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…'
How does Adjoa’s success as a runner bring about a change in the traditional views held by Nana? Mention two of Nana’s character traits that make her a remarkable person.
Topic: Adjoa's triumph and Nana's change
Answer
Adjoa is chosen to run for her school and wins, and the very legs Nana had despaired of prove to be her gift. Nana is forced to see that thin legs may be good for something after all — that a girl’s worth is not confined to bearing children, and that education and sport can give her a future. She carries the cup through the village in tears, proclaiming what "these thin legs" can do, and so publicly abandons the belief she had held all her life.
Two traits make her remarkable: her honesty and humility — she is old and set in her ways, yet she admits she was wrong rather than defending her prejudice; and her deep, practical love for Adjoa, expressed in the washing, the ironing and the fierce pride she takes in her granddaughter’s victory.
4 marks, so split 2 + 2 and name the traits explicitly rather than describing behaviour and hoping the examiner infers them. The strongest answers observe that the story is not about a girl defeating an old woman but about tradition proving capable of change — Nana grows, and that is why she is remarkable rather than merely wrong.