Mohja Kahf was a Syrian who immigrated to the United States in her early teenage years. She experienced the bitterness of being an immigrant. She is a writer, and, in her writings, she describes the experiences of the diasporic Muslim community as it adapts to its new home and foreign American customers, behaviors, and people. She wrote the poem "My Grandmother Washes Her Feet in the Sink of the Bathroom at Sears" in response to the event of 9/11. She faced a deal of discrimination during her teenage years because she was a Muslim and not an American. After 9/11, situations worsened for Muslims in the United States, so she wrote the poem about two perspectives of Muslims and non-Muslims. "My Grandmother Washes Her Feet in the Sink of the Bathroom at Sears" is a poem about a young woman who goes out …show more content…
Since Muslims have to clean themselves before offering prayers, the narrators grandmother takes her stockings and shoe off in order to wash her feet. As she is approaching the sink and is about to place her feet, a matron woman exclaims, "You can't do that" and the other women turns to the narrator and shouts "Tell her she can't do that". The granddaughter thinks there is nothing wrong because what she is doing is wudhu (cleaning oneself before prayers). Since the grandmother does not speak English, she has no idea what is going on. While on the other hand the granddaughter understands people's frowning gesture and responds by saying what she is doing is not dirty. She understands that is a sacred ritual but not everyone understands as they are non-Muslims. Mohja Kahf wrote this poem as a reflection of her own experiences. Through her poem she wanted to make realize that in order to gain peace, one must understand other cultures while simultaneously learning and respecting it instead of having a narrow perspective. She wanted people to care for one another rather than stereotyping one race or
The narrator of the poem is a night waitress, which most likely means she is struggling financially. She has a Slavic heritage, which is revealed to us through this line, “It’s my mother’s Slavic
The narrator who saw the woman cleaning in the airport did not like the scene due to the fact that she believes that there are better jobs and options out there. However, we do not know whether or not the lady actually cleaning feels the same way. Oliver states in the poem, “Her beauty and her embarrassment struggled together, and neither could win”. (Line 13). Even though this situation seems to be very sad Oliver tries to turn a sad situation into a hopeful and joyful situation. The speaker sees how the woman is struggling, but she thinks she is beautiful. Furthermore, the perspective of the speaker shows that the cleaning woman has a right to “stand in a happy place”, which means everyone deserves a good job. Oliver mentions, “Yes, a person wants to stand in a happy place, in a poem, but first we must watch her as she stares down at her labor, which is dull enough” (line 16). This quote shows that the narrator dislikes the fact that she is doing such a low job and yet she thinks she is beautiful. The author did not understand her perspective, she has to do this job for a
In this poem, there is a young woman and her loving mother discussing their heritage through their matrilineal side. The poem itself begins with what she will inherit from each family member starting with her mother. After discussing what she will inherit from each of her family members, the final lines of the poem reflect back to her mother in which she gave her advice on constantly moving and never having a home to call hers. For example, the woman describes how her father will give her “his brown eyes” (Line 7) and how her mother advised her to eat raw deer (Line 40). Perhaps the reader is suggesting that she is the only survivor of a tragedy and it is her heritage that keeps her going to keep safe. In the first two lines of the poem, she explains how the young woman will be taking the lines of her mother’s (Lines 1-2). This demonstrates further that she is physically worried about her features and emotionally worried about taking on the lineage of her heritage. Later, she remembered the years of when her mother baked the most wonderful food and did not want to forget the “smell of baking bread [that warmed] fined hairs in my nostrils” (Lines 3-4). Perhaps the young woman implies that she is restrained through her heritage to effectively move forward and become who she would like to be. When reading this poem, Native American heritage is an apparent theme through the lifestyle examples, the fact lineage is passed through woman, and problems Native Americans had faced while trying to be conquested by Americans. Overall, this poem portrays a confined, young woman trying to overcome her current obstacles in life by accepting her heritage and pursuing through her
