Gender Roles
Senior 2 · English
Gender Roles
Lesson 4 of 4
22 min
Every story is told by someone, and that choice changes everything we see. A story told by a proud brother feels different from the same story told by a disapproving neighbour. Literature questions in examinations regularly ask "Who is telling the story?" and "What is the story about?". In this lesson you will learn to answer both, using a story about a girl who breaks a stereotype.
This is an original short story by Ganzaa.
My name is Gatete, and my sister Keza fixes bicycles. I know that sounds strange to some people in our village, so let me explain.
It started when she was twelve. Our father's bicycle, the one he uses to carry bananas to the market in Ruhango, had a flat tyre, and he was away at a funeral. Keza took the wheel off, found the hole, and patched it with a piece of an old inner tube and some glue she borrowed from the shoemaker. I stood beside her and handed her the spanner. I did not say much. I was surprised and, if I am honest, a little jealous.
When our father came home, he rode the bicycle to the end of the path and back. Then he looked at Keza for a long time. "Who taught you this?" he asked.
"Nobody," she said. "I watched Habimana at the repair stand."
Our father said nothing. The next morning, he gave her his old toolbox.
Not everyone was pleased. Our neighbour told my mother that a girl with oily hands would never find a husband. My mother answered that a girl with oily hands would never need to wait for anyone to fix her bicycle.
Now Keza is sixteen, and on Saturdays there is a line of bicycles outside our house. I help her. She is faster than me, but I am better at talking to the customers, so we make a good team. Last week a man from Nyanza brought his motorbike. Keza looked at it, smiled, and said, "Not yet. But next year."
Who tells the story, and how is he related to Keza?
Her brother, Gatete. He is the narrator, "I", and a character in the story.
How did the father show that he approved of Keza's skill?
He gave her his old toolbox the next morning.
What does Keza's answer "Not yet. But next year." tell us about her?
She is honest about her limits but confident and ambitious: she plans to learn to repair motorbikes too.
The point of view is the position from which a story is told. The narrator is the voice telling it. The narrator is not the same as the author, the real person who wrote the story.
| Point of view | Pronouns | What the reader learns |
|---|---|---|
| first person | I, me, we | only what the narrator sees, thinks and feels; the narrator is a character |
| second person (rare) | you | the reader is placed inside the story: You open the door... |
| third person limited | he, she, they | an outside narrator who follows one character's thoughts |
| third person omniscient | he, she, they | an all-knowing narrator who can tell us the thoughts of every character |
First person (Gatete): "I stood beside her and handed her the spanner. I was surprised and, if I am honest, a little jealous."
Third person omniscient: "Gatete handed his sister the spanner and said nothing. He was surprised, and a little jealous, though he would never have told her so. Keza did not notice. She was thinking only about the hole in the tube."
In the first version we know only Gatete's feelings, and his honesty makes us trust him. In the second, the narrator can also enter Keza's mind, so we learn that she was completely focused on the task.
A quick test: subject matter answers "What happens?". Theme answers "What does it make us think about life?".
When you retell a first-person passage in the third person, every first-person pronoun and possessive must change, and verbs may change to agree with the new subject.
| First person | Third person (Gatete) |
|---|---|
| I | he |
| me | him |
| my | his |
| we / us / our | they / them / their |
Worked example. Retell in the third person: "I help her. She is faster than me, but I am better at talking to the customers, so we make a good team."
→ Gatete helps her. She is faster than him, but he is better at talking to the customers, so they make a good team. Note that help becomes helps and am becomes is to agree with the new subject.
Vocabulary from the story: patch (cover a hole with a piece of material), inner tube (the rubber tube inside a tyre), spanner (a tool for turning nuts), jealous (unhappy because someone has something you want), customer (a person who pays for a service).
Rewrite the paragraph about the neighbour ("Not everyone was pleased...") in the first person, from the neighbour's point of view. Show what the neighbour thinks and feels. Write 80–100 words.
Model answer
I was worried when I saw Keza with oil on her hands again. In my day, a girl who did men's work was laughed at, and I did not want that for her. So I went to her mother and told her, kindly I thought, that a girl with oily hands would never find a husband. Her mother looked at me and smiled. "A girl with oily hands," she said, "will never need to wait for anyone to fix her bicycle." I had no answer. That evening my own bicycle had a flat tyre, and I wondered who I should ask.
Why this works: the neighbour now has reasons and feelings, which makes her more human, and the ending brings in gentle humour.
Tip
Who is speaking? "I" inside the story → first person. "He/she" with one mind → third limited. "He/she" with every mind → third omniscient.
Subject matter = what happens. Theme = what it means. State the theme as a sentence about life, not about the characters.
Which point of view? You walk into the market and smell fresh bread.
Solution: second person. The reader is addressed as "you".
Which point of view? Mutesi was nervous, and her teacher secretly hoped she would win.
Solution: third person omniscient. The narrator knows the thoughts of two characters.
Retell in the third person (about Keza): "I watched Habimana at the repair stand."
Solution: She watched Habimana at the repair stand.
Subject matter or theme? A brother and sister run a repair business together.
Solution: subject matter. It describes what happens, not the idea about life.
State one theme of "Keza's Workshop" in a full sentence.
Solution (example): Skills belong to whoever takes the trouble to learn them, whether they are boys or girls.
Remember
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