Memories of Childhood – ZitkalaSa, Bama

The Cutting of my Long Hair

Introduction
Two people recall their childhood when they were made victims of
social inequalities. ZitkalaSa was a Red Indian. She was admitted in the
Carlisle Indian School run by the British. The school authorities imposed
a lot of rules on the students, some for the students’ good and some to
show the British superiority and some for fun.
But Zitkala could not agree with all these; she could not think of allowing
her long hair to be cut. She didn’t like to wear the short skirts, stiff shoes,
uniforms… But she had to. When the authorities attempted to cut her
hair
short, Zitkala ran away and hid under a bed. But she had to submit. They
tied her to a chair and cut her hair. Another custom that she didn’t agree
to was the ceremonial eating which she calls ‘eating by formula.’ The
basic
human way of eating doesn’t involve any rules. Eat when you are hungry
is the natural way. But the British superiority wanted the people here to
dance to their senseless tunes. There were bells to take the chair out, sit
on the chair, pray to God, take a spoon, take a fork… Zitkala did not
know of these rules. When the first bell sounded she thought it was time
to eat. She sat down and initiated eating to her great shame.
Similar was the case with Bama, an Indian writer from Tamilnadu.
She too was a human being but the richer and privileged society didn’t
consider her so. She was a happy girl but once she witnessed a scene of
discrimination. A much respected elder of her society was once made the
victim of untouchability. This infuriated her. She wanted to react. She
knew
the only weapon to fight ostracism was acquiring equal status through
education.
ZitkalaSa, the Red Indian
 ZitkalaSa was a new student of the Carlysle Indian School.

 She felt bound on the first day.

 She had to speak a new language, wear short skirts, shoes and short
hair.
 She was never used to this modern etiquette.

 When the children were taken to the dining room, she made a mistake.
 There was a bell for prayer before breakfast. When the bell rang, Zitkala
thought it was time to sit and eat.
 She sat down and began to eat but soon realized that all the children

were
still standing. This embarrassed her.
 Later she was informed by her friend Judewin that the school

authorities
were going to cut the hair of girls who hadn’t got their hair shingled/cut.
 In her culture, short/shingled hair was worn by the three kinds of

people:
o Unskilled warriors caught by the enemy,

o Mourners and

o Cowards

 She went into the living room and disappeared under a cot/bed.

 She was searched for, found and was tied to a chair. They cut her hair.
 She cried, felt lost and weak.
Bama, the Indian Writer
 Bama was a happy girl until she heard that she belonged to the caste of

untouchables!
 She took a lot of time to reach home from school. She looked at the
following scenes, people, happenings:
o Performing monkey.

o Snake charmer’s snake-show.

o Cyclist’s stunts.

o Spinning wheels.

o Maariyaata Temple

o Dried fish stall, sweet stall, snack stall.

o Narikkuravan hunter gypsy with his lemur (nari)

o Vendors who sell needles, clay beads, ear-cleaners

o Politicians who shout through loudspeakers

o Magic shows, puppet show, street plays, stunts, etc.

o Coffee clubs

o People chopping onions

o Almond tree and its fallen fruits

o Mango, cucumber, sweet potato, gram, palm-syrup, guavas, jack fruits,

etc.

Short Questions
The Cutting of my Long Hair-ZitkalaSa – JertudeBonnin
1. What do you know about Carlisle Indian School?
Carlisle Indian School was a school run by the British to educate the Red
Indians and the British students. It had strict rules and regulations for all
students. The students had to wear uniforms, girls had to wear short hair
and skirts and tight shoes. The eating style also was different there. There
were bells before eating. There was a prayer before eating.
2. How was ZitkalaSa different from the other native American
students?
ZitkalaSa was a native American girl. She had great love for her tradition
and culture. She was proud of her beliefs. She held closer to her heart
these beliefs and felt hurt when the rest of the girls followed the foreign
culture without any hesitation. For example, when she saw that the other
girls like her had put on closely clinging skirts, she felt ridiculed.
She herself felt embarrassed for having worn immodest dresses that
closely contrasted her culture and traditions.
3. What does ZitkalaSa mean by, ‘this eating by formula’?
When ZitkalaSa was admitted in the Carlisle Indian School, she faced a
number of rules the students had to follow. One of them was the manner
of eating. There were three bells to be tapped before the students were
allowed to start eating. Being a natural being, ZitkalaSa could not digest
the meaning of these polished manners which were alien/unknown to her
culture.

