Laminex and Mirrors

by

Cate Kennedy

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Noeleen Character Analysis

– Noeleen is another of the narrator’s hospital coworkers, a working-class woman who—like Dot—gives the narrator several pieces of cleaning advice throughout the narrative. She supports Dot’s catalogue side business by purchasing body care items even though she does not appear to have a lot of money to spare. Like Dot, she has a friendly personality and appears comfortable with her daily routines at the hospital.

Noeleen Quotes in Laminex and Mirrors

The Laminex and Mirrors quotes below are all either spoken by Noeleen or refer to Noeleen. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Joy and Drudgery Theme Icon
).
Laminex and Mirrors Quotes

His uniform's blue and mine's an ugly mauve, clearly designating our status in the hospital pecking order, but he's still asked me to the staff Christmas party. The other cleaners, when they hear this, behave as if it's a doctor-nurse romance from Mills & Boon. They speculate on what table we'll all sit on, what they'll wear, whether there'll be door prizes this year. When I say I'm not sure if I'll go, they look at me flabbergasted. “But it's free,” Dot says,” and there's a whole three-course meal!”

“That nice young man asks you to go, I reckon you go,” says Noeleen. “He's from overseas somewhere, isn't he? Play your cards right and you might get a trip OS!”

Related Characters: Narrator (speaker), Dot (speaker), Noeleen (speaker), Tony
Page Number: 41-42
Explanation and Analysis:

Down in the kitchen the other cleaners will be pouring their cups of tea out of the urn now, Marie remarking coolly on my absence, and Matron will be waiting for us, I am certain, at the nurses' station, in the no-man's-land of the hospital's thermostatically cool interior, its sterilised world of hard surfaces, wiped clean and blameless. Someone else's jurisdiction now.

Related Characters: Narrator (speaker), Mr. Moreton, Dot, The Matron, Marie, Noeleen
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:
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Noeleen Quotes in Laminex and Mirrors

The Laminex and Mirrors quotes below are all either spoken by Noeleen or refer to Noeleen. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Joy and Drudgery Theme Icon
).
Laminex and Mirrors Quotes

His uniform's blue and mine's an ugly mauve, clearly designating our status in the hospital pecking order, but he's still asked me to the staff Christmas party. The other cleaners, when they hear this, behave as if it's a doctor-nurse romance from Mills & Boon. They speculate on what table we'll all sit on, what they'll wear, whether there'll be door prizes this year. When I say I'm not sure if I'll go, they look at me flabbergasted. “But it's free,” Dot says,” and there's a whole three-course meal!”

“That nice young man asks you to go, I reckon you go,” says Noeleen. “He's from overseas somewhere, isn't he? Play your cards right and you might get a trip OS!”

Related Characters: Narrator (speaker), Dot (speaker), Noeleen (speaker), Tony
Page Number: 41-42
Explanation and Analysis:

Down in the kitchen the other cleaners will be pouring their cups of tea out of the urn now, Marie remarking coolly on my absence, and Matron will be waiting for us, I am certain, at the nurses' station, in the no-man's-land of the hospital's thermostatically cool interior, its sterilised world of hard surfaces, wiped clean and blameless. Someone else's jurisdiction now.

Related Characters: Narrator (speaker), Mr. Moreton, Dot, The Matron, Marie, Noeleen
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis: