The island man always returns to the island, in his mind, but in thinking of it he must ‘always’ come ‘back’ literally snapping back to reality this is shown from where Nicholas writes about hearing the traffic on London's North Circular Road, the use of the notorious North Circular contrast to the ‘dream’ as once your in it’s a nightmare to get out of, furthermore the use of circle represents ‘no beginning and no end’ hence it is continuous.
‘District Six’, the name of a poor area of South Africa's capital city, Cape Town. It was bulldozed as a slum in 1966, but never properly rebuilt. Although there is no sign there, the poet can feel that this is where he is, ‘my feet know and my hands’
The repetition of and in the second stanza shows the building up of anger in layer where every ‘and’ adds more to the pile.
Similarly the ‘up-market’ inn ‘brash with glass’, showing that it is too much, and the bright sign which shows its name is meant for white customers only. There is no sign to show this but black and coloured people, being poor, will not be allowed past the "guard at the gatepost". The ‘white’s only inn’ is elegant, with linen tablecloths and a ‘single rose’ on each table. It is contrasted with the fast-food ‘working man's café’ which sells the local snack ‘bunny chows’ which is a burger or hot dog, this shows the poverty of the ‘blacks’. There is no table cloth, just a plastic top, compared to the rich ‘linen’ moreover there is nowhere to wash one's hands after eating there fore they must resort to wiping ‘their fingers on their jeans’.
The black people know their place, no sign says it but ‘we know where we belong’ this is a double meaning as they no their status – below the white people and also they acknowledge where they belong despite the fact there is no sign saying so.
Grace Nicholas divided the Island Man into two sections, the first section which shows the man being where he belongs, in the paradise and tranquillity of his home in the Caribbean. There is a sense of the sound of the sea being heard throughout the poem and how the man is coming in and out of his ‘dream’ like the waves of the sea, ‘breaking and wombing’, the sea is coming in and waves are breaking.
The use of ‘groggily groggily’ is the shift of the poem and the man is reluctant to comeback, despite the poem switching there is still a glimpse of the Caribbean, ‘sands’ and ‘muffling muffling’ representative of the sea and also the waves of the pillow, maybe he is leaving the waves of the sea and the Caribbean dream on his pillow.
Perhaps the most important image in Nothing’s Changed is that of the ‘glass’ which shuts out the person in the poem. It is a symbol of the divisions of colour, and class - often the same thing in South Africa. Furthermore the fact that the ‘barrier’ between white and black is a glass but not a wall is ironic, they can see into the restaurant however they cannot touch anything inside, the person in the poem ‘presses’ their nose against the window, this emphasises how low they are as an adult would not do this. As he backs away from it at the end of the poem, Afrika sees himself as a ‘boy again’, who has left the imprint of his ‘small, mean mouth’ on the glass. He wants ‘a stone, a bomb’ to break the glass this also has a double meaning, he wants to break the glass of the inn but also break the barrier between the white and black status so they can be equal. He says how he wants to ‘shiver down the glass’ not break, could this possibly due to that he wants to scare the white people or maybe he is cold? The poem ends with ‘Nothing’s Changed’ as nothing has ever changed and there is still discrimination of black people.
Nicholas ends Island Man with the image of coming up out of the sea - but the reality is the bed, and the waves are only the folds of a “crumpled pillow”. The last line of the poem is presented as the harsh reality as he is so used to it, and he’s in dilemma as he belongs in the Caribbean but lives in London, ‘Another London Day’
Both poems have different cultures, Africa, Carribean and London.
Nothing’s Changed, the poet assumes that the reader knows South Africa, referring to places, ‘District Six’, plants, ‘Port Jackson Trees’ and local food, ‘Bunny Chows’. The poem is obviously about the unfairness of a country where "Nothing's changed". But this protest could also apply to other countries where those in power resist progress and deny justice to the common people.
Many Afro-Caribbeans in Britain live a split existence. Island Man captures the simple life and the working daily reality. But perhaps it is not really a serious choice - if one were to stay on the island, then one would bring one's problems there, too. In fact, this man is like most other British people - he does not relish work, but faces up to it.
The structure of Nothing’s Changed and the title of the poem suggest not just that things have not changed, but a disappointment that an expected change has not happened. The poem uses the technique of contrast to explore the theme of inequality. It has a clear structure of eight-line stanzas. The lines are short, of varying length, but usually with two stressed syllables.
Island Man is written as free verse as it is a quite loose sequence of vivid images. The poet relies on effects of sound by contrasting the breaking of the surf with the roar of traffic. There are a few rhymes and repetitions. Grace Nichols also refers to colour, blue for surf and emerald for the island and grey for the traffic. Furthermore the way the poem has been written also resembles the structure of a wave.
Overall both poems create the different sense of place, Nothing’s Changed is based around the black peoples place in society and there status upon the white people in South Africa, Island Man focuses on the place of where a man from the Caribbean belongs, does he belong in the island of the Caribbean or is it the island of the united kingdom? Also it raises the question of Is this poem about the Caribbean or London?
