Read the following extract from Ama Ata Aidoo's short story, 'The Girl Who Can' and answer the questions that follow: 'Like all this business to do with my legs. I have always wanted to tell them not to worry. I mean Nana and my mother. That it did not have to be an issue for my two favourite people to fight over. But I didn't want either to be told not to repeat that or it to be considered so funny that anyone would laugh at me until they cried. After all, they were my legs…'
Mention three little clues in Nana’s behaviour that led Adjoa to realise that Nana’s views on her legs had changed.
Topic: Clues in Nana's behaviour
Answer
(1) Nana began washing Adjoa’s school uniform herself every weekend, scrubbing it clean and starching it — a task she had never taken on before. (2) She pressed the uniform carefully with the charcoal iron, taking great trouble over it. (3) She started smiling to herself and muttering, and at the sports she carried Adjoa’s cup and medal about the village, weeping with joy and telling everyone that these thin legs could run.
Three clues, one mark each — so number them and keep them distinct rather than blurring the washing and ironing into one. The point behind them is that Nana never apologises in words; her change of heart shows only in acts of care. Saying so shows you have read the character, and Aidoo’s restraint, correctly.