‘A Gift’ by Rahila Gupta, is a short story about a two homosexuals, which traces fragments of the feelings and emotions of a chaste and somewhat intellectual relationship between two women, one being the dominant partner and the other the submissive one. She uses a vast variety of figures of speech, such as alliterations, metaphors and similes to describe the platonic relationship between two women. As we read through this short prose, we learn that the author is seeking attention and grabbing the attention of the reader by writing from present to past and then to the future, which is the present.This in turn builds up suspense and sucks the reader into this text, which, after the first few paragraphs seems like a normal romantic story between a man and a woman. The relationship however comes t
...o an end (this is mentioned in the beginning of the prose) as one person rejects the other for an older partner. We later learn that the ‘friendly’ affair is between two women when the narrator states, “I am a one woman-woman.
Gupta manages to portray both women's feelings through the use of imagery, alliteration and repetition. The two women are both very different from each other.In the first two paragraphs of the story, the author shows the speaker as angry towards the other woman. She says, "I am gifting you an experience, were your parting words. You ultimate egoist. " To this the author replies with, "My experience is of my own making, thank you, my own perceptions.
The significant other is now quiet. And when she does speak she speaks quickly as to not interrupt the silence.
Paragraph seven describes the personality of the French woman, namely one of being quiet. The speaker explains how the other woman's silence was her preservation.It was what protected her.
Scrabble was one of the few times when, "words that choked on your vocal chords come pouring out of your fingers. " The speaker however is quite the opposite. The words from the Scrabble table rioted and grew in her mouth and eventually they were released from her mouth but were incoherent. In the third paragraph, Gupta uses metaphors and repetitions to convey her message, her point of view. She uses these terms, obviously figuratively, to describe the effect her significant other had on her.
She says, “You had entered my consciousness like air in my lungs-essential but unfelt, gossamer like, even insubstantial. And when you entered again and again…” Here, Gupta expresses mixed feelings of regret and satisfaction, love and hate. By doing this Gupta shows that she is angry with her ex-lover but still in love with her. She is contradicting herself and being an oxymoron. There is a clear change in tone from one paragraph to another. Gupta uses this tone change to somewhat entice the reader and once again draw the reader in forcing them to read on.
This constant tone change is confusing as the reader may have a problem deciphering the emotions and feelings of the author. Due to this tone change, the text becomes extremely perplexing. She doesn’t stick to one line of thinking, like a one-way road, like a two way street, her thoughts and feelings are brought out simultaneously. Thus resulting in this constant tone change. For example, “Whichever
way I look at it the sentiment yields no other meaning… an act of generosity even.
” “You had entered my consciousness like air in my lungs…. I enjoyed your presence like an old and deep friendship… lacked in maturity. This shows the certain change in tone. This tone change has an affect on the mood and the setting of this short story. Another aspect that makes this story fairly unique, yet vague from others is that of the unusual sentence structures.
The sentences vary from short to long. This affects the pace and intensity of the writing, as a punctuation, a full stop may change the atmosphere and mood and tone of the writing. For example, “I met her last summer. ” This comes like a shock.
Like something most unlikely and unprecedented or predicted happens.
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