THE TWO GRANDMOTHERS

BY OLIVE SENIOR
OBJECTIVES
At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
◼ Identify the techniques used in the story;
◼ Discuss the plot:
◼ Discuss setting;
◼ List the characters involved in the story;
◼ List the themes dealt with in the story;
◼ Participate in discussion questions.
OLIVE SENIOR
◼ Olive Marjorie Senior (born 23 December 1941) is a Jamaican poet, novelist, short story and non-fiction
writer based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was awarded the Musgrave Gold Medal in 2005 by the
Institute of Jamaica for her contributions to literature.
◼ Born in rural Jamaica in Trelawny, Cockpit Country, Olive Senior was the seventh of 10 children. Senior
attended Montego Bay High School For Girls. At nineteen, she joined the staff of the Jamaica Gleaner in
Kingston and later worked with the Jamaica Information Service. Senior later won a scholarship to study
journalism at the Thomson Foundation in Cardiff, Wales and as a Commonwealth scholar attended
Carleton University School of Journalism in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
◼ While at university she began writing fiction and poetry. On her return to Jamaica, she worked as a
freelancer in public relations, publishing, and speech writing before joining the Institute of Social and
Economic Research at the University of the West Indies, where she edited the journal Social and
Economic Studies (1972–77). In 1982 she joined the Institute of Jamaica as editor of the Jamaica Journal.
◼ In 1987 Senior won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for her first collection of stories. After Hurricane
Gilbert hit Jamaica in 1988, Senior moved to Europe, where she lived in Portugal, the Netherlands, and
the United Kingdom, before settling in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in the early 1990s.
◼ In 2019 she was awarded the Matt Cohen Award by the Writers' Trust of Canada in honour of her career
as a writer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_Senior
THE TWO GRANDMOTHERS: OVERVIEW

In an intriguing narrative technique, the child

narrator addresses her mother, giving her reaction
to her 2 grandmothers. Initially, the girl adores
Grandma Del- a typical church-going country
woman- but as she grows, she is increasingly
drawn to and influenced by the values of (Grandma
Elaine) Towser, with her urban lifestyle and
liberated ways. The alternation between the 2
value systems essentially reflects the conflict
between traditional Caribbean values and the
materialistic ones imported from the USA.
 Exposition (setting, introduction to
characters, conflict)

LET’S DISCUSS:
PLOT Climax

Resolution
LET’S DISCUSS: CHARACTERS
1. The narrator: What changes take place in the narrator’s style as the

story progresses?

2. Narrator’s mother: What is her role in the story?

3. Narrator’s father: What do we learn about the narrator’s father in the

story?

4. Grandma Del: Who is she: beliefs, lifestyle, relationship to the narrator?

5. Towser: Who is she: beliefs, lifestyle, relationship to the narrator? How

is she different from Grandma Del? Make a list.

6. Pearlie: Who is she? What is her role in the story?

7. Eulalie and Ermandine: Who are these sisters and how has their

relationship with the narrator changed throughout the story?

8. Jason and Maureen: What is their relationship to the narrator?

What/who do they symbolize in our world today?

 Settings: Grandma Del’s in the
country; home and Grandma
Towser’s in elite communities; over
a number of years

Themes:
Love and Family Relationships; Discimination (Classism,
DISCUSS AND LIST Colourism, Racism, Religious), Women in Society; Cultural
Differences, Wealth versus Poverty, Childhood Innocence; Loss
of Innocence; Tradition versus Modernity; Materialism;
Religion; Peer Pressure; Friendship; Appearance versus Reality

Techniques: First person POV (limited), run-on

sentences showing childlike excitement,
contrast, dialogue, dialect, imagery,
symbolism, onomatopoeia
Other Notes

◼ Tone: Conversational (the narrator shares her experiences as she grows up visiting her polar opposite
grandmothers.
◼ Socioeconomic and age differences are evident in our language, dress, values and attitudes towards self
and others.
What about you?

What lesson did you learn from the story?

Write it in your notebook.