Small Island: Chapter 11: Gilbert Summary & Analysis

In a flashback, Gilbert describes his time in the RAF. When he first joins the armed forces, he’s thrilled by his dashing uniform, telling himself that “women gonna fall at your feet” because of it. However, once he arrives at training camp, he’s too preoccupied by the boiled and flavorless British food to think about women or his own looks. Gilbert’s unit is composed of Jamaican soldiers, as well as men from tinier neighboring islands, whom Gilbert scorns as “small islanders.”

However, an American officer soon informs Gilbert and his comrades that for the duration of their stay in Virginia, they’ll be confined to the military base. He explains that this is a safety measure to prevent disease and tries to console the men by assuring them that they will be able to “mix with white service personnel” and “not be treated as negroes,” but Gilbert is disgruntled because he wants to try out the effect of his uniform on American women.

After this incident, Gilbert remembers the words of his cousin Elwood, who was astounded that Gilbert wants to be a soldier in a “white man’s war,” and said he should be fighting instead for black Jamaicans to control their own country. Elwood says winning the war won’t change anything for Jamaicans like them.

However, Gilbert has read that Hitler considers both Jews and people of color to be “primitive, like an ape.” This is particularly striking to Gilbert because not only is he black, his father is a Jew. Born in the Jamaican town of Mandeville, Gilbert’s father converted to Christianity while serving as a soldier in World War One, was disowned by his family, and married Gilbert’s mother, Louise. Every Sunday, he took his wife and seven children to church; Louise watched the children while Gilbert’s father “fawned” on the congregation’s white members, seeking their approval even though they disdained him for his mixed heritage and black wife. Reading about Hitler in the newspapers, Gilbert recognizes in a picture of Germans watching a Jew walk down the street the “expression of disgust” with which these white congregants looked at his father.

At the beginning of the war, Gilbert’s older brother Lester tries to sign up for the RAF, but they refuse to accept black soldiers and send him to a factory instead. As the war progresses and becomes more desperate, the RAF changes its policy. To Elwood’s disgust, Gilbert immediately signs up; he tells his cousin that nothing will change in Jamaica if Hitler wins this war.

In Virginia, American soldiers attempt to flatter Gilbert and the other men and compensate for their confinement by insinuating that they are “superior” black people, different from African-Americans, who “won’t work” and “ain’t really cut out to fight.” The white soldiers claim that segregation is the only way to ensure a peaceful society, and that everyone, including African Americans, likes it. Regardless of the food, everyone is soon eager to leave Virginia.

Eventually, the men board a ship headed to England via Newfoundland. On the voyage, they endure long lectures from Corporal Baxter, whom they despise because he constantly belittles them as “colony troops.” Colonel Baxter warns them that in England, “no white women will consort with the likes of you,” angering the men further.