Mother Flashcards
“Her neck tilts like a sunflower, too heavy to meet the sky”
Technique: Simile
Effect:
The mother was unable to live out her passion within the audience this affirms the struggles that refugees and migrants had when providing for their families when displaced.
“… she stitched floral pyjamas, tablecloths, bedsheets”
Technique: Listing
Effect:
The common household fabrics - take the poet back to his past childhood and remind him of the struggles migrants face when dealing with dislocation and the desperation for safety, security and comfort of an ‘ideal home’.
“Driving a yellow scooter … a glimmery smile; spiriting past street markets, the soothing aromas of Pho and lychee tee”
Technique:
Olfactory imagery, sibilance, colour imagery, symbol & juxtaposition
Effect:
Contrasts the life of the mother before the Vietnam War. Highlight to the audience the damaging impacts of war, the struggles migrants face escaping conflict and the sacrifices made to secure a better life for children. To challenge the audience’s perceptions of migrants to spark social change
“And as I do jigsaw- puzzle pieces of memory lock together, my past made whole”
Technique: Metaphor
Effect:
Identity is made up of several experiences and memories highlights the author piecing together history and origins and by extension his own identity
“Dreamed of a paradise, one unbound by war and exodus.”
Technique: Juxtaposition
Effect:
The mother dreamed of a future that could not exist due to the Vietnam War which limited her opportunities and showcased the realities of the war
“I know now, as I did in my childhood wonder”
Technique: Repetition
Effect:
Emphasises the idea of childhood innocence, the phrase connecting the past and present where the sacrifices made by the poet’s mother have long been understood and appreciated.
“I pluck her grey hairs”
Technique: Motif, Visual Imagery
Effect:
The grey hairs are symbolic of the mother’s wisdom. The plucking of these hairs reveals the mother’s return to her past and the reliving of memories. Used as a motif to shift between past and present.
