AFRICAN
PROSE FICTION for WAEC/NECO 2016-2020
Amma Darko- FACELESS
Chapter One
The novel reveals the deprivation and the hopeless nature
and life of the street children suburban Ghana’s capital, Accra, which is
christened Sodom and Gomorrah because of the despicable acts that take place
there. Fofo, one of the central characters, is a female destitute who roams the
Agbogbloshie market. She has chosen to spend the night on a cardboard in front
of a provision store close to where she just got a job of washing carrots and
other vegetables. She has vacated
the squatters’ enclave of Sodom and Gomorrah where she could have mingled with
her fellow street urchins after enjoying the thrills which their companionship
afford them. However, she chooses to sleep in front of the provision store in
order not to lose her newly acquired job.
As she sleeps soundly dreaming of
heavenly bliss, she feels her breast being caressed, she jolts up from the
sleep and is totally astonished to behold the piercing eyes of the notorious
street lord, Poison, fondling her dress. Fofo screams but Poison’s quickly
covers her mouth with his hand and threatens to kill her if she continues. Fofo
stops and recoils helplessly defeated. Poison removes her undergarments, grins
excitedly and starts to unbuckle his belt. Survival instincts takes over as
Fofo summons the courage of liberation, with all her strength, she kicks the
intruder, jumps up and runs away as quickly as she could.
Fofo goes straight to see her
friend, Odarley, in her own makeshift shack inside Sodom and Gomorrah. She
wakes Odarley up and the two girls go to wash up their faces and to defecate in
the usual dump site .As they are defecating, Odarley notices that Fofo has no
underpants, she urges Fofo to be fast.
As they are cleaning up, Macho, another street lord, appears. On
sighting Macho, every one scatters in different directions. In her panic, Fofo
leaves her plastic bag which contains all her earnings from the previous
week. On discovering this, she breaks
down in tears and later informs her
friend that she intends to go and see her mother in connection to Poison’s
attempt to rape her earlier that morning.
Chapter Two
Chapter two introduces another
character, Kabira, a mother of three- Obea, a fifteen year old curious
daughter; Essie, a nine year old quizzical daughter who always worries her mum
with unrealistic demands and the repertoire of ‘mummy you worry too much’ and
Ottu, a seven year old boy who always wants his mother to give him a special
status for being a boy. Kabira works with MUTE, a non-governmental organisation
that specialises in research and documentation. The NGO’s sources of
information include newspapers, magazines, radio, television, interviews,
gossips and hearsays. Kabira has a hand me down 1975 Volkswagen beetle
nicknamed ‘Creamy’ which has been to every mechanic workshop, from Abeka to
Zongo, which still give her a lot of problems.
The meagre income she receives at
MUTE balances the time she needs to take care of her family. Because of her
meagre income, she always counts and recounts the money in her purse as she
also delists items from the list she has already written so as to accommodate
the most needful for her family. She always takes them to school in the morning
with Creamy before resuming duties at MUTE. Adade, Kabira’s husband, does not
partake in the rat race school runs and chores of his wife. His palatable
routine includes waking up at six am, to spend about thirty minutes in the bathroom,
fifteen minutes to dress before he sits at the dining table for his breakfast
with a newspaper before going to work. He comes back late in the night after
socialising at a regular drinking spot.
Chapter Three
Fofo and Odarley go to see Maa Tsuru, Fofo’s mother, to
intimate her about her encounter with Poison.The visit reveals that the body
found at the kiosk in the market is that of Baby T, Fofo’s elder sister. She
learns that Poison has been to Maa Tsuru’s house and warns her not to meddle in
the affairs of Baby T, who ceases to be her daughter the day she sold her to
the street through Maami Broni. The proceeds from Baby T prostitution feeds Maa
Tsuru, her step father, Nii Kpakpo, and their two sons. However, Fofo also
learns that her step father has left home, leaving her mum and younger
half-brothers to cater for themselves.
The revelations enrage Fofo who
berates her mother and laments on how they have been trying to eke out a living
on the street without anybody’s help. Maa Tsuru wails and advises Fofo to leave
Accra completely in order to escape the threat of Poison who has threatened
that he would come after Fofo if Maa Tsuru makes trouble on Baby T’s death.
Fofo leaves her mother’s house with a sorrowful heart and part ways with
Odarley as they are about to enter Sodom and Gomorrah.
Chapter Four
Kabira’s household wake up to their normal routine morning
activities and chores but the aura is interrupted by a radio presenter and her
guest on Harvest FM, Sylv Po, who talks extensively on the menace of HIV and
AIDS in the Ghanaian society. Kabira
learns from the female guest that the most vulnerable are the street children
and that early sex education which will expose children to the dangers of the
virus and how to abstain from unwanted sexual behaviour will help in curtailing
the menace.
Kabira stumbles on Planned
Parenthood Association of Ghana on Sexual Quality Life’s pamphlet inside an
exercise book under Obea’s pillow. This discovery troubles her mind as she
plans on how to tackle the issue of sex education with her fifteen year old
daughter who is always ahead of her. She drives the children to school but her
car breaks down in front of the children’s school. She manages to drive Creamy,
the rickety 1975 Volkswagen beetle, to work but on her way, she meets an old
never do well classmate driving one of the newest model of a car which she
nicknames Ms Sleek. She gets to MUTE office late to meet the Director, Dina, a
divorcee and graduate of the University of Ghana, who fondly refers to MUTE as
an alternative library.
Dina registers her dissatisfaction
with Kabira’s late coming but Kabira blames Creamy for her situation. Dina
informs her staff about her line up of activities and consultations she has for
the day. She explains that they will be getting some sort of support for a
project on the mentally ill pregnant woman as one TV Station has agreed to run
a documentary when they submit their report. Dina hands over some money to
Kabira so as to get some stuff for her when she visits the Agbogbloshie market
later that day.
Chapter Five
Creamy takes Kabira to Agbogbloshie without the usual
hiccups and she goes straight to the garden egg vendor. The vendor informs her
not to pass through a particular short cut because a dead girl’s corpse was dumped
there. She, the vendor, reveals that the girl’s face was badly mutilated while
the hairs on her head, armpit and pubic regions were shaven off. Kabira asks
whether the poor dead girl was a kayayo (a porter) but the vendor reveals that
she, the dead girl, was a street girl, that they even discovered fresh blood
and some white feathers, apparently depicting that a white fowl was slaughtered
to appease the spirit of the dead girl.
As Kabira moves round to get her
needed stuffs, someone snatches her purse. The thief is apprehended and the mob
wanted to lynch him. Out of pity, she asks the mob to release the boy claiming
that he is her relative. She drags the boy away from the mob and drags him to
Creamy and releases him. The boy refuses to go. Kabira, sensing his
helplessness, gives him some money but the boy still refuses to go. She later
discovers that the thief is not a boy but a girl disguised as a boy. She
discloses her name to be Fofo and explains further that the dead girl found in
the market was her sister; that she would like to be introduced to the
government. Though Kabira does not take her serious, she promises to see her
the next day at the same spot.
Getting to the office, Kabira relays
her encounter with the thief and her bizarre confession. Dina decides she will
take up Fofo’s case together with Sylv Po, the radio presenter of Harvest FM.
She contacts Sylv Po who informs her that they had publicised the death of the
girl for the police to take action but three days later someone called,
claiming that he knew the dead girl. The unknown caller states that girl’s name
was Fati and that she had been betrothed to a friend of her father who took
care of her since her formative years but Fati ran away and his untimely death
is a reward for her sins. Dina tells Kabira what Sylv Po has said but Kabira
debunks the claim. She claims that Fofo’s story and conviviality is germane.
She cannot tell a lie about her sister.
Chapter Six
Kabira picks her children from the school and makes her mind
to confront Obea on the pamphlet found under her pillow. Once at home, she
attends to her routine chores of a mother, wife and homemaker. When her
husband, Adade returns from work, she tells him her experiences in Agbogbloshie
market. Adade does not see why MUTE should involve themselves, he believes that
the police are the right group to handle the case, not MUTE.
Chapter Seven
Kabira goes to Agbogbloshie to search for Fofo. While she
waits for Fofo, she goes to study the place where the said corpse was dumped.
Apart from the stench that comes from the scene,every other thingis as usual as
people go about their businesses mindlessly. Kabira meets the salon owner
besides the place where a corpse (of Baby T) was discovered. Kabira tries to
interrogate the woman but the woman vehemently rebuffs her and queries why
Kabira should bother her on an incident she knows nothing about. Kabira
cushions the woman’s fear by cooking up a story of how her husband had abandoned
her with children to cater for.
The story brings down the heightened
tension in the salon as she directs her to the most senior of her apprentices
who knows much more about the abandoned (Baby T’s) corpse. The girl reveals
that she was around that early morning when the corpse was discovered beside
their kiosk. Someone she narrates informs the police and a reporter came and
interviewed the onlookers and the kayayoos-two
of them-(porters) reveal that the corpse do not belong to them rather it is a
street girl (prostitute). One of the Kayayoos
(their leader), came and told the
two Kayayoos something and they leave
immediately while others refuse to talk to the police when they wanted to
interrogate them.The police try to extract some pieces of information from the
onlookers but nobody ventures to give further information. Kabira thanks the
lady apprentice and the woman for the pieces of information given and leaves
the kiosk. As Kabira leaves, one of the
apprentices identifies Kabira as the one whose purse was stolen by a boy thief
the previous day.
Kabira walks unsteadily to where
Creamy is packed and prays silently that Fofo would come. She spots Fofo from
afar and notices the bruises on her body and bloodshot eyes. She makes a call
to her office and informs them that she would be bringing Fofo to the
office. All effort to get Fofo to talk
to them about herself and the bruises proved abortive. When Vickie suggests
talking to the police, Fofo tries to flee. They catch her and assure her that
since she doesn’t want to go to the police, they won’t take her. However, they
would take her to the clinic and treat her wounds which Fofo obliged.
Chapter 8
Obea informs her mum that she has kept the PPGA (Planned
Parenthood Association of Ghana on Sexual Quality Life) pamphlets under her
mum’s pillow. Kabira gets home and reads the pamphlet. As she reads the
pamphlet, Ottu comes in and request a cassette named Lord Kenya. While
ruminating on the content of the pamphlet, she informs the children about the
lot of the unfortunate children on the streets especially that of Fofo. The
children are horrified about the predicament of the girl child Fofo. Essie
suggests that Fofo should be brought to live with them in their house. Later in
the night Kabira calls Dina to find out how Fofo is fairing in Dina’s house.
Dina states that Fofo is sound asleep and that she is delighted sleeping on a
neatly made bed in a room, for the very first time in her life.
Chapter 9
The next day, Dina hosts a meeting with the members of her
staff where she explains to the some of the cardinal points upon which MUTE is
established which is to document issues which may not necessarily found in the
library. Fofo’s predicament, she discloses has added a new dimension to their
scope of work. Kabira suggests
rehabilitation for Fofo while Aggie cautions that they need to carry the
police along. However, others contain that the idea would upset Fofo. They
eventually agree to meet the police so as to seek out necessary pieces of
information about the dead girl whose corpse has been deposited in the morgue
but Fofo’s case shouldn’t be revealed to the police. They also agree that they
would visit Fofo’s family and Maa Tsuru whom Fofo has told them was her mother.
Vickie and Kabira agree to go to the police station to seek some pieces of
information but all is in vain as the police fail to meet their demand.
Chapter 10
Vickie and Kabira make their way to Naa Yomo’s family’s
house where Maa Tsuru lives. NnaYoma engages them in a chitty chatty about her
family background and the reasons everyone in the compound seems to be avoiding
her since the visit of the ‘evil man’ to her. Maa Tsuru since then has locked
herself in her room. Their attempts to get Maa Tsuru to talk prove abortive as
she cries and laments over the conceived ‘curse’ placed on her, and refuses to
open her door.
In their confusion, Vickie and
Kabira return back to NaaYomo for an explanation on what might be this curse
that was placed on MaaTsuru. Naa Yomo explains that Maa Tsuru was born thirty
five years ago by a woman who was impregnated by her lover before her puberty
rites and initiation into womanhood. The
lover however, denied the pregnancy and even denied ever seeing Maa Tsuru’s
mother. The denials culturally and traditionally was unacceptable and because
of that, the young lady placed a mortal curse on the man and his generation (of
Maa Tsuru is one) forever. The woman died immediately after giving birth to Maa
Tsuru, still cursing both father and child.
Chapter 11
Vickie and Kabira explain their findings to Dina who is not
satisfied for their inability to speak directly with Maa Tsuru. Dina also
informs that all her attempt to make Fofo talk and reveal things about herself
are also abortive. She urges Kabira to come over to their house later in the
evening to see whether Fofo will open up to her. On getting home, Kabira
informs her children that she would be going to Aunty Dina’s house to try to
talk to Fofo.
Chapter 12
At Dina’s house, Fofo explains to Dina and Kabira who sit in
the living room about herself, her mother and how she starts to live on the
street. She reveals that she her street life starts with begging and gradually
graduates to stealing and pickpocketing. These vices, she explains come after
she drops out from school in class two, the same with Baby T (the one whose
body was found on the street).
Kabira interrogates her on how she
gets to know that the corpse on the street was her sister’s. Fofo indicates
that her mother informs her because Poison visited her (Maa Tsuru) and told
her. She reveals as well that an attempt to rape Baby T by Nii Kpakpo and the
furtherance of it by …. Their mother decides that Baby T shall no longer live
with them in the house again. Baby T the goes to live with Maami Broni, a fat
red woman whom Fofo disliked very much. Fofo the goes to the street because she
doesn’t want anybody to withhold her freedom as she enjoys living on the
street. She spends her money by herself unlike when she was living with her mum
who takes her daily proceeds from her. She makes friends with the street people
and she eventually joins a gang.
Fofo
further discloses that she had decided to leave the gang on that day she stole
Kabira’s purse and that is why she disguises herself as a boy so as not to be
recognised. However, she decides not to run away because of her encounter with
Kabira. The next day after seeing Kabira, Poison and his gang waylaid her, beat
her up and strictly warn her not to talk to anybody about Baby T or she would
be dead like her.Afi, Dina’s house help joins the conversation and explains
that she had once stayed with a man who tries to sell her to a man. Dina drive
Kabira home that night and by the time she arrives, everyone has slept except
Abena the maid.
Chapter 13
Sylv Po, on Good morning Ghana Radio Programme uses Fofo’s
story as a case study on the series she anchors about the street children. The
programme comes on radio with Ms Kamane being the special guest of honour. Ms
Kamane confirms the prevalence of street children in Accra. She highlights the
causes and the effects of such negative trends in the Ghanaian society and the
interest of her non-governmental organisation to stage an awareness campaignon
the victims and parents who shun their parental responsibilities.
As the programme continues, an
anonymous caller disrupts it and states categorically that the dead girl is not
Baby T but a girl names Fati who elopes with another man after abandoning her
husband who happens to be his father’s friend and has been responsible for her
since her formative age. Kabira, Dina and Vickie listen to the programme from
their respective homes. After the programme, Sylvo calls Dina to know her
observations concerning the programme. They conclude that someone somewhere is
not comfortable with the publicity that Fofo, Maa Tsuru and Baby T case is
getting.
BOOK TWO
Chapter 14
Kwei, a young man of twenty three, has impregnated a girl of
sixteen (Maa Tsuru), a lady believed to be having a portent curse placed on her
by her dying mother. Kwei’s mother frowns at the relationship between Kwei and
Maa Tsuru. Kwei who fails to marry Maa Tsuru properly keeps assuring her that
once he gets to the city he would come and do things properly. Maa Tsuru on
this promise continues to play the role of a wife to him till they have the
fourth child. Kwei still continues to live her mother while Maa Tsuru lives
with her great aunt, Naa Yomo who also disproves of their relationship. By the
time Maa Tsuru has had her fourth child, Kwei leaves her and absconds believing
that his failure and inability to progress in whatever he does because of the
curse placed on her. The first two sons who are now older and above ten years
old have started going to the seaside to run some errands like carrying loads
for people in order to support their mother and two younger sisters.
Chapter 15
Maa Tsuru, after many years of loneliness, allows another
man, Kpakpo into her life and they cohabit in their one room dingy apartment.
The grown up boys who could not withstand the noise that emanates from the
lovemaking between Kpakpo and their mother humbly leaves the apartment and Maa
Tsuru bluntly fails to look for them.
Maa Tsuru becomes pregnant and has a
premature labour which forces her to stay away from home. Kpakpo who would have
acted like a step father to the two young girls, abuses the opportunity as he
orders Baby T to his apartment, undress her, abuse her tender breast and
finally fingers her. Despite the pretence of being asleep, Fofo sees all that
happens. She relates the incidence to Onko thinking that Kpakpo had slept with
her sister. When Fofo confronts Baby T the next day,Baby T reveals that Kpakpo
did not sleep with her but fingered her. Maa Tsuru returns without the
stillbirth still does nothing about the incidence.Onko capitalises on the
report made by Fofo to him and rapes Baby T. Maa Tsuru could not understand why
Onko, a person the children look up to as the one deflowering her daughter.
Chapter 16
Maa Tsuru confronts Onko on the despicable act of raping her
daughter. However, Onko offers her a huge amount of money and asks him to keep
it a secret since if it becomes a case, the name of Kpakpo who started the
fingering would be mentioned too. Maa Tsuru overwhelmed with shame takes the
money which she needed the most and shamefully walks away. Onko assures that he
would be giving her a lot of goodies if she behaves well. Three weeks after
recovery from the bleeding from her private part, Onko starts to make further
advances to Baby T again. The advances infuriate Maa Tsuru and she decides to
send Baby T away from Okno’s reach.
Kpakpo introduces her to one Mama
Abidjan, a retired prostitute who now recruits younger girls to work in bars
and as house helps. Through Mama Abidjan, they get to know Maami Broni who opts
to live with Baby T. Maa Tsuru who has no faint idea of where her daughter
works threatens Mama Abidjan with a police but Mama Broni visits her the next
day and reveals that Baby T now works with Poison, a street lord. Poison threatens Maa Tsuru that if she makes
trouble, they will come for her younger daughter Fofo. Ma Tsuru gets to know
that Poison has been sending envelopes (money) to them of which Kpakpo has been
intercepting. Maami Broni decides to be
bringing the envelopes herself. Howver, Maami Broni breaks the news that Fofo
has disappeared for three days and the corpse found at the kiosk in the market
was her.
BOOK 3
Chapter 17
Aggie and Vickie go to the morgue to get Baby T’s autopsy
report. The autopsy reveals that Baby T died of a bleeding from the fatal head
injury which affects the left side of her brain. Hand prints were also
discovered on her right cheek which suggests that she was slapped viciously
probably by a male hand. It also revealed that Baby T did not die at where she
was dumped that she must have died somewhere else before they dumped her there.
While Vickie and Aggie are at the morgue, Kabira goes to visit Naa Yomo.
Immediately, Naa Yomo goes to Maa Tsuru and tells her that she wants to talk to
her.
This act is unusual as Naa Yomo
hardly leaves her seat not to talk of coming to someone else’s door. Maa Tsuru
later opens the door as Naa Yomo berates her on how she locks herself and
children up in the room and isolates herself from the world around her. She
laments: ‘This household regards you as a leper, now I am telling you it cannot
go on like that, it must stop.’Naa Yomo further informs her about Kabira’s
visit and warns that whenever Kabira returns, she must attend to them. She must
answer any question or questions they ask her. She reveals to her that Fofo is
in their custody and that they know already everything about them. Maa Tsuru
agrees.
Chapter 18
Kabira in the company of Fofo and Sylv Po visits Maa Tsuru.
Sylv Po goes with a tape recorder and a microphone. While on their way, she
requests to go through Sodom and Gomorrah so as to have a view of the place.
Fofo also wanted to use the opportunity to see her friend Odarley. The team
visit Fofo’s former place in the search of her friend, Odarley watchfully
because of the notorious nature of the place. The watchful eyes of Sodom and
Gomorrah watch them as they negotiate their way in. However, they fail to see
Odarley.
They later move to Maa Tsuru’s abode
who narrates to them her life story starting from when Kwei first appeared to
her life till when Kpakpo came and shattered her life and deserted her as well.
Sylv Po asks her why she fails to look for her runaway sons; Maa Tsuru
acknowledges that she made a mistake. On further interrogation, Maa Tsuru
expresses her hope that Kpakpo would return after all she is the father of her
two younger sons. The adult in Fofo rises up and berates her boldly: ‘So you
will do it again, if he returned today, you will let him in and probably get
yourself pregnant again?’ Fofo with tears lambasts her mother on her
insensitivity, irresponsibility and stupidity. On their way out, Sylv Po asks
about Onko and Maa Tsuru informs that since Baby T’s incidence, she rarely sees
him.
Chapter 19
The trio (Dina, Sylv Po and Kabira) leave Maa Tsuru’s dingy
apartment to Onko’s workshop. They meet his senior apprentice who informs them
that their business is at the brink of collapse as there are no more orders and
other apprentices have left. Kabira leaves for the school runs. While trying to
concentrate because of the usual whines and rants of her children, something
strikes her mind about the finger prints discovered on Baby T’s face in the
autopsy report. It seems like the finger print she saw on Fofo’s cheek that
fateful day she came across her in the Agbogbloshie market. She calls Dina and
informs her about her about her suspicion. She establishes through her
suspicion that the culprit they are looking for must be a left-handed person.
Chapter 20
A mail man delivers a parcel to MUTE. Dina receives the
parcel and calls others to come and see its content. Meanwhile, Sylv Po in her
Good Morning Ghana Programme has informed her audience that the case of the
street girl’s corpse found in the kiosk has not been concluded as many of them
have thought. She asserts that a link has been made and the dead girl’s parents
have been located; and that every truth concerning her death has been
established. The culprit whom they will eventually find will not escape the
long arms of the law. She also informs her audience that anyone with any useful
information shouldn’t hesitate to inform them.
The parcel delivered to Dina bears
the name, Abraham Lincoln. When it is opened, its content turns out to be human
excrement (faeces). Dina calls Sylv Po and informs her of the latest situation.
Coincidentally, an anonymous caller called Harvest FM and argues that she knows
the dead girl whose name he contends is Baby T. She points out that the caller
who claims that Fati is the dead girl’s name is a liar. She buttresses her
point by saying that she was the one that slaughtered a white fowl beside the
corpse so as to appease her spirit. The caller corroborates MUTE’s earlier
proposition that a left-handed fellow was responsible for Baby T’s death.
Chapter 21
Poison’s background is revealed in this chapter. He ran away
from home at the age eight and hit the life on the street. He had been living in a two by four room with
mother, stepfather and five siblings. His step father took pleasure in
battering him with a leather belt at the slightest opportunity which further
turns a shy and soft spoken boy (Poison) into a hardened criminal. Poison
leaves home and joins a gang criminal. His act criminality started with
breaking into a car to remove its deck (radio). He later moved in with a harlot
and ran all kinds of errands for her. Later he turned to an accomplished pimp
at the age of fifteen and had no qualms fighting for the control of the street.
Kabira and Sylv Po visit Poison in
his home shack after getting a lead from the House help recruitment Agency.
Poison patronises the agency as they too serve as a well of honey in his
recruitment. The duo (Kabira and Sylv Po) interrogates Poison and acknowledges
knowing Baby T very well. He confesses that she (Baby T) was one of the girls
that brings in better and huge proceeds to his business. He acknowledges beaten
the girl but asserts vehemently that he did not kill her.
Chapter 22
Dina goes in the search of Maami Broni in her (Maami
Broni’s) brother’s apartment. Co-tenants report that Maami Broni has not been
sleeping in her room because of a man with facial scars probably Poison.
Odarley comes to the MUTE’s office to report the sudden death of Onko. Odarley
reveals that it was Naa Yomo that sends her because she thinks that the
circumstances surrounding the death of Onko might be useful to them in their
investigation. Onko had committed suicide according to his senior apprentice.
He visited a juju man to help resuscitate his business from folding up but he
ended up hanging himself somewhere not far from his workshop. Dina and MUTE
crew inform Fofo of their plans to take her to a Rehab.
Chapter 23
Vickie and Sylv Po
visit the juju man’s shack. The juju man reveals that Onko believes that the
cause of his dwindling business was because he has mixed his blood with that of
an accursed woman. The juju man prescribes certain things which include a fowl
and hair from the pubic region of the girl he has mixed his blood with. The
juju man claims he has a nephew who rears all forms of assorted poultry for
sacrificial purposes. It was from his nephew that Maami Broni bought the fowl
she slaughtered to appease Baby T’s spirit which was hunting her.
Chapter 24
Maami Broni past life is revealed in this chapter as a
retired prostitute. She used to be an active prostitute in Ivory Coast before
now. She accepts Baby T because she was told that the girl has gone to the
extent of seducing her step father, therefore, Maami Broni introduces Baby T
straight away into prostitution on her first night with her. Baby t cried so
much that Maami Broni had to introduce her into the smoking of the Indian hemp
so as to cool her nerves. Sooner than later, Baby T masters the act of
prostitution and begins to make money for her masters- Poison and Maami Broni.
Chapter 25
In the quest to find the most needed basic ingredient (Baby
T’s pubic hair) in the sacrifice to resuscitate his business, Onko stumbles on
Kpakpo at AgbooAyee Drinking Spot. Onko buys several shots for him, give s him
some money and later begs him to take him to Poison. Out of fear, Kpakpo
declines and however refers him to Mama Abidjan. Mama Abidjan after she is
being tipped by Onko takes Onko to Poison. Poison doubles the charges of Onko
who is even ready to triple the charge as far it could lead him to get his
heart desire. The presence of Onko recreates in her, her childhood experience
and she cries profusely. Poison threatens her but she refuses blatantly. Her
insubordination angers Poison who slaps him heavily but Baby T still refuses.
Poison then brings out his belt and whips her brutally. Baby T slumps and falls on the floor and
breaks her head. Onko meets Baby T on this state. He calls Maami Broni and they
both realise that the girl is dead.
Setting
The novel is set in the suburb of Accra, the Ghanaian
capital known as Sodom and Gomorrah. The area was formerly known as Fadama
before the government through some developmental projects changed it. The place
now harbours the famous Agbogbloshie Market where majority of the activities in
the novel take place. The name Sodom and Gomorrah is symbolic as it depicts the
despicable events that take place in this suburb. Other places of action
include the MUTE office where the Dina and her cohorts work. Other significant
spots include AgboAyee spot where Onko meets Kpakpo and offers him some tips so
as to locate Baby T. Theses enclaves are within the Ghanaian capital Accra.
This semi-urban ghetto creates sociologicaland other anti-social vices
likeprostitution,pimping, stealing, drugaddiction, etc. of which Baby T becomes
a victim. The time these actions take place is during the postcolonial Ghanaian
society when the western culture is trying to erode the cultural Ghanaian one
as parents do not live up to their responsibilities again and as well decay and
corruption have set in in the system as can be noticed in the police station.
Plot
The novel x-rays and lampoons the sociological decadence and
pollution that saturates the post-colonial Ghanaian society using Agbogbloshie
market as a miniature representative of the entire society. This sociological
degradation revolves around Fofo whose formative yearsreplicates and mirrors
her environment. The harsh realities of her environment includes:alcoholism,
drug addition, gangsterism, stealing,
begging, prostitution, parental negligence and pimping. The failure of parental
responsibility forces Fofo and her sister Baby T on the street. They beg and
later graduate to petty stealing so as to augment whatever menial income their
mother brings home. Fofo later abandons her home and joins a gang because
Kpakpo, her stepfather’s tries to abuse her elder sister Baby T in the absence
of her mum. The street as well becomes another trap for Fofo as the street
lords, Macho and Poison sets the rule and interprets it the way that suits
them. Fofo and her group are at their mercy.
Poison
tries to rape Fofo on the street. Fofo informs her friend Odarley and they
decide to go home to report the issue to Fofo’s mother, Maa Tsuru. However,
they are disposed of their earnings by Macho, another street lord, while
defecating early that morning before going to see MaaTsuru. They get home and
meet Maa Tsuru downhearted because of the double jeopardy that she involved in.
Baby T has died and the father of her children, Kpakpo, has abandoned her with
her children to cater for. Maa Tsuru advises Fofo to go away where the hands of
Poison will not reach her. Maa Tsuru feels sorry for her actions both past and
present though very late.
Fofo
returns to the street and decides to operate solo disguising himself as a boy.
(S) he snatches a purse from an unknown woman and is caught in the process. She
is about to be lynched before the woman decides to save her. Fofo reveals her
identity to the woman who works with MUTE and the woman (Kabira) takes her case
to her NGO (MUTE) and they take upon themselves to unravel the mystery that
surrounds the death of Baby T.
The
catastrophe that surrounds Baby T’s tragedy is traced to the ancestral curse
that was placed on her mother by her grandmother. Maa Tsuru is conceived in
shame as her presupposed father fails to claim responsibility of his action. He
denies ever knowing Maa Tsuru’s mother. Because of the shame and negligence,
the woman placed a curse on Maa Tsuru and her generations that they would
‘suffer in more forms that he had ever made her suffer.’ that curse resulted in
the tragedies that Maa Tsuru and her lineage are facing.
Maa Tsuru never had a stable husband
as men come and go as they please leaving her empty with no one to hold onto.
Kwei abandons her after impregnating her four good times with her children to
cater for. The children take to the street to as a means of survival. Kpakpo
too, takes the advantage of her loneliness and sensual starvation to make life
more miserable and unbearable for her. He drives away her two older sons whose
returns from the petty errands they do at the seaside sustains the family as
they could not bear their mother sleeping with a man in their dingy room
apartment. Kpakpo sexually assaults and abuses Baby T at age twelve as she
fingers her in the night that Maa Tsuru gives birth to a stillborn in the
clinic.
Fofo confides in Onko, a man they
look up to as a father in the compound, the outrageous act of Kpakpo. However,
Onko takes the advantage of this revelation and deflowers young Baby T at age
twelve.Onko gives Maa Tsuru money and warns her not to reveal the issue after
all it was her husband that started it. Maa Tsuru takes the money and seals
this despicable act. Onko wants to further his exploits but Maa Tsuru
intervenes and sends Baby T away as a house help to Maami Broni. However, Baby
T is taken to prostitution as Kpakpo connives with them and deceives them into
believing that Baby T always tries to seduce his step father, Kpakpo. Baby T’s
first time with men makes Maami Broni reconsiders her earlier stance. She
introduces Baby T into drug so as to calm herself and it works the magic.
Everybody profits from Baby T’s prostitution directly or indirectly.
Onko associates the crumbling of his
business to the ‘incest’ he commits. He seeks solution from a native doctor who
demands the pubic hair of the lady she sleeps with. Onko coincidentally meets
Kpakpo at AgboAyee spot and tips him so as to locate Baby T. Kpakpo reveals Baby T’s whereabouts and Onko
goes there to get one of the most vital parts of the ingredients needed to
rejuvenate his business.However, Baby T flatly refuses to sleep with Onko.
Poison beats Baby T so as to force her have sex with Onko but Baby T stands her
ground. The total refusal infuriates Poison, the pimp, as he brutally beats
Baby T to comma. Baby dies as a result of the beating. She was carried to a
kiosk at the market place. Onko later hangs himself, a reward for his
atrocities.
STYLE/NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES
Omniscient Narrative Technique: The novel is written in the
omniscient narrative technique as the writer knows everything about her
characters. She knows what they think, dream and do at any time whatsoever.
This helps the audience to see vividly the actions and inactions of the
characters.
SYMBOLISMS
Creamy: the Volkswagen beetle is symbolic. It represents and
symbolises the Ghanaian society with her inherent problems. Creamy moves from place
to place despite the fact that it is old, archaic and needs replacement.A
desire exists to replace it but the economic realities of Kabira’s household
make it impossible and unachievable. Thepost-colonial Ghanaian society as
represented by the Agbogbloshie market is bedevilled with a lot sociological
problems which needed to change right from the social decay in Sodom and
Gomorrah to the corruption and negligence that exist in the police. Despite
identifying some of these lapses, no attempt is made to find a total solution
to them. They remain there like creamy, a failed car (system) that works.
MUTE: MUTE as the name stands for symbolises the inability of the
people to make a change in the society. MUTE fails to make any change despite
their in-depth findings in the case of Baby T. their activities ends up ain
documentation and information build up without any effective change in the
societal ways of doing things.
ALLUSION
Sodom and Gomorrah as
a name is derived from the biblical mythical city where all kind sexual
atrocities are committed. The biblical Sodom and Gomorrah is a replica of the
Ghanaian one as all sorts illicit activities ranging from raping, parental
irresponsibility, drug addition, pimping, molestation, etc. exist.
THEMES
Mysticism/Superstition
The novel elaborates the idea that human are ruled by powers
superior to them, therefore they are like pawns in the hands of fate. Maa
Tsuru’s life replicates this belief as Naa Yomo makes us to understand that the
problem that Maa Tsuru and her lineage are facing is because of the curses
placed on her by her dying mother whose life was made miserable by a hit and
run lover. The curse continues to multiply itself till it gets to the children
of Maa Tsuru. Even when Fofo has got a job to sell groceries where she aims to
lead a clean life, Poison comes and chases her away. Baby T bourgeoning
business no matter how illicit it might look is also cut short by death. The
story in the novel justifies the fact that Maa Tsuru and her children really
suffer much more than the woman that begets them as the woman curses project.
Street Children/ Parental
Irresponsibility
The main cause of street children according to the novel is
the inability of the male parents to live up to their responsibility. They give
birth to children they are unable to care of and later abandon them (children)
to take care of themselves at a tender age. The men are the most hit on this as
the only joys of fatherhood they know is to only impregnate the women and later
abandon them with children and run away probably to make more children. Kwei
and Kpakpo are epitome of this. Even the woman that owns a kiosk closer to
where Baby T corpse was found complained of abandonment when Kabira
interrogates her on what she knows about the corpse. Kabira understands her rhetoric as she as
well claims that her husband too has also abandoned her. The claim by Kabira
gets the woman’s sympathy as she points to her the most senior apprentice of
hers for answers to the Kabira’s questions. The women in the novel despite
their frailties are still better as they try their best to take care of their
children. Maa Tsuru tries to send her children to school but could not afford
it. However, she shows in a way this recalcitrant attitude when she is happy
that her children have left her because ofher sensual and emotional need of
Kpakpo. The resultant effect of this irresponsibility is street children. The
abandoned children have to fend themselves when no one is there to protect
them. Hunger drives them to form gangs and begin to involve themselves in some
social vices like stealing, prostitution, drug addiction, alcoholism etc. Fofo
is a typical example of what parental neglect could do to one even when one
means good for oneself.
Child Molestation/Incest
Fofo and Baby T are typical victims of unwanted sexual
assaults from those who would have protected them. Fofo on the street, where
Poison the supposed street lord who supposed to protect her interest, is
molested by the same supposes protector. Baby T case is out of the hand as she
is molested first by her step father Kpakpo when her mother went to the clinic
where she was delivered of a stillborn. Kpakpo fingers her, touches her young
and tender breast after ordering her to strip naked. However, he stops there.
Onko, whom the children look forward to as a guardian being a member of the
larger family furthers the action as he capitalises on the act of Kpakpo to
deflower Baby T at a tender age.Onko silences Maa Tsuru with money and she
keeps quiet.Onko exploits could be likened to incest as he is considered a
member of the extended family.Onko wanted to continue with her sexual exploits
but Maa Tsuru sends Baby T to Maami Broni where she is turned to be a child
prostitute based on the misinformation given to Maami Broni about Baby T’s
seduction of Kpakpo, her stepfather. Baby T fails to bear the pains of sex the
first night. Maami Broni introduces her to drug and afterwards it takes care of
the pains. Other themes like Corruption,
lawlessness, etc. can as well be explored attempt them.
Characters/Characterisation
Fofo: is the central character in the novel. The story is all
about her life on the street in Sodom and Gomorrah. She moves out of their
house at a tender age because of hunger and the molestation of her elder sister
Baby T by her stepfather, Kpakpo, who as well fails to take good care of her.
Her life on the street starts by begging for survival. The proceeds from the
begging are also use to augment and sustain her ‘wicked’ stepfather. She
finally abandons home and lives permanently on the street despite the harsh
nature of it. The street affords her the opportunity to keeping her proceeds to
herself. She has no one now to give account to as afar as she keeps the rule of
the street despite its flexible interpretations by the street lords.
On the street, Fofo graduates from
begging to stealing. She joins a gang which invariably involves in some other
social vices like: stealing, alcoholism, prostitution, drinking, etc. Fofo
later rediscovers herself, quits alcoholism and picks a (decent) job where she
scrubs carrot. She decides to be sleeping closer to the shop so as to keep the
job. This resolution to salvage her image is cut short by the attempted rape of
her by Poison, one of the street lords. The act of Poison worries Fofo as she
goes home accompanied by Odarley to know actually what might have been the
cause.
