Question

Read the following extracts and answer the questions:

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. (Memories of Childhood: The Cutting of My Long Hair)

I. Complete the following suitably. Zitkala-Sa's description of her experience at the boarding school conveys a sense of abandonment through her portrayal of __________ 

II. List any one emotion that Zitkala-Sa experiences as her hair is being cut. 

III. Select the suitable option to complete the following. The metaphor of being ‘tossed about in the air like a wooden puppet’ contribute to the reader's understanding of Zitkala-Sa's feelings of being ________. A. forced to interact with others B. manipulated and controlled C. preached at and insulted D. made to exist like toy animals 

IV. In what ways does the imagery of her ‘long hair shingled like a coward's’ symbolise the erasure of Zitkala’s cultural heritage and the imposition of Western norms?

Answer 1

I. . …isolation and lack of support / absence of any solace or reassurance from others / being an animal to a herder thereby suggesting a loss of identity  

II. anguish/ sense of loss/ turmoil ( any other relevant)  

III. B. manipulated and controlled  

IV. The imagery symbolises the forced assimilation and suppression of Indigenous culture, portraying the cutting of her hair as an act of cultural violence and the imposition of Western ideals of appearance and behaviour.