Transcript Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan

Presents from my
Aunts in Pakistan
By Moniza Alvi
EAL support materials produced by Carol Shayle & CTC
“They sent me a salwar kameez
peacock-blue”
The salwar kameez is worn by women in Pakistan.It is loose
fitting trousers and a long tunic.
The peacock is bright blue in colour.
“and another
glistening like an orange split open,”
The colours contrast with
the clothes from England
Which word tells you this is a
simile?
Is this description effective?
“embossed slippers, gold and black
points curling.”
“Candy- striped glass bangles
snapped, drew blood.”
Candy-canes are striped
The bangles broke.
“My aunts chose an
apple-green sari,
silver-bordered
for my teens”
“I tried each satin-silken topwas alien in the sitting – room.”
• How do the presents make her feel?
“I longed
for denim and corduroy.”
Corduroy
What kind of clothes are
made out of denim and
corduroy?
Denim jeans.
“ I wanted my parents camel- skin lampswitching it on in my bedroom,”
A camel
Camel skin lamps
“marvel at the colours
like stained glass.”
What do you notice about the
colours?
“My mother cherished her jewelleryIndian gold, dangling, filigree”
“ My aunts requested cardigans
from Marks and Spencers.”
Which country do these clothes
come from?
A cardigan
Marks and Spencer
“ My costume clung to me
and I was aflame”
What poetic device is used here?
Can you explain what it means?
“ But often I admired the mirror-work,”
Mirror work- small glass
circles.
“how the three of us
sailed to England”
• The real boat took her
away from home,
from Pakistan.
“Prickly heat had me screaming on the way.
I ended up in a cot
in my English grandmother’s dining room,
found myself alone,
playing with a tin boat”.
“ I pictured my birthplace
from fifties photographs”
Do you think she can
remember her
birthplace?
When did she leave
Pakistan?
“When I was older
there was a conflict, a fractured land
throbbing through newsprint.”
Does the fractured land reflect her identity?
What happened in Pakistan to cause the
conflict?
How does she know the land was fractured?
“staring through fretwork”
What is stopping her from
being part of Pakistan?
Fretwork
“Or there were beggars, sweeper- girls
and I was there-”
Sweeper girl
A beggar on the streets.
“staring through fretwork
at the Shalimar Gardens.”
How do you know she doesn’t feel part of Pakistan?
Shalimar Gardens- peaceful, walled gardens in Lahore.
Where do you think the poet is from?
Can you guess where her parents are from?
Do you think she wrote this poem using her
own experiences?
The poet- Moniza Alvi.
Moniza was born in Pakistan in 1954, to a Pakistani father and
an English mother. She moved to England as a child, and
revisted Pakistan for the first time in 1993.
• What is a ‘salwar kameez’? – 1 point
• What two cultures are explored in the poem? – 1
point
• What materials does she long for? – 2 points
• What do the poet’s Aunt want in return? - 1
point
• “glistening like an orange split open” what poetic device is used here? – 2 points
• Who isn’t impressed by her presents? – 1 point
• What is Lahore? – 1 point
• How does the poem end? – 2 points
• How did the poet and her family travel to
England? - 1 point
• What does the structure of the poem reflect? – 2
points
Were you correct?
Key Points of the poem
What is the poem
about?
Structure
Voice in the
poem/narrator
Poetic devices used
Tone of poem
What is the
effect/purpose of the
poem?
Key Points of the poem
What is the poem
about?
About a girl who is confused about her identify and is
almost torn between cultures. She wants to the able to
wear the clothes her aunts send her but feels that
they are too exotic for her. Her friends think the
clothes are strange . The poem ends with the poet
reflecting on her childhood and home.
Structure
6 stanzas of different lengths. Jagged appearance
which reflects the confusion the poet feels about her
identity and which culture she belongs to.
Voice in the
poem/narrator
Poetic devices used
Tone of poem
What is the
effect/purpose of the
poem?
Written in the first person. Autobiographical – it is
about the poet’s own experience which makes the poem
seem more interesting. She is reflecting on her
childhood and memories.
Metaphors – lines 22-23
Enjambment – lots of examples throughout poem.
Simile – line 4
Lots of visual imagery through colours.
Confused – conflict between two cultures.
Challenges the reader to think about their own culture,
differences between cultures. Can you be part of two
cultures.
What defines us – where we are from or where we are?
Key points about the poem
• The poem is about living in an alien culture
where the poet feels a loss of identity and no
sense of belonging.
• There is a sense that she can only observe
her culture and not be part of it.
• The poem is about an individual experiencing
two cultures.
• The differences between the two cultures are
expressed through material objects, mainly
clothes.
Important lines in the poem
“Candy - striped glass bangles
snapped, drew blood.” - This is symbolic of how her
tradition harms the poet. The clothes and jewellery
are not practical for life in the West.
“I tried each satin-silken top was alien in the sitting-room” - The clothes represent
PARADOX (contradiction). She admires the clothes
but feel they are too exotic for her.
“My costume clung to me
and I was aflame” - Metaphor for the discomfort
she is feeling. She wants to wear the clothes but as
she is half-English, she feels she can not.
“My mother cherished her jewellery Indian gold, dangling, filligree.
But it was stolen from our car” - This event is
symbolic of the difficulties of changing from one
culture to another.
“no fixed nationality” - the poet has no real
sense of belonging.
How to get an A – C grade
• You need to be able to comment on the
language that the poet uses and also
explain the impact on the reader.
• Remember you always have to PQE!!
• PQE = point, quote, explain.
Questions
• How is the girl’s separation from both
cultures suggested in the poem?
• Why do you think that the poem is
structured in the way that it is?
• Which culture do you think she is more
comfortable with and why?
• What is the effect of the poem being
written in first person narrative?