4. There was something that the school authorities had failed to

recognize in ZitkalaSa. What was that?
The British authorities of the Carlisle Indian School were colonists and
therefore could not understand the feelings of the people they ruled over.
They believed that it was their duty to impart their civilization to the
uncivilized Native Americans but failed to understand their attachment to
their own culture and traditions. When they passed their civilized
manners like wearing shoes, uniforms, moccasins, short skirts and
speaking English, they failed to think of the impact of these upon the
natives. Instead of trying to understand why the little child was protesting
the rules, they blindly forced her to follow them.
5. Why was Sa against the idea of cutting her long hair?
ZitkalaSa’s mother had taught her that shingled hair was worn by
mourners, cowards, and unskilled warriors caught in war. She had a
great deal of love for her traditions and her hair. For her the hair meant
much closer to her culture. To save her identity, to uphold her civilization
and pride Sa fought against the attempts of the authorities to cut her
hair.

Long Answers
1. In spite of all, the school authorities too had their own
justifications.
What were they?
Although the school authorities appear to be dictatorial and unfeeling, we
can see the validity of their rules in the modern world. Wearing uniform
dresses has been proved practical in all the schools in the world. Under a
uniform dress code, the poor hardly feel inferior to the rich. Putting on
shoes was novel to Gertrude (Zitkala) but the safety and hygiene that
shoes
provide to the feet is undisputed. There is no denying that English
language
has brought the world much closer more than anything. So we cannot
entirely blame the school authorities for imposing English as the only
medium of communication in the school. It goes without saying how good
cutting of tangled hair can be. Besides keeping one’s hair and head clean
and safe from lice-like insects, it saves time in washing and drying.
Praying
before a meal or thanksgiving before a meal is one of the greatest prayers,
no doubt, because we need to remember the farmers who have made our
meal possible. Thus, the rules imposed by the school authorities did more
good than bad. If they hadn’t been rude in the way of imposition, there
was
no harm meant.

6. How was Bama’s innocent childhood ruffled up by the sight of an

elderly man handing the parcel to the landlord at the
threshing-field?

Bama was an innocent girl. She lived in a discriminated society with

landlords above them and her community running errands for them. The
first instance of class discrimination Bama experienced in her life was the
incident of an elderly man of her caste carrying food for the landlord. The
man had to carry the packet in the most shameful manner, holding the
hand away from his body as a mark of untouchability.
7. What made Bama laugh at the sight of the elderly man handing the
parcel to the landlord at the threshing-field?
Bama saw an elderly man of her society carrying a very small and light
parcel to the landlord. The way the man held the parcel with its strings,
the special respect the man showed towards the parcel and the way he
offered it to the landlord without supporting it from the bottom made
Bama laugh.

8. What did Bama feel when her annan explained to her why the
village
elder had to carry the parcel in a funny manner?
When Bama saw the elderly man from her society carrying a small parcel
of eatable to the landlord, she laughed a lot but when her Annan told it
was a scene of caste discrimination; she could not laugh any more. She
grew angry with this social evil and wanted to touch the eatable herself
and make it dirty. She felt helpless about her being untouchable and
angry with the rich people who considered her so.

9. “Because they had scraped four coins together…” What did Bama
mean?
According to Bama the cause of the rich people’s superior attitude and
behaviour is the possession of money. Money makes a man feel superior
over the poor and it makes him blind. While the ordinary people have a
little wealth in their hands, the rich ones have a lot.

