Inhabiting and Transforming a Poem Exercise

Character by Taslima Nasrim

You're a girl

and you'd better not forget

that when you step over the threshold of your house

men will look askance at you.

When you keep on walking down the lane

men will follow you and whistle.

When you cross the lane and step onto the main road

men will revile you and call you a loose woman.



If you've got no character

you'll turn back,

and if not

you'll keep going

as you're going now.


2. When I first read this poem, I didn't react to it any differntly from any of the other poems that we've read thus far. Either I liked it or I didn't. However, I thought this poem was really interesting. I found it kind of uplifting for women and gave off a positive message. I think it is preparing a young girl or women in general for the real world. I really found the last part of the poem interesting when the author stated, "If you've got no character you'll turn back, and if not, you'll keep going as you're going now". I thought it was interesting how she referred to turning back as having no character. I thought this poem reminded me a lot of a mother or grandmother telling a young girl how to carry herself in public when she is passing or being approached by men.

3. The plot of this poem is a young lady should be mindful of how she carries herself when out in public, for a man will not hesitate to slander her name if she graces them with her presence.

4. The speaker of the poem can either be a man or a woman. The speaker is addressing a young girl. The speaker is older than the person he/she is talking to. The speaker could possibly be related to the listener by blood, such as a grandmother or mother or father or sibling.

5. I think the poem means that women are beautiful and have strength in everything we do. I think it means that a woman should not settle for anything less and if a man cannot approach her in a respectable fashion, then she has every right to walk away and not turn back.