The Corner Shop
Analysis and interpretation of ”The Corner Shop”
In the last decades globalization has forced every country in the world to define what values and unique characteristics makes the country different and exceptional. The essay “The Corner Shop” is written by the British writer and former journalist at the centre-left liberal newspaper The Guardian Shyama Pereras in 2000, and it deals with this exact topic. She puts focus on how globalization has taken a thing considered as a unique specimen of a nation and changed it into something foreign. The corner shop stands today as a daily reminder that we all live in a global village.
Shyama Pereras starts her essay with a quote from the Sunday Times that says “if your surname is Partel, you’re seven times more likely to be a millionaire than if your name is Smith”. To understand this statement, it’s important to understand the history of the name Partel. Partel is a surname of Indian origin. Within the United Kingdom, it is the twenty-fourth most common surname nationally, and in central London it is third most common. When The Sunday Times uses Partel in comparison with the surname Smith, which is the most common name in the United Kingdom, she puts every Englishman up against every middle-eastern immigrant in the United Kingdom. What the Sunday Times really is saying, is that when you’re a middle-eastern immigrant you have a much bigger chance of being a millionaire than if your part of the indigenous English population. Pereras chooses to involve this Sunday Times “rich list”, to underline the actuality and legitimacy, which this topic has in today’s society. To exemplify she gives a daily example that especially Englishmen know and can relate to: The corner shop.
This compressed form of shop where you can buy the basics such as alcoholic and soft drinks, newspaper, magazines and simple groceries has since the concepts entry been considered as a core-British asset. Shyama Pereras describes the corner shop as much more
In the last decades globalization has forced every country in the world to define what values and unique characteristics makes the country different and exceptional. The essay “The Corner Shop” is written by the British writer and former journalist at the centre-left liberal newspaper The Guardian Shyama Pereras in 2000, and it deals with this exact topic. She puts focus on how globalization has taken a thing considered as a unique specimen of a nation and changed it into something foreign. The corner shop stands today as a daily reminder that we all live in a global village.
Shyama Pereras starts her essay with a quote from the Sunday Times that says “if your surname is Partel, you’re seven times more likely to be a millionaire than if your name is Smith”. To understand this statement, it’s important to understand the history of the name Partel. Partel is a surname of Indian origin. Within the United Kingdom, it is the twenty-fourth most common surname nationally, and in central London it is third most common. When The Sunday Times uses Partel in comparison with the surname Smith, which is the most common name in the United Kingdom, she puts every Englishman up against every middle-eastern immigrant in the United Kingdom. What the Sunday Times really is saying, is that when you’re a middle-eastern immigrant you have a much bigger chance of being a millionaire than if your part of the indigenous English population. Pereras chooses to involve this Sunday Times “rich list”, to underline the actuality and legitimacy, which this topic has in today’s society. To exemplify she gives a daily example that especially Englishmen know and can relate to: The corner shop.
This compressed form of shop where you can buy the basics such as alcoholic and soft drinks, newspaper, magazines and simple groceries has since the concepts entry been considered as a core-British asset. Shyama Pereras describes the corner shop as much more