The attempt to unravel the mystery
of the attempted rape leads Fofo to know much more about herself and the cause
of her predicaments on the street despite how far she has tried to avail
it. She discovers that her mum mistakes
are some of the causes of her woes on the street. She understands that her
mother abandons them because of her (mother’s) own selfish emotional and
sensual interest. Fofo is truthful and assertive person. She truthfully reveals
to Kabira her gender, the story of her life and why she steals. She boldly
tells her mother that she is the cause of her predicament and theirs when her
mother reveals that she still expects Kpakpo, the destroyer of their live,
back. She shouts: ‘…If he returned today you would let him in and probably get
yourself pregnant by him…. What is it you want?’ She berates her mum. She talks
to her mum in such a way that her mother has to cry when trying to shout her
down. Fofo is somewhat a realist. She does not share the idea of her mum that
the cause of their failure and predicaments is the curse placed by her
grandmother. She blames her mum for their woes. Fofo’s future seems brighter as
MUTE plans a better life where she would be sent to a rehab so as to make her a
better person in life.
Maa Tsuru: is the mother of Baby T, Fofo and
other children older and younger to Baby T, Fofo whose names are not prominent
in the novel. She is a very fertile woman whose fertility is regarded as a
curse. Kwei’s mother asks her son to run away from her after making her
pregnant for four good times and Kwei heeds to the advice of her mother and
abandons her with a pregnant. Fertility is not only the curse that follows her
as Naa Yomo reveals. Naa Yomo informs that her predicaments are as a result of
the everlasting perennial curse placed upon her and generation by her dying
mother who was impregnated and dumped by an irresponsible man. The dying
woman’s wish was that any child that will come from her generation should
suffer and bear more shame than she has borne.
Maa Turu’s life is a reflation of
that curse. She suffers abandonment by two different men whom she sacrifice her
family comfort for. Kwei abandons her because of her fertility. Nii Kpakpo, the
‘wicked’ of them all whom she accommodated , fed and kept at the expense of the
comfort of her family, still abandons her for other women. Maa Tsuru has a soft spot for men. This
character is revealed when she leaves in her patrimonial house and goes to cook
for Kwei in his house. Even when Kwei abandons her because of her mother’s
advice, she goes ahead to allow another ‘evil’ man Nii Kpakpo into her life.
She even accommodates him in her dingy small room with her four children.
Despite the demarcation of the room with cotton she buys from the market, her
two sons leave her. Nii Kpakpo fingers Baby T which leads to the final break
down of Maa Turu’s household. Fofo scolds her when she reveals subtly this
attitude that she still expects Nii Kpakpo to come back after she has destroyed
her life and that of her family. Maa Tsuru realises later that she is the main
cause of her predicaments though she cannot undo her previous acts.
Nii Kpakpo: is the step father of Fofo and Baby
T. He is a deceitful and fraudulent fellow. His advent into the Maa Tsuru’s
life creates a lot of disaster for her. His presence in the house drives Maa
Tsuru’s two elderly sons away who could not bear the presence of another man in
their small room apartment. He finally drives Baby T and Fofo out from the
house.
Nii
Kpakpo lacks self-control. This is exhibited when he molests Baby T at age
twelve. He orders the poor little girl to strip naked on the only night that Maa
Tsuru goes to the clinic where she is delivered of a stillborn. He touches her tender breast and finally
fingers her. This act emboldens Onko to deflower her as he cites Kpakpo
atrocious act as the precursor to his devious act.The presence of Nii Kpakpo
also drives Baby T to prostitution at a tender age. As a heartless man, he
finally leaves Maa Tsuru in the time he has rendered her life miserable. He as
well reveals to Onko the whereabouts of Baby T which finally leads to her
demise in the hands Onko.
Baby T: means Baby Tsuru. The name comes just because Kwei deserts
the mother and refuses to come and do the necessary things for the naming. Baby
T grows up with hunger. She always advises her sister to endure hunger when it
is not pertinent that food will come at the right time. She teaches her sister,
Fofo, how to survive on the street by begging and stealing at a tender age.
Nii
Kpakpo’s attempt to molest her gives Onko the impetus to deflower at age
twelve. Onko, a supposedly relative, who would have protected her, commits
incest in the process. Onko bribes her mother with huge amount of money and
threatens to reveal the act Kpakpo if Maa Tsuru continues to mount pressure on
him. Maa Tsuru stupidly accepts Onko’s offer. The continual advances of Onko to
Baby T pushes Maa Tsuru to unknowingly send the poor little girl child to
prostitution of which Nii Kpakpo is the grand planner.
Baby
T dies in the hand of Poison when she refuses blatantly to sleep with Onko, a
man that deflowers her at the tender age. Baby T corpse is found at the kiosk
in Agbogbloshie market. The mission to unravel who is responsible for her death
becomes the major part of the novel’s story line.
Onko: is a corrupt pronunciation of ‘uncle.’ He is the children’s
favourite in the compound. His house is the second home to any child living in
the compound. They go there to watch TV. He has a booming welding business. In
fact, he is the most progressive in the entire compound. He is also generous
and openhearted. Apart from these qualities, Onko is treacherous, deceitful and
evil minded. He has no stable family. He has two sons from two different women.
He lives with either of them although he sends money to their mother for their
upkeep. His deceitful nature manifest when he hides under the confidential
issue Fofo trusts in him to deflower Baby T, a family member and relative. He
silences Maa Tsuru with his wealth and had wanted to continue if not that Maa
Tsuru sends Baby T away which unceremoniously lands her into prostitution. The
incest he commits and the progressive curse that follows the lineage of Maa
Tsuru affects his business. In trying to rekindle his business, he visits a
juju man. The juju man prescribes the pubic hair of the lady involved as the
major ingredient in an attempt to revive his business. He sets out to get Baby
T’s pubic hair. In the search for this
wonderful ingredient, he kills Baby T in the process. Onko hangs himself when
he discovers that he has done unprecedented things against humanity.
Bayo
Adebowale - LONELY DAYS
CHAPTER
ONE
The
chapter starts by revealing in a flashback method the events that lead to
Yaremi widowhood in Kufi, a village close to Ibadan. From the signs that follow
the death of her husband, Ajumobi, his soul has been accepted into heaven.
Despite this acceptance, Yaremi mourns for the death of her husband, for the
death of one’s husband is irreparable. After the mourning, the friends and
well-wishers leave for their various houses even her two daughters named Segi
leaves for her husband’s house, Mr Wande, a palm wine tapper from Olode and Wura the blacksmith from Apon who have many nicknamed like Iron
maker, Sokoti and blacksmith of
Heaven. Even her only son Alani seems have abandoned her for Ibadan due to
urbanisation faintly remembers Kufi, his hometown. Yaremi becomes lonely as a
result of these situations. She occupied her time with farming and dyeing of
Taffeta cloths. It is only Uncle Deyo, who sometimes assists her in mending and
building of her husband house and Woye her grandchild that keeps her company
especially when she dyes her Taffeta cloth which she sells at Sagbe and Oyedeji
markets.
CHAPTER TWO
Yaremi has started to accept the reality of her situation as
a widow. Being a widow, her Kingdom, the kitchen is where she rules and does
most of her house chores like; cooking. As a village woman, she is expected to
cook three times in a day viz morning, afternoon and evening. As she does these
routine jobs, she sings some rustic ballads. Song in Kuti village is a coded
means of passing information about love, consent, dissent, seduction, etc. even
to lull a child to sleep. One of her favourite songs is the one that metaphoric
depict her life tagged fire which ran thus:
I’ll
tame this fire!
I’ll cast a spell
on this fire……..
I’ll put the
burning ember of his fire
Inside my palm
And smile a smile
of courage
To the world
Life
is hot
Hot
like fire
Life
is fire! (1)
This
song depicts the reality of Yaremi’s life as she adjust herself to being a
widow as she works alone without expecting help from anyone.
Yaremi,
in her late fifties, still looks gorgeous and attractive except for some
wrinkles that evaporate, whenever she smiles. She teases young women whom she
perceived to be weak and advises them on how to be a good wife to their
husband.
CHAPTER THREE
The
chapter discusses the symbolic road that Kufi women pass through in their daily
chores of fetching water from the stream. The slippery narrow road and the fall
that is expected of anyone that passes it, and how it is only a helping hand
from a man could save the fallen widow, portray the challenges Kufi widows face
in their widowhood. This is why the ‘widows’ road’ is also called “the road of
life” by Kufi people. (20). anyone that passes this road sings a song that
depicts the loss of “status” and dignity”. The path is lonely as they are
almost the ones passing through it. When they hear the rhythm of the talking
drum from far away village, they began to reminiscence their lost glory of
dancing which depicts their lost freedom to choose. Dedewe, who cries all the
night, will recollect how she was brutally dehumanized when her husband died.
How she was asked to confess unknown sins she has committed to her husband. The
same with Fayoyi who was shaved to the scalp brutally by her husband’s
relatives,Radeke passes through the same ordeal of dehumanisation in their
widow’s road of life.
CHAPTER FOUR
Yaremi
never believes she would be a widow soonest as she pays attentions to the
widows before her. Now, she buries herself with different kind of house chores
and other works like farming, Dyeing taffeta clothes, etc., so as to cushion
and absorb the loneliness that her life is now known for.
The
vacuum created by the death of Ajumobi, her late husband is now filled with
working and toiling day and night so as to occupy herself.
She
as well turns herself to be a good story teller as she tells Woye, her
grandchild, the story of events that took place during her childhood days at
Adeyipo, village. These stories expresses the youthful vigour of Adeyipo
village, a nostalgic feeling of her childhood, she now recurs because of
loneliness that widowhood brings, how she use to play hide and seek, climbing
the nine hills that separates their village with others. The romanticising of
Adeyipo villagecontrasts her present situation in Kufi village where she is now
a widow that thrives the widows village alone with no one but her grandchild to
run to. However, the morality from the story Yaremi told Woye inspires him to
work harder and do his chore with utmost pleasure.
CHAPTER FIVE
The
chapter reveals how Woye plays around in the village restlessly with his
bicycle wheel, playing the King. How he sees himself as king and chases away
the hawk that wants to carry their chicks. It reveals Woye’s character, his
childish character of loving food and hating bathing.
Woye
makes a scarecrow so as to chase the hawks away. It also envelopes the
superstitious believe of the people, especially of birds like hawks, owls,
sparrow vultures, egret, etc. the folktales of Kufi town is filled with humans
who transform into birds so as to wreak havoc to their perceived enemies, even
the death of Ajumobi is made reference to especially when a hawk perches on the
roof of his house, the villagers superstitiously believe that it was that
Yaremi that transforms into the hawk so as to kill her husband. This belief
comes to be because death in Kufi town always have a cause an there exist no
natural death as far as the village know. Somebody, something somewhere must be
responsible. It can be of the greedy members of the extended family or wife
killing their husband. Thechapter ends by revealing how Ajumobi died after he
made a decision of not hunting that he took because of the drizzling rain. He
hallucinates as he hunts in the bush. The village herbalist was consulted and
through the oracle. Ajumobi is pronounced dead, although still breathing. No
one doubted the oracle.
CHAPTER SIX
The
chapter explores how Yaremi lives her lonely-widowhood life. She whiles away
these lonely nights by counting the rafters in the house. She felts free from
the authoritarian nature of the husband. However she is not comfortable with
the freedom because such freedom to her depicts emptiness. The falling walls,
the rats that move without anyone to checkmate themetc., reminds her,the
absence of her husband. In a flashback, she remembers the good old time she had
with her husband. The boastful nature of Ajumobi, the unfulfilled promises, the
drunkenness, etc. she remembers more, how boastful, he is always when he drinks
with his friends. How they reveal what they had in mind. Like Ajumobi, thinking
of marrying another wife and how he would build a house in between the wives
huts where he would stay to make decision of which of the wives to sleep with.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Chapter
seven explores the rustic life of the Kufi, how children do play in a moonlit
night. Several phases of the moon is interpreted by the villagers like that of
a washer woman, washing ‘huge pile of cloth’ (60), old woman combing her hair,
human head, etc. The moonlit night also creates the images of a smart girl
grinding pepper. The myth of the moon and how it moves back into the sky is told
especially when the moon was very close to the earth, women rubbed their dirty
hands on it and as a result, it went to the sky. Yaremi thought flows to
reminiscence her husband again. How she used to finish him with her mouth,
Ajumobi a stammerer would chase her but she always run away as she curses
him.She wonders why she men have the right to lord it over women.However she
consoles herself with a myth whichdepicts that in the spirit world, women lords
itover men, a kind of continuous subjugation in the spirit world. Ajumobi’s
figure like Julius Caesar continues to over shadow the story, the belief in
mysticism and after life is explored and how Yaremi is able to weather the
absence of her late husband.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The
chapter discusses the preparation of Yaremi for Oyedeji market, the loading of
taffeta in the trays to the market. How the market women come so early to buy
her goods especially those from the rural areas who worry that she would
increase the price of her product. The poverty strike nature of those women is
revealed from the way they postponed the payment of their debt (cloth they
bought in credit from her). The story of a man who lend his wife to his
creditor and the creditor later got married to her because of his indebtedness
illustrate the situation better. Some of these poverty stricken debtors are
bold to face Yaremi while others beg for more time. Woye, the son of Wura’s
sickness, makes Yaremi to be worried not for herself but because of what the
villagers would say if the child dies. The villagers would lynch her and
consider a witch. She does everything from steam-bath to storytelling so as to
make Woye strong and Woye finally recovers.
CHAPTER NINE
The
chapter explores the rustic life in Kufi village, how time is being measured with
the shadow of the sun and the chores women do at their respective homes. The
Kufi women sacrifice all they have for their children. They eat leftovers from
the meal of their husbands and children. They are well dedicated to the welfare
of their family. The women of Kufi live their daily lives in trying to detect
the mood of their husbands. Despite the fact that there is tension, total
outburst is rare. Husbands on the other hand use divide and rule tactics where
they sowthe seed of discord among their wives as a means of dominating them.
The
woman themselves fail for this trap and compete fervently for the attention of
their husbands especially in the night, there will be a tug of war on whose
position it is to sleep with their husband. The younger ones always win the
attention of their husband to the chagrin of the elderly wives. These wives
always envy those that their husband were no longer alive. These men themselves
could not bear to see an assertive successful woman in their midst. Yaremi has
become prosperous enough to challenge their dominance; therefore, a need arises
to conquer herto their harem. The first admirer that makes an attempt is
Anyawale, the successful traditional drummer. He boasts of his achievementsto
Yaremi but is not moved by such boastful attitude. Next is Olonade, the village
wood carver who fails as well despite promising to give Yaremi twins. Lastly,
Lanwa, the successful farmer, tries and fails also. The half-brother of
Ajumobi, a farmer as well, fails to entice her. The rejection of these suitors
shows that Yaremi is a strong willed lady who does not want anyone whatsoever
to take advantage of her widowhood and turn her to be their appendages.
CHAPTER TEN
Yaremi
has turned from a woman to a man judging from the attitude she puts on now.
Even Woye is suspicious of these changes. He now sees her grandma as a man.
Yaremi ridicules the achievements of those men that solicit her love. She is
now an epitome of an emancipated woman. She even ridicules the traditional
norms that Lanwa cited (having right to share, half of his brother’s properties
which includes her) as moribund and archaic. She recounts how she keeps herself
for her husband. How she is able to withstand the pressures from men and kept
herself a virgin till she got to Ajumobi’s house.
Ajumobi
talks to her in her dreams and explains to her how he has been taking good care
of her. How he helps her to lift a calabash of water to her head. How he blew off
the light that would have burnt down their house, how he touches her and she
moves down to another side, how he pulls off her head gear and it take her time
to tie it and how he makes her hit her leg on a stone. He has always assures
her that he has been there for her. This explains the belief in after life that
the dead do take care of their beloved. Yaremi always remembers the good times
they share, arguing, quarrelling and reconciling. However, the town’s people
want Yaremi to re-marry. They consider less the purification rite that severs
her from her husband. They want her to choose a new cap to replace the old one.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The
chapter explores the traditional norm that leaves a widow with no choice but to
(forcefully) remarry whether she likes it or not, the men that she has
rejected. The men haveto place their caps for her to choose on the cap- picking
ceremony day. The Rogba, the village
flutist, adores these caps as he encourages Yaremi to pick one of the caps.
Yaremi’s choice of being alone is being ferociously attacked. “The women
encourage her to partake in the ceremony because” it is the law of nature
(111). They sarcastically mock her bravery thus: ‘Let all of us, women of this
land, learn to be humble, meek and submissive, and be ready, at all times to
accommodate our men’ (111) and they encourage her to pick any of the caps as
the village lore stipulates etc. This mockery in the form of encouragement is
to ridicule her stand on allowing no man into her life despite the crude and
inhuman treatment meted out to them (widow) when their husband has died. They
are beckoned to forgive and remarry. This Cap Picking Ceremony Day does not at
all respect the wishes of these widows. However, Yaremi rejects enslavement and
chooses none of the caps to the chagrin of the villages at Odan tree. Her action ‘petrified’ the villagers (116) as she walks
home.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The
rejection to pick a cap at the Cap Picking Ceremony Day makes Yaremi more
enemies than friends. The villagers have begun to hatch and plot evil against
her. She has begun to see herself as opiated as the other widows insinuated,
more of being rigid than flexible. The narrator even indicts her of being
rigid. She begins to think of relocation to be with her children as no one knows
what tomorrow would bring. The tense atmosphere has made everybody to by-pass
her and sometimes fails to return her pleasantries. This rejection makes her to
flashback to her lovely relationship with her husband Ajumobi. How Ajumobi
would expect her to unravel the hidden meaning of hunters’ incantations. Their
courtship and dating and how people thought that their marriage would be a
disaster, and how it has turned but to be successful. She concludes that she
will return to her home town Adeyipo would be one of the best options or living
with her children at Olode, Apon or Ibadan.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Yaremi
ponders on her decision/choices on the Cap Picking Ceremony Day. She questions
whether such decision taken was for the love she has for her husband Ajumobi or
sheer fool hardness (124). Segi (the first child) comes to Kufi and supports
her mum’s decision not to re-marry. Yaremi lets her know about her sufferings
and her decision not to be another person’s wife again. Rhetorically, Segi
questions the rationale behind the barbaric act and its relevance in her
mother’s life. However, none of these hullabaloos touches the grandson Woye who
playfully flies his kite, gathers the caps of bottles, etc. He told his mum,
the stories grandma has told him and his decision to go to school! He left with
his mother so as to attenda primary school at Olode.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Yaremi
has concluded her plans to pack out for Kufi town but the arrival of his son
Alani brings a succour and hope to her. Uncle Deyo takes Alani to their landed
properties, showing him the boundaries of his father’s estate. He (Uncle Deyo)
wants him to succeed his father but Alani has already made his choice of not
staying in the village. He uses the contract he won in the government house,
the house he is building and the city girl that is pregnant whom he wants to
marry as an excuse to leave his Kufi for Ibadan. The villagers compound Yaremi
problems by ostracizing and confiscating his late husband’s property for
contravening the ‘traditional widowhood injunctions (140). However, Yaremi is
not deterred to fight on for her lost glory.
