Jackie Kay The title of the poem which we are going to be studying is My Grandmothers Houses What ideas does the title give you about what the poem is going to be about You are going to read the poem and then do some work on it ID: 749279
Download Presentation The PPT/PDF document "My Grandmother ’ s Houses" is the property of its rightful owner. Permission is granted to download and print the materials on this web site for personal, non-commercial use only, and to display it on your personal computer provided you do not modify the materials and that you retain all copyright notices contained in the materials. By downloading content from our website, you accept the terms of this agreement.
Slide1
My Grandmother’s HousesJackie Kay Slide2
The title of the poem which we are going to be studying is ‘My Grandmother’s Houses
’.
What ideas does the title give you about what the poem is going to be about?
You are going to read the poem and then do some work on it.Slide3
1
She
is on the second floor of a tenement.
From
her front room window you see the cemetery.
Her
bedroom is my favourite: newspapers
dating
back to the War covering every present
5 S
he
’
s
ever got since the War.
What
’
s
the point
in
buying her anything my mother moans.
Does
she use it. Does she even look at it.
I
spend hours unwrapping and wrapping endless
tablecloths
, napkins, perfume, bath salts,
10 stories
of things I
can
’
t
understand, words
like
conscientious objector. At night I climb
over
all the newspaper parcels to get to bed,
harder
than the
school
’
s
obstacle course. High up
in
her bed all the print merges together
.Slide4
15 When
she gets the letter she is hopping mad.
What
does she want with anything modern,
a
shiny new pin? Here is home.
The
sideboard solid as a coffin.
The
newsagents next door which sells
20 hazelnut
toffees and her Daily Record.
Chewing
for ages over the front page,
her
toffees sticking to her false teeth.Slide5
2
The
new house is called a high rise.
I
play in the lift all the way
up
to 24.
25 Once
I get stuck for a whole hour.
From
her window you see noisy kids
playing
hopscotch or home.
She
makes endless pots of vegetable soup,
a
bit bit of
hoch
floating inside like a fish.Slide6
30 Till
finally she gets to like the hot
running
water in her own bathroom,
the
wall-to-wall foam-backed carpet,
the
parcels locked in her air-raid shelter.
But
she still
doesn’t
settle down;
35 even
at 70 she cleans
people’s
houses
for
ten bob and goes to church on Sundays,
dragging
me along to the strange place where the air
is
trapped and ghosts sit at the altar.
My
parents do not believe. It is down to her.
40 A
couple of prayers. A hymn or two.
Threepenny
bit in the collection hat.
A
flock of women in coats and fussy hats
flapping
over me like
missionaires
, and that is that,
until
the next time God grabs me in Glasgow with Gran.Slide7
3
45 By
the time I am seven we are almost the same height.
She
still walks faster, rushing me down the High Street
till
we get to her cleaning house. The hall is huge.
Rooms
lead off like an
octopus’s
arms.
I
sit in a room with a grand piano, top open –
50 a
one-winged creature, whilst my gran polishes
for
hours. Finally bored I start to pick some notes,
oh
can you wash a
sailor’s
shirt oh can you wash and clean
till
my gran comes running, duster in hand.
I
told you
don't
touch anything. The woman comes too;
55 the
posh one all smiles that make
goosepimples
run
up my arms. Would you like to sing me a song?Slide8
Someone’s crying my Lord
Kumbaya
. Lovely, she says,
beautiful child, skin the colour of café au
lait
.
‘Café oh what? Hope she’s not being any bother.’
60 Not at all. Not at all. You just get back to your work.
On the way to her high rise I see her
like the hunchback of Notre Dame.
Everytime
I crouch
over a comic she slaps me. Sit up straight.
She
is on the ground floor of a high rise.
65 From
her living-room you see ambulances,
screaming
their way to the Royal Infirmary.Slide9
My Grandmother
’
s Houses
First Impressions
In pairs, discuss these questions:
What are your
initial thoughts
on the poem?
What
language techniques
does the writer use?
What is she
trying to say
by using these techniques?Slide10
My Grandmother
’
s
Houses
What’s
it about?
The poem is a
monologue
told by a female persona describing the time she spends with her grandmother, both at her
grandmother’s
homes (initially a tenement and then a high rise block of flats) and the house her grandmother cleans for a living.
