The Girl Who Can

Like Meg and Jess I want to focus on "The Girl Who Can". I found the child narrator to be far more insightful than the other characters throughout the story. Jess definitely brought me back to the days of critical theory in mentioning Foucault (forgive my spelling). After reading her post I too was reminded of his theory regarding child sexuality.

I think, however, Ama Ata Aidoo challenges this stereotype perpetuated by her grandmother. Although her legs are seen through the grandmother's eyes as symbols relating to child birth - supposedly a woman's main and, sometimes, only, function, Ama can do more with them.

This child-like awareness, which I believe Meg also mentioned, is an astute commentary. Thinking back to my own childhood I realize that I was probably also more aware of things than my parents realized. It reminded me of a story where a mother was spelling out something to an older child trying to conceal it from the younger. Unbeknownst to the mother, however, the younger child was able to discern the surprise through spelling. It seems silly, but its just a small anecdote proving that children are often underestimated in their intuition.

I, like Meg, do see the connection between childhood influences and later outcomes. I took Ama's story in a broader context, though, and thought of not just her grandmother's comments about her legs, but, in general, children's retention of events from childhood. This deals more with psychology to me so I won't go in more detail. But, overall, I found this story extremely engaging on multiple levels.