A Girl’s Story
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A Girl’s Story
Stories are known to contribute to survival. Somebody may read a story, or one is told to them, and then that individual applies that story in real life situations. In the story, A Girl’s Story, Bambara tells us about a girl who is experiencing menstrual flow for the first time. Rae Ann, as she is called, is very frightened when she notices blood is oozing massively from her private parts. She knows nothing about sanitary pads because she has not used them, neither has she seen them before. She picks pieces of clothes and uses them to wipe off the blood. However, the bleeding is so profuse that her wiping is in vain. A synopsis of her experiences proves the survival value of storytelling.
Shy at the sight of blood coming from her groin, an experience she has never thought of, she rushes to the bathroom to wash it. She does not remember the bathroom door is not locked. By now, she is also crying because there is nobody to help her. Unfortunately, the uncle, with whom she lives, wants to use the bathroom. He is startled to find Ann naked with blood all over the bathroom. He thinks Ann has done an abortion, but does not ask her about it. Instead, he calls his mother, Ann’s grandmother, to help her. Seeing Ann naked and the sight of blood leaves the grandmother with a conclusion similar to that of her son. However, when she assists the girl to get up she realizes that the latter was merely having her first period (Bambara, 1997).
A story such as this can be very helpful to young girls, especially ones who are yet to experience their first monthly period. The story would narrate what they should expect, and such kind of education has a survival value. Had Ann read the experience of another girl’s first period, obviously hers would not have been as shameful. The uncle never discussed the incident with Ann or his mother. He did not know whether Ann had experienced periods before or not, so there was no way he would be convinced Ann was not doing an abortion. According to the cultural norms of this community, a man cannot discuss the topic of monthly periods with his mother, or a young girl mention a thing about the same topic to his uncle. Therefore, the conclusion the uncle drew from the incident remains as it was. In other words, the uncle will live with a low opinion of the girl for the rest of his life just because of a monthly period, which is a normal occurrence. The girl’s ignorance of the menses has cost her survival, and such ignorance could have been dealt with through story telling.
Adequate knowledge of one’s body and its functions is extremely important for survival. In the case of Ann, such knowledge would only have come from stories because she was not educated and was inexperienced. The grandmother could have told the girl a few things about the experience by narrating related stories to her. Now that Bambara have documented Ann’s experiences in the story A Girl’s Story, young pre-pubertal girls have been taught a number of changes that their bodies may undergo as they mature into adults. Given the importance of such a teaching to girls, Bambara reassured many girls, and can be considered to have given them survival.
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