The Deliverer Flashcards
1
Q
What is the significance of the title?
A
- Delivering a baby
- Signifies parenthood and motherhood
- Illusion to Christianity (the saviour)
2
Q
“They were crippled or dark or girls”
A
-Polysyndetic Listing,
-Prolonging of the sentence,
-Emphasises how an overwhelming majority of children are discarded
-Prejudicial society
-Refrains from euphemistic language
-Politically incorrect and brutal
3
Q
“Covered” / “Stuffed” / “Abandoned”
A
- Asyndetic Listing
- Lack of conjunction emphasises the continuous neglect and abuse
- Violent imagery right at beginning of clause
- Emphasises brutal reality
- Harsh beginning of life for baby
4
Q
“One of them”
A
-Lack of identity
- Discarded/isolated
- Dehumanising
- Symbolic of a great majority
5
Q
“Dug up by a dog”
A
- Dehumanising / objectifying
- Violent imagery
- Treated like a dog toy
6
Q
“This is the one my mother will bring”
A
- 1 line stanza
- element of change
- ends at birth
-emphasises cyclical nature of poem
7
Q
“Fetish for plucking hair off hands”
A
- Innocent imagery
- Symbolic of vulnerability, sweet, innocence
- Idiosyncratic / unique
- Gives baby identity
8
Q
“Or how her mother tried to bury her”
A
- Juxtaposition between lines
- Harrowing imagery
- Innocence v Death
- Infanticide
9
Q
“She’s passed from woman to woman”
A
- Enjabment
- Unwanted
- Literally emphasises being passed on
- Shows the journey she has gone on
10
Q
“Twilight corners”
A
- Detached observer
- Uncertainty / ambiguity
11
Q
“Desolate hut” / “Outside village boundaries”
A
- Setting
- Isolated and transgressive
- Representation of abuse against women
- Birth should be celebrated but its presented as dismal
- Hidden away from society
12
Q
“Squeeze out life”
A
- Polysemic
- Forced / rigid nature of birth
- Unwanted
- Drained / killing something children will be killed if a girl
13
Q
“Body slither out from body”
A
- Animalistic imagery
- Dehumanises baby
- Birth is elongated emphasising pain
- Lack of emotional connection
- Lack of identity between both baby and mother
14
Q
“Feel for penis or no penis”
A
- Processive
- Blunt / brutal clause
- Anantomy defines future of children
- Lack of emotion and care
15
Q
“Toss the baby to the heap of others”
A
- Motif of violence
- Discarded nature of abuse
- Othered by society
- Cyclical nature of process
- Harsh violence towards babies
