Small Island: Chapter 58: Queenie Summary & Analysis

Gilbert informs Bernard that he and Hortense are leaving. Although both men end up shouting insults at each other, Bernard is pleased, since this means he and Queenie can sell the house and move to the suburbs. Queenie understands that Bernard wants a new start, and feels that she understands her husband better since she’s heard about his experiences during the war. However, she’s unsure how the baby will fit into their new future.

Queenie has been waiting for hours for Hortense and Gilbert to pass by her door; now, she hears them giggling together in the hallway. Offering them a cup of tea, she notices they seem strained around her and no longer trust her. When they enter reluctantly, Bernard retreats frostily behind his newspaper; Queenie is angry with him for making the situation awkward.

Clumsily, Queenie thanks Hortense for helping her with her childbirth. She offers to give them some furniture for their new house, but Gilbert refuses to take any of Bernard’s things.

Hoping to break the ice, Queenie picks up the baby from his crib, wraps him in a shawl, and hands him to Hortense to hold. She’s proud to see Hortense’s face soften at the sight of the adorable little boy. She tells them she’s named him Michael; Hortense, surprised, says that she had a brother named Michael, who was killed during the war.

Queenie goes into the kitchen to help Bernard make tea, but for a minute she watches Hortense, who’s speaking softly to baby Michael while Gilbert gives him his finger to chew. When she brings the tray of tea back in, Queenie knows she has to say what’s on her mind. In a rush, she asks Hortense and Gilbert if they will take the baby with them when they move out of the house.

Hortense and Gilbert are in shock, but Queenie pleads earnestly for them to bring baby Michael up as their own son. Suddenly, Bernard interjects; to Queenie’s surprise, he insists that the baby needs his mother and should stay in his own home. When Queenie says that they can’t look after him properly, Bernard asks, “why ever not?” Everyone else stares at him, surprised that he, of all people, seems suddenly ignorant of the impropriety of two white parents raising a black child.

Bernard suggests that they move to the suburbs and tell everyone baby Michael is adopted. Crying, Queenie points out that such a solution won’t work when the baby grows up and other children make fun of him or ostracize him. With a black son, Bernard will never have the “proper, decent” life he wants, and eventually he’ll come to resent Michael for that. Moreover, Queenie says that even she, the baby’s own mother, doesn’t have the “guts” for the fight that bringing up a black child would entail.

Turning back to Gilbert and Hortense, Queenie says that she trusts them to raise baby Michael, and that she prefers giving him to them rather than to an orphanage. This way, they can write to her to let her know how he’s doing. She can even give them money to take care of him. She knows that they can give him a better, more stable life than she could.