The Green Leaves
I like the east African stories so much more. I find it interesting that they just covered the man in leaves without searching him, or making sure he was dead. Didn't seem logical to me. Then as soon as Nyagar felt that he was warm I knew he was going to kill him and run. Once again a story where greed tears a man down. Also the women in the story were very submissive until at the end where one of Nyagars wifes sings and takes off her shirt (I think is what happened). It gave me an uneasy weird feeling when she says "there is no woman who will lend me a Husband for the night".
The Spider's Web
I find this story sad because Ngotho used to dream of smoking out bees, but now he dreams of dieing. He used to work for a white family, and fought for the cause of smoking out the white people, but now his masters are black and still treat him like dirt. He mentions how he used to wish for a time where the black man could have pride in his own land when he worked for the white people, but now his hope seems diminished. I like how at the end, after he has stabbed his master he goes in his servant room and locks the door.
Minutes Of Glory
I find it sad how Beatrice just wants to be like Nyaguthii to the point that she will steal. I also disliked the part where she talks about the Ambi cream and how it had taken girls darker than herself and made them into "white stars". Where does this self-hatred come from? The character I liked the least was the Christian bar owner, because he, like characters in our last set of stories were, don't seem to really be a person of faith, or spirit. It's degrading. It's interesting how woman in this story seem to have power but at the same time are denied any real power. They can turn men down, but have to work for men anyways.
An Incident in the Ghobashi Household
This story was slightly hard to follow for me. From my interpretation the woman's daughter is pregnant but they don't know who they father is, so at the end they send her to a big city where she can find help and money to raise her child. Ghobashi I guess was her husband, who left her (like in the story of the man who left to cut grass) I don't understand what she means by "isn't it better, when he returns, for your father to find himself with a legitimate son than an illegitimate grandson" Does this mean that when the baby is born the grandmother will act like it came from her womb? I'm confused by this one.
A Handful of Dates
I think this is a story of a boy who is torn at the fact that his grandfather has become so successful while the neighboring man Masood has slowly lost everything he was born with. Dates are actually a fruit from Palm trees, which I have never heard of. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_Palm#Fruit I think another reason the boy feels shame is because Masood is a more caring, nature oriented man, like the boy is, while is grandfather is more of a business man who is less caring and seems to be money-oriented.
A Conversation from the Third Floor
This story was, as I interpreted it, a story of a man locked up talking to his wife, Aziza. I like the part where he is talking about the packs of cigarettes and how he only got three out of the five, because I imagine him kind of laughing it off because he is so happy to see his wife and child. I wonder how he got in jail as a read this story. I also wonder what the real moral was of this story... I really didn't see a point in how it ended either. Also, why was she looking at the guard so much? was she not allowed to be there? I also wanted to know what was going on inside the jail because he kept going out of her sight and them popping back up.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
African Short Stories [blog 1]
The False Prophet
This was the strange story of a thief using religion to do his bidding. The saying 'What is mine belongs to me, but there is nothing to stop us sharing what is yours' was passed down from his ancestors. Funny how he hated cats. I think he only hated them because they were just like him.. Funny he denounces god in the end, because had he just lived by what he claimed to know so well then he may have found happiness.
Certain Winds from the South
I didn't get much from this story. I understood that obviously bad times had fallen on the village, but I don't get why the first father in twenty years decided to go "cut grass". I assume that is some kind of field labor, and that he was going to send money home. I don't understand why the lady told the story about the new mother's father, because it didn't seem to be a story that would instill faith in her, or make her feel better for he baby's daddy leaving.
The Apprentice
I like this story because of Ogunmola is a direct descendant of royalty yet his quest is to be simply be a blacksmith. One of his masters wanted the hoes built cheap and durable, while the other wanted them durable but beautifully crafted thus making them more expensive. Ogunmola's crafting is somewhere in between. It's sad how he gets caught in a family dispute between his two masters, which stops him from living the life he wants to live.
The Will of Allah
I liked this story a lot. Sule was interesting to me because of his faith in Allah. But I wonder if faith is a good thing if you don't also live by the code of that faith as well. A lot of these stories have to do with faith... or almost all of them. The snake biting them both at the end was a perfect ending because if they just would have trusted each other they may not have dove their hands in as quickly, or at least Dogo could have told Sule after he got bit. In the book it says Sule "...feared nothing and no one except Allah", but does Allah not care if you live your life by any code of morality?