10. What was the point of the question raised by the landlord’s man
to
Bama’s elder brother, “On which street do you live?”
The people of Bama’s time believed in untouchability and social
discrimination. Some people were considered privileged while the majority
of the others suffered from the shame of being backward class. People
gave respect or disrespect to each other on the basis of caste, religion and
being rich and poor. The landlord’s men wanted to know if Bama’s brother
was touchable or untouchable and therefore he asked where he lived.
11.How did Bama fight against discrimination in her life?
Bama lived in a discriminated society with the evils of untouchability
playing havoc. When she was aware of it, Bama determined to fight it in
her way. She was told by her Annan that education only could liberate
her
from being looked down by the society. Bama studied in a frenzy and
stood top in the class and fought the class discrimination.

VALUE – BASED QUESTIONS/CCT QUESTIONS

1. Power leads to dominance and reaches oppression and ends up in
rebellion and failure. How is this statement true in the case of the
rebellion raised by ZitkalaSa and Bama?
One of the most irrevocable human tendencies is domination. Everyone
wants to impose some sort of dominance over the other and if one doesn’t
do so it is because he is weaker than the others or that he is educated.
Both ZitkalaSa and Bama lived on two opposite ends of the world yet they
experienced this social evil in their early life.The Red Indians were the
true inhabitants of America. With the discovery of this new continent the
European world converted it into their mines for resources. The European
colonists considered educating the rest of the world to be the white man’s
burden. They established schools for the backward and taught them their
culture, their language, their whims, their fancies, their funs but failed to
respect the values of the people they oppressed and ruled. The Red
Indians too had their own sacred culture and practices. They considered
cutting of one’s hair equal to death but all the students were forced to get
their hair cut. The British cut short the decency of dressing and curbed
personal freedom by imposing uniform system. They brought in rules for
eating.The same was the case with the privileged landlords of India.
Because they were richer than the peasants, the landlords restricted their
freedom. The poor peasants had to accept their state of being
untouchables in the public. The mortification that this status brought to
them was beyond sheer shame. The blindness that extreme possession of
power brings makes anyone do the worst activities including suppressing
the weak ones. But this power is always temporary. One day the weaker
ones will gather power of resistance and fight back the oppressors.

2. Humanity is beyond caste, creed and race. Elucidate the thought

in
the light of the story ‘
Memories of Childhood’.
HINTS :- Humanity- the supreme religion- discrimination on the basis of
caste, creed is inhuman- God has made all as equals- all are equal in the
eyes of god- should be no discrimination b/w man –limitless torture and
atrocities in the name of caste or religion- all humans have same
feelingsempathetic attitude should be developed –scientific and logical
thinking-the need of the hour. References to the text to be included.
3. How does ‘ Memories of Childhood’ bring out the plight of
marginalized communities in India?.
Hints :- Reference to the text- experiences of two small girls from
marginalized communities- Forced to accept the ruled laid by people of so
called high caste- both humiliated and Tortured to sacrifice their
self-right
to self-esteem and were subjected to unbearable humiliation-characters
symbolize communities- personal experience universalized- compels the
reader to think how humane is the human world.

4. How does education play an important role in eradicating caste

distinction and securing respectable status for marginalized
communities in the society?
Hints: - Education empowers – the greatest tool to fight injustice –
education developed the personality to maximum extent and empowers an
individual to make his own way to success – successful people are
respected everywhere – education brings awareness of rights and duties –
also the ability to protect one’s rights – education brings respect and
dignity .

5. It is through education only that one can differentiate between

facts
and fiction. Elucidate the role played by Annan in the life of Bama.
Hints:- Education is like rudder to a boat – gives direction to life –
develops
mind and the ability to distinguish between facts and fiction – opens a
window to the world –gets us connected to the outside world and enables
us to assimilate the best around –imparts us the power to fight back
injustice –brings awareness of rights and duties – makes us complete
human beings –ensures a life of dignity and respect.