An Unknown Girl

Imran Hyder 4th Period English
An Unknown Girl
An Unknown Girl is written by the poet Moniza Alvi. Moniza Alvi is a renowned Pakistani-British writer. Her mother is British and her father is from Pakistan. She was born in Pakistan and later moved to the United Kingdom. This could reflect why An Unknown Girl is about the struggle Alvi or The Unknown Girl has trying to relocate her cultural identity and cling onto it in a nation where the culture is slowly drifting away and being replaced by western culture.
Alvi uses enjambment in the poem to create flow. Except for two single end-stopped lines, the reader encounters enjambment throughout the poem. If she breaks the flow of the poem it is similar to her breaking her cultural connection with India. The enitre poem is composed of one single stanza, the single stanza could represent Moinza’s connection to India in which breaking the stanza would represent breaking her cultural connection to India and her identity.
The single stanza could also represent a single point of view or perspective as the entire poem is told in the single perspective on Moniza Alvi. The fact that the poem is one stanza also emphasizes that she wants it to come out as one outburst or one thought at one given time. This creates one long flowing story that she doesn’t want to end. It’s a pattern that will continue to repeat and has no defined beginning or end.
Moniza Alvi chose to write this entire poem in the style of free verse. The reason the poem is written in free verse is because free verse is the closest form of writing to spoken word and human speech. The poem comes out as a monologue similar to spoken word.
The poem is centered to display that Moniza Alvi is also in the center or in the middle. Moniza Alvi is in-between two cultures and centered in the same manner that the poem is centered on the page. She is neither Indian nor British; she is just awkwardly in between the two.
Repetition of a few phrases helps remind the reader of the location and the theme. The first phrase that is repeated is “In the evening bazaar.” The reason the author repeats this is to remind the reader that regardless of what is going on throughout the poem, the evening bazaar is always there; it also emphasizes the Indian culture. “An Unknown Girl” is also repeated throughout the poem. The word “unknown” is repeated four times throughout the poem and creates a sense uncertainty and mystery.
Single end-stopped lines within this poem put emphasis on certain lines. The first single end-stopped line is, “I have new brown veins.” This line represents her rebirth into the Indian culture as the henna becomes part of her. The reason this is a single end-stopped line is to emphasize on her new brown veins. She gives her new brown veins a new sentence to signify a new beginning. The second single end-stopped line is, “It will fade in a week,” this a short sentence to elaborate on the fact that a week is a short period of time.
The title of the poem ­An Unknown Girl is reflective of the author’s lack of identity. The “an” in the title shows that although the unknown girl is her, it is not exclusively her. She is just one of a multitude of unknown girls, none of which are particularly special. The usage of the word “unknown” creates a sense of uncertainty and mystery that lasts throughout the poem. She is from two different countries and the use of the word “unknown” creates emphasis on the fact that she is a stranger to both of them.
Moniza Alvi uses exotic eastern phrases to put emphasis on the location of the poem. The phrase “evening bazaar” is repeated three times throughout the poem. The repetition of the exotic word “bazaar” throughout the poem reminds the reader of the eastern setting.
Moniza Alvi uses neon to remind the reader that alongside India, the bazaar is being westernized. In the beginning of the poem the evening bazaar was “studded with neon.” As time passed and the end of the poem arrived, it had become a complete “neon bazaar.” Neon reminds the reader of westernization and Time Square whereas the phrase bazaar reminds the reader of the east and classical India. This implies that as time has passed the bazaar, which was once only studded with neon, has slowly become more and more western until the end of the poem when the bazaar was fully and utterly westernized.
Moniza Alvi uses metaphors to describe the henna tattoo. Moniza Alvi uses the metaphor, “she is icing my hand” to describe the resemblance between icing a cake and a henna tattoo. Her hand is being decorated in a similar manner to a cake being decorated, they both are only temporary. She also uses this term because she is internalizing her henna tattoo in the same manner that people internalize cake. Alvi uses the term “squeezes” to describe how India is being squeezed onto her in the same manner that the henna is being squeezed onto her. This could also relate to how icing is squeezed out of an icing bag onto a cake and henna is squeezed from a henna bag onto a hand.
