Pictures
Pictures – English assignment
Summary
The story “Pictures” is about a girl with a conflicted belief. She is a second-generation immigrant who lives in England with her parents who are poor shop owners.
At Christmas time Amina and the rest of her classmates were drawing pictures of Mary and baby Jesus. All of her classmate’s drawings got to hang on the wall except for Amina’s, because she had drawn a brown-faced Mary. The teacher told Amina a white lie, saying that Amina’s drawing was too pretty to hang on the wall, so she should take it home and give it to her parents instead. When Amina got home, she proudly handed her drawing to her Mother, who did not respond to it the way Amina had hoped. Her mother tore the drawing apart and explained Amina that Muslims, like herself, do not regard Jesus as the Son of God and they do not draw pictures of persons, especially not Mary and baby Jesus. Later that evening, Amina and her mother were drawing together. Her mother taught her to draw patterns from the Koran instead of pictures of persons, and the next day at school, when Amina drew patterns on her Christmas cards, her teacher was bewildered. The teacher asked her to draw the stable instead, and when Amina refused to do so, the teacher promised Amina, that if she would draw yet another picture of Mary and baby Jesus, the teacher would hang the picture on the wall, just as well as the other children’s pictures.
Interpretation
Amina is a young Muslim girl, probably seven to eight years old. She belongs to the lower middle class in England where she lives with her parents, who own a shop. She is a second-generation immigrant and goes to a public school where they teach Christian beliefs and values. At home they practise Islam. Her mom and dad do not want her to adapt to Christian convictions and strictly try to remind her of and teach her about their Islamic beliefs, to get her to hold on to them. But she finds herself captured between immigrating and
Summary
The story “Pictures” is about a girl with a conflicted belief. She is a second-generation immigrant who lives in England with her parents who are poor shop owners.
At Christmas time Amina and the rest of her classmates were drawing pictures of Mary and baby Jesus. All of her classmate’s drawings got to hang on the wall except for Amina’s, because she had drawn a brown-faced Mary. The teacher told Amina a white lie, saying that Amina’s drawing was too pretty to hang on the wall, so she should take it home and give it to her parents instead. When Amina got home, she proudly handed her drawing to her Mother, who did not respond to it the way Amina had hoped. Her mother tore the drawing apart and explained Amina that Muslims, like herself, do not regard Jesus as the Son of God and they do not draw pictures of persons, especially not Mary and baby Jesus. Later that evening, Amina and her mother were drawing together. Her mother taught her to draw patterns from the Koran instead of pictures of persons, and the next day at school, when Amina drew patterns on her Christmas cards, her teacher was bewildered. The teacher asked her to draw the stable instead, and when Amina refused to do so, the teacher promised Amina, that if she would draw yet another picture of Mary and baby Jesus, the teacher would hang the picture on the wall, just as well as the other children’s pictures.
Interpretation
Amina is a young Muslim girl, probably seven to eight years old. She belongs to the lower middle class in England where she lives with her parents, who own a shop. She is a second-generation immigrant and goes to a public school where they teach Christian beliefs and values. At home they practise Islam. Her mom and dad do not want her to adapt to Christian convictions and strictly try to remind her of and teach her about their Islamic beliefs, to get her to hold on to them. But she finds herself captured between immigrating and