SETTINGS
The
novel is set at Kufi village, close to Ibadan town, the hometown of Ajimobi.
The town is rustic patriarchal and the lore of the land is still portent in
this village. The patriarchal influenced cultural lore that mandates women to
remarry still persists in this rustic village against which Yaremi revolts. She
believes she cannot be another person’s apron again. She even rebuffs all the
advances made by Kufi men to inherit or remarry her after her husband’s death.
The ceremony of picking the cap climaxes her rejection as she ridicules and
challenges the patriarchal dominated environment by not picking any of the
three willing suitor’s caps. She rejects the caps of Anyanwale, Olonade and
Lanwa against the chagrinof the cultural ethos and lore. This choice leads her
to think of relocating to Adeyipovillage her town where nostalgic references in
the form of flashback are made in her stories to Woye her grandson. Other
places mention in thebook include: Sagbe market, three miles away from Kufi
village and Oyedeji market where Yaremi
sells her taffeta cloth, Ibadan where Yaremi’s only son, Alani lives, Olode,
where Segi’s husband comes from and Apon the place of Wura’s husband. The time
is the post-colonial Nigeria.
PLOT STRUCTURE
The story starts with the revelations of the events that
lead to Yaremi’s widowhood,the death of her beloved husband Ajumobi and how he
was buried. During the time of the burial, everyone comes to mourn the dead but
when the burial is over, loneliness becomes the other of the day inYaremi’s
life.Even her children both male and female return to their respective abodes
leaving Yaremialone tomourn her dead husband. The only companion she has at this
time becomes Woye, her grandsonand the chores she buries herself into so as to
fill in the gap that the death of her husband creates.
Yaremi tries her best to navigate this lonely road of
widowhood life in this patriarchal dominated village of Kufi. She never wanted
to remarry again but the loreof the land which resists women freedom sees her
self-assertion and independent as an affront to the patriarchal ego of the Kufi
men. They feel that her progress will make other submissive and subjugated
women in the town to see her as symbol of freedom and self-assertion and start
being rebellious, therefore, a need arises to subjugate her to where they think
she belongs a place of servitude and subjugation.
The men Kufi after many attempts to subjugate her, starting
by accusing her for being responsible of her husband’s death because the
vulture that parches on the roof of her house when her husband dies, which they
refer to as Yaremi, the witch, who turns to a bird to kill her husband, by
amorous and mild approach to her which she rebuffs; they now come out with the
cap picking ceremony which has not taken place in Kufi since ‘ten years’ (109)
now, a ceremony that no one has dared to rebuff since time immemorial. Cap Pickingceremony becomes
the last attempt to cage the recalcitrant self-assertive Yaremi who has vowed
toremain unmarried to another man after her husband death.
Yaremi at the cap picking ceremony surprises everybody by
rejecting the three caps which belongs to Anyanwale, Olonade and Lanwa, a thing
that has not being seen in Kufi village. The rejection climaxes her action in
the fight of her self-assertion and right to live in accordance to her choice
which goes against societal patriarchal lore and customs of the land. The
societal lore she rejects, fight her back by ostracizing her from the village
and confiscating her husband property for contravening the societal
‘traditional widowhood injunction’ (140). However, Yaremi remains resolute to
fight the hateful ‘culture, the village elders and the suitors’ (141). She
knows as well that the fight will not be an easy one. However, she keeps her
head high as she faces her life challenges.
NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES/STYLE
(1)
The Third Person Omniscient: The writer narrates the story using the third person omniscient
as he knows the action and inactions of the characters, what they do, think and
is able to know all the situations that pervade in the novel.
(2)
Flashback:
The story makes good use of flashback technique. The death, burial and blissful
life Yaremi had with Ajimobi are all reported in the form offlashback. The
youthful lifeof Yaremi in Adeyipo’s village is revealed through a flashback
technique in the stories she tells Woye her grandchild.
(3)
Symbolism:
The writer reveals the agony women pass in Kufi town through the use of symbol.
The symbols include:
·
Fire:
The song of fire inpage 15 reveals the suffering women especially widows passes
through in Kufi town. The fire which ignites slowly, burns ferociously but
latter turns to ash signifies the various stages of widowhood in Kufi
town. Widowhood starts slowly when a
husband dies but ferociously burns the life of the person involves till it
turns her to a heap of ash. Despite the fact this fire of widowhood ‘will burn
a woman’s fingers, yet (it will) gives no pain’ (14)Yaremi’s resolution to
stand out from other women empowers them to sing:
I’ll tame this
fire!
I’ll cast a spell
on this fire……..
I’ll put the
burning ember of his fire
Inside my palm
And smile a smile
of courage
To the world
Life
is hot
Hotlike
fire
Lifeis
fire! (15)
She tries her best to tame the fire, to come out from its
crucible unhurt, unscratched and victorious. This symbolic philosophy guides
her life in whatever decision she takes while living in Kufi town.
·
The Widow’s Road: The description of the lonely road that connects the
village to St. Andrews church building (20) as ‘the widows road’ (21) is symbolic.
several pots have been smashed along this slippery, muddy road, ‘crooked in
shape, like the walking stick of an old man’ (21) anyone that walks on it must
be patient, gentle, cautious, humble andmild. Yaremi, being a widow isnow
abandoned tothis road, the road that forecloses the lifeof loneliness and
cautiousness,‘loss of dignity and status’ (21) that Kufi women pass through in
the course of their youthful vigour, how they used to twist their waist to the
admiration of men which eventually attracts their dead husbands and how they
have lost such glory. Women in Kufi who have embark in that journey before
Yaremi, includes: Dedewe, whom the villagers accused of being responsible for
her husband’s death, Dedewe’s husband relatives locked her up with the corpse
of her late husband and asked her to confess her sins and ask for the late
husband’s mercy and forgiveness. Fayoyin, who was given libation tolick when
her husband died (26), they sprinkled cold water on her head and have hair
shaved off “with a sharp ‘crocodile nacet’ blade (27) without minding if there
are wounds on her head; Radeke who suffered as well, ridiculed in the public
for bring responsible for the death of her husband.
It is now the turn of Yaremi to pass
through this symbolic widow’s road of life, a road that only a hand of a strong
‘farmer’ (20) probably a male farmer lifts one who had fallen from this
slippery road. No wonder when Yaremi rejects these hands that perceive her as
fallen and downtrodden even when she is progressive, they sanction her by
ostracising her and confiscating her husband properties.
THEMES
Travails of Widowhood: Yaremi’s life and three other
women (Dedewe, Fayoyin and Radeke) reveal the nature of subjugation and
suffering widows pass through in the hands of men in Kufi town. Those women
lose their dignity and status immediately their husband dies. They are
subjected to all forms of inhuman treatment stating from accusation of being
responsible for their husbands deaths, to locking them with the corpse where they
are made confess known and unknown sins to their husbands,shaving off of their
hair in a crude manner, ridicule them allday long,to forcing them to re-marry
against their wish and when they revolt, they are ostracised dehumanized and
confiscatetheir husband properties.These man inhumanity to man is exposed to
the core and raises attention to evaluate its relevance inthis post-colonial
and modern Nigeria.
Theme of Loneliness: The loneliness that follows the
death of one’s husband is explicated in the novel. Yaremi and other widows
suffer this loneliness day in day out. Yaremi subdues her loneliness by
immersing herself in her trade and house chores, even in the cold lonely
nights, when she needs someone to warm her up, she fills these moments by
counting the number of rafter in her hut. The number ranges from ‘thirty-nine
to forty-nine rafters’ (47). Despite being independent from the domination of
her husband as the hunter informs, she misses him day and night as she now
takes care of herself withouthim, a thing she is not trained to do.
Beliefs in Superstitions and
Mysticism: The Kufi village being a rustic one
believes in mysticism. Their folk stories illustrate human transforming to
either a bird or other animals to cause havoc to their enemies. The hawk that
perches Ajimobi’s house is given a mystic interpretation. They linked the hawk
to Yaremi who has ‘turned into a hawk and killed her man!’ (45).this
interpretation comes forth because of the mind-set of the people of Kufi
village who stoically believe that there exists no natural death for anything
whatsoever.
Belief in the Afterlife: Ajimobi in the novel lives a
blissful life somewhere but not in Kufi town. Yaremi believes so as her dreams
reveals how Ajimobi has been helping her tolift out of water when there was no
one to help her at the stream, how he blows off the light that wanted to burn
down the house and how he wanted to touch her but she did not yield. People
have even confirmed seeing Ajimobi at ‘SagbeOyedejimarkets’ (67) Ajimobi from
their stories ‘entered the stall of the tobacco seller, his favourite spot when
he was alive’. (67) and argue with him. They also argue that they saw him bend
down topick someripe banana in the same market where he aswell shook hand with
a goldsmith. These believe come because of the rustic nature of Kufi town.
Other
themes are Nostalgia for Childhood and Patriarchal Domination.
CHARACTERS/CHARACTERIZATION
Yaremi: is the widow of Ajimobi who hails from Adeyipo village, a
village she romanticizes with stories she always told her grandson Woye. Yaremi
is industrious, elegant and strong hearted though troublesome. The death of her
husband Ajimobi renders statue less as the Kufi patriarchal dominated custom
indicates. Despite being lonely as a result of the death, she subdues this
loneliness by working so hard and immersing herself in the work she does. The
total immersion in her trade which reveals her industrious nature makes her
popular,successfully andwealthy, a thing considered being an affront in the
eyes of Kufi men. These affronts makes the Kufi men try to curtail her excesses
before she becomes a reference point to women in the village who would want to
liberate themselves from the patriarchal domination of the society.
Yaremi
rejects men’s domination in all ramifications. She fights the culture that
wants to keep woman as a second class citizen in the order of events by
rejecting the advances men make to her. When the community could not contain
her excesses, they have to re-invent the culture of picking the cap which has
been moribund for ten years. Yaremi dogmatically fights this subjective culture
by refusing to pick any of the three caps, representing three men who are
interested in lording over her thus making her an appendage to their success, a
thing she hates with all her heart.
This act resonates the troublesome nature of Yaremi; a woman
who whips her husband with her tongue when he was alive. She would have even
accepted those men advances in the beginning but because of her
troublesomeness, a resolute character, she rebuffs their advances which leadto
the men fighting back with the picking of the cap ceremony.
The
reason why men keep on flocking around her is not only because of her
industrious nature. Yaremi is elegant and beautiful. Even in her early fifties,
she is still radiant as she is ‘almost untouched by age’ (18). This elegant
appearance, despite the fact that she is getting older, makes men not to take
their eye off her.
However,
the society she fights, fight back by obnoxiously ostracising her and
confiscating her husband’s properties. Yaremi still fights unabashedly, this
dastardly act.
Ajimobi: is a hunter and he stutters when talking. He has a
commanding status in the novel. Despite his unprecedented death in chapter one,
he still continues to dominate the entire story like Caesar in Shakespeare’s Julius
Caesar. Ajimobi is a good loving and caring husband to Yaremi. Despite the
fact they occasionally quarrel. As a loving husband, he never brings in another
wife to compete with Yaremi despites the fact that he boasts always of doing so
when drunk. His death at the beginning of the novel gives the community the
effrontery to invade his home so as to take care of his wife.
Even
dead, Ajimobi never desist from giving care to his wife. He helps her to lift
up her jar of water in the stream and as well blow off the fire that Yaremi
left carelessly and slept of which would have burnt down their house. He even
amorously approaches Yaremi but Yaremi fails to perceive it.
As
a dead man, he could do little to fight the community that wanted to take all
that belongs to him. But his re-assurance of love and protection in dream makes
Yaremi remains resolute to fight her battle of survival in Kufi village.
Alani: Alani is the only son of Yaremi and Ajimobi. He lives in
Ibadan where he earns his living as a carpenter. He is described as being
urbanised that he hardly remembers what happens at Kufi, his home town. Kufi to
him has become one of those settlements where nature mingles with humanity, a
sort of an enclave where mysticism dwells with humanity. Uncle Deyo compares
the way he left the village as flying ‘away… like a bird with no destination;
like a stone-missile flung aimlessly to an unknown direction from the
leather-strap of a catapult’ (135). Even when he coincidentally comes home
during her mother’s rejection of the leviratic culture, she behaves much more
like an outsider and a stranger to his town. This attitude of her snowballs
when Uncle Deyo takes him to his father’s farmland and shows him the land
boundaries where he expects him to succeed his father as a farmer and the head
of the family. However, Alani uses the excuse of a house he is building in the
city, the contract he won from the government, his general comfort and
pleasure, his popular furniture booming business and a city-girl he wants to
marry to leave Alani for the Ibadan. He even promises to come and take Yaremi
with him so as to lessen the attempt to marry her to any other person.
This
action of Alani really marvels Yaremi who fails to understand the plight and
nature of the city son of hers. Alani leaves his mother as he gives her two
loaves of bread, a tin of corned beef and a large size of custard with some
money he tucks into her hand. Alani leaves Kufi for Ibadan. Alani attitude indicates that he prefers the city life to the
rustic village life and as well that he is unconcerned about the plight of her
mother despite promising that he would come back to take her to the city which
is a long term measure instead of
providing immediate succour to her present needs.
Woye: Woye is the son of Segi and Wande, a grandson to Yaremi.
Despite being a child, he provides companionship for Yaremi when all the
mourners have gone back to their respective homes leaving Yaremi lonely. As a
companion he provides succour and solace for Yaremi. Yaremi talks to her as if
he is an adult. She tells her all sorts folk stories, especially those one that
reveals the pristine nature of Adeyipo, Yaremi’s hometown. The stories are used
to while away time and a as well a form of recreation in the lonely house of
Yaremi in Kufi village.
Apart
from being a companion, Woye is also industrious. He helps Yaremi to beat the
taffeta cloth to the desired colours which she sells in Sagbe and Oyedeji markets.
He even helps Yaremi to carry the goods to market. Yaremi often teases him as
being lazy thus: ‘…see how weary you have become now-you indolent creature!
When will you learn not to be lazy?’ (6) Whereas she knows within herself that
the child is really industrious. Woye will plead with her grandma that next
time he will not be lazy again. He also helps in domestic chores like chasing
the nanny goats from eating the cassava flour spread on ‘the taraga, sun dries the taffeta cloths
after the dyeing etc. he reminds Mama on the need to safeguard their chicken
when he sees hawks sprawling around and capturing the chicks of others. This
act makes grandma to make a scarecrow so as to scare away the hawks.
Yaremi
underscores Woye’s illness as a result of being homesick. She however wishes
that he should not die because Woye’s death will tantamount to an outright
lynching by the Kufi people. She argues that she has escaped that during the
death of her husband and possibly will not if Woye dies. Woye recovers from the illness amidst the
promises made to him by her grandma. His recovery coincides with the rejection
of suitors by her grandma at the cap picking ceremony, where he has nothing to
contribute until her mum comes to take him back to his hometown, Olode, for his
primary education at ‘St. Andrews School’ (132). Woye with excitement packs his little load
and is ready to leave for Olode to the astonishment of his grandma who feels
lonelier in the town of Kufi.
Minor Characters
Uncle Deyo: Uncle Deyo is Ajimobi’s bosom
friend. He assists Yaremi to mend the leaking roofs of his late friend’s house
and rebuilding of falling walls of her mud house.
Wura: Wura is the second daughter of Yaremi and Ajimobi. She is
married to a blacksmith from Aponwho
is nicknamed the Sokoti, the
‘Blacksmith of Heaven’ and as well the ‘Iron Man’. He earns his living through
blacksmithing. Their son Woye
Segi: is married to Wande, ‘the nimble footed palm wine tapper
from Olode’. Wande is known to have climbed the tallest of the palm trees in
the forest so as to bring forth the sweetest of all the palm wines. She
consoles and stands by her mother when the issue of levirate encapsulate in the
cap picking ceremony which she and her mother totally rejects. She even allows
her son Woye to stay with her mother to keep the poor widow company against all
odds. However, when Woye approaches the age of school enrolment, she takes Woye
to Olode, to start his primary education in ‘St. Andrews School’ (132). Yaremi
finds it difficult to apprehend because Woye’s leaving coincides with the time
the she rejects the levirate culture of the society. However, she is impressed
by the sudden change in the character of the boy.
Other
minor characters include: Anyanwale,
the successful traditional drummer, Olonade,
the village wood carver and Lanwa,
the successful village farmer, the men that wanted to continue the leviratic
culture by trying to re-marry Yaremi. The widows that had as well passed through
the iron hand levirate and torture during the deaths of their husbands include:
Dedewe, whom the villagers lock
alone in a room with the corpse of her husband where they want her to ask for
forgiveness from him, Fayoyin, whom
the villagers give a libation to lick and roughly shave off her hair to the
skull with the nacet razor blade where they wounded her intentionally and Radeke who sings dirge kneeling before
the corpse of her husband, a dirge that the villagers’ rebuff and accuse her of
being responsible for the death of her husband.
NON-AFRICAN PROSE FICTION
RICHARD WRIGHT- NATIVE SON
Book 1: FEAR.
Book
one establishes the family of Bigger, a family of four that comprises Mother,
Vera, Bigger and Buddy. The dingy poverty striking squalor they live in is
being portrayed by the way they dress when they get up from bed. The children
will turn their faces when Bigger's mother and sister dress. They (Bigger’s
mother and sister) do the same whenever they too are dressing. Suddenly, a
creaking sound is heard in their one room apartment, they discover it is a big
rat. Bigger, the eldest, figures out the intruder and kills it. As he makes to
go and dispose the dead rat, he swings it at his younger sister who faints as
she beholds it. Bigger’s mother scolds him and wishes that Bigger, his eldest
son, could just quit the life of un-seriousness.Shewarns that if he, Bigger,
continues the way he is, he would surely end up in the gallows, she expresses
her hope to die soon and Vera pleads with her not to talk like that since she,
Vera,would grow up soon and start working. She promises to make life better for
them.
