Explore Cultural Differences

The writers of 'Unknown Girl' and 'Veronica' explore cultural differences in the story and poem and how people react to different things and how men have more opportunities than women and how poor people are less known and thought about.

In both the 'Unknown Girl' and 'Veronica' women do not get as much opportunities as men and are less know to everyone hence the title "unknown girl. Both societies are patriarchal where men are more dominant than women. The main protagonists in the story and poem are all relatively poor and come from poor backgrounds. Both the 'Unknown Girl' and 'Veronica' didn't get a good enough education which you can see because the "Unknown Girl" draws henna on people for a living which isn't a skill you get from proper education and "Veronica" didn't go to secondary school as stated in the story "I have no qualifications, not even Standard Six" which implies that she would not be able to get any well paying jobs and in most societies people are given titles by their job and qualifications. The narrator of 'Unknown Girl' Moniza Alvi and Okeke were both better off than the others in the story/poem because they both had more opportunities than Veronica and the Unknown Girl and have better jobs which you can see because both of them can travel to other countries.

There is a difference in style and the wy they are both written because one is a story and the other is a poem this also shows the difference in the genre and narrative. In the 'Unknown Girl' the poet emphasises more on the search of identity and how she doesnt know if shes indian or pakistanian because they all used to be one country. The brown "henna" which represents her the colour of India running through her veins and into her heart, and the "kameez" bring back the feeling of her culture because that is their traditional clothing and decoration. She also emphasises that globilization is also taking place in India and almost destroying its culture with its "western perms" and "Banners for Miss India 1993" which have made their way through media into India.

Whereas the story 'Veronica' talks more about how less fortunate people don't get a good education and that in some cultures you cannot interfere with problems in other families. In the story "Veronica" doesn't have a job and ends up as a housewife with no eductation and no chance of going out of the same village that is "crawling with disease". The use of 1st person narrative puts us in the shoes of Okeke who had the opportunity to get a better education and then visits the village and is then suprised by how unclean and old fashioned it is because he was living in a different culture.

There is a lot of repitition of different ideas in the story and the poem. In the 'Unknown girl' the word "henna" is repeated a lot throught the poem. Henna is a symbol of India and a lot of people walk around with henna tattoos to show patriotism or love for something. She also repeats the word "bazaar" which is a place with lots of shops which takes up most of india and where a lot of people their work, both words relate to their culture. The title "Unknown girl" is also repeated in the poem which would suggest