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    The Girl Who Can

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    Hundzukani Manganyi
    The story is about a young girl named Adjoa in Ghana who is ridiculed by her grandmother for her thin legs. Adjoa struggles to express her feelings due to her grandmother's behavior. However, Adjoa's legs allow her to become a successful athlete and change her grandmother's negative view.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    The Girl Who Can

    Uploaded by

    Hundzukani Manganyi
    4K views7 pages
    The story is about a young girl named Adjoa in Ghana who is ridiculed by her grandmother for her thin legs. Adjoa struggles to express her feelings due to her grandmother's behavior. However, Adjoa's legs allow her to become a successful athlete and change her grandmother's negative view.

    Original Description:

    Grade 12 short story-The Girl Who Can.

    Original Title

    THE GIRL WHO CAN

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    © © All Rights Reserved

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    The story is about a young girl named Adjoa in Ghana who is ridiculed by her grandmother for her thin legs. Adjoa struggles to express her feelings due to her grandmother's behavior. However, Adjoa's legs allow her to become a successful athlete and change her grandmother's negative view.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    4K views7 pages

    The Girl Who Can

    Uploaded by

    Hundzukani Manganyi
    The story is about a young girl named Adjoa in Ghana who is ridiculed by her grandmother for her thin legs. Adjoa struggles to express her feelings due to her grandmother's behavior. However, Adjoa's legs allow her to become a successful athlete and change her grandmother's negative view.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 7

    THE GIRL WHO CAN

    Setting
     The story takes place in Ghana, Africa, in a village called Hasodzi.
     The main character walks five kilometres to reach the school in the nearby small
    town.
     The walks are not a problem for her as she is used to long walks in the village.

    Title
     Adjoa is the little girl who struggles to speak about her feelings. She is ridiculed by
    her grandmother because of her tiny legs.

    Themes
    Insecurity/Fear/Innocence
     The girl, Adjoa is not able to voice out her feelings because she fears that
    people would laugh at her.
     She allows her grandmother to ridicule her about her legs and she does not say
    anything.

    Gender Stereotype
     Nana, Adjoa’s grandmother makes fun of her granddaughter’s thin and long
    legs.
     She believes that a girl’s legs should have flesh in them and that is in preparation
    for the child-bearing stage.
    Conflict
     Nana and Maami (mother and daughter) argue about the choice of husband
    Maami has.Nana blames Maami’s choice of a husband for the type of child she
    has.
     The child, Adjoa, has skinny legs and that causes conflict between the two
    women. Maami does not see anything wrong with Adjoa’s legs while Nana
    thinks they are not acceptable.
    CHARACTERISATION

    Adjoa ● She is a seven year old girl.


    ● She is the narrator of the story.
    ● She is the main character.
    ● She has a fear of talking because of her grandmother’s behaviour
    towards her (Adjoa) statements.
    ● She has thin and long legs.
    ● She becomes an athlete by default.
    ● She is chosen to represent the school in the district’s athletic
    meetings.
    Nana ● She is Adjoa’s grandmother.
    ● She makes fun of Adjoa’s statements.
    ● She tells and retells Adjoa’s stories and laughs about them with
    anyone that visits their home.
    ● She does not think Adjoa should attend school.
    ● She does not agree with Kaya regarding Adjoa’s legs.
    ● She does not think Adjoa has suitable legs to carry hips that
    could allow her to bear children.
    ● She changes her mind when Adjoa becomes successful
    because of her long and thin legs.
    ● She is proud to walk with Adjoa, shows kindness towards her
    and even does favours for her.
    Maami/Kaya ● She is Adjo’s mother.
    ● She wants Adjoa to attend school and be better than her.
    ● She argues with Nana in support of Adjoa.
    ● She does not talk too much.
    Mr Mensah ● He is the neighbour to Adjoa’s family.
    ● He lends Nana a charcoal pressing iron for her to press Adjoa’s
    school uniform.
    Diction and figurative language
    ● The writer uses figurative language in order to emphasise meaning:
    IDIOMATIC EXPRESSION
    o ‘touch wood’

    ● Some examples of figures of speech in the story include:

    SIMILE:
    o ‘She carried the gleaming cup on her back, like

    they do with babies’(page 146)

    METAPHOR:
    o ‘Africa is not choking under a drought’ (page 142)

    o ‘Hasodzi lies in a very fertile lowland in a district’ (page 142)

    o ‘I came out of the land of sweet soft silence into

    the world of noise and comprehension,’ (page 143)


    o ‘But if any female child decided to come into this

    world with legs,’ (page 143)


    o ‘my mother was weeping inside herself.’(page 143)
    o ‘Nana would pull in something about my father.’ (page 144)
    o ‘felt that she was locked into some kind of
    darkness’ (page 145)
    o ‘it caught the rays of the sun and shone brighter’ (page 146)

    IRONY:
    o ‘some other things I say would not only be alright,

    but would be considered so funny, they would be


    repeated so many times for so many people’s
    enjoyment.’(pages 142-143)
    Tone and Mood
    Tone:
    ● An apprehensive tone.

    This tone is used by the narrator/Adjoa to show the state of


    her mind at the beginning of the story.

    ● A harsh/cruel/mocking tone
    This tone is used by Nana, Adjoa’s grandmother when
    she makes comments about her legs.

    ● Cheerful tone
    Nana’s tone changes when she realises that Adjoa is
    becoming successful because of her long and thin legs.

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