At
the breakfast table, mother remindsBigger of the job appointment scheduled at
five thirty p.m. (5.30pm) with Mr Dalton. Bigger thinks that the job is another
con to trick him to surrender. Mother and Vera complain about Bigger’s careless
attitude to the family’s plight. Though all of their ranting got at him, Bigger
has managed to shut out his mind to their present social status and poverty.
Not that he likes the wretchedness but he has concluded in his mind not to let
it weigh him down, if it does, he would probably kill himself or get someone
killed. Bigger leaves the house to find a place to hang out before meeting Mr
Dalton by 5.30 pm.
He
has nowhere else to go than the poolroom where he, Jack, Gus and G.H his gang
members usually meet. On his way there, he ruminateson their latest plot to rob
Blum’s Delicatessen. The idea to rub Blum comes from Gus, one of the gang
members. Though it would be breakthrough for the gang but at the same time be a
violation of the ultimate taboo because Blum’s Delicatessen is owned by a
white. The robbery will be an attempt to
challenge the supreme world of the white. They had successfully carried out
other notorious activities on their fellow Negroes and didn’t get caught but
robbing Blum can expose them to the cold hands of the police. They meet at the
poolroom and concludeto rub Blum’s Delicatessen later that day. Meanwhile,
Bigger together with his gang goes to watch a movie titled the GayWomanat The Regal located at South
Parkways. The movie is about a rich white woman who has a clandestine affair
despite the fact that her husband is a millionaire. On one outing with her
lover, a rough looking man strides into the club brandishing a bomb, he pointed
at the direction of the lover.The lover quickly pounceson the man, grabs the
bomb from him and throws it outside. While being held down by the mob, he weeps
bitterly for his inability to achieve his aim.Bigger and Jack then realize that
the rough looking man had mistaken the woman’s lover for her husband whom he
had the intensionto kill.After the incidence the woman breaks up with her lover
though grateful that he had spared her life at the risk of his own life. She makes
up with her husband and promises never to leave him again.
At
the movie, Jack encourages Bigger to take up the new job he is being offered by
the welfare. He admonishes that Bigger might end up being lucky and worksfor a
white, like in the movie, ‘you don’t know what you might see’ he said.While the
second movie is on, he daydreams his prospective job perhaps he might be lucky
and workedfor a rich guy who has a beautiful daughter who might be interested
in him andhave secrets she wants him to keep and shower him with gift for
keeping it.MrDalton who wants to recruit him might even be a millionaire. At
this point, he regretted his decision to go and rob Blum, after all, a better
prospect awaits him. Jack knocks of his reverie by announcing that it is twenty
to three and Bigger rushes home to pick his gun. He joins the others at the
poolroom, Jack and G.H are there but Gus has not arrived, they wait
impatiently. Gus appears few minutes to three andthis infuriates Bigger who
unleashes his anger, hate and frustration on Gus by kicking and almost stabbed
him with a penknife. Gus seeing that Bigger could make real his threat to kill
him pleaded for mercy. Gus hurls piece furniture to him and it hurts Bigger’s
wrist. The gang disperses quietly when they find out that there plans have
failed.
Bigger
goes to the Daltons estate. He discovers that Mr. Dalton is an understanding
man who kindly receives him. Mr Dalton offers to pay $25 dollars a week instead
of $20though he has heard about Bigger’s awry past of stealing and his remand
in the reform school. He hopesto help Biggerstart and live a normal life
however Dalton’s daughter, Mary, gives Bigger a butterfly in the belly
treatment. Bigger’s works is to be the family chauffeur and to live with them
in the house.
Bigger’s
first task becomes taking Mary to a lecture in the university by 8.30pm. While
on the way, Maryreveals to Bigger that she doesn’t have lecture at the
university, rather she onlywants to hang out with Jan, her sweetheart and have
a rendezvous within the Negro’s quarters. They (Mary and Jan) ask Bigger for a
good hangout in the densely populated Negro area. He suggests Emie’sKitchen
Shack at forty-seven street, Indiana Avenue.
Jan
drives ashe isn’t comfortable with the whole arrangement but since he has nothing
to lose, he complied. At Ernie’s Kitchen Shack, Jan and Mary persuade him to
join them to have a meal of fried rice and chicken, he agrees reluctantly.
Thereafter,Bigger sees Bessie, his girlfriend, in company of another girl at
another table. Jack sights themtoo,waves to him and leaves hurriedly.
Bigger
drives them home while they are busy at the back seat, drinking, kissing and
frolicking.Theyoffer somerum to Bigger and he drinks too. Consequently, Jan and
Mary get drunk. Jan alights when they are a block away from the Dalton’s house.
Mary persuades him to go with them and have Bigger drives him home since he
still has a long way to go but he refuses, gets down from the vehicle, kisses
Mary the more, takes more shots of the whiskey,gives Mary the rest and drops
the empty bottle in the gutter. By the time they reach home, Mary is thoroughly
drunk that she can’t leave the car. Bigger has to drag her to the house, when
he sees she cannot climb the stairs, he lifts her up in his arms and carries
her to her room. Emotionally, Bigger is disturbed as he feels her tender body
caressing him. He wonders what would happen if Mr Dalton catches him holding
his daughter so close. His thought is filled on what might be the consequence
if caught and panic sets in.
Bigger
drops her on the bed and fondlesher tender breast. Drowsy Mary moans and laughs
softly as Bigger caresses her. In this ecstatic situation,Mrs Dalton, though
blind, creeps in.She feels a presence in the room, and calls Mary softly. Mary
answers her with a sigh.Bigger knowing that he must not be seen in a white
lady’s apartment tries to cover Mary’s mouth in order to prevent her from
sighing and moaning drunkenly, and as well prevent Mrs Dalton from noticing his
presence. Mrs Dalton stops at the door and calls again, to ensure that Mary is
alright. To prevent the sleepy girl from moaning again, Bigger picks a pillow,
covers her mouth and in the process, he presses the pillow so hard that Mary
stops struggling with him and lies still on the bed.
Mrs
Dalton, who feels that all is not well with her daughter moves blindly to her
daughter’s bed, feels her and in the process perceives the smell of alcohol
from her daughter and leaves angrily. While this is going on, Bigger, out of
fear of being caught in the white lady’s room hides himself. Bigger makes an
attempt to leave but discovers that Mary is dead. He has accidentally murdered
her while trying to stop her from moaning. He resolves finally to burn her
corpse in the furnace so as to cover his crime. He concludes that he would
explain to the parents if asked about her whereabouts that he had left her with
Jan in the car kissing and frolicking.
FLIGHT
Bigger
goes home to spend the night in their one room apartment with his family. He
gets up very early hoping to park his things and leaves before his mum or
anyone notices. While parking, his mum awakes and asks him about his new job
and why he comes home very late. Bigger argues that he works so late and
returns by 2 am but his mum corrects him that he returns by 4 am but he insists
it was by 2am in order to cover up his crime. He tells his mum that his salary
is 20 bucks rather than 25 bucks a week as Mr Dalton tells him.
At
around 7 am, Bigger prepares to go; his mum encourages him to have breakfast.
Bigger feels that by then the body he threw in the furnace would have burnt
completely but he thought ‘What if it had not burnt’.A fresh pang of fear
seizes him and he reflects on what he had done. He had killed a rich white
citizen and had thrown her body in the furnace, what if he gets caught. What if
he had left a trail? He finally resolves to talk and act like everything is
alright since others are not aware of what he had done, he would get whatever
he wants. He becomes more and more convinced that his accidental crime has put
him in a different world. His family, he convinces himself, are blind, just
like Jan and Mrs Dalton. After his breakfast, Bigger takes his suitcase and
nervously leaves the apartment after borrowing a half-dollar from his mother:
even though he has the money from Mary's purse, he does not want to raise any
suspicions.
Halfway
down the stairs, Buddy runs after him and asks him what the problem is as he
could decode from his looks that he is worried. Bigger feigns ignorance of
Buddy’s assertion. Buddy hands him a wad of money that had fallen from his
pocket. Bigger is worried that Ma has seen it, but Buddy replies that he has
covered Bigger's tracks. Bigger gives him a few dollars from the wad and asks
Buddy not to tell anyone. Buddy assures
him he would comply. He meets his friends and buys some cigarettes for them. He
convinces himself that he has achieved a feat but when he gets to the Dalton’s,
he pride and self-esteem leaves him and he trembles.
Bigger
gets to the Daltons and meets everything as he had left it. Nobody suspects
what he had done or what had happened to Mary. When Peggy, the Housekeeper of
the Daltons, wants to pack the ash from the furnace, Bigger offers to help.
Bigger imagines the body of Mary in bed of the furnace and refuels the fire.
Peggy complains of the car that was parked outside last night, Bigger explains
that Jan and Mary were there last night.
By
8.20am, Bigger takes Mary’s trunk to the station.He then retires into his room.
Later in the day, Mrs Daltoncomes to Bigger’s apartment and queries Mary’s
whereabouts. Bigger explains that he had left Mary and the ‘gentleman’ in the
car the previous night and wentto sleep, since he works for them, he only obeys
their orders.Mrs Dalton though not satisfied with Bigger’s response asks him to
take the day off since Mr Dalton is not feeling to well, she doesn’t think they
will need him for the day. As Bigger leaves, his inflated pride returns.
Bigger
then decides to visit Bessie, his girlfriend.He takes a taxi to her apartment.
He meets her at the door and tries to kiss her but she refuses his advances
saying he had abandoned her for white folks; especially Mary whom she presumed
had taken a like to him. She argues that Bigger’s refusal to acknowledge her
presence when she was sitting and eating with the white folks at Ernie’s
Kitchen Shack. Bigger explains that the Whites she saw him with are the oneshe
works for.Mary finally gives in but worries about the wad of cash Bigger
has.Mary senses Bigger’s uneasiness and asks what’s wrong. He tells her that Mary the daughter of the
rich man he’s working with had been kidnapped and he got the money from the bag
after she had been kidnapped. Bessie does not believe him.She senses that he
had killed Mary. He convinces her over and they finally planned to blackmailMr
Dalton, though Bessie agrees only after much persuasion, cajoling and threat
from Bigger. Bigger keeps the rest of
the money with Bessie.
Mr
Britten, a private investigator hired by Mr Dalton questions Bigger on the
event of the previous night. Bigger lies that Jan had come home with them and
took the lady upstairs since she was stark drunk. Bigger also insinuates that
Jan told him to take the half full trunk down stairs and leave the car outside.
Bigger innocently informs them that he had acted on their instructions. He also
reveals as well that Mary did not go to school, rather she went to The Loop at
Sixteen Lake Street to pick Jan and they had headed to Ernie’s Kitchen Shack
where they ate and bought a drink.
Mr
Britten questions Bigger closely and he reveals how Jan talked to him about the
communist party. Bitten concludes from Bigger’s revelation that that Bigger is
a member of the communist party but after much more questions, he exonerates
him. Jan, the lover boy, is later invited to the Dalton’s house for
interrogation for a possible revelation of the whereabouts Mary.Jan denies
knowing where she was and is shocked to the marrow to hear all the lies told
against him by Bigger. Bigger then goes to the fire pit to shake off the ashes
but he could do it due to fear and guilt.
Bigger
leaves the Daltons house and goesto his neighbourhood on his way he meets Jan
who confronts him on the dangerous lies he told against him. Bigger ignores him,
goes to a drugstore to buy a pad, pencil, envelope and a flashlight. After
this, he goes to Bessie's apartment and he begins to write the ransom note.
Bessie watches Bigger as his gloved hands scrawl a rather pitiful note signed
"Red" (to implicate Communists). As he finishes, Bessie bluntly asks
Bigger if he killed Mary. He begins to deny the charge, but Bessie says that
she can look at him and tell that he has and that if he can kill Mary then
there is little to stop him from killing her. Bigger admits his crime and
hisses at Bessie, warning her not to snitch and threatening her that she is as
guilty as he is.
Bigger
takes the ransom letter to the Daltons with an aim of making some money from
the perils of the Daltons. He magnificently places the letter in the front of
the Daltons house and it is discovered by Peggy, the press and the police flood
the Dalton’s house. Jan is seen as the major suspect for being a member of the
Communist Party and as well because of the Communist insignia of sickle and hammer.
Bigger’s
conscience nabshim as he tries to clear the furnace. The press attempt to ask
him some question, his inability to clear the ash and the smoke that has filled
the basements makes him flee and one of
the journalists discovers the Mary’s earrings and bones. Bigger meets Bessies, drags her to a
dilapidated apartment, rapes her and murders her. Bigger believes that killing
Bessie is his first murder for the killing of Mary was accidental. Bigger read
newspaper headline ‘HUNT BLACK IN GIRL'S DEATH’ and from there he learns that
5000 police and 3000 volunteers are
searching the Black Belt and have already ransacked his home, he is assumed to
be a murderer/rapist, white vigilante groups are rioting throughout the city
and the blacks are cursing him for
making them unemployed. Bigger is later arrested.
FATE
The
final part of the book explicates Bigger’s arrest, trial and conviction.
Bigger’s first three days in prison depicts a life of isolation as he refuses
to neither eat nor talk to anyone. Bigger is taken to the Inquest in chains.
Bigger faints immediately he sees his accusers and hears the uproar from the
crowd shouting, kill him, kill him. He is taken back to the cell.
Moments
later, when he recovers, Jan goes in to see him and discusseswith him. He tells
Bigger that he is not going to accused him but rather supports and helps him
present his case. Jan introduces Bigger to Max who is a lawyer and who is going
to defend him in court.
While
in the cell, Rev. Hammond comes to see and pray for him. His mum, brother and
sister alsocomes to see him. Mr and Mrs Dalton and the state attorney Mr
Buckley come to see him as well. Bigger is thoroughly scared but is encouraged
by Max to stay calm and not answer any question if he doesn’t want to.
He
is later taken to the Inquest, there; Jan, Mr Dalton and Mrs Dalton are
questioned on their level of involvement with Bigger. A grandjury is staged and
so many witnesses are brought in to testify to the crime including his former
school teacher, Peggy, several policemen, Mr Britten, etc.
Buckley
had earlier obtained a verbal confession which is also signed by Bigger. He is
eventually taken to court, his attorney Max passionately advocates for him
blaminghis crime on the society that made Bigger to be what he had become. He
advocates that the law should not condemn him to death but give him a chance to
live by giving him a life sentence.However, after much arguments and pleadings
he gets a death sentence.
SETTING
The novel is set during the 1930s in the Black Belt of
Chicago, an area set aside for the Black people because of the racial
discrimination that pervades the housing and renting practices which prohibits
the African-American to rent a house outside this segment,other places include
the Dalton residence, an upper class residential area which is exclusively
reserved for the white, the next place of action is the courtroom and Cool
County Jail, all in the United States of America. The background is the
segmented racially segregated environment of the then US.
PLOT STRUCTURE
The Native Son envelopes the formative life of an
African American in a White dominated segregated environment where the
ghettoised sociological environment breeds recalcitrant gangster who would have
been good if not for the racially segregated environmental factors. These
factors include: the denying of the ‘Negro’ the right accorded to a citizen,the
denial of the hope of climbing the social ladder which makes him live a
miserable life in a congested squalor and the destitution of the African American
in the then Black Belt part of Chicago,
the United States of America. This description is evidentin the life of Bigger
Thomas who lives with his mother, Vera, the sister and Buddy their brother in a
cramped one room apartment in the Black Belt part of Chicago, an area
designated for Blacks alone to live in.
The poverty nature of Bigger’s family is depicted through the way they
dress. Bigger and his brother turn their face when mother and Vera dress while
Mother and Vera turn the other side when Bigger and Buddy dress and as well the
rat that emerges from the room. Rats are more likely to breed more in a dirty
environment than in a clean one, so, the appearance of the big rat illustrates
further the nature of their abode (living in abject poverty and penury).
However, Bigger is ready to conquer this invader as he kills the rat with a
skillet (small fry pan). Bigger dangles the rat to Vera who faints on sighting
it.
Bigger
considers taking a welfare job given to him by the Daltons. He foils an attempt
to rob the Blum by picking a fight with his gang although Gus came late. He
believes that robbing Blum’s Delicatessen will pit them against the iron hand
of the law because they have successfully rob other outfits own by the Blacks
but the Blum is owned by a white, if robbed, the police will investigate
thoroughly and they will face the full wrath of the law. Bigger later gets to
the Daltons and Mr Dalton, their landlord, offers him a job as Mary’s
chauffeur. His first assignment becomesto drive Mary to school. Though the
Daltons, who are somewhat philanthropic to the plight of the Black, accept
Bigger with an open hand, his hatred for white blindfolded him. Bigger drives
Mary to his friend Jan instead of the school he told her parents and they go to
Ernie’s Kitchen to eat and later get drunk. Jan alights on the way and asks
Bigger to drive Mary home. Bigger gets home but tipsy Mary fails to alight from
the car. Bigger carries her, feels her body, kisses her and is emotionally
aroused. He lays her on the bed,touches
her and she moans encouragingly. In the process the blind Mrs Dalton, creeps
in, senses a presence and calls Mary. Bigger in an attempt to conceal his
presence, covers the poor lady with a pillow and in the long run suffocates
her. Mrs Dalton comes in touches Mary and perceives an alcoholic odour and
concludes that Mary is drunk.
Realising
that Mary is dead; Bigger throws her corpse in the family furnace. He does this
so as to conceal his ‘accidental’ crime from anybody. He plans together with Bessie,
his girlfriend, to get a ransom from the Dalton’s by implicating Jan and his
communist party as accessories to the crime as he seals the ransom letter with
hammer and sickle, the communist symbols. The ransom letter is discovered by
Peggy and Mr Dalton promises to keep to the dictates of the letter. Mary’s body
is later discovered in the furnace; Bigger takes Bessie to a hide-out, rapes
her, and murders her in what he considers to be his first genuine crime.
Bigger
is captured by the police amidst the shout of kill him, kill him by the crowd.
He is tortured and maimed. He refuses to neither talk nor eat for three days.
