PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Literature-Grade 9
Genre: Fiction-Short Story
“The Girl Who Can” by Ama Ata Aidoo
Critical Thinking Activity Book p. 92
1. Respond: Do you sympathise with the narrator? Explain.
Possible response: We sympathise with the narrator because sometimes it is difficult to convince an adult to agree with something we believe in strongly.
2. (a) Why does Nana criticise the narrator’s legs?
(b) Draw conclusion: How does this criticism reveal Nana’s fears for the narrator’s future? Explain.
a. Nana worries that the narrator’s legs are too thin.
b. Nana fears that Adjoa will not be able to bear children.
3. (a) What are Nana’s feelings about the narrator going to school?
(b) How do the mother’s feelings about school differ from Nana’s?
(c) Based on these details, What kind of lives do you think many women in Ghana are expected to lead?
a. Nana thinks that the school is unnecessary.
b. The narrator’s mother believes that school is valuable.
c. In Ghana women are expected to bear and raise children, not to become educated and work in profession.
4. (a) After Adjoa is chosen for the district games, why does Nana keep staring at his legs?
(b) Why does Nana iron Adjoa’s school uniform so carefully?
a. Nana seems surprised that Adjoa’s legs are good for something.
b. Nana is proud of Adjoa.
5. (a) Analyze: At the end of the story, Adjoa says it was much better to “have acted it out to show them.” What has she “acted out”?
(b) Evaluate: Was it “better,” as Adjoa says? Explain.
a. Adjoa has acted out her belief that her legs are worth more than just supporting hips for childbearing.
b. Possible response: It was better because Adjoa’s actions provided irrefutable evidence of her belief; saying it aloud would have been the mere opinion of a child, and Nana probably would have laughed at her.
Can Truth Change?
Do the narrator’s legs mean the same thing to her and her family at the end of the selection as they do at the beginning? Use details to support your answer.
At the beginning of the story, Adjoa’s legs are a problem in the view of Nana, and as a result, a source of discomfort for Adjoa and sadness for her mother. At the end of the story, her ability to run has shown that her legs are valuable or useful, even to Nana.
