Multiple-Choice Questions for "Once Upon a Time" by Shakila Azizzada

Basic Level: Literal Comprehension

What does Granny advise to keep "tucked inside your ribcage"?
a) A comb
b) The magic sack
c) A mirror
d) A strand of hair
What should you say instead of "the sun’s worn out" or "it’s gone astray"?
a) I’m staying here
b) I’m coming back
c) It’s too far
d) Earth is hard
What happens if you throw the comb from the sack in the Black Demon’s path?
a) A mirror appears
b) Seven jungles grow at his feet
c) The sun returns
d) Birds and fish dream
To whom should you give the mirror?
a) The White Demon
b) Granny
c) Golnar’s mother
d) The daughter of the dawn
What does the old woman in the girl’s dreams pray for regarding the Shomali Plain?
a) It fills with demons
b) It still fills with song and light pours in through ruined homes
c) The sun stays brief
d) Love’s griefs return

The "magic sack" primarily symbolizes:
a) Forgotten childhood toys
b) Inner resources of protection and folklore wisdom
c) A burden of grief
d) Tools for destruction
How does the poem use negation (e.g., "Don’t say...") to build its message?
a) To list forbidden actions without consequence
b) To contrast despair with hopeful, affirming language
c) To describe only positive fairy-tale outcomes
d) To invoke the Black Demon directly
The White Demon and Black Demon represent:
a) Literal family members
b) Opposing forces of good and evil in Afghan folklore
c) Weather elements like sun and jungle
d) Dreams of birds and fish
What does burning "that strand of hair" in the name of the White Demon signify?
a) A ritual of release from past sorrows
b) Starting a fire in the vineyards
c) Inviting the sea nymphs
d) Telling beads like the old woman
The mirror in the poem warns against:
a) Throwing it if you fear the sea and her nymphs
b) Giving it to Granny
c) Using it to see the sun
d) Burning it with hair

The poem’s dedication to Leila Sarahat Roshani and invocation of Granny suggest a theme of:
a) Patriarchal inheritance in Afghan society
b) Matrilineal transmission of resilience and cultural memory amid exile/war
c) Rejection of all fairy tales
d) Celebration of urban life in Kabul
How does the poem subvert traditional fairy-tale openings like "Once upon a time there was/wasn’t"?
a) By affirming absolute existence without ambiguity
b) By questioning reality ("Don’t say there was, don’t say there wasn’t") to embrace belief in the "god of fairytales"
c) By ending with a literal demon story
d) By focusing only on happy endings
The Shomali Plain reference grounds the poem in:
a) A fictional landscape of demons
b) Real Afghan geography, symbolizing war-torn homeland and hope for restoration
c) Dutch exile experiences
d) Universal jungle imagery
Azizzada’s use of sensory and natural imagery (sun, jungles, vineyards, sea) primarily conveys:
a) An escapist fantasy detached from reality
b) The interplay of destruction and regeneration in a female narrative of survival
c) Male-dominated adventure tales
d) Modern technological metaphors
Overall, the poem can be interpreted as a feminist reclamation of:
a) Western fairy tales like Cinderella
b) Afghan/Persian oral traditions to empower women against patriarchal and colonial erasure
c) Strict religious prohibitions on storytelling
d) Childish innocence without depth

b - The poem opens with Granny’s advice: “always keep your magic sack tucked inside your ribcage.” This symbolizes inner protection and folklore wisdom.
b - The speaker instructs to use hopeful language: “Say, I’m coming back,” emphasizing resilience over despair.
b - This is a direct magical action described: “Take the comb from the sack, throw it in the Black Demon’s path: seven jungles will grow at his feet.” It draws from fairy-tale tropes.
c - The poem states: “Give the mirror to Golnar’s mother who, down by the charred vineyards, dreams of birds and fish.” Golnar likely refers to a fairy-tale figure.
b - The closing lines describe the prayer: “‘May the Shomali Plain still fill with song and through the ceilings of its ruined homes, let light pour in.’” Shomali Plain is a real region in Afghanistan, evoking cultural memory.

b - Tucked “inside your ribcage,” the magic sack represents internalized strength from Granny’s teachings, used against demons and despair, blending personal and mythical elements.
b - Phrases like “Don’t say the sun’s worn out... Say, I’m coming back” reject pessimism, urging empowerment through words, a common motif in oral traditions.
b - The White Demon protects (“May the White Demon protect...”), while the comb thwarts the Black Demon, echoing divs (demons) in Persian/Afghan tales like those in the Shahnameh.
a - Following “forget love’s foolish griefs,” shaking out the sack and burning the hair acts as a cleansing rite, symbolizing letting go of pain for renewal.
a - “Don’t throw the mirror if you fear the sea and her nymphs” suggests mirrors in folklore can summon dangers (like peri or water spirits), advising caution with magical tools.

b - Azizzada, living in the Netherlands post-Afghanistan’s conflicts, uses Granny’s voice to pass down folklore, countering ruin (e.g., “charred vineyards,” “ruined homes”) with hope, reflecting women’s roles in preserving identity.
b - This challenges the formulaic start of Dari/Persian tales, urging faith over doubt, tying into Azizzada’s themes of intimacy and desire through metaphorical “magic.”
b - Shomali Plain, north of Kabul, was battle-scarred in the 1990s civil war; the prayer for “song” and “light” in ruins critiques destruction while invoking cultural revival, aligning with Azizzada’s post-exile perspective.
b - Elements like “charred vineyards” (war) contrast with “birds and fish” (dreams) and protective magic, highlighting women’s “frankness and delicacy” in addressing loss, as noted in her bio.
b - Through Granny’s “magic sack” and prayers, Azizzada reclaims divs, peri, and Haft Seen-like rituals (echoed in her other works) for female agency, rare in Dari poetry, amid Afghanistan’s history of conflict and migration.