Cultural Identity In An Unknown Girl By Moniza Alvi

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In ‘An Unknown Girl’, Moniza Alvi uses the occasion of the speaker in the poem, who’s persumingly Alvi herself, getting her hands hennaed at an Indian Bazaar to explore the feelings that she has about her cultural identity. She seems torn between her western upbringing and a longing for her native continent.
Much of the imagery in the poem, comes through her use of metaphors and symbolism which convey the richness of the Indian culture and her feelings about it. The act of hennaing the hands is the core symbol of the poem, representing an external expression of her internal sense of cultural identity. The metaphor, ‘‘She is icing my hand’’ carries connotations of celebration and ceremony. By describing the hennaing of the hand in terms of icing
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This is deliberate, to put the reader in the position of somebody who’s uncertain about cultural identity, e.g. the word ‘‘kameez’’ is very culturally specific, and is hard to visualise, especially for a western reader who has never seen one before. Furthermore, the word ‘bazaar’ also has exotic eastern associations. Hence some parts of the poem are more difficult to visualise than others, because Alvi wants us to understand her own sense of cultural alienation. Moreover, the images of the eastern and western cultures tend to alternate between contrasting with one another and almost merging to show that there aren’t many differences between them, when you look closely e.g., ‘‘Dummies in front of shops tilt and stare with their Western perms’’ and ‘‘Banners for Miss India 1993’’. The dummies and ‘Western perms’ look artificial compared with her surroundings. Furthermore, the western idea of a Beauty Pageant is taking over …show more content…
The poem’s written in free verse. Hence, it follows the natural rhythm of the speech. The lines move in and out, in a fluctuating manner, like the motion of the flowing henna on her hand. Furthermore, Alvi has used enjambment in the poem, suggesting a continuity of the cultural significance of the act of hennaing. The poem’s written in first person to maintain an emotional directness with the reader. Additionally, the lines, ‘‘an unknown girl is hennaing my hand’’ and ‘‘in the evening bazaar’’ are repeated several times thus emphasising the main theme of the poem, the ‘unknown girl’ who stands for the true spirit of India, which now seems influenced by the western

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