Cockcrow Commentary: The Girl Who Can Detailed Commentary

The Girl Who Can Commentary

Author: Ama Ata Aidoo

 

Summary of The Girl Who Can

In The Girl Who Can, Adjoa, a seven-year-old girl from the fertile village of Hasodzi in Ghana, struggles to express her thoughts because the adults around her—especially her grandmother, Nana, and her mother—either dismiss her or laugh at her.

Nana constantly criticizes Adjoa’s thin legs, insisting they are unfit for childbirth, while her mother quietly disagrees but lacks the courage to stand up to Nana. Adjoa feels caught between their arguments, unable to voice her own perspective without fear of ridicule or silencing.

The tension revolves around Adjoa’s legs, which Nana believes should be strong and meaty to support childbearing hips, while Adjoa secretly wonders why legs can’t be valued for other things, like running.

When Adjoa is chosen to represent her school in races, her athletic success surprises Nana, who begins to see her granddaughter’s thin legs in a new light.

Nana’s pride grows as Adjoa wins every race and earns a trophy, which Nana carries home like a precious treasure, her earlier criticisms replaced with tearful admiration.

In the end, Adjoa’s running triumphs silently prove what she couldn’t articulate—that thin legs have their own strength and purpose. Nana, once dismissive, now cradles Adjoa, murmuring in awe about how “thin legs can also be useful.”

Adjoa reflects that actions spoke louder than words could have, sparing her from being scolded or laughed at. Meanwhile, her mother remains silent, as usual, leaving Adjoa to quietly savor her victory over the narrow expectations that once defined her.

 

Who Is Adjoa?

Adwoa is a seven- year-old girl who comes from a village called Hasodzi in the Central Region of Ghana.

She lives with her mother, Maami and grandmother, Nana.

 

What’s Adjoa’s Problem?

Adjoa’s problem is that, she finds it difficult to find the right words to express her thoughts. She wished the grown-ups would listen to her when she had something to say.

Her grandmother Nana is the biggest culprit in all of this. This is because whenever she tells her something on her mind, she would either burst into laughter or warn her never to repeat what she said.

 

Adjoa’s Thin Legs

The topic of discussion in the house is usually about Adjoa’s thin legs. Nana always argues with Maami over Adjoa’s thin legs.

Nana’s problem with Adjoa is that, her legs are too thin for a woman. According to Nana, a woman should have solid hips and good calves to support childbirth.

Adjoa’s mother always tries to counter Nana’s argument by saying that, “some people have no legs at all”

Adjoa is not happy about the fact that her two favourite people thus, Nana and Maami, should constantly argue about her legs.

 

Adjoa’s Curiousity About Legs

Because of Nana’s words, Adjoa is curious about the approved kind of legs a woman should have to be able to give birth.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to see the legs of older women in her town because the women wear long dresses all the time. The only legs Adwoa gets to see are those of Nana, Maami and the girls in school

 

Arguments about Adjoa’s Education

Adjoa likes to walk to school even though the distance from her village to school is long

Nana thinks educating Adjoa is a waste of time while Maami insists on her education.

 

Adwoa is a Secret Champion in School

Adjoa’s secret is that, she can run very fast. It turns out Adjoa’s thin Legs are useful after all. This is because she has been selected to represent her school in a district running competition.

Nana upon hearing this news has stated treating Adjoa differently. She even washes her school uniform and irons them as well which is a surprise.

Adwoa won every race she run for her school and even won a cup for her school.

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Characters in The Girl Who Can

• Adjoa: A seven-year-old girl with thin legs.
• Maami: She is Adjoa’s mother and the daughter of Nana.
• Nana: She is the mother of Maami and the grandmother of Adjoa.

 

Setting

• Hasodzi in the Central Region of Ghana.

 

Point of view:

• First person narrative.

 

Themes in The Girl Who Can

1. Beware of looking down on others because of their physical appearance: Nana thought nothing good could come from Adjoa’s thin legs but that proved to be a mistake.

2. There is a reason for everything that happens in life: Adjoa’s thin legs had a purpose in her life. Adjoa had a special ability to run because of her thin and long legs.

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Literary Device In The Girl Who Can

Simile

• “Ah, maybe, with legs like hers, she might as well go to school.”
• “But she walks behind us school children, as though she was on her way to someplace else.”
• Like they do with babies.

 

Hyperbole

• They also say that when all of Africa is not choking under a drought, Hasodzi lies in a very fertile low land in a district known for its good soil.
• Plus, that is what shuts my mother up for good.
• But she walks way behind us school children, she was on her way to some place else.

 

Repetition

• Nana is my mother’s mother.
• Never, never, but never to repeat that.
• She would laugh and laugh and laugh.
• And ironed and ironed and ironed the uniform.

 

Alliteration

• When I came into the land of sweet, soft silence.
• Nana is such a good grown-up.
• This is because you are sure such legs would support solid hips.
• Nana is my mother’s mother

 

Personification

• If I had been the uniform, I would have said aloud that I had had enough.

 

Imagery

• She carried the gleaming cup on her back.

 

Rhetorical Question

• Thin legs can run…then who knows?…
• What do I know about good grown-ups and bad grown-ups?

 

Anaphora

• “That it did not have to be… That it was not…”

 

Onomatopoeia

• Hm, Hm, Hm,
• “You can hear the cloth creak…”

 

Metaphor

•  “When I came out of the land of sweet, soft silence into the world of noise and comprehension…”
•  “Locked into some kind of darkness”

 

Symbolism

• Legs – Represent societal expectations of women’s bodies.

• The gleaming cup – Symbolizes validation and breaking stereotypes.

 

Allusion

• “A child’s spirit mother”