The narrator has two daughters, Dee and Maggie. Dee was this cute girl who was super intelligent and sophisticated. She often saw herself as being above her mother and sister and would often make them feel stupid and bad about themselves. "She used to read to us without pity, forcing words, lies, other folks' habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice". She shows that Dee enjoyed making her mother and younger sister feel dumb about themselves because it made her feel superior. Her whole life Dee detested her family and where she came from and couldn’t wait to get away. But, still her mother worked her booty off to provide her with high education and a good life. Dee goes away to college and when she returns she is a completely different person, suddenly interested in her family; photographing them upon arrival. With her guest, new "Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo", invades her mothers house taking everything in like it’s a cute display for her. Finally, when Wangero (Dee) demands that her mother give her some quilts, her mum can not take anymore. She tells Dee that Maggie, not her, will be receiving the quilts and she snaps. "I did something I never had done before: hugged Maggie to me, then dragged her on into the room, snatched the quilts out of Miss Wangero's hands, and dumped them into Maggie's lap. Maggie just sat
The poem is about the early stages in the narrator’s pregnancy. The doctor gives her news that the baby may be unhealthy. In a state of panic, we see the narrator turning to the methods of her homeland and native people to carry her through this tough time, and ensure her child’s safe delivery into the world. Da’ writes, “In the hospital, I ask for books./Posters from old rodeos. /A photo of a Mimbres pot /from southern New Mexico /black and white line figures—/a woman dusting corn pollen over a baby’s head/during a naming ceremony. /Medieval women/ingested apples/with the skins incised with hymns and verses/as a portent against death in childbirth” (Da’). We not only see her turning to these old rituals of her cultural, but wanting the items of her cultural to surround her and protect her. It proves her point of how sacred a land and cultural is, and how even though she has been exiled from it, she will continue to count it as a part of her
the poem then progresses to talking about how the baby when it grew up it was “was healthy,tested intelligent possessed strong arms and back … everyone saw a fat nose and fat legs” in this section of the poem we see how marge piercy tries to indicate that although this girl was “healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back” that is not what society saw in her all they saw was “a fat nose and fat legs”. In order for this girl to feel as though she is able to be accepted in the society that she lives in she decided to “cut off her nose and her legs and offered them up…. doesn't she look pretty everyone said consummation at last”. this lastly proves the toll that society continues to have on people especially women the girl in this poem decide to mutilate herself so that she could be accepted into the society where at the end it says that “doesnt she look pretty everyone said consummation at last” this shows the sickness that is society in this
Although the little girl doesn’t listen to the mother the first time she eventually listens in the end. For example, in stanzas 1-4, the little girl asks if she can go to the Freedom March not once, but twice even after her mother had already denied her the first time. These stanzas show how the daughter is a little disobedient at first, but then is able to respect her mother’s wishes. In stanzas 5 and 6, as the little girl is getting ready the mother is happy and smiling because she knows that her little girl is going to be safe, or so she thinks. By these stanzas the reader is able to tell how happy the mother was because she thought her daughter would be safe by listening to her and not going to the March. The last two stanzas, 7 and 8, show that the mother senses something is wrong, she runs to the church to find nothing, but her daughter’s shoe. At this moment she realizes that her baby is gone. These stanzas symbolize that even though her daughter listened to her she still wasn’t safe and is now dead. The Shoe symbolizes the loss the mother is going through and her loss of hope as well. This poem shows how elastic the bond between the daughter and her mother is because the daughter respected her mother’s wish by not going to the March and although the daughter is now dead her mother will always have her in her heart. By her having her
This poem has earned this title not only because it is a line used within the poem, but this description of how the country Africa a.k.a motherland (which can be embodied by a black women) has suffered physical, metal, and emotional pain, and is rising above it, although not forgetting her past. This relates to a diary entry that can be written by a black women describing how she doesn’t want to forget the horrible events that has happened to her, but rather use them as strength and motivation to rise above it all. This diary entry represents a black women’s
In this poem, a wealthy lady walks into church late and sits in front of the speaker. Her name is Jenny and she is wearing extravagant clothes that pull people attentions. While sitting behind her, the speaker notices a louse sitting upon her bonnet. This little creature makes the speaker realize that even the wealthy have faults, and if Jenny were to know about the louse she would throw a fit! He then begins to wonder what it would be like to look at yourself from somebody else’s eyes. He says, “O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us to see oursels as ithers see us! (lines 43-44) What would Jenny think if she could see the bug on her? She would be mortified and realize what a fool she is making of herself with such a bold entrance, when really she isn’t any better than the rest of the congregation. She is not aware of these faults that she possess, but if she could see herself from another's perspective, this would change her outlook on herself and life.
