Critical analysis of Moniza Alvi poetry?

Answer 1

In An Unknown Girl, there are obvious associations between Western and Eastern culture. There is a sense of the purity of the 'unknown girl', perhaps representing the innocence of Pakistan, being invaded by the Western culture. There are constant reminders of the beauty of Pakistan e.g. the peacock in line 16. Peacocks are exotic, and there is something unnatural and extraordinary about them. This overwhelmingly beautiful quality, representing the vibrancy and colour of Pakistan, is replicated in the dazzlingly ornate hennah. The unknown girl is an emblem of Pakistan in its unsullied nature. By having that refrain, we see the degree of her longing for and innocent Pakistan, unruined by Westernisation, and the artificial, syntheitc, contrived appearance that Western culture had given India. Not only is she 'clinging to these firm peacock lines', but she is clinging on for that aspect of her nature, her culture. The comparison between her clinging on to the hennah and 'people who cling to the sides of a train' is culturally suitable, and draws comparisons between the cultures, emphasising their difference. There are constant associations between a harsher, colder Western culture, for example: 'she is icing my hand' - icing is purely decorative, there is nothing cultural about it. When the poet attempts to make an analogy with the Western world, she makes it significanty colder, compared with the colourful and vibrant nature of the more Eastern references, such as the kameez. When she says 'I'll scrape off the dry brown lines before i sleep, reveal soft as a snail trail the amber bird beneath', not only is she talking literally in terms of the hennah, but she is saying that the real beauty of Pakistan lies beneath the surface. Once you get rid of the syntheitics, the signs of Western culture, the beauty can truly be discovered.