Search For My Tongue - Bhatt

Question 1

bullet points of intro:

Answer 1

• Purpose : expressed the importance of native and foreign languages and how it connects to sense of identity, culture and heritage
• About: presents her internal struggles –> the clash between two languages as they co-exists
• Tone: initially accusatory + anxious –> settles empowerment and reassurance

Question 2

Themes:

Answer 2

• Importance of Language to ones send of Identity / Heritage
• Challenge + Loss + cultural identity
  integration into new culture
• Reconciliation + reconnection

Question 3

‘You ask me what I mean / by saying I have lost my tongue’

Answer 3

In Medias Res = sudden start without setting context / mood
Effect:
- engages readers curiosity –> amplified by metaphor - ‘lost my tongue’
- ‘You’ = society , responding to judgement, required to explain + justify herself

Question 4

‘I ask you, what would you do . if you had two tongues in your mouth’

Answer 4

Accusatory + Forthright Tone:
- ‘You’ - 2nd person pronoun Repeated –> directly appeals to + includes reader
- confrontational - drawing reader into her position - encourages us to emphasise with her experience
- Metonymy - language is synonymous with ‘tongues

Question 5

’ and lost the first one, the mother tongue, / and could not really know the other, / the foreign tongue’

Answer 5

Imagery:
- 2 tongues in mouth : ** physically unpleasant image**
- using image of physical discomfort to explore her emotional torment she experiences between 2 identities
- ‘lost … the mother tongue’ : feels vulnerable + exposed since ‘mother’ tongue is lost = distressing + no protection, stability, no connection to family + heritage
- ‘foreign tongue’= English –> inverts readers expectations of the word since foreign = English –> surprising but makes us emphasise with her since English from her perspective is odd + confusing

Question 6

‘your mother tongue would rot, / rot and die in your mouth / until you has it spit it out.’

Answer 6

Extended Metaphor:
- Gruesome, Visceral, unpleasant Imagery - physical grotesque imagery
- amplifies empathy –> graphically intense –> crucial part of identity will decay + die within her own mouth –> acts as physical reminder that her identity is lost
- ‘rot’ = own rotting meat / decay –> revolting –> emphasises disgust through repetition of ‘rot’ later
- ‘spit’ = active verb - physically force herself to reject her own identity that defines her- painful . Loss of language does not just slip/ fade away , she has to actively ‘spit’ her identity out, with purpose –> very distressing act
- makes reader sympathise with her - experience such painful + heart-wrenching act

Question 7

‘i thought I spit it out / but overnight while I dream’

Answer 7

reveals even though her Gujarati is physically lost, it returns in her ‘dream’:
- goes through mystical experience in Gujarati –> shows that her Gujarati heritage is still strongly integrated within her

Question 8

analyse the significance of the lines in Gujarati

Answer 8

1. showing that her mother tongue is irrepressible - human unable to control their thoughts + events within their dream - subconscious
2. inviting the reader to speak with her tongue in their mouth –> phonetically spelt words enable reader to experience speaking another language - bi-lingual –> further makes us realise the beauty + irreplaceable aspect of having a 2nd language
   - celebratory moment - mother tongue returns

Question 9

’ it grows back, a stump of a shoot / grows longer, grows moist, grows strong veins ‘

Answer 9

Stark contrasting Extended Metaphor (rot –> flower) :
- now tone = hopeful, joyous
- Imagery = growth, life, nourishing
-‘it grows back’ = joyful moment of resurrection –> organic / natural process of regeneration that is not glamourised but inevitable
Repetition of ‘grows’: becoming more powerful + pronounced after each growth –> full of vitality + is alive
- celebrate of strength + resilience of personal identity , cannot be made to feel personally / culturally inferior

Question 10

‘it ties the other tongue in knots’

Answer 10

Word Play + Personification:
- play on the colloquialism ‘tongue tied’**
- mother tongue dominating foreign tongue – protecting her self - identity

Question 11

’ it blossoms out of my mouth’

Answer 11

Blossoms’ - TOne of Reassurance - previous doubts + worries have been alleviated
- verb - nourishing image
- directly contrasts ‘rots’
- her identity is now reborn

Question 12

what is th form o this poem

Answer 12

Free Verse - creates free flowing form, represents the conversation cadences of speech
- Middle stanza = Gujarati –> emphasises the centrality, both literally + metaphorically of the speakers native language + cultural identity

Question 13

poems which you would compare with Bhatt

Answer 13

• Poem at Thirty Nine :
  
  • themes of loss + identity (diff = what is lost: father / language)
  • Heritage - how it shapes their identity
  • Resolution - acceptance + rebirth
• Half Caste :
  
  • importance of identity + language : use of different languages
  • response to prejudice
• celebration of Duality : mixed race + 2 languages co-exists
• Remember