Analyse af 'A Grandmother remembers'

Mary Ann Hodgkinson was one of the many settlers that travelled from Gravesend in England to New Zealand. With her family, she started a new life in Nelson in 1842 and later wrote a letter to her granddaughter about her journey and experiences in meeting the Maori people. In ‘A Grandmother remembers’ (1975), written down by Adelyn Cameron, there is a distinct change of language to describe both parties from Mary’s perspective that have set the Maori and the emigrants in different spotlights. The fear of the unknown is a subject relevant to her story, as it was one of the things that heavily influenced how the settlers and the Maori saw each other back in 1842. This essay will analyse and interpret the text, mainly focusing on the use of language and the reason behind it, but also a discussion of the push and pull factors that are at play in Hodgkinson’s story.

The use of language reflects her relation to the people around her. She describes one of the Maoris as “a dark tattooed Maori advancing violently towards me with a club” (Cameron, 1975, l. 27), which creates a negative image of the people we first meet. As seen when the “men of Wakefield worked together clearing ground and scratching soil around to plant wheat” (Cameron, 1975, l. 55), she puts them in a better spotlight, showing how well the men worked and also protected them during the nights. The letter does show a more emphasizing side of the Maori, but it is mainly the women and children. She describes the Maori men as “warriors” (Cameron, 1975, l. 98), making them a bit more of a threat in the story. The writer could have also twisted the story to her own benefit or forgotten parts of the letter that could have been important. This also ends up portraying the characters in her story in a specific way, for the people reading the letter in the future. It shows how careful one has to be with older stories like these, especially if you consider that the author wrote it down 50 years later, as they might benefit one side more than the other.