The press paints horrible picture of Bigger’s crime, how he looks like an ape,
how he rapes Mary before killing her, and everything culminates into total fear
by the Black community who think that their employers, the white, would see
every black person as Bigger.
Before
Bigger’s trial, Jan reconciles with him and offers him a legal practitioner, Mr
Boris A. Max, a communist member, who will defend him in the court free of
charge. The conversation between Bigger, Max and Jan makes Bigger for the very
first time to see humanity in the white unlike his previous conception that the
whites are bad. He begins to see the need to change his attitude to the white
and accepts then like his fellow blacks.
Mr
Max argues convincingly in his defends to Bigger’s crime. Bigger’s crime, Mr
Max links to environmental factors such as racial segregation which breeds two
classes of people in the environment. He eloquently suggests that if the racial
divide is not stopped, people like Bigger will continue to exist and
sociological crime like his will not cease to end. Despite his brilliant and
convincing argument, Bigger is sentenced to death like the symbolic rat( a
product of the environment) he killed in the beginning of the novel.
NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES
Third Person Omniscient: The writer of The Native Son adopts the third person omniscient narrative
technique as he knows much more of Bigger that Bigger knows himself. The
narrator knows when Bigger is afraid despite the fact that Bigger will not
acknowledge that he is and as well what propels him to do some of the thing he
does in the novel. The technique helps the reader/audience to judge Bigger
better than the judges in the story because we the audience know exactly what
is wrong with him unlike the judges who sentenced him based on the ‘little’
evidence tabled against him.
Foreshadowing: Bessie foreshadows her death in the hands
of Bigger Thomas before it really takes place. She also foreshadows the capture
of him and warns him to run away because he cannot escape the web of five
thousand white police in the town and the mobs that will follow in the search
of him. She reveals that even if he
confesses that killing Mary is accidental, he would be killed because of raping
his girlfriend which will be evidence that he really rapes Mary.Bigger, himself
also reveals that He is entering a new world, a foreshadowing of the prison and
probably the electric chair that awaits him when caught. Bigger fulfills this
prophecy by raping and killing of his girlfriend, Bessie, and is definitely
caught at the end where the mob ripped off his fingernails.
Symbolism
·
The Rat: The
rat symbolises of poverty, an attempt to integrate in a segregated society,
struggle and an attempt to liberate one from the shackles of poverty.As symbol
poverty, it depicts that Bigger cohabits with rats as the rat emerges from the
room and as usual, rats mostly live in a dirty environment and Bigger’s house
is such. Bigger is a product of his environment which its dirt is racism. This
cohabitation furthers the symbol of segregation as the rat attempts to live
peacefully with them, the more the Bigger’s family wants it dead meaning that
rat, no matter how ‘big’ it might look like (Bigger Thomas) cannot absolutely
live peacefully with man (The White) without being killed. The struggle by the
rat to run away from its perceived enemies foreshadows and represents the
attempt by Bigger to run away from his perceived crime and as well liberate
himself from poverty. That is why Bigger wanted to get more money from the
Dalton so as to live ‘bigger’ but all ends in futility as he is condemned like
the rat, a powerless product of the environment.
·
The Pigeon:
The pigeon in page 291 represents freedom. Bigger and his colleagues during
their free time play the white, exhibiting how powerful they think the white
are and their inability to be them. But after the mini play they see a pigeon
in a car and Bigger wishes to be like the pigeon and fly away to his freedom.
·
Mrs Dalton’s Blindness: The blindness of Mrs Dalton depicts how the white folks are
blind to the social realities of their environment. The inability of Mrs Dalton
to see Bigger in her daughter’s room and not decoding that Mary is actually
dead corroborates this blindness.They never knew that the blacks are the
product of the laws of the land like the rat.
THEMES
Theme of Racial Segregation (Racism): The novel replicates the idea that
some group of people are inherently better than the other groups. Hence, the
white in the novel are being portrayed as being superior to the blacks who are
considered to being inferior. The Daltons live in the upper part of the city
where the living condition is conducive while the blacks like Bigger and his
family live in the Southern Belt, an area characterised by poverty, squalor and
destitution. The White (Mr Dalton) even controls the Black Belt as they are the
landlords of the apartment that Bigger and his family live in. The Blacks are
given a kind, education, religion, job, etc. that will not ensure that they
climb off the poverty they are in rather a job that will make them subservient
to the white. This segregated environment creates complexities and social
vices. However, the iron hand of the law which is superimposed by the white do
not recognise the product of their segregated environment the same way Bigger
fails to see the or recognises the innocence of the rat he kills which is also
a product of his own dirty environment. Native
Son tries to reveal this sociological factors and proffer a way forward
which comes from Mr Max argument that the only way crimes like that of Bigger
will definitely end when these factors that breeds divide is finally eroded.
Theme of Gangsterism: This theme centres on Bigger’s gang
which includes Gus, Jack and G.H. they specialised in robbery. Bigger and his
gang live their life by breaking the law. They have successfully robbed their
fellow Blacks but have not dared to rob the white because such an attempt will
lead to their incarceration as the (white) law will catch them. The attempt to
rob the Blum did not materialise but had it been it does, they would have been
caught in the police net.
Theme of Exploitation: This theme revolves round Mr Henry
Dalton who in the guise of philanthropy exploits the blacks. Mr Dalton gives
donations to the Black course but he also is the one who exploits them through
housing and meagre jobs. He lives in the better part of the city but owns a
squalor where Blacks are cramped together in a rat infested ghetto and pay
exorbitantly. Peggy and Bigger (Blacks) work for him. Mr Dalton is an epitome
the capitalist exploitation.
Theme of Equality: This theme revolves in the life of
Jan, Mary, Max and Bigger. Jan and Mary being lovers share the same progressive
(communist) ideology that all humanity is created equal. They extended such a
perception to Bigger who has not in his life believed that black and white are
created equal and could mingle together. Bigger blinded by hate, fear and
anxiety acts in contrary to that openness extended to him. It is when Max and
Jan meets him in the cell and offers a free legal representation to him that he
begins to see humanity as being equal.
Other
themes like Sowing and Reaping, Love,
Murder etc. could be explored from the novel
CHARACTERS/CHARACTERISATION
Bigger Thomas: Bigger Thomas, a twenty years old
African American, a product of his environment hence the Native Son whose life has been shaped based on the sociological
environmental factors in the Black Belt (South Side) part of Chicago is the
central character in the novel, Native
Son.The Black Belt area is characterised by slums and shack (apartment)
owned by the rich whites who live in the upper part of the city that is clean
and conducive.Bigger survives by being a gangster. He steals from his fellow
blacks until he gets a job as chauffeur (driver) to Mary Dalton. The racially
segregated environment creates in him hate and unimaginable animosity to the
whites.The hate is manifested not in the killing of Mary but in the bestial
method of disposing her corpse in the furnace. In the process of trying to
cover his ‘accidental’ crime, he also rapes and kills his girlfriend, Bessie.
Bigger
is ferocious and lazy. This attitude is seen in the way he kills the rat, picks
a fight with his friend, Gus which eventually prevents them from robbing the
Blums and the ferocious way he crushes his girlfriend’s head with a block.As a
lazy fellow, he chooses not to work but smokes and drinks with his gang until
the welfare threatens to cut off their fund.However, he is condemned by the law
he chooses to break despite a wonderful and eloquent argument put forth by Mr
Max, the communist lawyer.
Bessie Mears: is the girlfriend of Bigger Thomas. She is very observant
and a little bit jealous in all her deals with Bigger. For instance, when she
notices Bigger withthe white folks, she becomes apprehensive of Mary thinking
that Bigger has abandoned her for the white lady.When she sees Bigger with wads
of cash, she suspects that Bigger has committed a crime.She even foreshadows
her rape and death in the hands of Bigger. As a good friend, she connives with
Bigger to write the ransom letter to the Daltons. However as she rightly
portrays, Bigger rapes her and kills her in order to cover up his crime. Mary
is a victim of trust and friendship.
Henry Dalton: is an epitome of white capitalist.
He pretends to be generous to the Blacks affairs but is inwardly evil as he
exploits the blacks financially through his firmthe South Side Real Estate
Company. His firm creates discrimination in the housing policy and forces the
blacks to live in the Black Belt area of the city. He milks them by charging
exorbitant rents from them despites the fact that the apartments he rents are
much more of a squalor infested with rat than conducive living apartments. He
belongs to National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
where he poses to be a white liberal outwardly.
Peggy
sees him as one who believes that hardwork and clean life leads to prosperity,
however, Bigger does not see him from that perspective maybe because he is
Bigger’s landlord. He defends Bigger when he is being questioned by Mr Britten,
the private hired investigator which makes him to look gullible. He believes
that Jan is behind the missing daughter because Jan is communist. Henry Dalton
has a double identity as being good and as well bad and that is the reason why
the bad side of him (continuing support of the racial segregated policy which
breeds the like of Bigger Thomas) hunts him down.
Mrs Thomas: is Bigger’s mother. She is a
hardworking woman who believes that her Christian virtue will save his economic
situations. She hates the life his son Bigger is living and tries her best to
dissuade him from such disgusting livelihood. He persuades Bigger to take the
job that the Daltons offers which she believes will uplift her family economic
situations. When Bigger comes back in the early hours, she asks her like a
caring mother about his new work.
Mary Dalton: is the daughter of Mr and Mrs
Dalton. She is a university student who uses her education as ploy to see her
boyfriend, Jan. Jan influences her with his communist ideology which progressively
accepts both black and white as equal. This ideology she extends to Bigger
whose is blindfolded by racism. Bigger expects her to keep to the status quo
but she encourages him, though drunk. Bigger carries her to her room, kisses
her, fondles her breast and later kills her. Mary becomes a victim of the
racial divide in her city as she is accidentally killed by Bigger who jitters
and fidgets because of what the white world will do in if they get to know that
a black is in the room of a white moaning lady. Mary’s corpse is thrown in the
furnace where she burns to chares.
Mrs Dalton: is the mother of Mary. She is a
blind rich woman who made his husband rich because of her worth according to
Peggy. She cares for the welfare of her daughter Mary and always checks on her
to know how she is faring. This act is exemplified when she comes to check her
out and perceives a presence in the room. She calls her and goes ahead to feel
her body where she perceives the alcoholic pungent smell and feels so bad about
her daughter. She never knew that her daughter was dead as she touches her. Mrs
Dalton is deeply religious as she always prays for his husband success.
It
is her presence that stimulates the death of her daughter as Bigger tries to
conceal his presence and further suffocates the poor lady which he eventually
throws into the furnace. She is a symbol of the blindness the white have over
the plight of the blacks.
Jan Erlone: is Mary’s boyfriend and also
a member to the communist party. Ideologically, he contrasts Mr Dalton. He
treats everyone as equal. He never likes the attitude his fellow whites have
for the blacks as he extends a hand of fellowship to Bigger Thomas. Bigger
misunderstands such friendliness and implicates him in the murder of Mary. However,
Jan forgives him in the long run and convinces Max, his friend to defend him in
the law court.
Other
Minor Characters include: Gus, Jack, GH,
Peggy, Boris Max, David Buckley, Reverend Hammondand Justice Hanly, write short notes
about them.
The Castle of Otranto-Horace Walpole
Summary
Chapter One
From this chapter, the narrator
introduces Manfred as the Prince of Otranto.
Manfred, the Prince, has two children, a daughter, named Matilda who is
eighteen years old and a son named Conrad, three years younger that Matilda.
However, Conrad, the son is born with infirmities and ‘is of no promising
disposition.’ His father still loves him the more because he is his only son.
Manfred goes further to contract a marriage with the Marquis of Vicenza’s
daughter Isabella. The marriage is to be consumed as soon as Conrad health
conditions improve. Hippolita, the wife of Manfred does not support the
marriage but fears to reveal her reservations because of her inability to give
a second heir to the throne. The hasty wedding she sceptically attributes to
the age old prophecy that ‘the castle and lordship of Otranto“should pass from
the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to
inhabit it.”
On the day of the wedding, Conrad mysteriously
dies. His father beholds his ‘dashed to pieces, and almost buried under an
enormous helmet, an hundred times more large than any casque ever
made for human being, and shaded
with a proportionable quantity of black feathers.’ Manfred stays put at the
court meditating on the grotesque nature of his son’s death. A young peasant observes that the helmet that the
helmet that kills Conrad has the same shape with ‘the figure in black marble of
Alfonso the Good, one of their former princes, in the church of St. Nicholas.’
Manfred suspects this fellow as the murderer of his son. The onlookers quickly
go to the church and verify that the helmet in the statute of Alfonso the Good
is no longer there. The prince further accuses the young man of being a sorcerer.
The gullible crowd concludesthat the peasant stole the helmet and used it to
kill Conrad. Manfred sentenced the young man to house arrest in his castle.
Matilda tries to win the favour of
his father who loves her less but to her surprises, Manfred shouts at her:
“Begone! I do not want a daughter;” he even wishes not to see his wife. He
hatches a plan to force marry Isabella so as to have an heir to the throne. He
sends for her and proposes to her but Isabella rejects the proposal. Manfred
attempts to grab her but she runs away for her dear life. Manfred pursues her but in the process, his
grandfather’s portrait mysteriously utters a deep sighs and heaves its breast.
Isabella hears the sigh but doesn’t know where it comes from. But Manfred who
perceives everything is locked in between an attempt to fulfil his selfish
desire and the metaphysical movement of the picture. The picture urges him to
follow him and he dreamily asks the picture to lead on.
Isabella runs to the vault that has
a subterranean way tothe St Nicholas Church.She perceives a footstep is
following her. She holds her lamp to see clearly the person following her but
the person retreats. Immediately she gets to the mouth of the vault, gusto of
wind blows off her lamp leaving her in total darkness. In the midst of this
confusion, a man appeared and assures that he will not injure her. The stranger
through the help of the rays of the moon which shines directly to where the
lock is, gives Lady Isabella the key to the subterranean way and Lady Isabella
flees.
Manfred catches the man who turns
out to be the peasant, who likens the helmet to that of Alfonse in the
beginning, at the trap door and accuses him of being a traitor but he denies
it. The peasant holds Manfred in a conversation so as to aid Lady Isabella’s
escape. The two servants of the king, Diego and Jaquez run to king and explain
how the castle is filled with mysticism. They reveal how they behold a giant in
the gallery where they have gone to look up for Lady Isabella. They seek the
king’s approval to invite a priest to exorcize the castle. Manfred accuses them
of laxity as they allow Lady Isabella to escape because of the fear ‘of
goblins.’ Manfred questions his wife,
Hippolita rudely on the whereabouts of Lady Isabella. She indicates her
innocence. Manfred later puts the young peasant in a house arrest in his house.
Chapter Two
Matilda retires to her apartment at
the order of her mother. Bianca, the talkative and gossiping attendance comes
in to gossip as usual. She reveals to her madam how a peasant stranger helps
Lady Isabella escaped. She emphasises that Matilda should now be the apple of
the king’s eye since Conrad has died. She implores her not to consider the
‘veil.’ Matilda denounces the affectation of his father. She reveals that her
father has rejected many willing proposals to her. Bianca asks her why she
prays to Alfonso’s picture at the gallery instead of St Nicholas which she
pleads for a husband. Matilda uses her mother as façade for that. Bianca
queries why she amorously looks at it and compares the picture to the young
peasant’s appearance. She insinuates as well that the young peasant has
something to do with Lady Isabella. However Matilda rebukes her. Bianca
concludes that Matilda will end up in the Covent.
Bianca indicates that the house is
haunted and needs exorcism. The voice she hears below makes her to have that
conclusion. Matilda however, indicates that if the voices at the basement are
for trapped spirits, they are to help to release them. The voice turns out to
be the voice of the peasant stranger. Matilda interrogates him. However, Bianca
links the appearance of the stranger to the death of Conrad and the sudden
disappearance of Lady Isabella. Bianca questions Lady Isabella’s commitment and
love to Conrad. She suspects that the peasant is a prince and as well as a
sorcerer.
A servant halts their conversation
and announces that Lady Isabella has been found in the St Nicholas Church’s
Sanctuary as Father Jerome reveals. Father Jerome reveals the whereabouts of
Isabella in the presence of his wife where she is being interrogated by
Manfred. Manfred does not want the Friar tells him that it is a family issue
which requires both to be the audience. Manfred accuses the priest of meddling
into his domestic affairs. However, the priest insists that he is a peacemaker
and not a home destroyer. The priest however, reveals that Lady Isabella is
safe in the sanctuary and she wishes to remain there until she is legitimately
remarries to another man. However, Manfred refuses to give his consent because
of his selfish interest. He insists that he is the Lady Isabella’s guardian and
parents.
Manfred accuses the peasant of being
responsible for the chaos in his castle. Manfred implores the priest to
convince Isabella to marry him so as to preserve his dynasty. The priest tells
him that the idea is based on lust and not on God’s directives after all, the
sceptre passes from the Alfonso’s to his lineage. Manfred links his misfortune to incest he
thinks he is committing.Hippolita is relative in the fourth degree. She was as
well betrothed to another man before their marriage. He pleads that Father
Jerome should dissolve their marriage and allow him to marry Lady
Hippolita. The priest reasons that if he
does not allow him to have his way, he might transfer such desire to another
person and that might be worse. He promises Manfred that he would consider his
request.
Manfred questions the friar on what
he knows about the poor peasant whose presence in the castle has caused a lot
of catastrophe. Father Jerome agrees he has a hand in the events in the castle
so as to divert the attention of Manfred from Lady Isabella. Manfred summons
the peasant and questions his identity. The peasant reveals that his name is
Theodore, a labourer from the next village. He reveals that Lady Isabella tells
the king that her life is in danger and that she about to be ‘made miserable
forever.’ Matilda passes the court and sees how intelligently and nobly the
peasant answers her father’s questions. She persistently looks at him and
discovers that he resembles exactly the image at Alfonso’s gallery. The image
she has fallen in love with. Matilda
faints immediately she hears that the peasant is to be executed. Manfred halts
the execution till he discovers the cause of princess’ travails.
The peasant, Theodore, requests for
a confessor before his execution. Manfred brings in Father Jerome as the
confessor but Jerome pleads for the young man’s life to the chagrin of Manfred.
Theodore asks Father Jerome not to beg in his behalf rather listens to his
confession. Theodore lets go off his shirt and ‘a mark of a bloody arrow’ is
discovered. The priest calls him Theodore and claims that Theodore is his
son.Manfred wonders how a reverend father could have a son. Manfred concludes
that: ‘A Saint’s bastard may be no saint himself.’ Father Jerome argues that
Theodore is his lawful son. Manfred
demands explanation. He reveals that the child was had before he becomes a monk.
