AECC ASSIGNMENT

Read the story “Girls” by Mrinal Pande, given in the literary readings, and answer the
questions below:

What strategies of communication does the young narrator of the story use to show
her anger and resistance to the goings on around her? 10 marks

The young protagonist of the story uses various forms of communication to

showcase her anger and resentment towards the unjust and discriminatory behavior
that everyone in her family seems to project. There are instances in the story where
she is being silenced for questioning those practices and sometimes even
reprimanded or beaten by her own mother who according to the protagonist sees her
as a problem and less as a child.
In one such incident upon asking the meaning of the word ‘endure’ from her mother,
the young protagonist is slapped and silenced which leads to her crying and voicing
out her frustration to her older sister who then advises the protagonist to not indulge
in adult matters and to stop asking questions and still she hasn’t been silenced and
says that she’ll keep on asking questions which shows her strong character even as an
8-year-old.
Various forms of non-verbal communication also take place between the mother and
the daughter where certain gestures by her mother make the protagonist scared and
frightened. Posture too is seen here as a form of communication that is when the
protagonist being a girl is asked to bend properly to show respect to her elders and a
comment is passed on how she’ll have to learn to bend for the rest of her life because
of her gender in this patriarchal society
All this resentment bursts up at last when the young narrator screams and asks
“When you people don’t love girls, why do you pretend to worship them”. All her
anger towards her family, society, such discriminatory practices all comes out as
anger and sadness.
It is mentioned how she doesn’t want to cry at the end and how she doesn’t want to
show them her emotions or her fright. Facial expressions also play an important role
here as a strategy of communication where at certain times when she isn’t able to
voice out her anger, a frown takes over her expression. All these instances are
prominent in pointing out how the narrator uses various strategies to showcase her
resentment and anger.
The narrator notices the “mark of crimson powder on the tip of her [Nani’s] thumb like
a blood stain”. Explain the critique of society’s desire for a male child and the
devaluation of girls that is expressed through this sentence.
15 marks

The line “mark of crimson powder on the tip of her thumb like a blood stain”
represents a deep understanding of the marginalization and discrimination that girls
in a patriarchal society deal with on a regular basis. The desire for a male child and
the belief of males being the superior sex has led to further dehumanization of the
female population. In many parts of India, the birth of a girl child is not welcomed is
a known fact.
In our Indian society, these instances which the young protagonist had to face are
quite common which is a very harsh and saddening reality. The culture of praying to
a goddess for auspiciousness and wealth, while at the same time treating your girl
child as an inferior is an irony in itself. Such Patriarchal ideas and upbringings lead
to further passing down of the same ideologies from generation to generation.
According to me, the bloodstain here represents the practice of female foeticide and
how it is very much still prominent in our country specifically in rural areas, How the
female fetus is killed in the womb only and not even made to see the light of the day,
How the birth of a boy child is celebrated with joy and on the other hand the birth of
a girl child is a sign of dismay.
In the story too we witness the narrator’s mother being pregnant for the fourth time
just for an opportunity to have a boy. It has been so deeply engraved in the
unconsciousness of the society that a boy only can be the sole caretaker of the house
and that it’s not the duty of a girl that even when at times people question the belief,
they are brutally silenced as in the case of the protagonist. Wherever we live we
witness gender discrimination on a daily basis in books, movies, in our everyday life.
As gender discrimination prevails, crimes and atrocities towards girls are also on a
rise ranging from sexual assault, rape, domestic violence, abuse and exploitation.
Many of these would continue to prevail until and unless gender equality is achieved
and the discriminatory practices of the patriarchal society are diminished.
Throughout the story we witness instances where girls and women are made to feel
inferior and are devalued, such as when one of the protagonist’s aunt is telling about
her value being less than a dog in the household and how she has to endure so much.
This showcases how women in various households and communities across India are
subjected to such inequality and it’s an everyday struggle for them to overcome and
fight it.
In order to achieve gender equality there has to be a collective effort from the society
which has to include the men and boys. It is not an individual initiative and thus to
change the society’s perception as a whole team work is required. Educating Indian
children from an early age about the importance of gender equality could be a
meaningful start in that direction. At the end I’d like to conclude by quoting, “Gender
equality is not a woman’s issue, it is a Human issue, it affects us all”.
NAME- SAMIYA MISHRA
CLASS – 1A
ROLL NUMBER – 547