It explores
ideas about the
passage
of time
and
intergenerational / family
relationships
. Slide11
You are now going to
colour
code
the
annotations
on your copy of the
powerpoint
.Slide12
My Grandmother
’
s Houses
In this poem, the poet simultaneously
recreates her childhood experiences
and voices her
adult perceptions of her grandmother
.
Each section
of the poem describes a
different house
, each flat reflecting
different aspects of her life, work and personality
.
This structure enables Jackie Kay to create a
vivid, memorable portrait of her grandmother.
What is it about?Slide13
My Grandmother
’
s Houses
- Structure
Opening and closing stanzas
The
poem is framed by
two short stanzas
which locate where the grandmother lives.
It opens on the
“second
floor of a tenement
.”
The view of the
“cemetery” suggests somewhere peaceful
The final stanza is set on the
“ground
floor of a high
rise”
where the grandmother has been rehoused. There is a contrast of mood - the
“screaming ambulances”
suggest that modern society will do little to soothe the elderly woman in her last days.Slide14
Three sections - three houses
The
body of the poem is divided into three sections. Each one describes a different
house(s)
connected to the grandmother:
The
FIRST SECTION
describes
the grandmother’s
tenement flat
, focusing on the child’s
“
favourite
place”
- the bedroom filled with the clutter and
“newspaper parcels”.The SECOND depicts the modern “high rise”
flat
the poet's grandmother moved to in the late 1960s. We learn of the grandmother's attempts at
“settling in”
while maintaining her routine: her work and church visits.The THIRD and final section is about the “cleaning house” where the grandmother works, and this introduces themes of class and the old versus the younger generation.
My
Grandmother
’
s Houses
- StructureSlide15
Free verse
The
poem is written in
free verse
with a strong colloquial style.
This
allows Kay to weave the different voices
into
her poem - child, mother, grandmother, the posh woman.
My
Grandmother
’
s Houses
- FormSlide16
My Grandmother
’
s Houses
- Themes
Sense of the
‘
standards
’
of the older generation
– work ethic, religious sensibilities, asceticism.
Sense of the child’s awe
at the grandmother’s life /possessions.
Explores ideas about
displacement
– physical and temporal.Also looks at notions of
traditional versus modern ways of life
– is embracing the new a rejection of the past?Slide17
In ‘My Grandmother’s Houses,’ Jackie Kay uses different settings (houses) to describe her grandmother’s personality and give an insight into her childhood experiences.Slide18
Kay gives us insight into her grandmother’s personality and life style through the eyes of her younger self, as well as reflecting from an adult perspective on her childhood.
This gives details of her grandmother, but also of the world Kay grew up in, with its elements of class division and condescending authority. It is clear that Kay had a close connection with her grandmother.Slide19
1
She
is on the second floor of a tenement.
From
her front room window you see the cemetery.
Rhythm / internal
rhyme
links
‘tenement’
to
‘cemetery’
. Suggestion that these are the two destinations in life.
The poem opens with a
personal
pronoun
.
This suggests a sense of detachment – the distance of memory or the distance between our modern lives and the post-war hoarding of the grandmother.
Kay then uses another
pronoun
–
she addresses the reader directly and continues to do so throughout the poem.
It is as if she is opening the door of her grandmother’s house and showing us her home and her world.Slide20
Her bedroom is my favourite: newspapers
dating
back to the War covering every present
5 S
he
’
s
ever got since the War.
What
’
s
the point
in
buying her anything my mother moans.
Repetition of ‘War’ and
‘every’ / ‘ever’
– sense of the child’s perception of the length of time that has passed and the mystery of such a hoarding. Sense of awe conveyed.
Alliteration
focuses on the disgruntlement of the mother.
The second stanza introduces a detailed
description
of a room laden with clutter.
The
repetition
suggests
the sheer amount of stuff there is.Slide21
Does she use it. Does she even look at it.
I
spend hours unwrapping and wrapping endless
tablecloths
, napkins, perfume, bath salts,
The mother is moaning. These seem
to be questions
but are
not punctuated as such.
The inevitability
of the answers turns them into statements.
Her attitude contrasts
with the wonder of the child.