He pleads for the life of his only son, reminding Manfred how painful it is to
lose a son.
Manfred bargains Theodore’s life
with the return of Lady Isabella to the castle. Theodore insists that Manfred
should do whatever he wants to do with his life and leaves Lady Isabella’s life
alone. He tells his father to protect the lady’s life and immediately and mysteriously, trampling of horses is heard,
the trumpet in the castle sounded and the helmet at the court nods three times
in agreement as if it is pushed with an
invisible hand.
Chapter Three
Manfred becomes afraid because the
mysterious events in his castle. Out of fear, he submits himself to the
authority of the Reverend Man of God. Friar Jerome asks for the life of
Theodore and Manfred grants him. Manfred out of fear as well, asks the priest
to go to the gate to ascertain the cause of the trampling of the horses. The
intruder turns out to be a herald ‘from the Knight of Gigantic Sabre’ and that
his Lord is ‘Frederic, the Marquis of Vicenza.’ The Herald calls Manfred
anusurper of the throne and demands the immediate release of Lady Isabella, her
daughter. Manfred tells the priest to go home and bring back Lady Isabella in
the exchange of his son Theodore. He accuses the priest of conniving with the
herald to usurp his throne.
The Herald challenges Manfred to
surrender the throne or fights for it. He reveals that the guardian that
bequeathed Lady Isabella to Manfred is not genuine. The real father he announces has gone to war
with the infidels, reported captured and dead. Manfred he further reveals
bribed the temporary guardian to betroth Lady Isabella to his son so as to
cement the claims of the throne by the two families. Manfred sues for
peacefully resolutions. One of the monks enquires whether Lady Hippolita has
died. Jerome denounces such allegation and indicates that he left her in good
health in the castle. Lady Isabella on hearing the presupposed death flees from
the church. The missing of Lady Isabella troubles Friar Jerome who thinks mostly
of his son’s safety.
Manfred returns to his castle,
orders the door to be open for the knight and his entourage. In the castle he
asks them to disarm and feel free as they will enjoy the laws of hospitality.
The three knights bows in courtesy in acceptance to the offer. ‘You say you
come in the name of Frederic of Vicenza?’ Manfred queries the knight but they
remain silent. Manfred cites the law of chivalry which make the knights kings
in the castle as a reason they choose not answer him. Manfred narrates how the
throne is transferred to his family from Don Manuel to Don Ricardo and how
Alfonso died childless and bequeathed the throne to his father. Manfred asks
the knight whether they have the right to receive Lady Isabella and they, the
knights nodded in an agreement. Manfred instead of telling them the real
situation, starts to weep like a child as he exposes his life travails to them
especially, the death of Conrad, his only son. However, the knights fail to
sympathise with him and queries when he would restore Lady Isabella. Manfred
ignores them and continues to blab how he is related to Lady Hippolita and it
is the cause of his travails despite the underlying factor is his quest to fix
a successor to the throne.
Father Jerome tries to conceal the
disappearance of Lady Isabella but one of the monks declares frankly in the
presence of the knights that Lady Isabella has disappeared. The principal
stranger is infuriated and he leaves the castle to go and search for her as she
must ‘be found’ at all cost.Matilda who wholeheartedly falls in love with
Theodore frees him and allows him to arm himself from his father’s
armoury. She suggests that he runs into
the sanctuary of St Nicholas for safety but Theodore denounces such as unmanly
and for weaklings. He falls for her too and kisses her hand with a promise of
love.
Coincidentally, Theodore meets Lady
Isabella in a cave he wanted to go in for a rest. He chooses to defend her
against any intruder.An armed Knight comes to the cave and questions Theodore of
the whereabouts of the lady who supposed to be hiding there. Theodore thinking
the knight to be an emissary of Manfred while the knight takes him as one of
Manfred soldiers, attacks the knight. They fight viciously and Theodore fatally
wounds him. He falls down and reveals his identity as Lady Isabella’s father.
Frederic, Lady Isabella’s father, trusts the life of her daughter in the hands
of Theodore. However, Theodore reveals to Lady Isabella that he has already
fallen in love with another person whom she had met before her. They carry the
wounded but alive body to Manfred’s castle.
Chapter Four
The doctors examine Frederic body
and observehis wound is dangerous. Lady Isabella follows the gaze and discovers
that the object his affectation is Matilda. Frederic observes that too but
falls in love with Matilda also. Frederic narrates how he meets a hermit when
he was at war. How he resuscitated the hermit and he revealed that he should
dig up a sabre (a kind of sword used for fencing) and on it has the following
lines:
“Where’er a casque that
suits this sword is found,
With perils is thy
daughter compass’d round;
Alfonso’s blood alone can save the
maid,
And quiet a long
restless Prince’s shade.”
The meaning of the line seems to
suggest that only the blood from Alfonso of which Theodore has, would continue
the royal lineage through Lady Isabella but Theodore has fallen in love with
Matilda. Theodore rues the meaning of the lines to the chagrin of Lady
Hippolita, the Marquis and Lady Isabella. Lady Hippolita has to caution him.
Manfred, Jerome and their entourage
retreats and bemoan the circumstances that has be fallen the Marquis. Manfred
accuses Fria Jerome of being an accomplice in the release of Theodore which has
resulted to the catastrophe of wounding the Marquis. Father Jerome remains
silence. Manfred observes for the very first time that Theodore looks exactly
like the Alfonsos. He orders him to
explain himself. Theodore reveals how he was carried to Algiers at the age of
five where his mother died twelve months later. Before her mother’s death, she
bounded writing to his arm which reveals the he is a son to Count Falconara.
Theodore is released from captivity
by a Christian vessel to Sicily. He learns that his father has retired to the
church in Naples since he nearly lost all his possession the Rover who carries
him and his mother into captivity and burnt down the castle. Theodore has to come to Naples and
unfortunately encounters his father, Friar Jerome, and Manfred.
Pardoned, Theodore leaves the
chamber to appear tomorrow morning. His revealed status together with the
prophecy by the hermit makes him an object of jealousy between Lady Isabella
and Matilda. They, Isabella and Matilda, have fallen in love with him. They
both desire him but are afraid of what would be each other’s reaction. However,
Lady Isabella goes to Matilda’s chamber to chit chat about Theodore,
especially, about the resemblance to Alfonso’s picture, his revelation that he
is in love with somebody while they both conceal their innermost desire to have
him. In the long run, they confess to each other their innermost love, desire
and admiration for him. However, Lady Isabella cedes her desire and admiration
of Theodore to Matilda.
To safeguard the family royalty,
Lady Hippolita suggests to Manfred to offer Matilda to Lord Frederic. This
suggestion infuriates both Matilda and Isabella who observe that Lady Hippolita
is totally submissive to his husband even when it is detrimental to her
wellbeing. Isabella accuses her of being
credulous to her impious husband, Manfred, who wants her and Matilda away so as
to fulfil his treachery. She swears to die thousand times than to allow Manfred
marry her. Isabella further believes that her ‘father is too pious, too noble
to command an impious deed.’ She wonders
how on earth how Manfred would like her to grace his bed when she has been
betrothed to his son before.
In order to satisfy her husband’s
needs, Lady Hippolita leaves her home and pronounces that she will be going to
the convent to pray and shut herself out from the calamity in her house. Jerome
on the other hand tries to persuade his son to continue the passion he has for
Matilda, reminding him that changing his mind would be catastrophic. Lady
Hippolita reveals her plans to abdicate her throne and marriage to Friar Jerome
but he frowns at it. However, Manfred makes his proposal to Frederic and he
accepts on the condition that Hippolita must give her consent. Manfred goes to
his wife’s chamber and notices that she has gone to the sanctuary. Manfred goes
to the sanctuary to seek out for his wife. In the sanctuary, he beholds a Friar
warning his wife not to go ahead with the planned divorce. Manfred questions
the authority of the Friar in his domestic affairs since Frederic has already
accepted the offer. As they argue, ‘three drops of blood falls from the nose of
Alfonso’s statue.’ The Friar interprets it to mean ‘that the blood of Alfonso
will never mix with that of Manfred.’
Chapter Five
Manfred is troubled by the whole
scenario surrounding his life. He thinks of the best approach to solving his
problems. Surrendering his throne
peacefully becomes an option because the prophecy that his dynasty will come to
an end has nearly come to fulfilment. Another option is to press the marquis to
accept his proposal to marry Isabella so as to raise an upspring that will supplant
the throne. He later summons Bianca, the
lady’s maid, to enquire from her whether she has heard or knows anything hidden
between Theodore and Isabella. Bianca denies having knowledge of such.
As Manfred enters the chamber of
marquis to inform him of his plans, Bianca rushes in, frightened, and complains
that the giant’s hand has appeared again and that the castle is now filled with
strange things. Manfred tries to wave her off but she insists that such a thing
exists in the castle. Bianca’s revelation makes Frederic not to consent to the
marriage of their children. However, the attraction Frederic has for Matilda
still makes him not to totally jettison the idea. He, however, demands from
Manfred whether Lady Hippolita has given her consent to the marriage. Manfred
reveals that she has given her consent.
Frederic goes to Lady Hippolita’s
chamber to confirm Manfred’s ascertain. On getting there, he sees an apparition
that kneels down to pray. The apparition questions whether he recognises him at
Joppa. The spectre warns him to forget Matilda (lust) and pursue a noble
assignment given to him. After delivering the message, the apparition
vanishes. Frederic freezes and beckons
intercessory prayers in his behalf from the saint. Frederic finds himself in conflict
of passion and penitence. Frederic refuses to disclose the encounter he has
with the spectre to Lady Hippolita who accosts him in the chamber frozen. He
rather rushes to the room and locks himself against the invitation of Matilda.
The spies Manfred plants in the
sanctuary reveals to him that Theodore and some lady from the castle are having
a secret meeting in the tomb of Alfonso in St Nicholas Church. Manfred goes to
the church, murders the unknown lady whom he thinks to be Isabella. Theodore assisted
by the monks, catches him. The unknown lady turns out to be his only living
child, Matilda. Matilda forgives her father and implores him not to divorce her
mother. Lady Hippolita faints as she hears that her daughter has been mortally
wounded by her husband. When she resuscitates, Matilda implores her to forgive
her father too. A mighty force, forming the image of Alfonso with a thunder
clap in a vision declares, ‘Behold in Theodore the true heir of Alfonso.’ The
image ascends into heaven and the clouds parts where the ‘form of St Nicholas
was seen’ receiving Alfonso’s image in glory. Theodore becomes the Prince of
Otranto.
Plot Structure
The Castle of Otranto explores curse, human ability to free from the damnation of
the curse and its consequence. The prophetic curse that lordship of Otranto
“should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown
too large to inhabit it” is encrypted as no one is able to decipher its true
meaning. Manfred the Prince of Otranto tries everything within his reach to
make sure that the prophecy is never fulfilled. In order to avert the prophecy,
Manfred contracts a marriage between his sickly son, Conrad, at the age of
fifteen, to Lady Isabella, the daughter of Frederic, a crusader, whom has
adjudged dead in the battle.
On the day of the wedding, the body
of Conrad is found crushed by a feathered helmet large enough to fit a giant. A
peasant, Theodore observes that the helmet is exactly like 'that on the figure
in black marble of Alfonso the Good, one of their former princes, in the church
of St. Nicholas' which is missing. Conrad imprisons Theodore, thinking that he
was the culprit. The death of Conrad brings out the real colour of Manfred who
tries everything within his power to make sure that the prophecy does notfulfil
in his time. He quickly tries to fix the situation by trying to marry Lady
Isabella, the supposed daughter-in-law. He plan is to have an heir to the
throne at all cost so as to forestall the fulfilment of the prophetic curse.
The attempt to force-marry Lady Hippolita leads her to run away for his dear
life. Theodore, a peasant with a noble character helps her to escape from the
‘mighty’ hand of Manfred. She escapes through the vault that leads to the
church.
Manfred tries to fulfil his desires
by conniving with the priest whom he believes can convince his wife to accept a
divorce so as to fulfil his heart desire. Manfred plans as well to execute
Theodore but in the process, Father Jerome discovers that Theodore is his son.
Manfred wonders how a Reverend father could father a child owing to his
profession. Father Jerome explains that he was once a Count of Falconara but
lost his kingdom, wife and sonwhenhe was attacked by an enemy.Therefore, he
retires to live his life as a reverend father. Manfred, though evil, spares the
life of the child though imprisons him.
Theodore supernaturally falls in
love with Matilda, the daughter of Manfred. Even when he was helping Lady
Hippolita, he thought he was helping Matilda. The chivalrous (considerate) act
of Theodore endears him to ladies. Even, Matilda has already noticed that he
looks exactly like the picture of Alfonso hung in the gallery which she has
already fallen in love with. Manfred, himself, is bewildered by the series of
supernatural events happening in his house. The mysterious movement of the
helmet at the statue of Alfonso the Good from the church to his castle, the odd
sounds that troubles his household, the giants that are presumed roving the
castle, the mysterious death of his son, etc., which forecloses the end to his
dynasty.
Despite the mysterious events that
are happening in the castle of Manfred,
he still desire to fulfill his treacherous act of marrying Lady Isabella in
order to have an heir. Before he could perfect his plan, ensembles of the
knights arrive in his castle in the search of Isabella. They accuse Manfredof
being a usurper of the principality of Otranto and demand he resign. The Chief
Herald indicates that he is acting in the power of Lord Frederic, the Marquis
of Vincenza. Manfred wants to negotiate himself out by offering his daughter,
Matilda to Frederic in exchange for Lady Isabella. As they are negotiating,
Friar Jerome comes to the castle to reveal the whereabouts of Lady Isabella but
meeting them wanted to conceal it but one of the monks reveals that Lady
Isabella has escaped from the castle. They go out in the search for her.
Matilda who has already fallen in
love with Theodore goes to the prison and frees him, arms him from his father’s
vault and they both declare their love for each other. Theodore goes to hiding
in a cave where he coincidentally meets Lady Isabella and he declares being his
protector. In the process, an armed man comes to the cave and Theodore charges
him thinking he is one of the Manfred’s men. The intruder thinks Theodore as
well to be one of the Manfreds men. They fight and Theodore mortally wounds
him. In the process, the knight turns out to be Frederic, the father of
Isabella. Frederic trusts the life of her daughter in the hands of Theodore.
However, Theodore reveals to Lady Isabella that he has already fallen in love
with another person whom she had met before her. They carry the wounded but
alive body to Manfred’s castle.
The doctors reveal that Lord
Frederic injury is not fatal. Lady Hippolita perceiving the end of their
dynasty suggests to Manfred to offer Matilda to Lord Frederic so as to have
Lady Isabella as a wife. Frederic is about to accept the offer but for the
mysterious appearance of an apparition that warns him not to circumvent the
noble assignment given to him because of lust. He rejects the offer. Manfred
hearing that a lady is with Theodore in the tomb of Alfonso goes to the tomb,
murders the lady and the lady turns out to be her daughter, Matilda. Theodore
with some other monks catches him. Matilda forgives her father and as well
implores her mother to do so. She dies.
Theodore through a heavenly confirmation becomes the new Prince of
Otranto.
Setting
The actions in the novel mostly take
place in the castle of Manfred. Other places of great importance include: the
sanctuary of St Nicholas Church, the cave, the vault and Joppa. The time is the
medieval Europe when the act of chivalry is considered important. The castle
setting creates the element of mystery which characterises gothic novels
(novels that are filled with supernatural events where women are persecuted by
men only to be rescued by another man) of which Castle of Otranto is considered to be the first type of it.
Style/Narrative Techniques:
Third Person Narrative Technique: The novel is written from the third person narrative
technique. This technique allows the writer to develop his characters well as
he is an outsider that comments on the action and inactions of the characters
in the novel.
Gothic Tradition: The novel replicates the gothic traditions. It is even
crowned as the first gothic novel ever written. This kind of novel blends
mysteries with realities. Women in this kind of novel are to be heard not to be
seen. Lady Hippolita becomes a crown to these expected attitudes of women in
such novels. She doesn’t question the action and inactions of her husband, the
prince of Otranto. She is submissive to the core and schools any other women,
like Isabella and Matilda, who would want to transgress this lore. She does
anything that the husband wants her do even when it goes against her personal
interest, she supports it. The issue of ‘damsel in distress’ which another
element of the gothic novels is played by Lady Isabella of which Theodore who
appears like a minor character at the beginning of the novel saves. He then
becomes the ‘Chivalric Hero’ for he
protects Lady Isabella in all atrocities that she would have fallen into.
The novel in a way punishes any lady
who would want to cross the line(s) that is(are) set for them. For instance,
Matilda dies in the hand of her father because she fails in love with a man
that is not approved by her parents. Lady Hippolita despite her docility is
still compensated as she retires to serve the lord in the Covent together with
her husband.
Another element of gothic novel is
the setting of it in the castle, a large quintessential building edifice that
has towers, galleries and a lot vaults and passages for escape purposes. The
title as The Castle of Otranto itself
says much to this conception.
In Media Res: The story starts structurally from the middle.
The reader does not need to read too many pages before he or she understands who
Conrad, Matilda, Lady Isabella, Manfred and Lady Hippolita are. This style
makes one not feel much for Conrad and his death because the reader himself is
not familiar with other activities about him in the castle only that he is
sickly and ‘of no good disposition’ therefore can die. The only thing the
reader feels about his death is just the manner of his death for he or she has
known from the beginning that he is destined to die.
THEMES
THE PRESENCE OF THE SUPERNATURAL
The novel is filled with events
beyond the material realms as activities in it shows that there are powers
beyond the physical and material realms. For instance, the death of Conrad is
still mysterious as no one could ascertain how the helmet at the statue of
Alfonso the Good finds itself into the castle of Manfred and crush the sickly
lad, Conrad. The same helmet miraculously lifts itself up and wags its feathers
when Manfred attempted to rape Lady Isabella in order to father an offspring.
This act gives Lady Isabella, who would have succumbed to the advance, the
courage to declare to Manfred that even heaven is against his desires. Even
when Manfred declares that neither heaven nor hell could impede his ‘impious’
act, the portrait of his grandfather, Ricardo leaves the frame, utters a deep
sigh and ‘heaves’ its breast. An act that suggests that the ancestors are not
in support of the impious intentions of Manfred to force-marry Lady Isabella.
