The Deliverer by Tishani Doshi Flashcards
Title: The Deliverer
The “deliverer” could be seen as either the woman who gave birth, the adoption agency, or another person altogether. This ongoing ambiguity
The Deliverer also has religious connotations and has allusions to religious scripture ‘ to deliver us from evil’ and ‘Christ the deliverer’.
Structure
The asterisks between the stanzas act as a barrier/divide between the cultures.
Three sections within the poem symbolic of three stages in life - Birth, Adulthood and death
Section 1:
“OUR LADY OF THE LIGHT CONVENT, KERALA”
“crippled or dark or girls.”
“Found naked in the streets, Covered in garbage, stuffed in bags, Abandoned at their doorstep.”
“dug up by a dog”
“This is the one my mother will bring.”
Poet establishes location showcases the distance between the babies and their birth mothers - the convent mirror image of Mother Teresa’s convent - ‘OUR LADY’ is a respectable phrase that juxtaposes the mistreatment received by these baby girls.
pejorative terms within the polysynthetic list of three shows the worthlessness of these children based - they are dismissed due to their physical imperfections according to society.
Use of end stop line within first stanza creates a sense of simplicity and finality in the same manner girls are treated with too.
Stanza 2 uses asyndetic listing and is quite impersonal. No room for humanity or individuality for these baby girls hence the impersonal tone.
Verbs ‘found’ , ‘stuffed’ , ‘abandoned’ , and ‘covered’ trivialises the children marginalising them from society
The term ‘dug up’ has negative connotations associated with being buried and being dead which could suggest that these undesirable children are already dead to their parents.
The dog is unable to distinguish between human and object showcasing the level of brutality these young babies have gone through
Plosives ‘d’ foreshadow a bleak death these babies will be met with due to their lack of agency
Methodical statement lacking emotion - ‘This is the one’ suggests that there are many others suffering. This statement could be interpreted positively as the baby is being given a chance at life. Alternatively, the use of the impersonal pronoun ‘one’ could suggest the absence of a tangible bond
Section 2:
***
“MILKWAUKEE AIRPORT, USA”
“They are American so they know about ceremony”
“her mother tried to bury her”
‘We couldn’t stop crying, my mother said, feeling the strangeness of her empty arms.’
Three Astricts symbolic of three stages in life - Represents a completely different world and mentality
Blatantly makes the locations clear - Movement from East to West - White saviour complex -
The ‘ceremony’ is significant. Adoption and birth are taken seriously in Western culture, and celebrations are elaborate. Contrasting with Indian
Graphic, Gory imagery - Indians view girls as burdensome
This shows a difference in culture because even though they just met the speaker (their adopted daughter), the mother already has tears of joy and loves the speaker. This shows that they just want a baby, no matter who or where this baby came from they will love her.
Point of Delivery within the poem
Section 3:
***
“girl grows up on video tapes”
“mothers go to squeeze out life”
“Feel for penis or no penis”
“Trudge home to lie down for their men again”
Cyclical structure back to beginning of poem to the speakers old life - Written in a monotonous and clinical manner
Highlights the lack of power these babies have and how they are in the mercy of those around them
These young girls swill forever be tainted by the horrific memories of their upbringing and can never truly escape the trauma despite being across the world.
This quote could be interpreted as mothers giving birth or strangling their children
Phallic symbol shows the power men hold within the patriarchal society
The demands of society for a male child robs the mother of maternal love.
no moral judgement, either of the mother or her husband who is equally trapped in poverty. The reader is left to think about the realities.
The singular mention of a man towards the end of the poem highlights the power they truly hold as now the poem’s finality is focused of the male desire that females must meet rather than allowing the readers to remain their focus on the mistreatment of baby girls
Context
Kerela - Region in India with highest percentage of Christians
Indian - “son preference” - is rooted in the traditional belief that a male child would carry forward the family name and look after the parents in their old age, while daughters would leave them for their matrimonial homes and cost them dowries.
Patriarchal value system
Infanticide is the killing of a new born child. It has often been interpreted as a primitive method of birth control and a means of ridding a group of its weak and deformed children
Agenda
-‘The Deliverer’ is built around ideas of gender and the differences in viewpoint of ‘value’ in an individual’s gender. Different tones are used, with negative words associated with men and a mix of tones and language used to describe women.
-The poem highlights how different societies and cultures can place a ‘value’ on gender and sex in gruesome ways, highlighting to a potentially unaware and unassuming reader that severe suffering can still exist when least expected.
-The shocking references to murder of new born babies transgress societal expectations in the most brutal way, demonstrating how different cultures can have such differing views.
The poet addresses the horrifying reality of gender discrimination and female infanticide in India.
Tishani Doshi was born in Madras, India, to Welsh and Gujarati parents.
Themes
-Gender
- society and culture
- Transgression
-vulnerability
