In the final stanza, “they wrapped and wrapped me in it whispering Your body is your country”, as though trying to contain her Pakistani culture within the material. This shows that she will always be Pakistani no matter what country she is in. Repetition is used to show how long traditional Sari’s are, and the physical wrapping around the body, which is required for a sari to be worn. This stanza accents the message of the poem; it is important to know your roots and your culture because it is these that make you who you are.
“Throwing out My Fathers Dictionary” portrays the thoughts and emotions Moniza Alvi has whilst dealing with the issue of family expectations. She uses a number of techniques to depict these. Right from the start, she uses a mixture of literal and metaphorical meanings to confuse the reader in an attempt to make them understand the confusion she herself is feeling – “Words grow shoots in the bin with the eggshells and rotting fruit”. It is metaphorical in that words can not actually grow shoots (that is the purpose of the potato), however it is literal in that the dictionary is in the bin amongst the rubbish. She then uses literal description to describe what the book looks like, “paper edged with toffee-glue” which also emphasises the age of the book. And the once again switches back to metaphorical “a cloud rises towards the use of the swung dash”, (the cloud represents a cloud of dust).
It is not until the second stanza that we discover the dictionary once belonged to her father and is actually an English dictionary, which is his second language; “My father’s signature is centre page…. I see him rifling through his second language”.
This is the moment we understand her father’s determinacy at learning his daughters language in an attempt to communicate better with her, and the fact that she saw him “rifling” through it suggests he was eager to learn. “I retrieve it. It smells of tarragon.” This puts forward the idea that this old book is precious to her and no one else, and tarragon (which is a Pakistani spice) reminds us once again of her culture. Also the shortness of the sentence “I retrieve it”, mimics the effect of a real person speaking aloud, and creates a distinctive sounding voice. This has the effect of allowing the reader become more involved in the story Moniza Alvi is trying to tell them. “My father’s dictionary – not quite finished with.” To me, this suggests that her father died before he finished learning English - which would explain why the book was so precious to Moniza Alvi.
It is in the final stanza that we learn about her own attempts to learn her father’s language through buying her own dictionary. “I have my own, weightier with thousands of recent entries arranged for me.” Because there are so many new entries this suggests that much time has passed since her father was learning the language, and shows us that she’s never really tried to learn his language until now.
“I daren’t inscribe my name.” This implies that she is afraid of letting her father down, so she is not prepared to put her name to it for fear of being recognised if she fails. Also, using the word “inscribe” gives the impression of it being a lasting record which adds to her obvious fear of recognition.
“An Unknown Girl” brings to our attention that she has returned to Pakistan for the first time since moving to England and so is experiencing properly for the first time the Pakistani lifestyle which is completely contrasting to the English Lifestyle. “An unknown Girl is hennaing my hand” is repeated several times throughout the poem to emphasise that the girl is unknown and yet has become very important to Moniza Alvi because she painted her body with memories of Pakistan, which Alvi wanted to keep forever. To show how much she wanted to keep them she used the simile “I am clinging to these firm peacock lines like people who cling to the sides of a train”. This portrays her desperate need to hold onto the Pakistani culture, which was obviously very important to her, yet she felt she was losing once she returned to England - “I’ll lean across a country with my hands outstretched longing for the unknown girl in the neon bazaar”. Also the word “longing” emphasises her desire, which adds to the overall effect of the poem. This poem is written in free verse using irregular line lengths, which suggests a lack of control. I feel this is an important aspect to recognise because she clearly has no control over where she is or who she is. In my opinion, the title “An Unknown Girl” not only refers to the girl in the poem but the poet herself. I think this because when she returned to Pakistan for the first time, she was unknown to the Pakistanis, as she hasn’t been there in so long which makes her feel like as though she doesn’t fit in. She often feels as though she doesn’t fit in, which is depicted even more clearly in the next poem I am going to analyse.
“Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan” portrays all of the issues that Moniza Alvi has faced whilst living between two cultures. Because half of her belongs to Pakistan and the other to England, she has never truly known where she belongs. Although she was brought up in England, her Pakistani family sent her traditional clothes that they expected her to wear despite the fact they were not fashionable; “My Aunts sent me a salwar kameez”. However she felt she could never be as beautiful as the clothes she was sent, she longed for plainer clothes to match her physical appearance, “I could never be as lovely as those clothes – I longed for denim and corduroy”. Many details are left out of the poem so that the reader is forced to fill them in with implication. The mention of “weekend clothes” shows this because it indicates Moniza Alvi went to a school that wore uniform, however this is not stated. The effect of this is that most of her English life is assumed by the reader, therefore makes her Pakistani life seem much more exciting and dramatic.
Also, both cultures hold different values and she expresses her trouble at knowing which values she held for herself and she mentions animal cruelty to explain this “I wanted my parents’ camel-skin lamp- switching it on in my bedroom, to consider the cruelty and the transformation from camel to shade”. The challenge of having two different lifestyles – one in Pakistan and one in England is shown by the phrase “Sometimes I saw Lahore – my aunts in shaded rooms, screened from male visitors”. She sees her aunts in the mirrors sewn into her Salwar Kameez and she attempts to recreate herself in their culture. As you can see, Pakistani beliefs are very different to those held by the English.
Moniza Alvi’s poetry is deeply influenced by her cultural influences. This is obvious because the majority of her poetry is based on the difficulties of living between two cultures. Her poetry is also influenced by fashions in writing. Her style is very modern and contrasting to pre-20th century poets, and this enhances younger reader’s appreciation of the text.
In conclusion, Moniza Alvi was privileged to have lived between two cultures because it meant that she was welcomed into two communities and had the opportunity to experience different ways of life. However, all good things come at a price and for this she suffered the issues of not knowing where she fit in, which values she held and having high family expectations.
Abbie Taylor