T
he
number of items
is emphasised,
but also the time spent in the simple activity.
To the child, these objects equal a game – there is a childlike sense of wonder as she unwraps and wraps the parcels, just as her grandmother once did.
Enjambment
(run on line) forces a lack of
pause before the list. Slide22
Does she use it. Does she even look at it.
I
spend hours unwrapping and wrapping endless
tablecloths
, napkins, perfume, bath salts
,
The
list
suggests the number of items. They are all
frivolous, gifts
for gifts’ sake – not necessarily practical or useful.
As a result, they have been put aside, yet
not discarded.
The grandmother seems like a hoarder. Slide23
stories of things I can
’
t understand, words
like conscientious objector. At night I climb
over all the newspaper parcels to get to bed,
harder than the school
’
s obstacle course. High up
in her bed all the print merges together.
Ambiguous
link back to the newspapers that contain the gifts: are they more of a gift to the child?
Enjambment
emphasises how high
the
child feels she is climbing.
This stresses how little she is in comparison to the parcels – she is clearly remembering herself as a small child.
Continues
the sense of wonder at the quantity of parcels.Slide24
stories of things I can
’
t understand, words
like conscientious objector. At night I climb
over all the newspaper parcels to get to bed,
harder than the school
’
s obstacle course. High up
in her bed all the print merges together.
Further emphasises the sense
of her smallness among the
vast
number of
parcels
and, again, there is an element of play.
Enjambment
to emphasise
the dual
reading: sense of awe and literal height of the bed to the child. Slide25
15 When she gets the letter she is hopping mad.
What
does she want with anything modern,
a shiny new pin? Here is home.
The
sideboard solid as a coffin.
D
efinitive article
- officialdom
. There is no ‘other’ letter.
Grandmother’s words – links back to the gifts that are unwanted.
Just as there is a sense that the grandmother did not need or want the presents she has received, here we see the grandmother’s animosity towards a new flat.
Metaphor
– the
‘new pin’
=
the new house; modernity.
Suggests the
energy of the
grandmother. Slide26
15 When she gets the letter she is hopping mad.
What
does she want with anything modern,
a shiny new pin? Here is home.
The
sideboard solid as a coffin.
Simile
– this gives the sense that this
is the place she expected to live and die in.
Links back
to the first couplet –
‘tenement’ / ‘cemetery’.
Alliteration
- emphasises
her connection to the tenement.
The short
declarative
statement
conveys a degree of poignancy which makes the reader
sympathise
with the grandmother - she does not want to move and be wrenched away from familiar surroundings
.Slide27
The newsagents next door which sells
20 hazelnut
toffees and her Daily Record.
Chewing
for ages over the front page,
her
toffees sticking to her false teeth.
Familiarity – it’s ‘her’ paper.
This shows her ownership
and position in
the community
.
She is surrounded be the
known and the familiar. Slide28
2
The
new house is called a high rise.
I
play in the lift all the way
up
to 24.
25 Once
I get stuck for a whole hour.
As in the first stanza, the new house is immediately introduced through the child’s
eyes.
Again, we get a sense of the house being linked to a
child’s sense of
play.
Exoticism
; sounds alien and
modern.
The building seems an
incredible height; almost
unimaginably tall. Slide29
From her window you see noisy kids
playing
hopscotch or home.
She
makes endless pots of vegetable soup,
a
bit bit of
hoch
floating inside like a fish.
Despite the element of fun for the child, Kay notes the obvious difficulties her grandmother now
faces – her
v
iew outside has
changed from the
peace
of the cemetery to
noisy children playing
.
Ambiguous
– could be about the noisy intrusion of the young and new, or the arrival of life and vibrancy.
Again,
there is a
sense of wonder from the child.
The soup is made
from
scratch with stock made from a
‘
hoch
’
(
a
knuckle of meat, especially
pork
or
ham)
and for the girl this is like a
remnant of another life.
Simile
–
seems almost a magical production. Slide30
30 Till finally she gets to like the hot
running
water in her own bathroom,
the wall-to-wall foam-backed carpet,
the
parcels locked in her air-raid shelter.
The high rise flat is described in
purely functional
terms. It is very different to her cluttered tenement.
Strange image of the parcels locked in the shelter.
