African Literature Term Paper

PAGES
3
WORDS
996
Cite
Related Topics:

¶ … Devil on the Cross, War? nga exhibits meekness and self-hatred. Her self-loathing prompts her to bleach her black skin and iron her hair. When she interacts with her fellow passengers in the taxi, War?

nga lacks the resolve she has following her encounter with the Devil on the golf course immediately prior to the Njeruca revolt. Witnessing the circumstances and listening to the speeches at the Devil's Feast was not enough to spur her on to eventually wield a deadly weapon. War?

nga needed her visions to empower her and awaken her to the injustices of her people and her nation. War?

nga kills the Rich Old Man, her fiance's father, for five solid reasons: her conversation with the Devil alerted her to the realities of life; M-turi's call to arms and his entrusting War?

nga with the gun; her newfound self-confidence and transformed personality; War?

nga's anger at the oppression of women; and her hatred of hypocrisy and determination to find the "third world" suggested by Satan. The Rich Old Man exemplified evil; this twist at the end of Ng-g?'s novel adds a realistic, albeit pessimistic tone. War?

nga experienced her moments of bliss with Gatu-ria before Kenya's realities shattered her happiness.

War?

nga's conversation with Satan transformed her personality; the Devil led War?

nga to the truth. The "voice of the roaming spirit" informed her of the "catechism of slavery," and on the use of religion to make oppression acceptable to the masses. Ironically, the...

...

Prior to her vision, War?
nga was merely a spectator. She witnessed the gross extravagance and celebration of gluttony at the Feast, but was powerless to act. Her own life had been a sell out, for she had allowed herself to participate in the black-and-white vision of reality than Satan warns her against. The Devil's lecture enlightens War?

nga to the possibility of revolt, even a revolt that includes violence. Violence against the poor is condoned, for the poor are brainwashed into believing that their suffering is divinely ordained. The Devil's pep talk enables War?

nga to have more faith in herself and her abilities to affect positive change.

Soon after her vision, War?

nga and Gatu-ria meet M-turi, who it turns out is a rebel and a key leader in the workers' strike. His words inspire War?

nga, even before he entrusts her with his firearm. For the first time, War?

nga feels like a participant and not just an observer: "the voice of a worker was urging them to enter the arena," (p. 205). M-turi hands K-haahu's gun to War?

nga and spurns her on: "guns like this should really be in the hands of the workers so they can defend the unity and freedom and wealth of their country," (p. 211). This is the gun she uses on the Rich Old Man, who tempts her into selling her soul at the end of the novel. By then, War?

nga was a changed woman who no longer bleached her skin…

Cite this Document:

"African Literature" (2002, July 15) Retrieved April 23, 2024, from
https://www.paperdue.com/essay/african-literature-134477

"African Literature" 15 July 2002. Web.23 April. 2024. <
https://www.paperdue.com/essay/african-literature-134477>

"African Literature", 15 July 2002, Accessed.23 April. 2024,
https://www.paperdue.com/essay/african-literature-134477

Related Documents
African Literature
PAGES 3 WORDS 884

Mariama Ba's So Long A Letter. It discusses how the style used by the author hinders her presentation of the whole question of male/female relationships within the entire family structure, not just the nuclear family. It also discusses how the reader only has the main character's opinion and not those of the characters around her. Two sources used. APA. So Long A Letter Mariama Ba in her novel, "So Long A

African Literature
PAGES 3 WORDS 1098

Letter," by Mariama Ba, "Devil on the Cross," by Ngug" wa Thiongo, and "July's People," by Nadine Gordimer. Specifically, it will discuss and explain gender and family in "So Long a Letter," the aspects of Colonialism and Imperialism in "Devil on the Cross," and cultural freedom and integrity in "July's People." THREE AFRICAN NOVELS In "So Long a Letter," Mariama Ba writes of Ramatoulaye, a Senegalese schoolteacher in her 50s, whose

African Literature
PAGES 4 WORDS 1370

DEATH AND THE KING'S HORSEMEN The purpose of this paper is to compare and discuss the play, "Death and the King's Horseman," by Wole Soyinka. Specifically, it will discuss the style and language used by the Praise Singer throughout the play, and show how the Praise Singer fits the understanding of oral literature and storytelling. It will also look at the part ritual suicide plays in the story. DEATH AND THE KING'S

African Literature
PAGES 3 WORDS 1073

authors employ oral styles to convey the voices of individual characters and their unique jargon. Vocal inflections can be heard in print, imagined in the head as the reader loses him or herself in the novel. Kenyan author Ng-g? wa Thiong'o in his novel Devil on the Cross uses at least five different oral styles that contribute volumes to the complexity of his seminal work. The narrator begins and

Social dissent and unrest should not be the result of multiculturalism, the authors point out, but nonetheless those are the social realities, in many instances, of the new global picture. There is now, like it or not, a "blurring of cultural borderlines," the authors report; and as a result, the notion of culture within the word "multiculturalism" no longer refers to habits and customs of a people in anthropological terms.

If anything, the more languages in which a book is published the better. This way there can be as much cross fertilization of ideas and solutions to pressing needs. References Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Penguin, 2006. ____African Trilolgy. London: Picador, 2000 Ashcroft, Bill; Griffiths, Gareth and Tiffin, Helen (eds.). The Post Colonial Studies Reader, London: Routledge, (1995) Bassnett-McGuire, Susan. Translation Studies. London: Routledge, 1991. Chevrier, Jacques. "Writing African books in the French