Key quotations

Short quotations that carry an argument

A useful quotation does more than show that you remember Leave Taking. It gives you something precise to explain: a revealing word, a contrast between characters, or a change in a relationship. Learn each phrase with its speaker, scene and situation. The same words can support different arguments, but their meaning depends on when and why they are spoken.

Pinnock’s play follows a Jamaican migrant mother, Enid, and her British-born daughters, Del and Viv, in 1980s London. Their conflicts involve belonging, education and protection: what Enid considers a way to keep her daughters safe can feel to them like control. Mai and Broderick help uncover experiences that the daughters do not initially understand.

For OCR, these quotations are particularly useful in part (b), the 20-mark question exploring another moment from memory. AO1, your supported response, and AO2, analysis of language, form and structure, are equally weighted; there are no separate context marks. Part (a) is also worth 20 marks, but compares the printed extract with an unseen drama extract. AO1 and AO3 each carry twice the weight of AO2. Its context concerns the social and cultural situations revealed by the extracts and their introductions.

Enid and Brod: competing ideas of belonging

In Scene 2, Enid declares, “I proud a my English girls.” The possessive “my” expresses maternal affection and achievement, while “English” identifies the future she wants for her daughters. She hopes that hard work, education and fitting in will give them opportunities she has lacked. Her earlier instruction, “Stick to the rules.”, makes belonging sound like something secured through correct behaviour.

Brod counters in the same scene: “These girls got Caribbean souls.” “Souls” locates heritage deep within the girls, rather than treating it as something they can simply discard. Put the two quotations together and a disagreement emerges: Enid stresses the identity she has encouraged, whereas Brod insists on a cultural inheritance she has largely withheld from them. Brod acts as a foil to Enid, but neither phrase fully captures the daughters’ own developing understanding of themselves.

Brod’s “Secure what? Till them change them mind again?” in Scene 2 exposes another difficulty with Enid’s confidence. He has paid £50 to register his citizenship after decades in Britain, yet doubts that the authorities will honour his security. The abrupt first question immediately punctures reassurance. “Them” separates the authorities from the people whose futures they control, while “again” expresses distrust based on previous changes. His argument is not simply that he misses Jamaica: it is that belonging can be made conditional by those with power.

Enid: pride, guilt and the cost of leaving

Enid’s confidence becomes harder to sustain after the news of Mooma’s death in Scene 3. “Then who kill her them? Me?” turns grief into self-accusation. The questions show her searching for responsibility and directing it towards herself after doubting the requests for money. This is an expression of guilt, not proof that she caused her mother’s death.

In Scene 4, “I come from the dirt.” gives Viv access to a past Enid has rarely discussed. “Dirt” evokes rural poverty and the shame of being looked down upon. Her silence about Jamaica is therefore connected to painful memories as well as her ambitions for the girls. The repeated “I come” in her account gives her origins an insistent force: leaving a place has not removed its emotional hold.

Her memories also complicate a purely idealised view of Jamaica. In Scene 4, “It wasn’t easy to leave.” acknowledges the pain of separation, even though migration offered an escape from poverty. Read this alongside her Scene 2 pride: Pinnock gradually reveals feelings hidden beneath Enid’s public certainty. The order matters because the audience’s understanding of her changes as she begins to disclose her past.

Viv and Del: two kinds of educational exclusion

Viv appears to fulfil Enid’s hopes. Yet in Scene 5 she tells Del, “I need another language to express myself.” “Need” makes self-expression essential, not a luxury. “Another language” suggests a vocabulary and body of writing that can represent experiences absent from her schooling; it need not mean learning a different national language.

Earlier in the same speech, “Pat me on the head” makes academic praise sound patronising. Viv can produce approved answers, but feels treated like a child being rewarded for obedience. Her ability to pass examinations is not the same as feeling understood. Her eventual decision to study Black Studies offers a way to continue her education while seeking the representation she has missed.

Del’s exclusion works differently. In Scene 5, Mai recognises that words move “like black ants” when Del reads. The simile makes her reading difficulty concrete: the words seem restless and difficult to control. Mai’s recognition shifts attention from Del’s apparent failure to an experience others have misunderstood. Later, in Scene 8, “You passed with flying colours.” gives Del an alternative experience of success through learning obeah. These moments suggest that formal academic achievement is not the only measure of ability.

