Search For My Tongue Flashcards
(6 cards)
You had to speak a foreign tongue, your mother tongue would rot, rot and die in your mouth.
Byatt uses direct address to force the reader to understand the difficulty and struggle bilingual people force when adapting to a new language and culture. The end stopped line highlights the phrase ‘ft’ showing how she feels isolated/outcast. Finally the repetition of rot shows her disdain for her mother tongue…
It grows back, a stump of a shoot, grows longer, grows moist grows strong veins
Byatt reclaims her identity and celebrates her language.
The repetition of grows emphasises the speakers..,
Uses a semantic field of resilience in the word ‘back’’longer’’strong veins’ to highlight( the strength and confidence she feels in returning to speaking her native language and how she fee,s empowered embracing it.
The metaphor of her language to grow ‘strong veins’ demonstrates how important her language is and its survival.
The use of caesuras throughout the line slows the pace reflecting the slow and gradual process of using her native language again but that her foundation are now stronger and unbreakable
She could not really use them both together
The modal verb shows her moth tongue and foreign tongue are completely incompatible. This makes the reader feel a sense of sympathy for the life as she feels lost and unheard by society
Last para
Natural imagery is a contrast to the start as she is describing bilingualism as a positive thing
Stump of a shoot
Alliteration creates sibilants making the phrase feel whispered, showing her uncertainty but growing confidence about both her languages. This makes the reader hold their breath in anticipation before discovering what happened to her mother tongue. ‘Stump’ something has been broken but still has the potential to reflourish
Grow
Her language is living breathing entity that cannot be suppressed easily. Leaves the reader with a positive message for all bilingual people which is juxtaposed to the start
