CBSE Class 12 English Memories of Childhood Notes Set 03

MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD

• The Cutting of My long Hair - Zitkala Sa
• We Too Are Human Beings – Bama

Background

The chapter contains two extracts from two different autobiographical episodes from the lives of two women – Zitkala Sa and Bama. Both are victims of social discriminations. Zitkala Sa is the victim of racial discrimination whereas Bama is the victim of caste discriminations.

Theme

Both the accounts are based in two distant cultures. The first is that of Native Americans and the second is that of the Tamil Dalits. But the commonality that brings them closer is the fact that in both cases, the mainstream culture marginalized the underprivileged section of that society. This gave rise to the conflict between the mainstream culture and the marginalized community, which is exquisitely showcased in ‘Memories of Childhood’.

In both the extracts, the writers look back on their childhood and reflect on their relationship with mainstream culture which ill-treated them when they were child. But both the accounts are not simple narratives of oppression. Rather they reveal how oppression was resisted by both the narrators in their own ways. Zitkala-Sa and Bama were very young but not so young that they would not understand the evil scheme of the mainstream culture. The injustice of their society did not escape their notice also. Their bitter childhood experience sowed the seeds of rebellion in them earlier on.

Main Points

PART –I The Cutting of My Long Hair

• Zitkala Sa describes her experiences on her first day at the Carlisle Indian School.
• The customs and rules of the place were strange and new to her.
• She was forced to wear clothes that were considered undignified in her culture.
• At breakfast, she was embarrassed as she did not know the routine of the place.
• When she comes to know that they were planning to cut her hair, she protests by hiding under the bed, even though she knew it was futile. In her culture, it was the cowards whose hair was shingled.
• She felt like an animal driven by a herder.

PART – II We Too are Human Beings

• Bama was in her third grade when she becomes aware of the indignities that the lower caste people face.
• She happens to see an elderly person from her community abase himself in front of a higher caste person as he was not supposed to touch the food that he was ordered to fetch for the landlord.
• Later, her brother explains to her that the incident was not at all funny as she initially thought, but very pathetic. The people from the lower caste were treated as untouchables.
• She was deeply saddened and decided to study hard to overcome discrimination.

Literary Devices

• Squeaking shoes – onomatopoeia
• Cold blades- pun and transferred epithet
• Shingled like a coward’s -simile

Extract Based Questions

Q1. When I heard this, I didn’t want to laugh any more, I felt terribly sad. How could they believe that it was disgusting if one of us held that package in his hands, even though the vadai had been wrapped first in a banana leaf, and then parcelled in paper? I felt so provoked and angry that I wanted to touch those wretched vadais myself straightaway. Why should we fetch and carry for these people, I wondered. Such an important elder of ours goes meekly to the shops to fetch snacks and hands them reverently, bowing and shrinking, to this fellow who just sits there and stiffs them into his mouth. The thought of it infuriated me.

1. The elder handing snacks reverently, bowing and shrinking to the fellow indicates that the ‘fellow’ was
1. condescending.
2. unassuming.
3. submissive.
4. disdainful.
5. aggressive
6. domineering.
(a) 2, 3 and 6
(b) 1, 4 and 5
(c) 1, 4 and 6
(d) 2, 3 and 4
Answer: c

2. Pick an idiom that DOES NOT describe how the author felt about this incident.
(a) at the end of one’s tether
(b) be in a black mood
(c) up in arms
(d) throw up one’s hands
Answer: a

3. Based on the given context, choose the option that illustrates when a person can be provoked, out of the examples given below.
1. The employees organised a peaceful protest outside the firm.
2. The manager ill-treated one of the employees and wrongfully terminated him.
3. The employees wrote a letter of complaint against the manager.
4. The director of the firm scheduled a meeting for reconciliation.
(a) Option 1
(b) Option 2
(c) Option 3
(d) Option 4
Answer: b

4. The given extract DOES NOT talk about
(a) author’s realization of her misconception
(b) elders being ill-treated in her society.
(c) the haughtiness of the ‘fellow’.
(d) how the author was enraged.
Answer: b

Q2. I cried aloud, shaking my head all the while until I felt the cold blades of the scissors against my neck, and heard them gnaw off one of my thick braids. Then I lost my spirit. Since the day I was taken from my mother I had suffered extreme indignities. People had stared at me. I had been tossed about in the air like a wooden puppet. And now my long hair was shingled like a coward’s! In my anguish I moaned for my mother, but no one came to comfort me. Not a soul reasoned quietly with me, as my own mother used to do; for now I was only one of many little animals driven by a herder.

1. ‘Then I lost my spirit’. Choose the option that DOES NOT refer to ‘spirit’.
1. resolve
2. energy
3. determination
4. indifference
5. enthusiasm
6. will power
(a) 1, 2 and 5
(b) 2, 4 and 6
(c) 1, 3 and 6
(d) 3, 4 and 6
Answer: d

2. How would you describe the author’s tone when she says, “I was only one of many little animals driven by a herder”?
(a) austere
(b) apathetic
(c) dismal
(d) resentful
Answer: d

3. Choose the correct option with reference to the two statements given below.
Statement 1: The author had been subjected to humiliation when she was separated from her mother.
Statement 2: Nobody was able to ease her distress and empathise with her.
(a) Statement 1 is true but Statement 2 is false.
(b) Statement 1 is false but Statement 2 is true.
(c) Both Statement 1 and Statement cannot be inferred from the passage
(d) Both Statement 1 and Statement 2 can be inferred from the passage.
Answer: d

4. What cultural difference between Zitkala-Sa's background and the boarding school is highlighted in the passage?
(a) Emphasis on education vs. manual labor
(b) Importance of hierarchy vs. equality
(c) Value of individuality vs. conformity
(d) Focus on competition vs. cooperation
Answer: c