The shelter
must be in the tenement garden, not at the high
rise, but she has not totally rejected the unwanted gifts.
They are kept
locked
away, but have not been
thrown
away, possibly suggesting that she clings on to the remnants
of
her old
life?
The comforts of modern life conflict with the grandmother’s sense of
anti-asceticism
(
avoiding of all forms of
indulgence)
.
She
finally
comes to accept
the trappings of a more comfortable life. Slide31
But she still
doesn’t
settle down;
35 even
at 70 she cleans
people’s
houses
for
ten bob and goes to church on Sundays,
Suggestions of other houses connected to the grandmother – those she cleans and her church.
Work
ethic - even
in old age she works for a living.
This phrase could imply she never fully feels at home here. It also suggests that she refuses to stop her busy routine, even at the age of seventy.Slide32
dragging me along to the strange place where the air
is trapped and ghosts sit at the altar.
My parents do not believe. It is down to her.
Word choice -
‘dragging’
– suggests
the child’s reluctance to go to church
.
‘strange place’
–
the girl does not feel at ease there.
Word choice -
‘
trapped’
suggests
staleness
/age.
‘ghosts’
– things past and lost but somehow still in the air
(possible link
to
the grandmother’s old
way of life? Her husband?).
The girl
seems as uncomfortable in
the church as
her grandmother is in her new house.Slide33
dragging me along to the strange place where the air
is trapped and ghosts sit at the altar.
My parents do not believe. It is down to her.
The speaker’s
parents are not religious – another moving away from an older, more traditional way.
This ambiguous statement suggests that there is a direct link between the girl and her grandmother - a relationship that her parents are not part of. The grandmother is the only link to this world.
But it also suggests a separation between the two. Does the girl not believe because of how she has been raised?Slide34
40 A couple of prayers. A hymn or two.
Threepenny
bit in the collection hat.
A flock of women in coats and fussy hats
flapping over me like
missionaries
, and that is that,
until the next time God grabs me in Glasgow with Gran.
Despite the insistence of the ritual,
it seems
almost tokenistic.
The minor sentences
do
not suggest real religious commitment. It seems the child is going through the motions – acting out a routine.
Alliteration
- focuses
reader on their excitement about the girl.
Metaphor -
their
community but also
a link
to the good shepherd.
Simile
–
comparison to saving the souls of
non-believers. Slide35
40 A couple of prayers. A hymn or two.
Threepenny
bit in the collection hat.
A flock of women in coats and fussy hats
flapping over me like
missionaires
, and that is that,
until the next time God grabs me in Glasgow with Gran.
Alliteration
– emphasises the
sporadic
(
occurring at irregular
intervals)
nature of such events. But
the last line signals the child making a connection between
‘God’
and
‘Gran’.
The
capitalised
‘G’ and
the use of
alliteration
hint at the impact these Sundays in
church
had on her.Slide36
3
45 By
the time I am seven we are almost the same height.
She
still walks faster, rushing me down the High Street
till
we get to her cleaning house. The hall is
huge.
Rooms
lead off like an
octopus’s
arms.
The speaker
growing up
, and the
grandmother seems smaller.
Despite this,
there is still
a sense of her
vigour and energy being undiminished: there are standards and responsibilities to be met.
Alliteration and long vowels
emphasise the child’s sense of wonder at the size of the house.
Simile
–
again the child’s perception of the number of rooms and corridors
.
To the young girl, the cleaning house is a
strange,
surreal
environment. The simile suggests
the alien nature and scale of the
house.
The third section suggests time passing.Slide37
I sit in a room with a grand piano, top open –
50 a
one-winged creature, whilst my gran polishes
for
hours. Finally bored I start to pick some notes,
oh
can you wash a
sailor’s
shirt oh can you wash and
clean till
my gran comes running, duster in hand
.
I
told you don't touch anything. The woman comes too;
Metaphor
– the piano seems fantastic or mythical / exotic. This conveys
the girl’s feelings of wonder on first seeing such an object, as well as her growing imagination.
Enjambment – break to emphasise the length of time cleaning.
H
yperbole
(exaggeration) to
demonstrate the work put in to clean the house. Contrast with the fantastical piano – the mundane vs. the exciting.
