“Baked Beans and Burnt Toast” by Jacqui Larkin
Jacqui Larkin draws attention to the consequences for individuals when people jump to conclusions and make assumptions about their identity based on appearances. In her case, the teacher, Peter Nugent, the airport staff, and the waiter all make assumptions based on her ethnicity.
When Jacqui returns home to Hong Kong – at the airport she feels conspicuous and embarrassed because she does not speak Cantonese and is humiliated by the airport staff. It reminds her of kindergarten.
Her feelings recall her first day at kindergarten and even more embarrassed when the teacher calls her Jacqui 500 (instead of Jacqui Soo). The teacher seems to mock her “origin” of birth, which is Chatswood and presumes she cannot speak English.
At school, Peter Nugent, the “stray dog”, taunts her and becomes the “ugly face of all those Aussies who’ve enquired” about her origins – as if she could not possibly be born in Australia. She is constantly aware of her difference.
However, during their coincidental meeting in Hong Kong, Peter Nugent excuses his meanness on the grounds that he admired her “exotic” and beautiful nature, which he could not name, nor pigeonhole. “Like most emotionally retarded eight-year-old boys, the only way I could communicate with her was by calling her names”. Name-calling once again becomes a painful marker of one’s inability to label the “exotic”. He draws attention to his own alienation— “I knew that I was an egg”— and Jacqui realizes, and accepts, that she is the banana. Peter states, “if you’re a banana then I’m an egg – white on the outside but yellow in the middle.” To ease her nausea, he brings her a plate of baked beans and burnt toast – the nicknames that Peter gave to her and her friend Jo-ann at school.
See An Australian Anthology: a snapshot of literary landscapes
Questions
Describe Mrs Barton’s attitude to Jacqui. What does she say, how does she say it, and why? What are her assumptions about Jacqui?
How does Jacqui feel and react. What are her responses?
How does Jacqui depict Peter Nugent at school? Give examples. What is her point?
Describe the meeting with Peter at the airport. What is Peter’s point? How does this meeting shed light on Jacqui’s identity. How does it change her impression of Peter? How does revisit and examine her own assumptions about others?
What is the point of the story? Write statements about Jacqui’s ideas, views and values.
Jacqui evaluates the assumptions people make based on appearances. She shows how discrimination works and analyses the young girl’s sense of discomfort.
Evaluate further symbolism of the banana and the baked beans. (Peter Nugent recalls being an 8-year old calling a Chinese girl (who fascinated him) all sorts of names. He expresses his difference: “I knew that I was an egg” and uses the symbolism of the banana to capture their differences (and similarities). “If you’re a banana then I’m an egg – white on the outside but yellow in the middle.”
In other words, he deflates the stereotype by stating that you cannot make presumptions about people from their skin colour and race.
Construction features
Jacqui starts with real-time anecdote and then includes a flashback to kindergarten. She ends her story with a reference to the customs officer and an insight about his identity. Jacqui visits Hong Kong. At the airport she feels conspicuous and embarrassed because she does not speak Cantonese and is humiliated by the airport staff. It reminds her of kindergarten.
She concludes with the point that she, too, cannot assume that just because he has singled her out for attention, that it is necessarily malicious.
Comparisons
This sets up a comparison between the customs officer and her kindergarten teacher, (Mrs Barton) who also makes similar assumptions about her ethnicity.
The custom officer “sneers” at her Australian passport and his tone is stern, authoritative and aggressive. Likewise, Mrs Barton is also stern and uncompromising; aggressive and tart.
The customs officer speaks to her in Cantonese because he assumes, from her Asian appearance, that she is a Cantonese native-speaker.
Jacqui’s point is that we make assumptions about language prowess based on an individual’s ethnic appearance.
Jacqui is humiliated; the words “taunt” her and remind her that she inhabits the “grey zone where the borders blur”.
In both instances, Jacqui feels uncomfortable because of the assumptions made by others. These assumptions are made in a disrespectful and mocking way.,
She feels conspicuous at the airport and it reminds her of her first day at kindergarten, when she is embarrassed by Mrs Barton’s reference to Jacqui “Five Hundred”.
At kindergarten
Describe Mrs Barton’s attitude to Jacqui. What does she say, how does she say it, and why? What are her assumptions about Jacqui?
How does Jacqui feel and react. What are her responses?
Story-telling devices
Larkin compares the attitude of the customs officer towards her ethnicity with that of the kindergarten teacher’s. Both assume that her native language is Chinese because her appearance is Chinese. They correlate her appearance with language proficiency.
Based on these assumptions both set her up for ridicule. They treat her with contempt (with disdain). This compounds her sense of inferiority.
Story-telling devices
Larkin uses the symbolism of the banana to represent a split between the inside and the outside. (Larkin uses the banana and the egg as recurring symbols of identity. The egg reflects a split between the inside and the outside which captures Larkin’s complicated (split) sense of identity as a Chinese-speaking Australian.)
Comparisons and similes: “I stand out like a plate of chicken feet at a sausage sizzle”.
At the airport, Jacqui symbolically refers to herself as a “banana”; this recalls the earlier reference to the “monkey in the zoo”. It also refers to the outside skin and the inside flesh of the banana which do not make a perfect match.
Jacqui refers to her difference in skin colour and ethnicity. She is the “black” head in a sea of “brown…”
Mrs Barton’s body language, tone and mannerisms towards Jacqui are disrespectful and offensive. She “snaps” at her and speaks loudly, which is evident in the capital letters: “WHERE WAS THE HOSPITAL?”
Mrs Barton assumes that because Jacqui has “black” hair she cannot speak English or has difficulty understanding the language. She also assumes that she cannot possibly have been born in Carlingford, but assumes that she is born outside Australia.
The writer criticises the teacher, who seems to be prejudiced against her. Mrs Barton mispronounces her name (and then blames her mother’s spelling). She addresses her by her surname she mocks her “origin” of birth, which is Chatswood.
The teacher calls her name out twice, and also calls her by her first and last names. She is treating her differently from the other students because of her difference.
Jacqui feels a sense of shame; she is embarrassed at the excessive and unnecessary attention, especially on her first day of school.
The food also symbolises cultural differences. When Jo-Ann and Jacqui eat their lunch, the other children give them a wide berth. She notes, they have a “large space all to ourselves” which suggests that the other students are avoiding them.
Peter Nugent who makes ignorant, racial taunts and becomes a bit like a “stray dog” is the “ugly face of all those Aussies who’ve enquired” about her origins – as if she could not possibly be born in Australia – always drawing attention to her difference.
The head waiter at the restaurant in Hong Kong is a westerner (a ‘skip’) who speaks fluent Cantonese
He draws attention to the stereotypical Australian before “Sydney went multicultural”. “It was all football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars.” (335)
Creative task:
Write a short creative story based on Jacqui’s style and points.
Start with a present-time happening and do a flashback.
Include key symbols to reflect identity.
Include some dialogue; to “show” not tell; include mannerisms, body language, tone.
See An Australian Anthology: a snapshot of literary landscapes