The Deliverer

Question 1

Cyclical structure

Answer 1

• poem begins and ends in India and with the birth of a baby. and every stanza ends in an end stop
• infanticide is a repetitive issue and she asks us to ponder what can be done to stop it

Question 2

Form and rhyme

Answer 2

• free verse with no rhyme scheme
• allows doshi to employ a conversational tone and thus making a sense of authenticity
• equally, the lack of any form heightens the exploration of themes such as fragmentation and makes the poem visibly unpleasant and harsh
• no rhyme scheme furthers this notion as there is a reignforcement of uncomfortablolity and harshness
• all of these make the poem feel a lot more real and unresolved like the fate of the babies

Question 3

Perspective and fragmentation

Answer 3

• poem physically split into three sections which gives a very disjointed feel enhancing both the geographical and emotional distance, underscoring the wests ignorance to the situational horrors provoking infanticide
• similarly, the dual narrative shows the difference between the vivid world issues in India and the emotional barren affluent west whom only regards the issues from a factual and clinical third person tone

Question 4

Placing in kerala

Answer 4

• very real world place and thus the poem is grounded in fictional events creating pathos
• convenant that cares for babies

Question 5

Crippled or dark or girls

Answer 5

-polysyndetic list emphasises in a heavy way the societal prejudice against many
- matter of fact, clinical tone shows how these people are not just prejudiced but also are GENUINELY burdenous in terms of employability
- lack of ranking, shows how all who are not acceptable are of equal liability and you cannot be exempt from

Question 6

One of them was dug up by a dog,
Thinking the head barely poking above the ground
Was a bone or wood, something to chew

Answer 6

• this along with the previous stanza are very clinical and harsh phrases with a complete lack of figurative imagery showing the REALITY
• enjambement is emphatically placed as it adds to the difficulty to read through its relentless tone mirroring the difficult lives of the children and mothers
• it can also be seen to halt the reader of any time of reflection over these fates which gives the impression it is taken as normality
• ‘one of them’ is detached and in specific which implies there is such an outpour of murdered babies there is no time to form bonds

Question 7

They’re American so they know about ceremony
And tradition, about doing things right

Answer 7

• lexis ‘SO’ has a sense of moral superiority which creates irony
• raises the question of what truly is morality in the context of global issues as Americans and the west are able to look superior only due to their affluent lifestyle despite not being intrinsically moral people
• enjmabment speeds through line which gives the impression that for Americans their morality is an unspoken given despite the discomfort and untruth of this

Question 8

fetish for plucking hair off hands

Answer 8

• her traumatic childhood has lead to psychological distance and sporadic behaviour
• the dictation of the lexis ‘fetish’ instead of ‘habit’ is uncomfortably sexual and jarring which adds to the grim poem and how the lives of these women are constantly troubled by society

Question 9

Twilight corners

Answer 9

• sole metaphor in the poem
• lexis corners typicallly connote something pushed away and forgotten- could symbolise how she feels her culture is looked down upon or is hidden away from her
• could also refer to memory and how her understanding of her background is very vague

Question 10

Place of birth

Answer 10

• incredibly isolated and separate from society; she is physically and socially out of place
• shows the marginalisation of women both her and her mother have to suffer alone

Question 11

Squeeze out life

Answer 11

• verb/lexis ‘squeeze’ implies the notion that childbirth is impersonal and mechanical, thus women are seen as a liability
• also connotes pain which again removes any romanticisation associated with the birth of a new life
• connotes perhaps to strangulation which furthers the notion that intense pain comes about from the birth and is the antithesis of romantic

Question 12

Watch body slither out from body

Answer 12

• repetition of lexis ‘body’ is incredibly impersonal and detached which implies there is no connection between mother and child as is so romanticised in the affluent west
• the verb ‘slither’ is incredibly animalistic as it described almost exclusively snakes- this animal typically connotes coldness and negativity

Question 13

Penis or no penis

Answer 13

• allusion to Second sex in that women are othered to men and are only the absence of a body part rather than their own entity

Question 14

Trudge home to lie down for their men again

Answer 14

• ‘trudge’ conveys exhaustion which shows women to be vessels for male pleasure rather than experiencing pleasure in their own right
• lie down is incredibly passive
• ‘their’ possessive pronoun implies they are tied to the men and do not have their own identity
• again as the final word is emphatically placed to show how imprégnation and infanticde is an endless cycle
• in its own stanza/ monostich which puts more emphatic placement on this line
• reveals that the action of infantiicdie is not an act of immorality from the eastern women but simply a part of their life that they have no agency over