The Deliverer Flashcards
Our Lady of the Light Convent, Kerala
The poet immediately conveys the importance of the setting. Emphasises that this poem is rooted in realism and ‘Kerala’ exists in our world and is not an imagined dystopia.
The sister here is telling my mother
How she came to collect children
Because they were crippled or dark or girls.
“Collect” - treats them as commodities, has a transactional element.
Triadic structure (list of 3) highlights the uncontrollable disadvantages they are born with.
“Crippled” archaic and medieval word - emphasises the absence of progressive values this culture has.
Polysyndeton ‘or’ repetitive rhythm - insistence on each quality being equally separate yet present. Fragmented and contemplative - considers each reason individually. Builds up tension as each word carries a unique weight. Contrasts more standard list format which suggests a neutral tone and simple categorization.
Found naked in the streets,
Covered in garbage, stuffed in bags,
Abandoned at their doorstep.
Semantic field of death - the treatment of the babies is synonymous with the treatment of corpses. Although not physically dead, they are treated as if they were.
The horrific treatment of them emphasises the absence of identity and human value they are given in this society.
(SYNTAX) Verbs are foregrounded - ongoing, almost routine process.
One of them was dug up by a dog,
Thinking the head barely poking above the ground
Was bone or wood, something to chew.
Continues to describe the treatment of the babies but shifts to the experience of one individual - makes the reader feel more complicit as it establishes an intimate tie to these events by forcing readers to create a visceral image. Emphasises the fact that these are genuinely real life scenarios and are affecting real babies - realism.
Plosive sounds “dug up” “dog” add to the harsh and brutal imagery.
The parents wait at the gaits
They are American so they know about ceremony
And tradition, about doing things right.
Alludes to Western attitudes to birth and adoption eg. background checks, visits from social workers, state approval. Ideas of contraception, reproductive healthcare, family planning services.
Political undertones - stark differences between 1st and 3rd world countries. Emphasising how morally corrupt these cultures are.
Don’t know of her fetish for plucking hair off hands
Coping mechanism, self-soothing action. Illuminating the damaging impact her childhood trauma has had - she is left with some mental health issues and, perhaps unhealthy methods of dealing with them; plucking hair could suggest subtle forms of self-harm.
Feeling the strangeness of her empty arms
Attribute to the adoptive mother - natural maternal urges, yearning for a child.
Opposes biological mother who supressed her love for the child/ was unable to feel it in the first place.
Sees how she’s passed from woman
To woman.
Enjambment represents the physicality of her early life - she has gone on a journey from bio Indian mum to adoptive agency to adoptive parents.
Could also be referring to the maternal support the adoptive parents have - being passed to be held by female members of the family and friends. Western culture of womanhood and supporting each other.
How it happened in some desolate hut
Outside village boundaries
“Outside village boundaries” - mother is alienated, shamed, discarded by her community. Highlights the issue that the women are blamed for being products of the harmful society they are trapped in.
Unspoken acceptance - women are still isolated from society despite conforming to the horrific expectations of them. They have to commit this act alone.
“Desolate hut” - setting of poverty referencing the divide between Western countries and underdeveloped countries.
Where mothers go to squeeze out life,
Watch body slither out from body
“squeeze out life” duplicitous meaning - symbolic of giving birth (more plausible) or infanticide (underlying darker theme)
“mothers” collective pronoun - rooted in society, universal experience for woman of this culture.
Graphic and grotesque imagery - emotional connection towards their children is completely severed. Devoid of compassion.
Feel for penis or no penis,
Toss the baby onto the heap of others,
Trudge home to lie down for their men again.
Verbs foregrounded - ideas of instructions, robotic actions, ingrained into memory.
Verbs are monosyllabic - physically thud through the lines, women are weary, their identity has been completely overridden by their biological purpose.
“heap of others” “again” - perpetuity, infinite cycle of abuse for these women. Completely at the mercy of the patriarchal society.
Ending is devoid of hope or optimism - reality is bleak and there seems to be no solution.
Structure
Poem is separated into 3 sections based on setting - emphasis on the distance of attitudes and ideologies in western countries eg. USA vs countries like India.
* - commercial aspect to the structure, reflects the appearance of a receipt. The children are exchanged in a monetary process.
