Moniza Alvi and Grace Nichols' Feelings of Living in England Moniza Alvi and Grace Nichols convey their thoughts and feelings about living in England and having roots in another culture through their poetry. Moniza Alvi was born in England and her father was from Pakistan. Grace Nichols was born in Guyana. I can understand coming from another culture and living in a different country like England can be complex and difficult but at the same time new and exciting. Firstly, Moniza Alvi and
“Presents from my aunts in Pakistan” is a poem written by Moniza Alvi. The poem talks about the melee of living in two different cultures. Throughout the poem the writer depicts her puzzlement and frustration of being torn between two cultures. Moniza Alvi explains her awareness of all the challenges that she will undergo for being multicultural. After receiving presents from her aunts, Alvi realizes that she didn’t know much about her other half Pakistani culture. She only needs to know who she
Alvi also employs the use of end-stopped lines in key moments of the poem to highlight key aspects of identity. At the height of the poem, when Moniza Alvi is feeling deeply connected to her culture, she claims she has “new brown veins.” This is the first end-stopped line we encounter in the entire poem, and Alvi uses it to accentuate her connection to this newfound aspect of her identity. The “brown” she if referring to is the henna that someone is making on her hand of a peacock. The henna, as
Pakistan by Moniza Alvi and Search for my Tongue by Sujata Bhatt In this essay, I will be showing you how the writers use their own poetic devices within their work to their advantage and how the poets have used different themes to overcome in their own poems. To begin this essay, I will be presenting to you how Alvi and Bhatt have used different viewpoints within their poems to put across their message to the reader. In the poem 'Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan', Alvi chooses to
Moniza Alvi is English and Pakistani writer that wrote the poem An Unknown Girl. Moniza Alvi lived in Lahore, Pakistan in her early years, but her father moved her family to England when she was still very young. Moniza Alvi, in the poem, takes a trip to India and was reconnected with a part of her that had been dormant for so long. She had a chance to rebuild the relationship she once had with her culture when she was very young, and discovers that this culture is a part of her and is a part of
because we still get the same effect from it, the almost angriness and distress from the poet, Sujata Bhatt . The other poem “Presents” uses visual items like clothes to show the difference in cultures: “my costume clung to me I was aflame.” Moniza Alvi sees her Pakistani clothes as a “costume” rather than normal clothes. She calls it this because they are so different to English clothes that when she wears them it’s like she is putting on a play and she is an actress at the weekends. “I longed
my Aunts in Pakistan’ by Moniza Alvi, further analysis must take place. With retrospect of the poem ‘Night of the Scorpion’, the content explains the reactions of the villagers and surroundings to an incident whereby the poet’s mother was “stung by a scorpion”. It is evident through comparison of the second poem; ‘Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan’, differences between cultures and traditions produce diverse reactions. A prime example of this is visible as Moniza Alvi feels “an alien in the
From Moniza Alvi's poetry, how do we learn about the challenges of living between two cultures? Moniza Alvi writes many poems based on the difficulties she faces whilst living between two cultures and I am going to explore these difficulties through the following poems: - "The Sari", "Throwing out my Fathers Dictionary", "an Unknown Girl" and "Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan." Firstly, I am going to discuss her poem "The Sari" which is a metaphorical poem telling us what happened to her
Moniza Alvi's Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan Moniza Alvi was born in Lahore, in Pakistan, the daughter of a Pakistani father and an English mother. She moved to Hatfield in England when she was a few months old. She didn't revisit Pakistan until after the publication of her first book of poems, The Country over my Shoulder, from which this poem comes. The poet says: 'Presents from My Aunts... was one of the first poems I wrote - when I wrote this poem I hadn't actually been back to
Search For My Tongue by Sujata Bhatt, Hurricane Hits England by Grace Nichols and Presents from Aunts in Pakistan by Moniza Alzi 'Search For My Tongue', by Sujata Bhatt is a forceful poem describing her experience of being caught between two cultures. This poem expresses how she feels that she has lost her mother tongue while speaking the foreign language within which she now lives, but in her dreams it grows back. Similarly, 'Hurricane Hits England', by Grace Nichols describes how she felt
