecting patriotic duty. The "death" here is social and emotional, not physical.

Explore More Power and Conflict Themes

Browse quotes by theme across all 15 poems, or view the full anthology.

PowerPower of NatureReality of WarLoss and MemoryPatriotismGuiltAnger and Protest
All Power and Conflict QuotesPractice with English Genie