Preview

A Different History by Sujata Bhatt Notes

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
799 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
A Different History by Sujata Bhatt Notes
THEME

The poet explores the relationship between cultural identity and language. When you speak a language you also learn its culture. Lines 19 and 20 sum up the theme. Which language has not been the oppressor’s tongue? When another country is the conquerer, that country brings its language and culture to those who are conquered.

SUMMARY
‘A Different History’ is in two linked parts: lines 1-18, then lines 19-29. The first stanza draws the link between western and Indian culture as Pan, the Greek god also exists through Indian gods and goddesses that roam freely. She points out the difference as well in the way Indians treat books with much respect, in order not to disturb or offend Sarasvati or the tree from which the paper comes.
Stanza 2 returns to the idea of a foreign language; all languages, it says, have once been the language of an invader or an oppressor, but despite this there always comes a time when younger and newer generations not only speak the oppressor’s language but they actually come to love it.
TONE (Tone means the attitude of the poet)
At first the tone is critical of the culture of the west (e.g. the way the west does not show respect for books).
Later the tone is accepting. She says that once people have assimilated the new culture, the later generations love the language and culture.

STRUCTURE
The poem is divided into two stanzas with each dealing with a different idea on language and culture. The visual arrangement of lines differ in the two stanzas. In stanza 1, the different indented lines give a wavy appearance to suggest perhaps the idea of gods roaming freely and to match the humour in the stanza.

The second stanza has all the lines indented similarly as the author conveys the serious message that all languages are imposed by the oppressor.

RHYTHM
The rhythm matches the content. The enjambment (run-on lines) in stanza 1 gives a light-hearted, tripping rhythm.
In stanza 2, the rhythm is

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    • Light skinned Arya tribes tell of a violent struggle with the darker skinned Dravidian speaking Dasas.…

    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    her by widening her horizon. From this story, it cannot deny the fact that language could cause problems, but it can be solved by trying to embrace new culture and apply them in life. By combining the two readings, it can be concluded that by eliminating language boundaries, accepting new ethnic culture with different language can be positive and also can expand people’s…

    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Barred Owl

    • 1342 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The first line in the second stanza has a break after “words” accentuated by a comma putting emphasis on the word “words” and slowing the rhythm of that sentence. In “bravely clear” there is a reversed letter pattern “el” and “le”, which makes the words flow together. The words “child”, “night”, “some” and “small” are repeated throughout this poem perhaps to emphasize these words. There may be a connection between “child” and “thing” since both words are preceded by the word “small”. In lines ten and eleven there is internal rhyming with the words “listening”, “dreaming” and “thing” which have the same “ing” ending. The author uses alliteration in “some” and “small” which draws the two words together. In the last line there is…

    • 1342 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In chapter five titled, How to Tame a Wild Tongue, Anzaldúa, describes how she feels about her language by writing, “I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself” (81). By stating this, I feel Anzaldúa is claiming that one could not describe her if she cannot take ownership of the language she has always spoken. Like Anzaldúa, I also feel that in order to feel pride in myself; I need to proud of who I am. My culture is revolved around my language and the way I speak my family’s language, which describes who I am. Ray Gwyn Smith, who Anzaldúa quotes in her book, clearly says how hurtful it is to be shunned from your everyday language when he questions, “Who is to say that robbing a people of its language is less violent than war?”(75). When taking someone’s language, you also seize their…

    • 1342 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout their journey they have faced some obstacles and barriers, which are manifested in the text through the use of language techniques. An example is evident in the quote “My parents have learnt that language barriers can be insurmountable as giant waves”. The use of simile highlights Hai-Van’s parent’s struggle to communicate with others due to their language disparity. This wasn’t as bad as it seems because it gives them a chance to open up a new learning experience which helps to benefit them throughout their journey, making a lot of it much less difficult. The repetition of “you” and use of inclusive language is very evident though out the text and that is because invite readers to experience the journey to give them a better insight and understanding of physical journeys. In the very last line, the author encourages the readers that, “we should listen to their words, hear their voices and document their stories”, Inclusive language is used to evoke a sense of community between the migrants, author and reader. From this text it is revealed that the author is tryinwg to cajole other people into being more thoughtful and that physical journey’s may have positive influences on other people as well as the…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This poem has no set pattern that is constant throughout. It has eleven sections in which are broken down into quatrains. Some verses are very different from others adding a trace of a story. Therefore, the verses do not follow the same rhyming scheme, making the poems emotion serious and mature. The lack of verse form also adds to these emotions.…

