In the extract of the novel "Girl, Woman, Other" by Bernardine Evaristo published in 2019, is about a girl with Nigerian roots trying to find a place of belonging in the British society.

• Carole is of Nigerian descent
• she comes from a poor family (cf. l. 25)
• mother works as a cleaner and they live at a council flat on a skyscraper estate; father seems to have passed away
• her parents left their homeland to give her a better life and a better future

• Carole's mom has high expectations for her daughter and doesn't accept that she wants to drop out of university
• she draws comparisons to e.g. Oprah Winfrey and Diane Abbott to illustrate that other women of color have succeeded as well by fighting their way through and expects her daughter to do the same
• she wants a better life for Carole and will not let her throw away the opportunities she has created by leaving her home behind and coming to the UK
• but that she has perseverance, giving people a chance and being open minded

• Carole is one of the main protagonists of the novel's excerpt
• the way the story is told, the narration perspective as well as the linguistic devices used, have a fundamental influence on how the reader perceives Carole and emphasizes the personal change she undergoes throughout the excerpt

• third-person narration although the abstract is written in third-person the reader, experiences her initial insecurity and the development into a more confident person in the future from a limited point of view
• the first half of the text, the reader only gets to know her perspective and can identify with her feelings
• the way Carole is portrayed gives the reader the image of her being a rather insecure person who has feelings of inferiority due to her background "... counted on one hand the number of brown-skinned people" (l. 6/7)
• in the way how the narrator comments and raises questions (cf. l. 27) doubts are raised whether Carole's perception of herself is correct or if she's being biased

• use of hyperbole "... would forever be ... with mad Afircan mother..." (l. 5) or "... never having gone on a single holiday ..." (l. 22/23) emphasizes her fear of prejudice and alienation due to her origin and her feeling of loneliness
• by describing her mother's outfit in an exaggerated way "consisting of thousands of yards of bright material, and a headscarf ten storeys high" (l. 2/3) she illustrates her fear of being different than everybody else and how ashamed she is of her origin and her mother

• enumeration "...Christmas holidays in Goa, Bahamas, gap year spent climbing Machu Picchu, ..." (l. 11-13) this long list illustrates and highlights the elitist society that defines itself in this way and also shows how far removed from reality it sees itself.
• use of the rhetorical questions "Where was that even?" (l. 13/14) emphasizes that she in comparison to the other students didn't have the possibilities in the past of travelling around the world

• her sense of worthlessness increases by listening only to the voices of the "posh" students "they were the only ones she heard" (l. 15/16), although this student body is the minority and shows her level of insecurity and low self-esteem
• "... feel crushed, worthless and a nobody" (l. 17) the enumeration is arranged in the form of a climax to underline how worthless and inferior she feels in this society once more
• as a consequence she feels "uglystupidfatpoor" (l. 25) four words with negative connotations are contradicted into one by leaving out the blanks, highlights the negative light she sees herself in
• anaphora and parallelism "nobody talked loudly about never having ..., nobody talked loudly ..." (l. 20-26) the use of always the same sentence structures together with hyperboles like "nobody" and "never" shows what kind of unrealistic image she has of herself and society by thinking she is the only one in such a situation
• the climax of the sense of worthlessness she feels is reached when the rhetorical question is asked, "did she exist or was she an illusion?" (l. 27/28) she feels alienated and not part of the scene surrounding her
• through the lack of punctuation and capital letters, the narration gathers speed, leaves the reader breathless, and thus highlights how overwhelmed Carole feels at university

• when her mother brings it down to her that it is her responsibility to take the initiative to integrate (in a whole passage of direct speech in the middle of the excerpt) a turning point is reached
• a change takes place in her, this change is stressed by language the parallelism, "she would fit in, she decided, she would find her people..." (l. 59) underlines her shift in attitude and shows her determination to fit in

• towards the end of the excerpt, the narrator uses techniques such as insertions of what is related as Carole's view "as far as Carole was concerned" (l. 64)
• thus shows that she is still jugding her peers but now she focuses on finding "the best match for her" (l. 73)
• this comment suggests the possibility that Carole has not really tried to belong in the past, despite her impression of not belonging in general

• all in all, it can be concluded that Carole's character is initially presented as a loner with great insecurity and self-esteem problems through the strong use of linguistic devices
• towards the end of the excerpt, however, Carole comes of age and a change takes place in her ultimately she is portrayed as more open and confident

• David Olusoga, a British journalist and historian, describes Great Britain as a country marked by structural racism, which is, however, denied by the population
• whether and to what extent this statement can be called true is evaluated in the following text

• evidence suggests that a large proportion of the british population think there is only little racism in their country in comparison to the US for instance
• Racism in the UK is often denied because it doesn't fill the newspaper headlines and isn't in the public spotlight as it is in the US
• when rebelling against inequality, it is often stated that this is only a wish for attention
• from the highest instance, the royal house, structural racism is already lived and guarded as traditions and observance of protocols
• people of color and ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom are more likely to be stopped by the police, more likely to be unemployed, or to live in overcrowded housing
• Olusoga further criticizes and claims in his article that part of the British society can be called incapable of self-reflection thus not only denying the fact of racism but actually believing that racism does not exist in the UK

• recent events, such as the european championship final in 2021 or the covid 19 pandemic, which have further exposed inequalities, have brought the racism debate into focus
• current surveys have shown that Brits do acknowledge the fact that racism is very real in their country
• demonstrations and movements such as Black Lives Matter, also address the racist tendencies within the country
• it can be said that a change in thinking has been triggered by movements like Black Lives Matter
• people have started to take to the streets and rebel against injustice and inequality

• in conclusion, british society has for a very long time been characterized by slander and ignorance of inequality and discrimination and the statement Olusogas certainly reflected the attitude of the brits
• however, it can also be said that major social events and movements such as Black Lives Matter and the European Championship brought the racism debate into focus and forced people to confront it, thus triggering a rethink

While I'm walking back to my room, I'm lost in thoughts. I couldn't get out of my head what my mom said. Isn't she right though? How would I know whether the other students hated me or not - I never asked them. It would be so nice to have friends, to be part of a group, to be wanted and appreciated. To have people to laugh and joke around with, to share deep thoughts and fears.

But then another thought hits to me - what if I am right and they really were prejudiced. Trying to lose the thought, I shake my head. The thought and fear of rejection bites at my mind. But there are other people as well, not only the posh ones, I try to calm myself. The ones I admittedly didn't pay to much attention to. But what if they really don't want me? What if I'm too poor or too different? Isn't it safer to leave it as it is and not to ask and try? Because for now I don't know for sure.

I can't be scared forever - my mom is right. I'll do it. I'll start opening up for people. What good are otherwise all the sacrifices my parents made for my to come here. It comes all down to me and I can do this.