Civil Peace
This story is the only one as of yet that actually made me feel good though bad things were happening. I guess it was Jonathon's love for life even though things were going bad. He always seemed to make the best of it. I like at the end when he talks about how before the 'egg-rasher' money came along he was surviving just fine, after the stranger and his troops took it from them. I think the reason Jonathon was so strong was because he lost one of his kids in the war that happened before this story began. After losing his son every thing else seems relative.
The Gentlemen of the Jungle
What a story to finish off with. I think I am going to like East Africa better. There is something deeper I'm supposed to catch on to, but it can't quiet grasp it. I like how the animals act like men: who, in fair turn, do act like animals themselves. The line "Peace is costly, but it's worth the expense" is obviously showing some revolution in government. Maybe this story is all about how a government can fool their people for a time, but not forever.
This was the strange story of a thief using religion to do his bidding. The saying 'What is mine belongs to me, but there is nothing to stop us sharing what is yours' was passed down from his ancestors. Funny how he hated cats. I think he only hated them because they were just like him.. Funny he denounces god in the end, because had he just lived by what he claimed to know so well then he may have found happiness.
Certain Winds from the South
I didn't get much from this story. I understood that obviously bad times had fallen on the village, but I don't get why the first father in twenty years decided to go "cut grass". I assume that is some kind of field labor, and that he was going to send money home. I don't understand why the lady told the story about the new mother's father, because it didn't seem to be a story that would instill faith in her, or make her feel better for he baby's daddy leaving.
The Apprentice
I like this story because of Ogunmola is a direct descendant of royalty yet his quest is to be simply be a blacksmith. One of his masters wanted the hoes built cheap and durable, while the other wanted them durable but beautifully crafted thus making them more expensive. Ogunmola's crafting is somewhere in between. It's sad how he gets caught in a family dispute between his two masters, which stops him from living the life he wants to live.
The Will of Allah
I liked this story a lot. Sule was interesting to me because of his faith in Allah. But I wonder if faith is a good thing if you don't also live by the code of that faith as well. A lot of these stories have to do with faith... or almost all of them. The snake biting them both at the end was a perfect ending because if they just would have trusted each other they may not have dove their hands in as quickly, or at least Dogo could have told Sule after he got bit. In the book it says Sule "...feared nothing and no one except Allah", but does Allah not care if you live your life by any code of morality?
Civil Peace
This story is the only one as of yet that actually made me feel good though bad things were happening. I guess it was Jonathon's love for life even though things were going bad. He always seemed to make the best of it. I like at the end when he talks about how before the 'egg-rasher' money came along he was surviving just fine, after the stranger and his troops took it from them. I think the reason Jonathon was so strong was because he lost one of his kids in the war that happened before this story began. After losing his son every thing else seems relative.
The Gentlemen of the Jungle
What a story to finish off with. I think I am going to like East Africa better. There is something deeper I'm supposed to catch on to, but it can't quiet grasp it. I like how the animals act like men: who, in fair turn, do act like animals themselves. The line "Peace is costly, but it's worth the expense" is obviously showing some revolution in government. Maybe this story is all about how a government can fool their people for a time, but not forever.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Response To Short Stories [class on Jan. 16]
The Birds of God
This story is a story of faith and sacrifice. Timba is a fisherman who has only been but a fisherman his whole life. He sees a bird flying high and asks for the bird to fall and the bird falls. He claims it to be holy, and though he and his family is starving he doesn't allow them to eat the bird. In the end a drought that had plagued the tribe is only lifted after the sad death of Timba, who had given himself to save the others from the wrath of god for killing the holy birds. I find it interesting that Timba thought the best way to honor the Holy birds was to keep them in a cage.
The Man
Is a story of a man, who under the cover of silence, kills a dictator who has brought horrible poverty over a nation. Though he is beaten and shot he does not tell his secret and is killed randomly as a threat to the village that they must give up "the man". Of course, the man dies with his secret and a new dictator takes the place of the first, but must live in fear that "the man" will kill him like he did his predecessor . I find it interesting that the tyrant in the story takes the freedom of a whole nation, though he does not have any freedom himself due to his fear of being killed.