The appearance of the giant as announces by the servants Jaquez and Diego
during the time Manfred is chasing Lady Isabella also explains that the powersbeyond never wanted the mixing of
the bloods as it affords Lady Isabella time to flee from Manfred. The
appearance of Frederic in the castle makes a sword in Alfonso’s statue to fall
opposite to the helmet where it remains immovable. This supernatural act
indicates that Frederic is a truer heir to the throne than Manfred.
As Manfred tries to bypass the
prophecy by dubiously getting the consent for a divorcefrom his wife, Lady
Hippolita, three drops of blood falls from the nose of Alfonso statue. The
drops make Fria Jerome to observe that the blood of Alfonso will never mix with
that Manfred. Even when Manfred tries to lure Frederic into his plan by
offering Matilda to him, Bianca quickly comes in and announces the appearance
of the giant again in the castle. Even
when Frederic who is lustily attracted to Matilda goes in to
LadyHippolita’schamber to get first-hand information about her divorce, a
skeleton of the deceased hermit appears to him warning him to desists from lust
and pursue a noble course.
The death of Matilda in the hands of
his father who mistook her for Lady Isabella is greeted with acceptance from
Fria Jerome who comments that: ‘blood of Alfonso cried to heaven for vengeance’
is mysterious. The assertion of the Fria indicates an acceptance which in the
long run becomes a kind of vengeance for the death of Alfonso in the hands of
Manfred’s grandparents. It is also a kind sacrifice to atone for Alfonso’s
death. It also makes one to wonder how a father could mistake a daughter for
another if not for the supernatural powers that do not want the blood of the
two families to mix hence Matilda is in love with Theodore and if not of the
sudden death, the blood would have been mixed. The gigantic and mysterious
appearance of the statue Alfonso to proclaim that Theodore is the rightful heir
to the throne, the form of St Nicholas that it forms when it ascends to the
heaven and the prostration of the people that sees the vision to acknowledge
the divine will climax the actions of supernatural events in the novel. It
solves the problem of identity and resolves the claim of who is the rightful
heir to the Castle of Otranto.
THEME OF SIN, CURSE AND INHERITANCE
The sin of the family is the
abnormal usurpation of power from the truthful heirs, by Manfred’s grandfather,
Ricardo, who kills the legitimate ruler of Otranto, Alfonso through a poison.
Therefore, a price must be paid for this usurpation. The price to be paid is
embedded in a prophetic curse which insinuates that ‘The lordship of
Otranto“should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be
grown too large to inhabit it.’” This prophetic curse rears its ugly head when
Manfred gives birth to a sickly son. In order to avert the fulfillment of the
prophecy, he quickly arranges a marriage between his son and the daughter of
Marquis of Vicenza, Lady Isabella, so as to have an heir that will have the
blood of the two rival families. Manfred believes that the Marquis has died in
war. Therefore; he connives with Lady Isabella’s guardian and gets her
betrothed to his son.
However, on the day the marriage is
to be consummated, the helmet on the statue of Alfonso the Good mysteriously
crushes the young lad in the court yard. This mysterious death leaves one to
wonder how the helmet leaves its domain in St Nicholas Church to Manfred’s
castle. The curse continues with Manfred killing Matilda, his daughter,
thinking that it was Lady Isabella whom he thought was in love with Theodore.
This finally exterminates his lineage. The death fulfills the statement that
the blood of Manfred can never mix with that of Alfonso as the priest rightly
observes because Theodore is in love with Matilda and would have married her if
not of her death.
Theodore, the son of the Fria, a
replica of Alfonso the Good, finally inherits the throne as the gigantic
appearance of Alfonso confirms in a vision seen by everybody in the Castle of
Manfred identifies him as the true heir of the throne. Despite the fact that
Theodore inherits the throne, it is also germane to point out that Manfred as
well inherited the sins of his fathers. Theodore’s inheritance as the rightful
owner of the throne is because her mother is a granddaughter to Alfonso the
Good.
GENDER DISCRIMINATION
Women in the novel are portrayed as
less valued right from the beginning of the novel. Manfred loves her daughter
Matilda less despite the fact she is hale and hearty; but loves his sickly son,
Conrad, the more.The reason behind this kind of disposition is because Conrad
despite his sickly appearance ‘with no promising disposition’ is regarded as
the heir to the throne while Matilda is not. Even after the death of Conrad
when Matilda wants to console his father, his father rebukes her thus: “Begone!
I do not want a daughter.” This act illustrates that even after Conrad’s death,
Manfred still prefers him to Matilda.
The patriarchal stand of the novel
is enveloped further when Manfred accuses her wife of being responsible for not
having another heir because she gives birth to only a male child. The attempt
to marry Lady Isabella stems from the fact that he believes she would give him
a male child without even considering that the fault might be his.Women are
like commodities in the novel as Lady Isabella is ‘delivered by her guardians into the hands of Manfred.’ The delivering makes women a commodity to be
bought off the heifers stall by
Manfred. This indicates that women are portrayed as properties and as well as
mere appendages attach to men.
Women in the novel do not have a say
of their own. Matilda cannot even make a choice of whom she is to marry without
her father’s consent. Even Lady Hippolita does not have a say in what goes in
the castle because it is not in her domain to know. She even consents to the
divorce that will allow her husband marry another woman, her would be
daughter-in-law, in the name of being a good wife. Lady Isabella would have as
well succumb to the sexual assault by her supposed father-in-law if not of the
supernatural movement and wagging of the feathers of Alfonso’s helmet together
with the sighing and movement of Manfred’s grandfather’s picture that spur her
into action. The same supernatural phenomenon stops her (Lady Isabella) father
from consenting to the marriage between her and Manfred which offers Matilda to
her father Frederic. If not, she would have been giving to the marriage against
her conscience and as well love. Women in the novel are totally obedient to the
whims and caprices of men.
CHARACTERS/CHARACTERIZATION
Manfred:
is the Prince of Otranto, the husband of Lady Hippolita and father to Matilda
and Conrad. He is arrogant, tough, crafty and strong-willed. He wanted to surmount the age-old prophetic
curse which stipulates that the sceptre shall pass from the house of Manfred to
the original owner whenever the original owner is big enough to inhabit it. He
foresees the fulfilment of that prophecy in the situation of his sickly son and
to avert it, he contracts a marriage between his sickly son with ‘no promising
disposition’,and the daughter of the rightful heir, Frederic, the Marquis
Vicenza, whom he thought had died in war in Palestine. The idea behind this marriage
is to bring up an offspring that will share the blood of the two warring
families.
However, on the day the marriage,
the helmet of Alfonso the Good mysteriously finds its way to his castle and
crush Conrad, his only son. His strong-willed energises him to continue the
persuasion of getting an heir and thus avert the prophecy. He concludes that
Lady Isabella, the supposed wife of his son should be the outlet to raise
himself an heir. He tries to rape Lady Isabella in his castle but the mysterious
power that kills his son surfaces again as the same helmet lifts itself up
mysteriously and wags the feathers. This mysterious act makes Lady Isabella to
summon the courage to run away from him by citing the fact that heaven and hell
is against their union. Manfred’s strong-willed surfaces again as he declares
that no power can stop him from achieving his aim. At this moment, the picture
of Ricardo, his grandfather sighs deeply and starts to move. This miraculous
act gives Lady Isabella the courage to flee from him. He chases her to the
secretive vault that leads to the sanctuary of St Nicholas but she escapes.
Despite these supernatural
miraculous events, Manfred is still resolute in achieving his heart desires. He
connives with the Priest, Friar Jerome, whose son Theodore he (Manfred) puts on
death row because he identifies that the helmet that killed Conrad was the one
on the statue of Alfonso the Good, to negotiate his way. Friar Jerome succumbs
to his demand on the condition that his son would be free and that Lady
Hippolita, Manfred’s wife must give her consents to a divorce before the two,
Lady Isabella and Manfred, could be married.
Lady Hippolita gives her consent and promises to retire to the convent
to live a life of isolation.
In the midst of this, a cavalry
comes to the castle demanding the throne and lady Isabella while calling
Manfred a usurper. The Herald of the cavalry claims that he represents Frederic
the Marquis of Vicenza. He claims he has the right to negotiate in his behalf.
Manfred craftiness manifests once more as he tries to negotiate himself out by
offering her daughter Matilda to Frederic in exchange for Frederic’s daughter,
Lady Isabella. Frederic falls for the beauty of Matilda. He accepts the
proposal but the appearance of the hermit apparition which warns him to pursue
a noble curse instead of lust leaves him in disarray.
Manfred mistakenly murders his
daughter, Matilda, at the tomb of Alfonso the Good thinking she was Lady
Isabella whom he perceives is in love with Theodore. This ferocious and
atrocious act makes him unworthy to the throne as he has exterminated the last
hope of succession through his lineage because of his selfish interest. He
knows now that the occupier of the throne is large enough to occupy it. Ironically,
the occupier turns out to be Theodore, the son of Friar Jerome who is an
offspring of Alfonso the good through the Friar’s wife, instead of Frederic,
the Marquis of Vicenza. Manfred thus moves from grace to grass because of his
desperate intention to stop and age-old prophecy from fulfilment. He enters the
convent after renouncing the principalities of Otranto.
Lady Hippolita:
is the (conservative) wife of Manfred and the mother of Matilda and Conrad.
Isabella also regards her as mother since her own mother died after giving
birth to her. Lady Hippolita obeys her husband to the core. She is a wife before being a mother. Therefore, she places her husband needs above her
children’s needs. For instance, when Conrad died, she considers the welfare of
her husband instead of grieving for her son. She also represents the standard
women are to attain in the (gothic) novel Castle
of Otranto despite being amiable, respectful and patient woman. She schools
other women who try to go above the already set standard by the tradition. For
instance when Isabella tries to evade her supposed duty and act in her own
will, she reminds her: “remember thou dost not depend on thyself; thou hast a
father” to Matilda and Isabella she retorts: “It is not ours to make elections for
ourselves: heaven, our fathers, and our husbands must decide for us” this
schooling indicates the perceives state of women in the novel and an attempt by
Lady Hippolita to be its curator.
She is an obedient wife who could do
anything to please her husband. She consented to her own divorce so as to give
way for his husband to marry another lady who supposed to be her
daughter-in-law. She is docile and
passive. Manfred never allows her to know anything that goes in the castle.
Even when Friar Jerome wants to let her know the reasons why Lady Isabella ran
away, she obliges believing that whatever that is secret should remain secret
to her.Manfred capitalises on these accepted roles to treat her badly. He does
not even respect her as shown when Lady Isabella reminds him of his wife, he
shouts: ‘”Curse on Hippolita!” cried Manfred. “Forget her from this moment as I
do”” and “Hippolita is no longer my wife; I divorce her from this hour. Too
long has she cursed me by her unfruitfulness. My fate depends on having sons,
and this night I trust will give a new date to my hopes.”’ He knows that Lady
Hippolita will not question his authority no matter how bad it is. Therefore,
he takes her for granted.
Lady Hippolita is later rewarded for
being an obedient and submissive wife as every plot against her does not come
fruition. She ends up with her husband whom she cherishes so much in the
convent, a thing she has cherished so much, after her husband renounces the
principality of Otranto to Theodore because of the impious act he committed
Matilda:
is an eighteen year old virgin daughter of Manfred. She is religious like her
mother as she thinks always of going to the convent to become a sister. She
does not command the respect of her father who loves her less because of her
sex. Manfred, her father prefers her sickly brother, Conrad, to him. Even when
she goes to console her father after the death of her brother, Conrad, Manfred
shouts: ‘“Begone! I do not want a daughter.”’
Matilda is romantic as she always
fantasises with the picture of prince Alfonso hanged in the gallery. Lady
Isabella notices such a curiosity that she implores her to pray to the
picture. The curious fascination and the
intrigues of the picture create an escapist avenue for her from the worries surrounding
her in the castle. It also inspires in her a (false) hope of being rescued from
her present predicament by a young handsome personality like the picture. This
choice of whom or what to love transgresses the norms of the (gothic) novel as
women shouldn’t make such a choice themselves. This decision from Lady
Hippolita’s point of view is reserved for men. This act results to her death as
choosing the image of Prince Alfonso leads to choosing Theodore herself which
turns out to be a replica of Prince Alfonso. She releases Theodore from her
father’s prison, arms him and promises him love without the consent of her
father.
Her death in the hands of her father
is a punishment for not limiting herself within the purview reserved for women
together with her undiluted love for Lady Isabella on whose command she goes to
see her father when Conrad died and as well to see Theodore.
Lady Isabella:
is the daughter of Frederic, the Marquis of Vicenza, the closest living
relative to Alfonso the Good. Manfred thinks he has died in the crusade in
Palestine. Therefore, he organises a marriage between his sickly son, Conrad
and Lady Hippolita so as to avert the age-old prophetic curse. However, on the
day the wedding is to take place, mysteriously, the helmet of Alfonso crushes
the sickly prince, Conrad. Lady Isabella refusal to marry Manfred despite been delivered by his guardian to marry
Conrad portrays her as not being passive like Lady Hippolita. This singular act
goes against the convention of the (gothic) novel where women are expected to
be seen not heard. She is not as virtuous and naïve like Matilda. She confesses
to Bianca when Conrad died that she wished a knight escorting a lady in the
castle was Conrad. This act depicts that she is not really in love with Conrad
but because the norms expects her to be submissive to the dictates of men, she
pretends to, which inwardly she is not.
She is used to represent the ‘damsel
in distress’ a term in the gothic novels tradition signifies a woman persecuted
by men and later rescued by another chivalric man. The persecutor here becomes
Manfred who betroths her off to her son at a tender age, after the death of his
son, tries to marry her as well with an aim of raising an heir to the throne.
She is rescued twice (in the vault and in the cave) by Theodore. The rescue
places Theodore as the chivalric hero who protects a damsel in distress against
the attack by the persecutor.
Lady Isabella falls in love with
Theodore but when he tells her that he has promised his love to someone else,
she becomes jealous of the lady involve. The jealousy overwhelms her when she
discovers that Matilda is the object of the love. The death of Matilda in the
hands of her father leaves her no obstacle in marrying the one she really
loves, Theodore and as well becomes the Princess of Otranto.
Theodore:
is the chivalrous grandchild of Alfonso the Good through Victoria, a wife he
married in Sicily though they separated when she was pregnant. Victoria gave
birth to a baby girl whom Jerome later got married to. The marriage is blessed
with a baby boy, Theodore, who is an exact replica of Alfonso the Good.Theodore
is described as unknown wise peasant in the beginning of the novel because of
identifying that the helmet that crushes Conrad is that on the statue of
Alfonso the Good. He is imprisoned. His assistance to the fleeing Lady Isabella
compounds his problem as he is put on the death row.On the day execution, Friar
Jerome discovers that Theodore is his son and he awkwardly admits that he was
married before and was the Count of Falconara before his castle was set ablaze
and sacked and he chose to be a friar. Theodore is thus put in a prison where
he is used as bait by Manfred to get the consent of Jerome in the illicit
attempt to marry Lady Isabella.
He is saved by Matilda who has
observed that Theodore is an exact replica of Prince Alfonso’s picture hanged
in the gallery. Matilda does not only save him as she as well arms him from her
father’s armoury. He promises magnanimously his undying love to her before he
leaves the castle. In the castle where he takes refuge, he coincidentally meets
Lady Isabella in that same cave. As chivalrous hero, he decides to be her
protector. Chivalrously, he wounds Frederic, the father of Lady Isabella
thinking he was one of the men of Manfred searching Lady Isabella. Frederic
then identifies himself and implores Theodore to take care of Lady Hippolita.
Theodore is caught in the attention
of two women (Matilda and Lady Isabella) who loves him. Matilda dies in the
tomb of Alfonso while seeing him. He is finally left with no option but to
marry Lady Isabella. The apparition Alfonso the Good appears in the sky confirming
that Theodore is the rightful prince of Otranto and the entire people accepts
him as the next ruler of their principality.
Friar Jerome:
is the priest in charge of St Nicholas sanctuary. He is the father of Theodore
through a granddaughter of Alfonso the Good. He abandons his principality,
Falconara where he was a Count to become a priest when his castle was
destroyed. He is a truthful but selfish and cunny. He truthfully and publicly
admits that he is the father of Theodore, a thing other priests cannot do
because of the nature of their job and reputation which stands on celibacy. He
wanted to extend his sincerity to Lady Hippolita but Manfred warns him that he
does not discuss the affairs of the state with his wife. Even when he makes an
attempt himself, Lady Hippolita refuses to give him a listening ear citing that
whatever that is secret should remain a secret.
He cunningly and selfishly agrees to
give his consent to the (illicit) marriage between Manfred and Lady Isabella
because of his son’s life. This shows the extent he can go to safeguard the
life of his son. However, one can say he is a good priest and father in the
novel.
Frederic:
is the Marquis of Vicenza, the supposed closest living relative of Alfonso the
Good. Manfred and the people of Otranto think that he has died in crusade in
Palestine. Therefore, the guardian of the child quickly agrees in the betrothal
of her daughter, Lady Isabella to the sickly son of Manfred, Conrad.
However, he comes back to claim back
the principality of Otranto and as well her daughter from Manfred. Manfred
offers him his beautiful virgin eighteen year daughter in exchange with her
daughter. He agrees to the proposal. This depicts him as a lustful and weak
minded person. If not of the appearance of the apparition of the hermit he met
in Palestine which warn him to desists from such a lustful act, he would have
allowed lust to conquer the noble cause he comes to execute.
The death of Matilda leaves him a
widower he has been as the only daughter marries Theodore, the new prince of
Otranto.
Conrad:
is the fifteen year old sickly son of Manfred ‘with no promising disposition.’
He is Manfred’s favourite. Manfred likes him because through him the lineage
continues. Manfred never envisages a woman queen therefore; he hates his hale
and hearty daughter, Matilda with passion.
Manfred quickly contracts a marriage
between him and the daughter of Frederic with an aim to harmonise the two
warring families. This is because any child that comes from this union will
share the blood of the belligerent families. Conrad dies mysteriously on the
day of the wedding as the helmet of Alfonso the Good crushes him in his castle.
Bianca: is
the garrulous gossip maid in the castle. She is nosy and moves around looking for
what to gossip. She gives audience to Matilda and often convinces her not take
the veil. According to her ‘a bad husband is better no husband at all.’
Therefore she prefers her madam to marry. In fact she herself seems unhappy
with her job which leaves her with no husband.