Del and Enid: anger that conceals care

Del tells Mai in Scene 6, “She hates me. Always has”. The short statements sound certain, and “Always” extends her judgement across her whole childhood. They reveal how completely she interprets Enid’s strictness as rejection.

Mai offers a different explanation in Scene 6: “I was trying to save him”, referring to her own son. “Save” reframes harshness as an attempted act of protection. Her experience helps Del consider another mother’s perspective, although protective intentions do not automatically prevent hurt.

Enid’s own words in Scene 8 finally challenge Del’s belief. “I would chop off my hand if it would help you.” The violent hyperbole expresses an extreme willingness to sacrifice herself. It is striking because Del has previously accused her of failing to recognise racist mistreatment. Enid now makes that recognition explicit, and the conditional “if” directs the imagined sacrifice towards her daughter’s welfare.

The ending matters alongside the speech: Del begins to read Enid’s palm. Understanding becomes a physical act of attention and care, rather than another accusation. This is the beginning of repair, not a guarantee that every disagreement has disappeared.

Mai and Brod: words that uncover hidden experience

Enid asks Mai in Scene 6, “What they know about a black woman’s soul?” The rhetorical question expresses her distrust of medical responses that, she feels, do not understand her emotional and cultural experience. Mai repeats the question in Scene 8 when Del urges her to seek medical advice for her heart. The repetition connects the women’s concerns, but it also reveals a tension: Mai offers valuable understanding while resisting medical help for herself.

Brod similarly opens up a history Del has not heard. In Scene 7 he explains that “you father change from a smiling boy into a hard man” after racial abuse at work. The contrast between “smiling” and “hard” presents a damaging transformation. Brod’s account connects public racism with suffering within the family; it does not excuse the father’s violence towards Enid. Because this revelation comes late, it forces Del to reconsider the mother she has blamed without knowing her past.

A quotation bank by character and theme

Each phrase below is a small piece of evidence, not a complete argument. The final column identifies a direction for analysis. Cover that column to test whether you can explain the words, then cover the quotation to recall it from the speaker and situation.

Worked paragraph — part (b): turning evidence into analysis

Pinnock presents maternal protection as something Del initially mistakes for hatred. In Scene 6, Del’s declaration that Enid “hates me. Always has” turns a painful interpretation into an apparently settled fact: “Always” allows no exceptions. Mai’s account of her own son introduces an alternative through “I was trying to save him”, suggesting that harshness can arise from fear for a child’s future. The dialogue therefore places Del’s certainty against another mother’s experience. By letting the audience hear both perspectives, Pinnock makes the conflict more complex than a simple opposition between a cruel mother and a rebellious daughter.

This paragraph begins with an interpretation, selects only the words needed to support it, and explains how the exchange creates meaning. Its focus is not how many quotations can be remembered, but what those quotations allow us to understand.

Recall the central contrasts

• Scene 2: Enid’s English identity for her daughters versus Brod’s insistence on Caribbean heritage.
• Scenes 3–4: Enid’s confidence gives way to guilt, memories of poverty and longing for home.
• Scene 5: Viv succeeds academically but feels unrepresented; Mai recognises Del’s overlooked reading difficulty.
• Scenes 6–8: Del interprets strictness as hatred; Mai and Enid reveal protective intentions and sacrifice.
• Scene 7: Brod’s account of the father changes Del’s understanding of Enid’s past.

Build an argument from a phrase

Interpretation → short quotation → precise word or dramatic feature → meaning.

Recall the speaker, scene and situation before using the quotation. Connect dialogue to how a relationship develops, not just to a technique label.

OCR’s two parts

• Part (a), 20 marks: compare both printed drama extracts. AO1 and AO3 each weigh twice as much as AO2; infer relevant social and cultural situations from the extracts and introductions.
• Part (b), 20 marks: explore another moment from memory. AO1 and AO2 are equally weighted; no separate context marks.

Test your quotation knowledge

Use the bank in Learn: cover the quotations and recall them from the situation, then explain how each phrase could support an argument about belonging, education or family.