After reading and analyzing this poem, I have observed varying tones throughout the piece. The poem begins by describing what characteristics she has obtained from her mother’s side. She writes, “she left the large white breasts that weigh down/ my body” and “my whiteness a shame.” The tone of these two phrases could be described as ashamed and disappointed. The poem’s tone immediately changes in the second stanza. The author begins talking about her father’s side and how proud she is to learn of her Chickasaw heritage. The poem reads, “From my father I take his brown eyes”, “He was the man/ who sang old chants to me”, and “I learned to kill a snake/ when you’re begging for rain.” When telling about her father’s side, the author’s tone is more compassionate and interested. When the author talks about her grandmother, she uses more detail; however, her tone is much different. I concluded that the grandma was not too fond of the fact that she was half white. It seemed as if she cared a great deal about what her grandmother thought of her. Hogan seemed ashamed of her white background, but was proud of the fact that she had a Chickasaw heritage. The author goes on to conclude the poem with the sentence, “From my family I have learned the secrets/ of never having a home.” The author switched to a contradicting and curious tone, leaving the reader wondering what she meant. Tone is important because it helps connect the reader to the story and allows them to feel what the character or author is
Whether the smell is horrible and nasty, our nose will still tell us. “Can you not be decent” (par.10); this passage in the poem explain to us that our nose smell everything because of the way they were made. It’ not about having manners or being disrespectful it’s just natural that our noses smell stuffs and sometimes put us in unwanted situations. When I begin to read this poem, I wonder why the author will only talk about his nose, but after reading the whole poem, I understood that this poem can represent many other aspects in our life such as gossip. Moreover, people gossip all the time and no matter the situation or the setting, they will continue gossiping. Gossips have being ruining people’s reputation, but gossip has not and will not lose his role in this society. In short, gossip becomes part of the human nature. Moreover, I can see this poem related to my life because although I don’t like gossip, I think I do gossip from time to time.
Picturing her by the Indian Ganges looking for Rubies makes her sound oriental and possessing exotic beauty. He makes it sound as if he is not worthy of her exotic beauties, he being a complaining commoner.
“ She has an answer for everything just like mother.”( 167) Miss Washington has an answer for everything and know a lot of things just like her mother know every answer for everything that Ha had a question for. So Misposition reminds her liie her mother and it makes her life good and home. “ People don’t judge you by your religion. Some people here don’t even know where Bosnia is, but their really nice and try to help. They don't judge you for who you are or religion you are. In the U.S.A they want you to feel safe and happy. There some things that make you feel home because of the things you do and you spend time with your family. “ I tell her I’d like to plant flowers from Vietnam in her backyard.” (254) Ha has alway liked to plant things and know that she can plant flowers and etc, she knows that the root will grow and spread. It makes her feel good and home because it reminds her of her papaya tree. That grow tall and the roots spread. In every new country you move too they make you feel like back home. And it might feel sad, and happy because there good things and bad thing about
As a housewife and a mother, Godwin's protagonist leads a fairly structured life. Her activities are mostly confined to caring for her husband and child and caring for their home. Though she is obviously unsatisfied with this, as shown by her attempts to discard this role, she is not comfortable without such a structure. Even when she has moved into the white room, she develops a routine of brushing her hair in the sun each day. When she decides to write a poem, she shies away from the project once she realizes how many options are open to her; the idea of so much freedom seems to distress her. Even when she thinks that "her poem could be six, eight, ten, thirteen lines, it could be any number of lines, and it did not even have to rhyme," the words themselves are rushed, the pacing of the sentence communicating her nervousness and discomfort.
to see herself as unimportant and useless. The poem states, “Often in a summer… downstream