Chapter 6 – Memories Of Childhood | Zitkala-Sa & Bama

NCERT Solutions Class 12 English Vistas Chapter 6 – Memories Of Childhood | Zitkala-Sa & Bama

Memories of Childhood is the sixth chapter in the NCERT Class 12 English Vistas supplementary reader. It is a two-part autobiographical excerpt that brings together two remarkable women from vastly different cultures — Zitkala-Sa, a Native American writer, and Bama, a Tamil Dalit author from India. Both pieces recount childhood experiences of humiliation, oppression, and the awakening of personal resistance. Together, they form a powerful statement on identity, dignity, and marginalisation across the world. Check out NCERT Solutions for Class 12 and NCERT solutions for Class 12 English, NCERT solutions for Class 10 English-Vistas.

Find the PDF of NCERT Solutions Class 12 English Vistas Chapter 6 – Memories Of Childhood | Zitkala-Sa & Bama

Chapter Overview at a Glance

Part I — Cutting of My Long Hair by Zitkala-Sa

Summary of Part I: Cutting of My Long Hair

Zitkala-Sa recalls her first days at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, a government-run institution in Pennsylvania designed to assimilate Native American children into white American culture. The school's methods were deeply dehumanising — students were forced to abandon their language, customs, and clothing.

The most devastating moment for Zitkala-Sa is when she learns that her long hair is to be cut. In her Sioux culture, short hair on a woman symbolised cowardice or mourning — only unskilled warriors had their hair shingled. Long hair was a mark of pride, identity, and cultural belonging. When she hears the plan, she hides under a bed in a dark room. She is eventually found, dragged out, tied to a chair, and has her hair cut against her will.

Throughout the ordeal, she resists and cries — not just from pain, but from the profound violation of her selfhood. She feels like an animal, stripped of dignity. The experience is her first lesson in the machinery of cultural oppression and the violence of forced assimilation. Despite her young age, her response is one of active, defiant grief.

Part II — The Coiled Wire by Bama

Summary of Part II: The Coiled Wire

Bama's account is set in a Tamil village in India. As a child, she often took a longer route home from school just to enjoy the sights of her bustling neighbourhood — shops, puppet shows, political speeches, and street vendors. One day, she notices a landlord sitting on his veranda while a man from her own community carries a small parcel of snacks to him. What strikes Bama is the way the man holds the parcel — not in his hand, but by the strings hanging from it, at arm's length, as though touching it with bare hands would be a defilement.

Bama finds this scene absurd and funny at first. When she describes it to her elder brother Annan, he gently explains to her that the man is a Dalit — a person considered "untouchable" by upper-caste society. He cannot touch things destined for the landlord's use, as his touch would be considered polluting. The food itself would be considered impure if he held it directly.

For Bama, this is a moment of reckoning. She is filled with rage and sorrow — she now understands that the laughter she felt was born of ignorance, and the reality beneath it is one of centuries of oppression. Her brother advises her that the only way to overcome such discrimination is through education and self-respect. Bama takes this to heart and goes on to become a scholar and a writer who uses her work to challenge caste hierarchy.

Major Themes in Memories of Childhood

Cultural Identity and Oppression: Both narratives show how dominant cultures forcibly suppress the identities of marginalised groups — through colonial assimilation in Part I and caste hierarchy in Part II.

Childhood as a Site of Political Awakening: Both authors describe moments in childhood where they first understood systemic injustice. These are not just personal memories but political ones.

Resistance and Dignity: Zitkala-Sa's physical resistance and Bama's decision to pursue education are both acts of defiance against oppressive systems.

The Body as a Political Space: Zitkala-Sa's hair and Bama's caste identity both show how the body becomes a site of social control and discrimination.

Education as Empowerment: Both authors ultimately use knowledge and writing as tools to reclaim agency and speak truth to power.

Comparison Between Part I and Part II

Important NCERT Questions & Answers – Chapter 6

Q1. Why was the cutting of Zitkala-Sa's hair considered a humiliation?

In Sioux culture, only captured warriors and cowards had their hair cut short. For a woman, long hair was a deeply held symbol of identity, pride, and cultural heritage. The forced cutting of her hair at school was therefore not just a physical act — it was an erasure of her cultural self, a violent imposition of a foreign identity she had not chosen.

Q2. What did Bama learn from her brother Annan about caste discrimination?

Annan explained to Bama that the man carrying the parcel at arm's length was doing so because people of their Dalit community were considered "untouchable." Direct contact with them — even through an object they touched — was seen by upper-caste people as polluting. Annan told Bama that the only way to fight this was to study hard, earn respect through achievement, and make people acknowledge their worth.

Q3. How does the chapter show that both racial and caste-based discrimination are forms of the same oppression?

Though separated by geography and culture, both narratives show that some groups use power to dehumanise others. In both cases, the victims are children who are forced to confront a world that assigns them lesser value. The tools of oppression differ — institutional schooling in one case, social ritual in the other — but the underlying logic of subjugation is identical. The chapter places both stories side by side to make this universal point explicit.