Moniza Alvi describes her Indian heritage as a shadow. She refers to her dress as a “shadow stitched Kameez.” Kameez emphasizes the Indian culture as it is an Indian type of dress and becomes synonymous with Indian heritage. Although a shadow stitch is an actual type of stitching, she is most likely referring to her Indian heritage as Kameez has become synonymous for as a shadow. Her heritage follows her around wherever she goes as a shadow yet it is never truly part of her.
The peacock spreading its wings is personification and the peacock itself could possibly represent Alvi’s Indian culture. The “peacock” is the national bird of India and represents pride and beauty. The peacock “spreading its lines” on Alvi’s hands creates a sense of imagery, the reader can imagine the peacock spreading its lines similar to the Indian culture spreading itself on Alvi in the same manner. Alvi uses the personification of colorful balloons to show the reader that Indian culture is being westernized. When she writes, “colors leave the street, float up in balloons,” she uses personification to show that the colors which represent Indian culture are floating away in balloons. The colors in the balloons represent the colorful heritage of India. The fact that the colors are floating away show how hard it will be to regain the culture of India once it has floated away. The balloons floating away also emphasize the fact that time is passing as the poem continues. The dummies are personified to display the looks of confusion that Moniza Alvi typically gets from the people who are around her wherever she goes. The dummies “tilt and stare” similarly to people from India and Britain who both believe Moniza Alvi is not one of them. This allows the reader to relate to Moniza Alvi if they come from families with a similar background. Moniza Alvi is trying to say that no matter where she goes she never truly fits in and is always met by funny glares from the locals. Moniza tries to display that India is very behind the western world in what is going on. The banner from “1993” emphasizes how behind India is in comparison to the western world where it was already a decade later. When I visit India there is always a huge banner for technology that has come out years ago in the western world. The gap in technology emphasizes that although India is becoming more like the western world, there will always be a large gap between the two, similar to the internal gap between Moniza. Moniza shows that India is westernized and has westernized concepts of beauty. This is shown when she speaks of the banners for “Miss India.” A beauty pageant is considered to be a very western event, at beauty pageants western ideals of beauty are exhibited. The fact that there is a beauty pageant in India displays the merging cultures and emerging cultural norms in India. Moniza Alvi uses single stop lines to put emphasis on a point. An example of this is on line 27, Moniza Alvi states, “I have new brown veins.” She makes this a single stop-line and a brand new sentence to emphasize her brand new veins. This creates emphasis on the point and makes it its own thought all on its own. Moniza Alvi compared herself clinging on to her Indian roots to someone clinging onto a train to emphasize how she felt about her Indian roots and that she was ready to “cling” on to these roots. This simile creates a sense of desperation to keep her Indian roots with her to same extent that someone clinging on to train would want to stay on. This shows how much she yearns to finally be able to identify with India.
Moniza Alvi used personification of the streets to describe the amount of traffic on the street at a given time. When she describes the streets as “furious,” she implies that they are filled with people and that it is day time. When the streets are “hushed,” it is implied that the night time has come and the streets are now empty. The contrasts of these two show the contrast between east and west. They could also represent time passing by.
Alvi uses assonance to imply that her heritage is coming back to her. She states that her henna tattoo will, “reveal soft as a snail trail.” Moniza Alvi uses assonance such as this to display that her culture, which has been squeezed onto her is slowly revealing itself. A snail trail implies something soft and delicate that will not last very long.
Moniza Alvi uses simple phrases such as “it” to leave things up to the mind of the reader. When saying “it will fade in a week,” she refers to her tattoo as “it” rather than a henna tattoo to imply that it’s not necessarily the henna tattoo she is speaking of. Moniza Alvi could be speaking of how the Indian heritage that she has acquired from her visit to India will fade in a week similar to the tattoo.
Towards the ending, the poem reflects a sense of yearning for India. She displays her longing with words such as “outstretched.” It is only one word but it conveys how desperate she feels as if she is reaching out for India. She brings back the sense of longing once again when she says, “I’ll lean across a country” the use of the hyperbole shows that although she cannot actually reach over a country she will do anything to reach her identity which she has been longing for, longing for the girl in the unknown bazaar.
In conclusion, the poet’s intention was to inform the reader that Moniza Alvi is trying to cling on to her roots and cultural identity in a nation where time keeps passing and the culture is slowly drifting away.