Wry
humour
– you can only touch it if you are cleaning it.
This is the
only access to this kind of
world for people like them.Slide38
I
told you don't touch anything. The woman comes too;
55
the
posh one all smiles that make
goosepimples
run
up my arms. Would you like to sing me a song
?
Someone’s
crying my Lord
Kumbaya
. Lovely, she says,
beautiful child, skin the colour of café au lait. ‘Café oh what? Hope she’s not being any bother.’
60
Not
at all. Not at all. You just get back to your work.
The introduction of the ‘posh’ employer brings a new voice to the poem.
It is interesting that
the woman’s
language is inaccessible to the
grandmother. It
suggests that the women are of different classes, with different ways of speaking
.
The class differences established in the cleaning of the house are made clearer.
Her tone is
patronising
.
This is the
grandmother’s
role, the only reason she is in the house. Slide39
On the way to her high rise I see her
like the hunchback of Notre Dame.
Everytime
I crouch
over a comic she slaps me. Sit up straight.
Simile
– image
of her bent over but also of the high rise like a bell tower.
This hints
at a character separate from the rest of society with her old ways in her high rise flat.
Despite her
detachment,
she insists on her standards, issuing simple
commands.
This takes us back
to the
idea
of standards from another
time and shows us the
grandmother’s demanding perspective.
Alliteration-
‘crouches ... comic’
and
‘sit ... straight’
emphasises the difference between the generations.
Contrast
between
the
‘hunchback’
posture of the
grandmother and her demands for the girl.Slide40
She
is on the ground floor of a high rise.
65 From
her living-room you see ambulances,
screaming
their way to the Royal Infirmary.
Return to the
structure
of the opening couplet but with key shifts.
Again, t
he
view from her
window is described, but t
he
view is now
of ambulances from
the ground floor and not
the cemetery from the
second
floor. Does this suggest a drop in status?
The sounds are
also different
–
rather than
the peaceful, fuss-free silence of the
cemetery there is now
the noisy, jarring, modern
‘ambulances, screaming
’
to the
hospital.
The room is a
‘living room’
and not a
‘front room’
– change of function from the room for good to the room to live in.
Personification
-
immediately makes us think of the urgency of modern living.Slide41
She
is on the ground floor of a high rise.
65 From
her living-room you see ambulances,
screaming
their way to the Royal Infirmary.
Personification
-
immediately makes us think of the urgency of modern living.
The
reference to
ambulances / the hospital
also anticipates her death, bringing an image of sadness to the end of the poem.
By moving home, the grandmother has been forced to experience this world. Slide42
Overview notes
Written
in three sections – each seems to focus on a different house: (1) the tenement, (2) the high rise (and the church), (3) the house she cleans.
Deals with standards of behaviour, ideas about credos followed by generations (specifically the post-war generation).
Ideas about work ethic, manners, class and religious adherence also touched upon. The grandmother seems somewhat austere and Calvinist in her perspective. Slide43
Overview notes
The
physical displacement of the grandmother from tenement to high rise mirrors her temporal displacement – she becomes ‘out of her time’ as ties to the past are eroded by modern life; speaker/poem recognises the importance of those ties, embodied by the grandmother.
Poem replicates – in an appropriately episodic, disjointed manner – the formative memories of being a young child.Slide44
Exploring ‘My Grandmother’s Houses’
In groups of 4:
How many houses are referred to in the poem?
Identify
the
four houses.Slide45
Tenement
High Rise
Church
Posh Woman’s Big HouseSlide46
In groups of 4:D
raw an
outline
of each
of these houses on
a sheet of A3
paper.
You will be given a
list of
statements
. Match each statement to the correct house and stick it on the appropriate picture.
Leave a gap after each statement.Slide47
The house has modern conveniences.
The grandmother doesn’t live here.
The furniture is large and solid.
The house is large.
Things are hoarded in the bedroom.
The grandmother feels uncomfortable.
The name of the house sounds strange
The house is claustrophobic.
The view from the window is of gravestones.
The speaker doesn’t enjoy being in this house.
The grandmother has been going to this house for a long time.
There is very little to entertain the speaker.
The house takes time to get used to.
The house belongs to someone else.
Children play outside.