the conflict that exits when a person tries to fit into a new culture. Search for my tongue considers what it is like when you feel you are losing your culture while presents from my aunt in Pakistan considers how to regain ones culture. Moniza Alvi wrote 'presents from my aunts in Pakistan'. She was born in Pakistan in 1954 but was moved to England when she was a young child. When she had visited Pakistan she felt very English because her culture background was affecting her more than she
The Ways in Which Culture and Identity are Presented in Search for My Tongue and Presents From my Aunts in Pakistan In this essay I aim to discuss the ways in which culture and identity are presented in 'search for my tongue' and 'presents from my aunts in Pakistan' The first poem, 'search for my tongue' is written by a woman called Sujata Bhatt who was born in nineteen fifty six, in Ahmedabad, India. She emigrated to the United States of America in nineteen sixty eight. She is a very
Compare how Nichols and Alvi explore the issue of identity in Hurricane Hits England and Presents From My Aunts In Pakistan In this essay I aim to compare the two poems Compare how Nichols and Alvi explore the issue of identity in “Hurricane Hits England” and “Presents From My Aunts In Pakistan” In this essay I aim to compare the two poems “Hurricane Hits England” by Grace Nichols and “Presents From My Aunts In Pakistan” by Moniza Alvi. I aim to analyse the language and structure shape
Introduction The three poems that I will be comparing are ‘Presents from my aunts in Pakistan’ by Moniza Alvi, ‘Half-caste’ by John Agard and ‘Island Man’ by Grace Nichols. All of these poets have mixed-race backgrounds and all of these poems are linked in with the difficulties arising from having different cultural backgrounds. Story/theme ‘Presents from my aunts in Pakistan’ is reflective of Moniza Alvi’s childhood and her experiences of being from two different backgrounds “glass circles
causes. The two poems I am choosing are "Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan" and "Search for My Tongue". "Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan" is written by Moniza Alvi, a woman who was born in Pakistan but moved to England at an early age. Her mother was from England and white, her Father was Pakistani and so black. This makes Moniza 'half-caste', as well as the aunts in poem being from her father's side. Her poem begins with a description of the gifts her aunts send her; "They sent
follows a speaker who is having her hand hennaed by a girl who is unknown to the reader in an Indian bazaar whilst she is trying to connect with her Indian roots and appears alienated as she desperately wants to join the culture. The fact that Moniza Alvi is determined, almost desperate to become a member of the community is shown in her line, ‘I am clinging to these firm peacock lines like people who cling to the sides of a train.’
challenges the thoughts of the poet, she is initially from the Caribbean but now live in Sussex, until the arrival of the hurricane she has not felt at home in England. This is similar to ‘presents from my Aunts in Pakistan’ (presents) by Moniza Alvi, she also has roots from another country and now lives in England. The arrival of presents from the Pakistan culture challenges her thinking, as does the hurricane to Nichols. The hurricane challenges her thinking by making her realise
poems from different cultures. Many poems deal with the theme of cultural identity. I have chosen three to compare, they are: Search For My Tongue, by Sujata Bhatt Half-Caste, by John Agard and Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan, by Moniza Alvi. I chose these three poems because I feel that they all deal with different aspects of cultural identity. For example Search for my tongue covers the aspect of losing your native tongue and using a ‘foreign’ language, Half-Caste addresses
autobiographical and was written after apartheid had been abolished in 1994. In 'Nothing's Changed' the poet is saying that even though apartheid had been abolished, he still feels that racism is still around him and he feels that nothing has changed. Moniza Alvi wrote 'Presents From My Aunts In Pakistan'. She was born in Pakistan in ... ... middle of paper ... ...ates this she also wants to be able to feel the same way about her new home in Britain. Even though she says she is, 'of no fixed nationality'
Poems From Other Cultures and Traditions From 'Search For My Tongue' Tatamkhulu Afrika, Maqabane (1994) When you read this poem, bear in mind that language and the use of the mother tongue (our own language, the one we were brought up speaking) are very important to any individual. We all take it for granted that we can use our language if we live where we were born. We don't even have to think about it. But when you go to live in another country you have to learn another language, and