Part 1: The Cutting of My Long Hair
By Zitkala Sa
Ans. Zitkala recalls that it was a bitterly cold day and there was snow on the ground. The trees were bare. There was a large bell that rang for breakfast and its loud metallic sound crashed through the belfry overhead and penetrated through her sensitive ears.
Ans. Zitkala-Sa was not familiar with what she calls ‘eating by formula’. She noticed in the dining hall that as the bell was tapped, all the pupils pulled out their chairs and kept standing. Zitkala also pulled out hers but sat on it. When a second bell rang and all the students were seated, she had to crawl back to her chair. A man’s voice was heard and she noticed that all the pupils had bent their heads over their plates. On the third bell they picked up their forks and began eating. She noticed a white faced woman glowering down at her. Terrified Zitkala felt extremely embarrassed and started crying.
Ans. Judewin knew a few words of English. She had overheard the paleface woman. She was talking about cutting their long, heavy hair. Judewin said, “We have to submit, because they are strong.” Zitkala-Sa had heard from her mother that only unskilled warriors, who were captured, had their hair shingled by the enemy. Among their people, short hair was worn by mourners, and shingled hair by cowards. Since she was neither, so she decided to rebel.
Ans. When she heard them remove one of her thick braids, she lost her spirit. She had suffered utmost indignities there. People had stared at her. She had been tossed about in the air like a wooden puppet and now her long hair was shingled like a coward’s. In her anguish, she moaned for her mother. She felt herself as one of the many little animals driven by a herder.
Part 2: We Too Are Human Beings
By Bama
B. Answer the following in 30-40 words each.
Ans: The house of Bama was not at a far off place from her school and it was hardly a ten minute walk. But Bama took a long time to reach home from school. Many things would attract her and prevent her from moving further. She observed many fruits and sweets being sold on the shops. She would stop to see the monkeys performing, snake charmer, a cyclist, a street play, a puppet and a magic show. She would watch the huge bell hanging at the temple and Pongal offerings at the temple.
Ans: Bama saw an elder of their street coming along from the direction of the bazaar. He was carrying a small packet, holding it out by its string. The manner in which he was walking along made Bama want to double up. She wanted to shriek with laughter at the funny sight. The elder went straight up to the landlord. Then he bowed low and extended the packet towards him. The landlord opened the parcel and began to eat the vadais.
Ans: Annan told Bama that the man was not being funny when he carried the package by the string for his landlord. The upper caste people believed that others must not touch them. If they did, they would be polluted. That was the reason why the elder man had to carry the package by its string.
Ans: Bama became sad on listening how the upper caste people behaved towards low caste persons like them. She felt provoked and angry. She wanted to touch those vadais herself. She wondered why their elders should run errands for the miserly rich upper caste landlords and hand them over things reverently, bowing and shrinking all the while.
Ans: The man thought that Annan looked unfamiliar, and asked his name respectfully. However, his manner changed as soon as Annan told his name. The man immediately asked the name of the street he lived in. The purpose was to identify his caste from the name of the street.
Ans: Annan advised Bama to study with care and learn all that she could. If she was always ahead in her lessons, people would come to her of their own accord and attach themselves to her. Bama followed her brother’s advice and studied hard. She stood first in her class, and because of that, many people became her friends.
C. Answer the following in 150 words each.
Ans: The first account given in the unit ‘Memories of Childhood’ is by a Native American, Zitkala sa, set in the nineteenth century. The second is from a Tamil Indian, Bama, occurred in the twentieth century. However from different culture and time, they both reflect on the relationship of the marginalized communities with the mainstream. These are the true stories of discrimination, oppression, humiliation, and suffering that the writers faced as young, members of the marginalized communities.
Zitkala-Sa highlights the severe prejudice that prevailed towards the Native American culture and women at the name of making them civilized. The school authorities made her look indecent in the school uniform and prevented her covering her bare shoulders. The brutal cutting of her long hair causes her severe humiliation by making her feel a “defeated warrior” and a “coward”. The replacing of her moccasins by squeaking shoes and “eating by formula” at breakfast table are other signs of cultural chauvinism.
Bama expresses the humiliations caused by the system of untouchability. The people of her community were never given any honor, dignity or respect as they were born in lower classes. They were made to live apart and were forced to bow and serve humbly to their masters. They had to avoid direct contact with the people of higher classes, or the things used by them.
Such inhuman and prejudiced treatment kindled a spark of rebellion in both of them. Both tried in their own way to remove the discrimination and make our world a better place to live.
Ans: Both Bama and Zitkala-Sa are the victims of discrimination and cultural chauvinism executed on them by the mainstream. Bama suffers the caste system and untouchability which over the centuries has now been taken as an accepted norm by both, the oppressor and oppressed. The victims of caste system have also taken it as their destiny, and they don’t show any struggle or revolt against it.
Zitkala-Sa’s oppression is new in form therefore it is being forced upon them brutally. The oppressor and the oppressed both are in the stage of struggle. The mainstream, at the name of making them civilized, is forcing their culture on the Natives. Cutting of hair, dressing style, language, eating by formulae etc. all are the efforts to destroy the Native American’s culture and to overpower them completely.
Both the writers responded to their situations in their own way. Zitakala-Sa’s revolt is physical and more daring against the sudden brutality executed on her. She ignored the suggestion of Judewin to submit as they were very powerful. But Bama seems more matured in accepting her brother’s advice. Her reaction is not rash and childish. She kept patience, studied hard, earned a name for herself and then raised her voice against it in form of writing and other peaceful and more impactful ways. Zitakala-Sa also learnt it by her experience, educated herself and became an established writer. Both took education as a tool for the eradication of the oppression and ignorance from society.
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