In the second stanza, Amanda’s mother is inquiring whether she has completed her homework or not. Then she asks her whether she has cleaned her room or not. She is also reminding her to clean her shoes. At this moment, Amanda visualises her life as an orphan. She thinks that being an orphan, she can freely roam in the street. She has the freedom to peacefully draw designs on the soft dust with her uncovered feet. There is no one to say anything to an orphan, so she can have a silent, peaceful life full of freedom. Here, the poet says that she gets so irritated with her mother that she thinks the opposite. Her mother was advising her to clean her shoes so that she lives a hygienic and healthy life. But Amanda took it in another way that her mother is snatching her freedom. That’s why she starts imagining that the life of an orphan is better than hers.
In the third stanza, Amanda’s mother is not allowing her to eat chocolates. Whenever she eats chocolates, she gets pimples on her face. Her mother then tells her to listen to her when she is speaking. She wants Amanda to pay attention to her words and follow them. After listening to her mother’s words, Amanda imagines herself to be Rapunzel, a character in a fairy tale. Rapunzel was captured in a tower by a witch. The witch used to climb the tower with the help of Rapunzel’s long hair. So, Amanda wants to live Rapunzel’s life as she feels that she can live a calm and quiet life in a pleasant environment. But, she will never let her hair down to anyone, so that no one can enter the tower.
In the last stanza, Amanda’s mother warns her to stop behaving in an odd manner. She says that she has become moody and is always in a bad mood. If anyone would notice this, then they will feel that her mother is harassing her. The poet wants to convey that Amanda can’t even react to what she feels about her mother. If she does so, her mother will take it against her sense of pride and scold her to behave properly as other children do. Here, Amanda’s mother nature is shown to be very dominating.
Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Don’t bite your nails, Amanda!
Don’t hunch your shoulders, Amanda!
Stop that slouching and sit up straight,
Amanda!
(a) Amanda is getting instructions for what purpose?
(b) Give a synonym of ‘hunch’.
(c) What does the speaker of above lines instruct Amanda in the first stanza?
(d) What is the literary device used in the third line?
Answer
(a) Amanda is getting instructions as a part of her upbringing. Her conduct and manners are getting refined for future purposes.
(b) Bend.
(c) Amanda is getting instructed for biting her nails and sitting lazily with her shoulders bent.
(d) Literary device used in third line is Alliteration. ‘Stop that slouching and sit up straight’.
Amanda wishes to be a mermaid so she could drift alone by blissfully languid, emerald sea. She yearns to be an orphan so that she is able to roam the sea and make pattern using her bare feet. Being Rapunzel means she could live carefree on a high tower. Amanda wishes to be these so that she could avoid her suffocating reality.
long IMPORTANT QUESTION
State the key points in the poem Amanda. What do you learn from it? [CBSE2016]
Every child is special in itself, and it requires a great deal of patience and love to make them understand this. Parents should give proper space to children, as they learn through experiences as well. Children do tend to learn certain bad habits, to undo that requires great level of understanding and right approach. One cannot teach their child everything in one day and expect them to behave properly henceforth. It is natural for a child like Amanda to seek freedom at her place, to curb that freedom means to make her angry and moody. Growing up of child should not be about dos and don’ts only. To have nagging parents judging every action of child would do more harm than good. Robin Klein points to the fact that Amanda is forbidden to do anything without seeking permission. Everything she does it is corrected by her mother all the time, she cannot perform a single thing according to her will. She can’t sit lazily around, she can’t eat chocolate for that could cause acne. Life of Amanda is very suffocating and limited in itself. She yearns for freedom and choice. Her mother doesn’t understand the fact that Amanda is innocent and naive, she is too small to understand the benefits of advice. Only thing that matters to Amanda’s mother is what society will make of Amanda. We witness miserable failure of parents when Amanda wishes to be an orphan so that she could be free.
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thank you