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    A Study Guide for Patricia Grace's "A Way of Talking"
    A Study Guide for Patricia Grace's "A Way of Talking"
    A Study Guide for Patricia Grace's "A Way of Talking"
    Ebook37 pages23 minutes

    A Study Guide for Patricia Grace's "A Way of Talking"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Patricia Grace's "A Way of Talking," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Short Stories for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Short Stories for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateJul 27, 2016
    ISBN9781535817493
    A Study Guide for Patricia Grace's "A Way of Talking"

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      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Patricia Grace's "A Way of Talking" - Gale

      11

      A Way of Talking

      Patricia Grace

      1975

      Introduction

      Patricia Grace, a Maori (indigenous to New Zealand) writer, explores issues of race, cultural identity, and personal identity in her short story A Way of Talking. The work was first published in 1975 in the collection Waiariki, which was awarded a PEN/Hubert Church Prose Award in 1976. A Way of Talking is like many of Grace's works in that it highlights the cultural differences between the Maori people and whites, referred to by the Maori as Pakehas. In A Way of Talking, two Maori sisters visit a white dressmaker in order to be fitted for dresses for the older sister's wedding. Hera fears her younger sister Rose, who has always been more outspoken and is home visiting from university, will embarrass her by being brash or confrontational. When the dressmaker makes a remark that both girls take to be negative in tone and exemplary of the attitude of whites toward Maoris, Rose does not let the matter drop but politely confronts the dressmaker. Hera's reaction to her sister's approach is mixed; her initial anger is tempered by a new understanding of her sister's pain. The girls return home, joking about the matter, and then join their family for a meal. By focusing on Hera, her relationship with her sister, and her place within the family, Grace situates her theme of family within the larger contextual theme of community. In the course of the story, Hera re-envisions not only her own place within her family and community, but her sister's as well.

      Grace's A Way of Talking was published in 1975 by Longman Paul in the collection Waiariki and Other Stories.

      Author Biography

      Grace was born on August 17, 1937, in Wellington, New Zealand. The daughter of Edward and Joyce Gunson, Grace attended St. Anne's School as a youth. She went on to study at St. Mary's College, as well as Wellington Teachers’ College. She received a diploma from Victoria University in teaching of English as a second language. When shewas around twenty-five

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