Critical Summary of Grand Mother
Ray Young Bear
In this poem, the poet draws the picture of his grand
mother, all loving, inspiring. The poet figure out cultural identity of
American Indian or Misquaki people. In their culture, they provide high owner
to their grandmother. The women work in the field. They were typical close;
however their culture is nowadays not pure. The purple scarf and the plastic
shopping bag is not their cultural apparition even after grandmother death, the
poet remembers her.
If the poet saw her from a long distance, he would tell that
she was his grand mother. There are certain features to know, she would were a
purple scarf and go market with plastic shopping bag. The “Purple Scarf” and
the “Plastic Shopping Bag” represent our sense of sight. She would come home
back working in the field. She would wash her hands. Her hands were wet and had
the smell of roots. Due to the smell of roots he could recognize her without
looking at her. She would work in the field so there was smell. This smell made
him recognize her. “Smelling of roots” represent sense of smelling. She would
touch his head and would care it. He would know it was her hand. “Touching his
head” represent sense of feeling. Some times he would imagine to have heard
Noise from the tombstone voice coming form a rock attracts sense of hearing.
The rock is metaphorically the tombstone of his grandmother from the very sound
he would recognize her. Her words coming from the rock would inspire him like
the light of some one stirring ashes from a sleeping fire at night. In this way
the poet finds her grandmother all loving all inspiring.
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