Search For My Tongue

1
Search For My Tongue

• Themes (ideas) in the poem

2
Summary of Poem

• In Search For My Tongue the writer explains the
  problems caused by knowing two languages, English
  and Gujarati, but only being able to speak one in
  public.

3
How to read Powerpoint

• The following slides will contain
• Point
• Evidence
• Explanation
• (You should use all 3 when you write about these
  poems)

4
Conflict

• The poem deals with conflict since the poet
  feels, at first, that there is a battle between
  Gujarati and English in her life.
• two tongues inside your mouth.
• This image is powerful since it shows how both
  these languages are so much part of who she is,
  they are like parts of her body, yet there is not
  room for both.

5
Conflict

• The conflict between these languages becomes
  bitter and ugly because it is a battle for
  survival.
• your mother tongue would rot,/rot and die in
  your mouth/until you had to spit it out.
• A quotation that shows how violent and painful
  the struggle between the languages has become.
  Almost the language of a horror film.

6
Loss

• The poet feels that by losing the chance to speak
  Gujarati, she is losing something vital to her.
• One tongue rots, rots and dies
• Because the image is disturbing, even disgusting,
  making you think of corpses, it helps get across
  how sad and wrong it feels to lose a language.

7
Identity

• Sujata Bhatt shows that the language you speak
  cannot be separated from who you are.
• You could not use them both together/even if you
  thought that way.
• Which suggests that, if you cant speak in the
  way that you think, you can never explain who you
  are.

8
Celebration

• The poem ends with a feeling of success since the
  lost tongue, Gujarati, cannot die, and comes
  back stronger than before.
• it ties the other tongue in knotsit blossoms
  out of my mouth.
• This replaces the ugly image of a dead tongue
  with a beautiful image of a natural, thriving
  flower.

9
Conflict

• Point There is conflict in this poem between
  the poets English upbringing and her Pakistani
  relatives.
• Quote My aunts in shaded rooms
• Explain This shows that Pakistani life can only
  be imagined by her, and not very clearly.

10
Conflict

• There is another source of conflict in the poem
  which is to do with dress. Pakistani and English
  clothes are very different.
• Quote I longed/for corduroy and denim
• Explain This shows that she want to fit it with
  the British culture of her schoolfriends, not
  stand out in foreign clothes.

11
Conflict

• Point The conflict lessens towards the end of
  the poem where the poet starts to take an
  interest in the objects from Pakistan.
• Quote
• Explanation