Tiffany James- English 145

“ Giri listened silently. She knew that although the groom had to pay a bride-price in their community, still a girl was only a girl. She had heard so many times the old saying: ‘A daughter born, to husband or death, she’s already gone’ “(1151). The bitterness in this text is the reality that young girls like Giri endured and are still enduring today in many countries. The author uncovers the fate of young girls before their introduction to the world. They were nothing more than a means to an end. If parents had a girl, they did not dream big for her, nor did they inquire or try influence any dreams she may have had. The expectation of a daughter was that a decent bride-price would be paid for her and that she would be secured in a home. Parents believed she would be taken care of by her husband, however that does not legitimize giving your daughter over to an adult man when she is barely reaching puberty. Giri was only fourteen years old and her daughter was even younger. Young g...

Giribala is a young girl given to a man by the name of Aulchand in a part of an arranged marriage.   Aulchand has not been truthful to her father concerning his financial status. He has marriage Giribala and had to immediately leave without her because he claims he must build them a house. Bangshi a prominent doctor and a friend of the family, reveals how disappointed he was in his uncle, Giribala’s father for giving his only daughter in marriage to Aulchand (1150). It is at this point that we learn of the type of man Aulchand is. He is not only broke and deceitful man, but a crook. He has stolen money that was for his nephew’s bride and gave it for Giribala.   He lies and cheats everyone he knows. He also is hooked on ganja (marijuana). He left Giribala for a year before returning.   The author reveals that in her community a girl is only born for two reasons to be married or to die.   We also see that Giribala is very young, 14 to be exact, but...

Saleem is born in the city of Bombay at midnight in a Nursing home on August 15 th , 1947.   The date of his birth was when India and Pakistan became separate nations and the author is stating that he has been handcuffed to history, while his destiny is indissolubly chained to those of his country (1132). He opens with once upon a time… taking us back to the beginning of his tale.   It seems that he feels like his life has been empty and without accomplishment, so he must tell stories to leave a legacy for himself. “Now, however, time (having no further use for me) is running out. He feels absurdity. He recalls a story of his grandfather who gave up his religion (Islam we can assume since the mentioning of the Quran) and traveled to fill the void he felt on the inside only to have filled up hole in his heart with hate. Its funny, and noteworthy to mention, that he vows to not pray because he pumps his nose on the ground and three drops of blood appeared.   I do...

 And A Child Shall Lead Them As children it is anything but difficult to notice everything that is different, on the grounds that as a child you are curious by nature. In the same matter, it is just as easy for them to overcome those differences because their innocence makes them blind and resilient. Likewise, with the story of Recitatif, we see two young girls who originate from two distinct races and two different worlds. We see that they are drawn by their commonalities instead of being isolated by their race. The author never reveals which child is of what race, forcing the reader to arrive to their own conclusion while challenging, perhaps, our own social constructs about race. In the beginning of the story, there are two young girls, from different races being introduced to one another, while being made aware that they will be sharing a room at the St. Bonny’s shelter. “It was one thing to be taken out of your own bed early in the morning -it was something else to be stuc...

This read was hard to follow. The author attempt to make sense of a night at a party which was bizarre and stodgy.  However, he found a way to make it interesting by making the best out of something that was uneventful, such as the tree, “…its distinctive features are exaggerated, and yet the substantial feel of its truck and curve of its branches, or again the way the tips of its leaves are elongated like a tail ---these are all grounded in realistic observation” (1120).   He made the tree for an interesting conversation. The party could be symbolic to the tree, perhaps, illustrating that although the party was boring, like the tree, he found a way to make the story of the party interesting to the reader. The tree was once the central conversation of the party for him, but now the debate between the architect and the beatnik poet, not the to mention the moments following it, is now the narrators point of conversation for the reader.   The authors language makes the ...

Recitatif Roberta and Twyla were two different girls & races from the same world. The only difference is that Twyla was in the foster care system because her mother like to party, however Roberta was in the foster care system because her mom was ill. They were the same age, bullied by the older girls, and both had problems learning. The interaction between Roberta and Twyla mother is interesting because the author without mentioning, alludes the issue of race but leaves it to the reader. Roberta’s mother could have walked away because she did not approve of the way Twyla mother dressed. Maggie symbolizes the girls’ mothers. Maggie could not communicate what she was feeling. She could not express the pain and cruelty she was experiencing at the hands of the gar girls. Likewise, the author compares Mary dancing and Roberta’s mother illness to Maggie. They could not verbally communicate what they were experiencing, both dance and sickness is silent. Both ladies were dealin...

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J amaica Kincaid rose from humble beginnings to become a successful contemporary writer, well known for her books and magazine articles about the immigrant experience. Kincaid learned the practice of voodoo from her mother and grandmother, which she later incorporated into her fiction. Her family, because Kincaid was a girl, no value was placed on her gifts. We see this played out in the story of “ Girl ”. The story starts off with what appears to be a mother instruction to a daughter coming into womanhood indicating that she has started her period (white clothes). It is also a warning because it appears that the mother is concerned about the daughter’s behavior, “on Sunday’s try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming” (1146). She is questioning her daughter’s choice of music, accusing her rather. The daughter reply lets readers know that she is not who the mother perceives her to be. She has enough respect for herself to not sing benna (music full of...

Leslie Marmon Silko was a native American novelist, poet, memoirist, and writer.   She is known for her short stories, which, “Yellow Woman,” is one of Silko’s shortest and earliest pieces, but it occupies a still growing place in the canon of short fiction. The story of Yellow women moves from reality to myth. The story opens with the narrator, speaking in first person, waking up by the river next to a strange man that it seems apparent she has been sexually intimate with. Yet, she is smitten by him. She is trying to make sense of why she had spent the night with him.   Silva recalls that during the night when they were love making she suggested that he must be an ancestral spirit and she must be Yellow Woman. The author only hoped that the ancient story her grandfather told her was true because she could make sense of why she, as a married woman with children  had an affair with a stranger she met along her walk. Or it could be she secretly desires to live out the m...