An obeah woman who offers healing and advice

Leave Taking · GCSE English Literature revision

Plot

Enid Matthews came to London from Jamaica and works hard in low-paid jobs, bringing up her daughters Del and Viv alone.
Enid wants a secure, respectable future for her daughters. Viv works hard for university; Del rebels.
Enid visits Mai, an obeah woman (a healer), for help. Del becomes pregnant, leaves home and stays with Mai.
Enid's mother dies in Jamaica, and Enid cannot go home for the funeral. By the end, the family begins to come back together.

Identity and belonging, home, migration, mother and daughter relationships, racism, and generations.
Winsome Pinnock's play was first staged in 1987. It shows the Windrush generation who came from the Caribbean and their British-born children.

Broderick, Enid's friend, feels let down by Britain. Mai helps the characters face the past.

Windrush generation: People who came from the Caribbean to Britain from 1948.
Obeah: A Caribbean tradition of spiritual healing.
Identity: The sense of who you are and where you belong.
Migration: Moving to live in another country.

Where did Enid come from?: Jamaica: She came to London as part of the Windrush generation.
Who are Enid's daughters?: Del and Viv: Del rebels and Viv studies hard.
Who is Mai?: An obeah woman who offers healing and advice: Del stays with her.
What does Enid want for her daughters?: A secure, respectable future: She works hard for them.
Who feels let down by Britain?: Broderick: He is Enid's friend from Jamaica.
What happens to Enid's mother?: She dies in Jamaica: Enid cannot go home for the funeral.
When was Leave Taking first staged?: 1987: It was written by Winsome Pinnock.
Which theme does Enid's distance from Jamaica show?: Home and belonging: She belongs fully to neither place.