Government By Magic Spell
An interesting story about a girl named Halima that is convinced that she has a jinni (like a genie) in a tribe where jinnis are considered holy. She becomes a star of her village and considered a healer, and eventually makes her way up to a government like position in her land. She claims her jinni demands a slaughter house on the shore and a centralized water system. By doing this she controls everyones life in the town because everyone needs water, and sharks had taken over the shores so no one could leave. This story is the darker side of The Birds of Gods because in that story the person of faith is condoned though Timba only wanted the best for his people, while in this story Halima seems to manipulate the people by claiming this twisted 'spirituality'.
A Night Out
This story is about a, drunken man named Mika and a sad loving woman called Mama Tumaini. Mama Tumaini's son is very sick, and perhaps that is the reason she needed the money Mika gave her, I assume, for the sex they had the night before, and for the guilt of discovering that Mama Tumaini's son had died overnight. Mika was only stuck in the dreary town because of a lack of gas for the transportation system. Mika leaves abruptly without telling Mama Tumaini about her son. This story I found to be really sad. I guess not so much for her child dieing, because he was deathly ill, but because of the pain Mama Tumaini must go through after this story ended.
Road Block
This story is about a man known only as "the storyteller' and a man named Bona. Bona is a cowboy like crooked cop-like fellow who works with a restful partner at a road block. The storyteller is smuggling whiskey and has to go through the road block. Though the storyteller's dad was a famous story teller who would exchange his stories for a good meal, the storyteller did not gets this quality in his genes. So he is unable to convince Bona that the whiskey is 'cough medicine' and in the end Bona takes one of the boxes of whiskey and lets the storyteller go through the roadblock. I like the danger aspect and suspense of this story, though the ending felt like it let me down. I enjoy the imagery of Bona with his missing two front teeth and cowboy boots!
This story is a story of faith and sacrifice. Timba is a fisherman who has only been but a fisherman his whole life. He sees a bird flying high and asks for the bird to fall and the bird falls. He claims it to be holy, and though he and his family is starving he doesn't allow them to eat the bird. In the end a drought that had plagued the tribe is only lifted after the sad death of Timba, who had given himself to save the others from the wrath of god for killing the holy birds. I find it interesting that Timba thought the best way to honor the Holy birds was to keep them in a cage.
The Man
Is a story of a man, who under the cover of silence, kills a dictator who has brought horrible poverty over a nation. Though he is beaten and shot he does not tell his secret and is killed randomly as a threat to the village that they must give up "the man". Of course, the man dies with his secret and a new dictator takes the place of the first, but must live in fear that "the man" will kill him like he did his predecessor . I find it interesting that the tyrant in the story takes the freedom of a whole nation, though he does not have any freedom himself due to his fear of being killed.
Government By Magic Spell
An interesting story about a girl named Halima that is convinced that she has a jinni (like a genie) in a tribe where jinnis are considered holy. She becomes a star of her village and considered a healer, and eventually makes her way up to a government like position in her land. She claims her jinni demands a slaughter house on the shore and a centralized water system. By doing this she controls everyones life in the town because everyone needs water, and sharks had taken over the shores so no one could leave. This story is the darker side of The Birds of Gods because in that story the person of faith is condoned though Timba only wanted the best for his people, while in this story Halima seems to manipulate the people by claiming this twisted 'spirituality'.
A Night Out
This story is about a, drunken man named Mika and a sad loving woman called Mama Tumaini. Mama Tumaini's son is very sick, and perhaps that is the reason she needed the money Mika gave her, I assume, for the sex they had the night before, and for the guilt of discovering that Mama Tumaini's son had died overnight. Mika was only stuck in the dreary town because of a lack of gas for the transportation system. Mika leaves abruptly without telling Mama Tumaini about her son. This story I found to be really sad. I guess not so much for her child dieing, because he was deathly ill, but because of the pain Mama Tumaini must go through after this story ended.
Road Block
This story is about a man known only as "the storyteller' and a man named Bona. Bona is a cowboy like crooked cop-like fellow who works with a restful partner at a road block. The storyteller is smuggling whiskey and has to go through the road block. Though the storyteller's dad was a famous story teller who would exchange his stories for a good meal, the storyteller did not gets this quality in his genes. So he is unable to convince Bona that the whiskey is 'cough medicine' and in the end Bona takes one of the boxes of whiskey and lets the storyteller go through the roadblock. I like the danger aspect and suspense of this story, though the ending felt like it let me down. I enjoy the imagery of Bona with his missing two front teeth and cowboy boots!
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