Petina Gappah Point Of View

1366 Words6 Pages
Paper #1 The particular point of view of a story helps an author to shape and create many different aspects of a story to express certain viewpoints in a different light. Petina Gappah’s use of point of view helps demonstrate and explain the difficulties faced by Patience, the 11-year-old narrator, in dealing with the cultural familial, and political dilemmas brought about by moving to a new country. Many of the main events of the story are the altercations between the family members, which through the use of point of view help exploit the trouble Patience has with understanding and coping with what is actually taking place. In the beginning of the story Patience states, “When I’m not at school, where it is English all the time Mhamhi talks…show more content…
Patience explains her new situation of walking home from school when she states, “ I walk home from school, without talking to anyone, like my teacher Miss Norman told us (120).” She goes on to explain that it is due to the pedophiles, but it seems as though Patience is only doing this because it is what her teacher has specifically told her to do not because she truly understands the potential consequences. She goes on to state, “ I found it weird at first to ignore adults all the time because in Zim you are supposed to greet older people and be polite to them even if you don’t know them (120).” This statement shows the trouble she has in understanding the differences between her old culture traditions that she took part in Zimbabwe and the new cultural traditions of England. It also demonstrates that she is just trying to fit in with what this new culture is doing, not actually trying to protect herself from pedophiles. Dhedhi expresses his traditional views when he says to Patience, “You should learn how to cook ,” he said without looking up when I said there was no food. “My sisters could all cook at your age (121).” She later goes on to burn herself because she does not know how to properly use the stove. Patience…show more content…
Patience’s uncle explains the political system in Zimbabwe when says, “This is what happens when life becomes cheap...(123)” Patience perspective is shown when she replies, “...but I didn’t know what that meant either because Mhami always said life was getting really expensive (123).” Patience’s particular view as an 11 year old child is expressed in this statement because she does not realize what her uncle actually means. He is explaining how the corrupt political system in Zimbabwe is the direct cause of her brothers death because their is no money to pay for his medicine. Human life becomes cheap because the government is spending and keeping money for themselves rather than helping the people they govern and Patience does not understand this concept. Patience also speaks about her fathers participation on an online website where people argue about the political situation in Zimbabwe (120). Patience states, “ ...it felt really weird to read all these things written about my father who was pretending to be someone else (120).” The particular language she uses shows her lack of understanding about the situation and her ignorance towards her father’s participation on the website. She is too young
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