Living Space Flashcards
What’s the story of Living Space?
-About the slums of Mumbai, how they are cramped and unsteady.
What’s the context of Living Space?
-Imtiaz Dharker born in Pakistan and grew up in Scotland.
-People migrate to slums in hope for a better life but they dont provide a good life
What’s the message of Living Space?
-Fragility of human life
-Never give up on hope
-The living spaces are a miracle.
What’s the structure of the poem?
-Free verse
-Rhyme
-Middle stanza squeezed between1st and 3rd to appear as precarious as the physical structures.
‘beams balance crookedly on supports’
shows the instability of the structures + instability of life.
‘the whole structure leans dangerously towards the miraculous’
-it juxtaposes ‘dangerously’ with ‘the miraculous’
-suggests that any kind of life here is a miracle
‘someone has squeezed into a living space’
-area for living is compact in contrast with life outside the slums.
‘dared to place these eggs’
-eggs represent faith and hope
-hanging eggs on edge is a sign of bravery
‘fragile curves of white’
white and pure eggs are in juxtaposition with the dark world.
‘as if they were the bright, thin walls of faith’
-extended metaphor of eggs representing hope continues.
-emphasises that it’s an act of faith to live here.
