Circumcision Flashcards

1
Q

Having hauled down my pyjamas

A
  • authentic experience
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2
Q

They dragged me, all legs and teeth,

A
  • atmosphere of violence

- resistance

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3
Q

That fateful afternoon, to a stool

A
  • never be the same
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4
Q

Before which the barber hunkered

A
  • doctor who carries out circumcision

- haunched

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5
Q

With an open cut-throat. He stropped it

A
  • sharpening the knife
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6
Q

On his palm with obvious relish.

A

-

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7
Q

I did not like his mustachios, nor

A

-

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8
Q

Hid conciliatory smile. Somehow

A
  • reassure the speaker
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9
Q

They made me sit, and two cousins

A
  • force
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10
Q

Help a leg apiece. The barber

A

-

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11
Q

Looked at me; I stared right back,

A
  • bravado
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12
Q

Defying him to start something.

A

-

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13
Q

He just turned aside to whisper

A

-

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14
Q

To my cousin who suddenly cried

A

-

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15
Q

‘Oh look at that golden bird,’

A
  • distraction
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16
Q

And being only six I looked up;

A
  • naive and young
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17
Q

Which was all the time he needed

A

-

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18
Q

To separate me from my prepuce.

A
  • foreskin
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19
Q

‘Bastard, sonofapig,’ I roared,

A
  • outraged and angered
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20
Q

‘Sister-ravisher, you pimp

A
  • worst words he knows
21
Q

and catamite,’ While he applied

22
Q

Salve and bandaged the organ.

23
Q

Beside myself and indignation

24
Q

and pain, I forgot the presence

A
  • pain made him forget who were around him
25
Of elders, and cursed and cursed
- he learnt the crass from children's games
26
In the graphic vocabulary
-
27
Of the lanes, acquired at leap-frog,
-
28
Marbles, and blindman's bluff.
-
29
Still frothing at the mouth they fetched
- still angry when he was taken home
30
Me to bed, where an anxious mother
- relates to his age
31
Kissed and consoled me. It was not
-
32
Till I was alone that I dared
-
33
To look down at my naked middle.
-
34
When I saw it so foreshortened,
-
35
Raw, and swathed in lint, I burst
- Shocked and horrified
36
Into fresh tears. Dismally
-
37
I wondered if I would ever
-
38
Be able to pee again.
- despair
39
This
- reflective tone
40
Was many many years ago.
- significant memory even though it was so long ago
41
I have since learnt that it was more
-
42
Than a ritual, for by the act
- it means more, he understands that | -
43
Of a pull and downward slash,
-
44
They prepare us for disappointments
- realisation that it made him understand the absence of hope
45
At the absence of golden birds
-
46
Life will ask us to look at
-
47
Between our circumcision and death.
- Loss of innocence | - many events alike to this
48
Overview
- Speaker's experience vs. speakers realisation - narrative style - enjambment (a sense of prolongment) - metaphors about life