Notes created by an A-level English Literature private tutor + A* student.
All topic notes for The Deliverer (poems of the decade)
Edexcel English Literature A-level
Key context
In India baby boys were valued more than girls- girls could therefore be killed at birth. In
India in 2010 there were 100 reported male and female infanticide > mostly children
who were born out of wedlock- many disabled babies were also killed. Women who display
such cruelty are seen here to be at the mercy of a society which privileges boys, women are
trapped by cultural and economic pressures.
Structure
The cyclical structure suggests this cruel tradition continues.
The change in structure symbolises the broken lives- tercets change into couplets which
allows us to gather explicit opinions about adoption from the developing world.
The form allows the poet to explore the situation from di erent perspectives- shifts in
time and place with visible and invisible global connections which link west and east as well
as the fracturing of family and relationships. Ambiguous tone ‘the sister is telling my
mother how she came to collect the children’- double meanings create a sense of
confusion, a child at the start of their life would be the same/ begins with an anecdotal
tone- story-line but nishes with graphic images> harsh reminder of the reality for many
women and children in India.
Key ideas/ themes
While the language used is bold, the extreme and troubling psychological depth is added
by the complex relationships in the poem: between the narrator, her mother, the foster
child and the baby’s new parents in America > raises questions about the nature of
family bonds.
Key quotes
‘Covered in garbage, shoved in bags/.. abandoned at their doorstep’
‘Bags’ has connotations of body bags, creating a morbid image contrasted to the
colloquial language ‘toss’- normalised in India. Semantic eld of hiding things-
dehumanising- the children are indistinguishable from rubbish. Contrasts to American and
western ideals where birth is celebrated, where life usually has connotations of growth,
pleasure and experience in India depending on the health, colour and gender of the child
the connotations are completely juxtaposed. Where life usually distinguishes us from
inanimate objects- it is not seen like this in India (di erences between western and
eastern culture)
‘Bone or wood, something to chew’
As the list progresses each noun becomes less humane, links to ‘crippled or dark or
girls’ further objectifying them. Both lists portray baby girls as insigni cant and equal to
rubbish, even below stray animals ‘dug up by a dog’
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