The grandmother makes comforting food.
The house is next to a shop.
The house contains memories of the past.
The house has imposing items in it.
The building the house is in is enormous.
The house is full of history.
The grandmother meets her friends here.
The grandmother spends a lot of time here.
The grandmother enjoys living there.
The house is not for playing in.
Slide48
The T
enement
The
view from the window is of gravestones.
Things
are hoarded in the bedroom.
The
house is next to a shop.
The
grandmother enjoys living there.
The
house is full of history.
The
furniture is large and solid.
Slide49
The H
igh
R
ise
Children play outside
.
The house takes time to get used to
.
The house has modern conveniences
.
The name of the house sounds strange
.
The building the house is in is enormous
.
The grandmother feels uncomfortable
.
The grandmother makes comforting food.Slide50
The
Church
The grandmother doesn’t live here
.
The grandmother meets her friends here
.
The speaker doesn’t enjoy being in this house
.
The house is claustrophobic
.
The house contains memories of the past.
The grandmother has been going to this house for a long time.Slide51
The
Posh
W
oman’s
H
ouse
The house is large
.
There is very little to entertain the speaker
.
The house belongs to someone else
.
The grandmother spends a lot of time here
.
The house is not for playing in
.
The house has imposing items in it.Slide52
Each member of the group is now going to take
one of the houses and
provide
evidence
from the poem to support each statement
.
Write the
quotes
on the sheet next to the relevant statement.Slide53
The
view from the window is of
gravestones:
‘She
is on the second floor of a
tenement.
From
her
front
room window you see the
cemetery’
Things
are hoarded in the
bedroom:
‘
Newspapers
/
dating back to the War covering every present she’s ever got since the War.’
‘I
spend hours unwrapping and wrapping
endless
tablecloths
, napkins, perfume, bath
salts’
The
house is next to a
shop:
‘The
newsagents next door which sells
hazelnut
toffees and her Daily Record
.’
The TenementSlide54
The
grandmother enjoys living
there:
‘When
she gets the letter she is hopping mad.
What does she want with anything modern,
a shiny new pin? Here is home
.’
The
house is full of
history:
‘Newspapers
/
dating
back to the War covering every present
she’s
ever got since the War
.’
‘stories of things I can’t understand, words
like
conscientious objector
.’
The
furniture is large and
solid:
‘The
sideboard solid as a coffin
.’
The TenementSlide55
Children
play
outside:
‘From
her window you see noisy kids
playing
hopscotch or home
.’
The
house takes time to get used
to:
‘She
makes endless pots of vegetable soup,
a bit
bit
of
hoch
floating inside like a fish.
Till
finally she gets to like the hotrunning water in her own bathroom’
The
house has modern
conveniences:
‘I
play in the lift all the way up to 24
.’
‘Hot
/
running
water in her own bathroom,
the
wall-to-wall foam-backed
carpet’
The High RiseSlide56
The
name of the house sounds
strange:
‘The
new house is called a high rise
.’
The
building the house is in is
enormous:
‘I
play in the lift all the way up to 24
.’
The
grandmother feels
uncomfortable:
‘She
makes endless pots of vegetable soup,
a bit
bit
of
hoch floating inside like a fish.Till finally she gets to like the hot
running water in her own
bathroom’
The
grandmother makes comforting
food:
‘She
makes endless pots of vegetable soup,
a
bit
bit
of
hoch
floating inside like a fish
.’
The High RiseSlide57
The
grandmother doesn’t live
here:
‘goes
to church on Sundays
,’
The grandmother
meets her friends
here:
‘A
flock of women in coats and fussy hats
flapping
over me like
missionaires
’
The speaker
doesn’t enjoy being in this
house:
‘dragging me along to the strange place where the airis trapped and ghosts sit at the altar.’
The ChurchSlide58
The
house is
claustrophobic:
‘the
strange place where the
air
/
is trapped’
The
house contains memories of the
past:
‘ghosts
sit at the altar
.’
The grandmother
has been going to this house for a long
time:
‘goes to church on Sundays’The ChurchSlide59
The
house is
large:
‘The
hall is huge.
Rooms
lead off like an octopus’s arms
.’
