The Deliverer - Tishani Doshi

Question 1

What is The Deliverer about? (4 points)

Answer 1

The title could refer to:
+ The birth mother
+ The nun who rescues the baby
+ The child herself who, as an adult, has to ‘deliver’ herself’ out of the psychological state of not knowing her origins until she returns to India

The tone is flat and emotionless - an understatement that makes all the more terrible the human cost

Distortion of familial bonds - the adoptive family weep, but the birth mother has none of these luxuries and is forced to resume life without grieving

Contrast between East and West in attitude to gender - poverty undermines the human instinct to love and nurture a child

Question 2

What is the structure of the Deliverer? (3 points)

Answer 2

There are three parts, each with three triplets or tercets

The first and last parts end with additional one-lined stanzas

There is no rhyme scheme, and the lines are of uneven length.

Question 3

What is the language and imagery of The Deliverer? (3 points)

Answer 3

Each of the three parts represent a different point of view

The language is spare and terse; not a word wasted

The poem has great power to shock - the dramatic effect of understatement, culminating in the chilling last line.