living arts essay a sounds
...t her mother wants for her too, but Kiswana is determined to rebel, which makes you think that she is rather immature for a women who has moved out of her family home and wants to ‘go it alone’. The character of Kiswana’s mother is presented in the short story as being a well to do lady, who cares for and loves her children wanting them to do well for them selves. She would be a woman who likes to be well-dressed and very presentable at all times. Her love for Kiswana is often taken the wrong way and is returned by a quick defence sometimes quite hurtful. However, she is ready with a softer reply to try to calm the mood down. Mother and daughter have quite similar ideals in life such as having a good job, a nice place to live that is clean, tidy and well designed, but Kiswana wants to do these things in her own time and pace and she keeps putting them off to a later date. They both have picked men to love who are into feet and nail polish in a fantasying sexual way and it is then when Kiswana realises that she has more in common with her mother than she had thought. On the other hand, Kiswana’s mother is not deeply involved with the African culture as Kiswana seems to be and she is still quite upset with Kiswana changing her name from Melanie, as this was her grandmother’s name, which holds more respect to her than a name picked out of a book. Kiswana probably thinks that her found name sounds more African. Kiswana finds it quite amusing when her mother gets embarrassed over sexual topic when discussed, liking the power that she gets over her mother. This short story’s opening section with Kiswana and her own little world seen through her eyes only gives us her point of view that her mother is an arrogant and interfering woman who likes to put her down at every opportunity that she gets. As the story progresses it is nearly all dialogue, which gives us more information as there are two points of views and it will not be so bias. Here our attitudes change from being totally on Kiswana’s side to somewhere in the middle of mother and daughter. The next section where Kiswana’s mother is given centre stage gives the story its climax. She op...