There
is very little to entertain the
speaker:
‘my
gran polishes
for
hours. Finally bored I start to pick some
notes’
The
house belongs to someone
else:‘till we get to her cleaning house…’
‘The
woman comes too;
the
posh one all smiles that make
goosepimples
run up my arms
.’
The Posh Woman’s HouseSlide60
The
grandmother spends a lot of time
here:
‘whilst
my gran polishes
for hours
.’
The
house is not for playing
in:
‘I
told you don’t touch anything
.’
The
house has imposing items in
it:
‘I
sit in a room with a grand piano, top open
–
a one-winged creature’
The Posh Woman’s HouseSlide61
Themes
Family
relationships
The
bond between grandmother and granddaughter is vividly portrayed. The poem begins with a child’s wonder at the grandmother’s hoarding and develops to explore visits to church and to accompany her grandmother to work.
There
is obvious affection between the two. The girl seems to experience her grandmother’s world with real intensity:
‘unwrapping and wrapping’
the collected parcels
watching her grandmother making soup
going with her to church
taking in the strange environment of the ‘cleaning house’
These
are poignant moments from childhood. They act as reminders of the bond between generations and the differences between the young and the old
.Slide62
Themes
Family
relationships
There
is a suggestion that the girl and her grandmother have a closer relationship than the mother and grandmother. The mother seems exasperated with the grandmother's refusal to use any of the presents she has been given. In contrast the child accepts that these parcels are part of the grandmother's personality.Slide63
Themes
Old Age
The grandmother’s strength and energy are obvious in this poem. But there is still a degree of vulnerability about her. We are told about the grandmother's
‘false teeth
’,
that the girl and grandmother are
‘almost
the same
height’
and later she is like
‘the
hunchback of Notre
Dame’.
Although the grandmother stays as busy as ever, her body is aging
.
There
are images of death throughout the poem:‘the cemetery’‘the sideboard solid as a
coffin’
‘ghosts
sit at the
altar’‘ambulances, screaming’The grandmother seems unworried about reminders of death in the place she calls home. Perhaps she accepts death as part of her existence.Slide64
Themes
Old Age
Kay makes it clear there are other factors bound up with this concept of home: the daily routine, the familiar newsagent next door. All contribute to the woman’s security. As with many older people, she is comforted by her routine and what she knows. So it is no wonder that she is ‘hopping mad’ when she, aged 70, is forced to move.
The line
‘But she still doesn’t settle down’
suggest that she never really fits in to her new
‘high rise’
despite the hot running water and mod cons. She is resilient and continues to work, but we feel sympathy for her as she tries to preserve standards and traditions which have no meaning for the next generation.Slide65
Themes
Childhood
Many children spend time with grandparents and will share similar experiences to those in the poem. Kay portrays a mix of the alien and the mundane, of wonder and boredom that suggests a loving relationship but
recognises
the differences between
different generations
.
The tenement filled with
‘tablecloths, napkins, perfumes, bath salts’
intrigues the child, and she recalls climbing over the parcels to get into bed as if she is in a fairy tale.
There are moments of play in the poem (going up in the lift to floor 24) and moments where the grandmother’s world is a mystery – a
‘strange place where the air is trapped
’. The young child also gets bored at having to accompany her grandmother to church and wait for her as she cleans the house. She recalls instructions from her grandmother
‘I told you don’t touch anything’
and
‘Sit up straight’
and an image of her stooped over ‘like the hunchback of Notre Dame’, which again brings in an element of fantasy, so familiar in childhood.Slide66
Areas of comparison
‘
Lucozade
’
‘My Grandmother’s Houses’ portrays a spirited woman who takes on the challenges of life wholeheartedly. We see a similar strength of will in the mother figure in ‘
Lucozade
’ who refuses to be surrounded by the trappings of an invalid.
The grandmother is also particular about gifts and maintains her routine and standards despite her age. Both are determined and unconventional in their
behaviour
.
‘Bed’
The vigorous grandmother contrasts with the elderly woman in ‘Bed’. She lacks the strength to do things for herself. Her routine is not one of her choice - it is a mundane, passive existence.
However both women are linked by their separation from the rest of life. The woman in bed has lost track of what goes on in her
neighbourhood
. And the grandmother seems out of place in her new flat in the high rise.