    • 375 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Anzaldua

    • 411 Words
    • 2 Pages

    She also vividly recounts the damage that can be done by the dominant culture through its attempts at copying and the centralizing the language to this process. She discusses the pain she has experienced because of being prohibited from, or ridiculed for, using her own language. She says, “if you really want to hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity – I am my language” (27). What…

    • 411 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What leaves the deepest impression on me is the sentence “ Wild tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut out”, this sentence appears for several times in this article, I think this sentence also can summarize the whole article in a metaphor way, this sentence shows her attitude, her brave to against what she don’t want. “ If you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language.”, from this sentence, we can know she thinks her language is really important for her, and then she said my favourite words, “ I am my language.”, she impress herself as her language because in her mind, her language is her culture and soul, is her identity, she combines her body and the language together into a perfect her, language is her calling card. She claims to the whole world that she is disgruntled that she need to forget and change her language, she is calling for real freedom and fair. How brave she…

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Most people may have some form of language barrier, no matter what background they came from. Difference are what define the world around us. Whether a soft contrast of two colors or a comparison of nations, the diversity shapes our identities. In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldúa and “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, both have similar subject as they both discussed how different forms of the same language are recognized in society. They emphasize the fact that a person can unconsciously develop different ideas through a language and categorizes an individual by the way they speak. How can identity be molded by language? Language is part of one’s identity.…

    • 833 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Language is the system of words or signs that people use to express thoughts and feelings to each other. Language has an impulse on a person that allows them to make ties with a certain society, thus giving them a cultural identification. When residents of another country come to America and speak a contrasting language to English, immigrants most likely feel uneasy having to adapt to a completely new culture and learn the English language. During this journey, the individuals’ cultural identities might fade away as well as losing their efficient fluency on their native language. In Amy Tan’s, “Mother Tongue” and Richard Rodriguez “Aria: A Memoir of A Bilingual Childhood”, both authors experience the difficulties of language barrier and adjusting to a different lifestyle in order to develop as an individual in the United States.…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Rodriguez is a Spanish author who writes about his first hand account of being a bilingual child in America and how it affects him and his family in “Aria”. In both Rodriguez’s essay and in Kingston’s novel the use of language and the meaning behind it is prevalent. Through the power of language in both of these pieces we see how it affects a family and the community that surrounds them. For Kingston it shapes her into becoming an adult and how it shapes her views while also affecting how she people should use language. At the same time both of these authors face challenges that all arise from the power of language.…

    • 1999 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Rhyme scheme in this poem is a constant and repetitive one, with rhyming words in each stanza; “Lies – Rise, Gloom – Room, Wide – Tides, Rise – Eyes, Hard – Yard.” The poem is also filled with repetition, mainly “I rise I rise”, which emphasises the message of the poem. The message of the poem explains how an individual should stay strong and never allow anything or anyone to stop them from fighting and living strong. By repeating a word, it gives the word power and significance in the poem.…

    • 265 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The White Mans Burden

    • 321 Words
    • 2 Pages

    How does the poem reflect the European’s and American’s attitude towards the peoples of Asia and Africa?…

    • 321 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Terra-Cotta Girl

    • 965 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The poem has clear, wide-open drama while managing ambiguity and open-endedness. A sort of modern local color piece tinted with Southern elements, it nevertheless makes its characters real and sympathetic, treats important themes that are both topical and general, and offers an apt objective relationship with universal implications.…

    • 965 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Red Wheelbarrow

    • 384 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Finally, the form of the poem is interesting. Lines in poetry are usually measured in syllables, but here…

    • 384 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays