English B Class 1

By Trinity Bishop
The Two Grandmothers by Olive Senior
The Two Grandmothers is a monologue from the perspective of a little girl living with
her dark skinned father and mother, who’s skin is apparently lighter. The narration is
this young girl retorting her experiences to her mother. The young girl spends her
holidays alternately visiting her paternal and maternal grandmothers. The
grandmothers both have opposing attitudes towards life and contrasting methods of
upbringing a child, hence her visits provide her with 2 completely different experiences.
Olive Senior
She is a Jamaican poet, novelist, short story and non-fiction writer. Senior uses Jamaica
as the setting for many of her stories. In many of her pieces she tackles the issues of:

● Conflicts between race and class

● Cultural roots
● Modernisation
Setting
● Rural Jamaica
● Kingston
● Clearwater, USA
● Occurs in the 1980s
Characters
Narrator:

● She begins her narration as a little girl and grows and matures throughout the story and
seems to be a teenager by the end of the story.
● Initially in the story she preferred Grandma Del’s company, but as she grows older she
begins to show a preference for Grandma Elaine.
● She reveals a lot of sensitive information in the story despite her not really understanding
the gravity of the situations.
● As she matures she becomes materialistic in her desires and wants to be like her peers.
● By the end of the story she avoids visiting Grandma Del and apparently idolizes Grandma
Elaine and she is uncertain about how she feels about her physical appearance.
Characters Cont’d
Grandma Del:

● Traditional/old fashioned
● She lives in rural jamaica in a small house with no electricity
● She’s Christian and holds others to Christian beliefs while she herself is hypocritical in regards to said beliefs as she had a child out of
wedlock(the narrator’s father).
● She is prejudiced towards Eulalie and Ermandine in the prose.
● She has never been married and doesn’t date.

Grandma Elaine/Towser:

● Non-traditional and a socialite

● She lives in the city, in a house with modern amenities
● Materialistic; wears expensive clothes and jewelry
● Narcissistic
● Married multiple times and dates frequently
● She is prejudiced towards Grandma Del and calls her a country bumpkin
Characters Cont’d
Pearlie:

● Pearlie is from a poor home

● Although she is at an age when she should be receiving an education she has to take on the roll of a mother
for her younger siblings
● She is punished unfairly whenever one of her younger brothers break something
● Her mother is the family’s sole breadwinner and doesn’t earn enough money to support the family
● Pearlie and her siblings hardly have any clothes as a result of their poverty

Eulalie and Ermandine:

● They are more fortunate compared to Pearlie because they get the opportunity to attend highschool
● They are uninterested in returning to school and begin producing children rapidly
● Their chances of vacationing is remote, hence causing a rift between them and the narrator
Point-of-view
● The prose is written in the form of a monologue from the point of view from the
maturing narrator’s perspective as she reports her findings and experiences to her
mother
● The story was told from the perspective of a young black girl
● This perspective gives readers an insight on how the environment(s) impacted the
young girls being, and how she felt about her varying experiences
● This perspective also limits the readers to only the little girl’s experiences
Literary Techniques
Humour:

Gives insight into the character’s behaviour and actions. Humour allows us to criticize and agree with the narrator.

Symbols and contrast:

The electricity vs. darkness respectively contrasted the enlightened lifestyle of the city where the narrator, Towser
and her family lives compared to the rural country-folk of Grandma Del’s lifestyle.

Double consciousness:

Double consciousness is the internal conflict experienced by subordinated or colonized groups in an oppressive
society.

In the prose, the narrator behaved differently depending on her current situation.
Writer’s Style
● Many paragraphs begin and end with “Mummy” or “Mom”. The transition from the use of
“mummy” to “mom” shows the narrator’s loss of innocence.
● The many paragraphs that ended with question marks suggests the narrator has a lack of
knowledge about the situations she is reporting.
● The sectional division moves the plot along and provides insight into the narrator and other
characters.
● The way paragraph 1 is punctuated suggests the excitement and talkitiveness of a young
child.
● The vocabulary is simple, as befitting that of a child.
● The story is structured to give the impression that there are 2 people having a conversation
through a question-and-answer routine.
Themes/Issues in The Two Grandmothers
● Religion
● Childhood innocence/A child in an adult world
● Relationships
● Country versus town life
● Prejudice/racism
● Materialism
● Growth and Maturity
● Factors that influence change
● Social condition(poverty, impact)