Baby No Eyes Short Story

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In the chapter “Kura” from Baby No-Eyes written by Patricia Grace it is written by the grandmother in a letter to her grandson Shane who is tell him a story about the past. The story is told by the point of view of the grandmother as a young girl who was put in charge by her grandmother to take care of her little sister or what they call “tiena”. She was in charge of bring Riripeti to school each day and to make sure that she stand in line in school. Riripeti did not know a lot of English so school was hard for her. She did not know the students were talking about in class or when the teacher would ask her question and she would not answer. On they way to school the girl would tell Riripeti what she should say in English to her teachers and how to sit still, and not speak out of line, but when spoken too she could never get out the correct words to say to her teacher and then again would end up in the front …show more content…

The cousins in Riripeti class know what to do and say in the classroom because they were told by their family so they can be seen as a normal as the other students in the classroom. Riripeti does not understand the concept that the the family and the society has put on them because English is their second language. The families wanted their children to try to have a semi-normal lifestyle. But this did not let give the teacher say “ Do I have to shake that language out of you, do I do I.” (154) the teacher was not going to take time with Riripeti just because English is not her primary language. Also that grandmother say as a young girl that “I thought what an evil thing our language was to do that to my teina”(158). She believe that their native language was evil because it was making Riripeti sick. This is not true their language is part of them and it can never be taken from them, but as a young girl she believed that their language was evil and making the teachers have to