The Red Pencil

“Ya, wheat—such abundance! // Our village glistens, / greets me / with a wink that shines bright / on this new day.”

Amira marvels at the beauty of wheat, her village’s golden crop, on her 12th birthday. In the opening chapter of The Red Pencil, this descriptions highlights fertility and land, establishing the theme of Land and the Idea of Home. The image of a glistening village emphasizes the sun illuminating the crops; the sun comes up as a symbol of hope later in the novel.

“‘Amira Bright—yaaaa! / Girl child, rising.’ // In Dando’s arms, / I can fly. // In Dando’s arms, / I am bright.”

Dando throws Amira up into the air, calling her “Amira Bright” as he greets her on her birthday. His encouragement and support of Amira and her dreams are evident in this quote. With Dando, Amira truly feels bright; with him, she feels she can fly, literally and metaphorically.

“When it comes to schooling, / my mother is the most tight-minded of anyone. […] Muma, / born into a flock of women, / locked in a hut of tradition. // That hut. / A closed-off place / with no windows for letting in fresh ideas. // Sometimes I want to ask, / ‘Muma, can you breathe?’”

Amira describes her mother’s views on schooling as limited to tradition. Firstly, this quote frames Muma as a product of her conditioning, having been born into a generation of women steeped in tradition. Secondly, the hut symbolizes a lack of space in which to move and explore, a consequence of tradition; to Amira, tradition restricts women to the domestic sphere. Finally, this quote exemplifies one of the many ways in which the image of air or wind (breath) is used—that which is vital to life being lacking when one operates solely on tradition.