Handout #3

Character
by Taslima Nasrim

You’re a girl
and you’d better not forget
that when you step over the threshold of your house
men will look askance at you.
When you keep on walking down the lane
men will follow you and whistle.
When you cross the lane and step onto the main road
men will revile you and call you a loose woman.

If you’ve got no character
you’ll turn back,
and if not
you’ll keep going
as you’re going now.


2.) My first reaction to this poem was that the author was trying to say its hard to be a woman. I think she was saying just as much if not more about men then about women. I thought she was trying to say that women always have to be acting their best and proper because someone is always there watching and judging you.

3.) When girls are in the house they will look down at you. When you're outside they will whistle, call you names, and bring attention to you. If you dont have character you'll let it get to you, but if you do then you'll keep going and living each day.

4.) The narrator is a mom or some sort of older female figure. The narrarator is speaking to a younger girl, perhaps a daughter.

5.) I think it means for women not to get distracted on the ways of the world and always stay proper.


Music had alot to do with the story "Sonny's Blues," because thats what Sonny could use to escape from the world. That was his love and passion, and in the end, thats what brought him and his older brother together.