Ans. The following few lines from the text, very well highlight the plight of woman and depressed classes :
"Old woman, I hold in my hand a bird, tell me whether it is living or dead".
For parading their power and her helplessness, the young visitors are reprimanded, told they are responsible not only for the act of mockery but also for the small bundle of life sacrificed to achieve its aims. The blind woman shifts her attention away from assertions of power to the instrument through which that power is exercised.
Perhaps what the children heard was, "It is not my problem. I am old female, black, blind. What wisdom I have now is in knowing I cannot help you. The future of language is yours."
Tell us what it is to be a woman so that we may know what it is to be a man. What it is to have no home to this place. To be set adrift from the one you know. What it is to live at the edge of towns that cannot bear your company.
Tell us about a wagonload of slaves, how they sang so softly their breath was indistinguishable from the falling snow. How they knew from the lunch of the nearest shoulder that the next stop would be their last.
These are the few lines from the text which highlight the plight of woman and depressed classes.
