World Literature

“Girl: Take your men out of here.

Amusa: I’m give you warning….

Girl: All right then. Off with his knickers!

Iyaloja: Daughters, please.

Amusa: The first woman wey touch me…

Iyaloja: My children, I beg of you…

Girl: Then tell him to leave this market. This is the home of our mothers. We don’t want the eater of white left-overs at the feast their hands have prepared.” (3046)

The scene where the Girl mocks Amusa is very witty, yet it also offers bits of knowledge into the troubles their native people were liable to because of the imperialism. Amusa is positively unlikeable, and is by all accounts a traitor to his folks by working for the pioneer chairmen. In any case, this decision makes a lot of sense under the circumstance. For people like Amusa and many different cases in territory of colonies thought that working with the Europeans would offer them monetary and social steadiness. Along these lines, Amusa can be viewed as an isolated character since he is part of a group of people that mistreats colonized individuals in various ways. He is in a difficult position, and makes the readers think of him in two different ways, both to ridicule and feel sorry about him.

“These natives here? Good gracious. They’ll open their mouths and yap with you about their family secrets before you can stop them” (29).

Here, Simon Pilkings is talking about how the natives in the Yoruba village are eager to spread their business around to anyone that will listen. Similar to many instances throughout the play, Simon is being contradictory yet again. He is a colonist, who’s literal mission in Nigeria is to be nosy and to basically govern the natives. He is disgusted by the fact that the natives are eager to spread their business, when in reality the Pilkings and all the other colonialist are eager themselves to know what’s going on. In fact, their duty is to know what’s going on, and they fail at this when they are not even aware about the fact that the king’s horseman is planning on committing suicide soon.

Natacha Peguero

Pilkings- What do you mean you don’t know?  It’s only two years since your conversion. Don’t tell me all that holy water nonsense also wiped out your tribal memory.

Joseph- [visibly shocked] Master!

Jane – Now you’ve done it

Pilkings – What have I done now?

Jane- Never

Death and The Kings Horsemen by Wole by Wole Soyinka goes back and forth between the lives of two groups one is indigenous Africans (Praise Singer, Elesin, and etc.) and the other British Colonizers (Jane, Joseph and etc.).  The British colonizers Jane and Simon Pilkings live in a house as slave owners and have noticed unusual drumming in the neighborhood. Pilkings ask Joseph, a slave, why is this occurring and what does it all mean. When Joseph is unable to give the Pilkings an answer Simon Pilkings insults Joseph traditional ways before enslavement which offends Joseph. Jane Pilkings dismisses the whole situation. This depicts the overall perspective Europeans had on Africans at the time. Europeans believed that Africans were peculiar and did not know a how behave sophisticated like them. “Don’t tell me … it wiped out your tribal memory” which meant that Joseph must have known about the weird and ghastly because of his origins, and no amount of conversion especially recent conversion can change that. In the process of insulting Joseph and expressing that Christianity is not strong enough to erase his memory. Simon Pilkings insults Christianity. Simon Pilkings express that Christianity is too weak to change Joseph traditional ways and call Christianity “holy water nonsense”. Simon Pilkings disrespects Joseph’s culture which leaves Joseph “[visibly shocked]” and also manages to disrespect his own. Pilkings believes that Christianity is too weak to change others who are different from him which incidentally offends his culture as a British Christian.

“I came to realize that a female employee is more afraid of losing her job than a prostitute is of losing her life. An employee is scared of losing her job and becoming a prostitute because she does not understand that the prostitute’s life is in fact better than hers.” (82)

In Nawal El Saawdawi’s Woman at Point Zero, the protagonist, Firdaus, is an abused woman who turns to prostitution as her last resort for finding some form of freedom in the repressive society she lives in. The above quote is from the point of Firdaus’ life when she tries to become a “respectable woman” and finds work in an office. In order to become “respectable”, she sacrifices her life of luxury for much more sufferable living conditions. The few years that she spends as an office worker, Firdaus learns of how mistreated “respectable” women are and witnesses male employees continuously dominate and hold significant power over the female employees.

She tells the narrator of how prostitutes have it better than these “respectable” women and the irony of the situation is apparent. In nearly every civilization throughout history, prostitutes are seen as the lowest members of that society. The thought of prostitution is revolting and people look at these sex workers as if they’re scum. For Firdaus to state that prostitutes live better than any office worker is a great criticism of gender inequality in Egypt. This quote is powerful in depicting this because it helps show that the only way a woman can have a sense of identity and autonomy is through this lowly profession as no other place in society will allow her to flourish.

“That could be for years. The house is small and life is expensive. She eats twice as much as any of our children” (46). “But this girls movement is slow and heavy. She’s cold blooded and couldn’t care less […] we can be rid of her by sending her to the university” (47). “Why should she refuse him? This is her best chance to get married. Do not forget what a nose she has. It’s big and ugly like a tin mug.” (48). “No, your holiness, for the sake of the Prophet. No this is sinful” (51).

Firdaus’ aunt is a prime example of how women were treated and how they treated each other in this society. Women were already treated harshly by their male counterparts, and at times they decided to direct their feelings towards other women. Firdaus’ aunt is likely raped and/or abused by her husband, and knows that Firdaus’ has experienced the same, yet has some sort of resentment towards her. The aunt does not want Firdaus’ in the house maybe because she is taking the attention away from her as the adult woman in the house, yet she does not want to be touched by her husband. In this society, women are treated the same, yet they do not confide in one another. You would think that they would protect each other from the wrath of other men, but instead they simply turn against each other even when they are facing the same problems. The author may be hinting at the fact that this may continue as a trend in Firdaus’ life. She may encounter other women who are facing the same issues as herself, but instead of helping each other out, they may show signs of resentment and jealousy.

In Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman, The British colonialists Simon and Jane Pilkings clearly feel superior to the indigenous Yoruba people whom they are tasked with governing and whom they view as primitive, irrational, and uneducated.  Focusing on one exchange from the first three scenes, consider how Death and the King’s Horseman calls their feelings of cultural superiority into question.  The play is clearly suggesting that they are wrong to place themselves above the Yoruba people, but why?  What is misguided, illogical, or incoherent about their view?  How exactly does the play make them appear absurd?  What strategies does Soyinka use to mock the British characters?

One page, double spaced.  Due Thursday November 30

“As a matter of fact, my whole life seemed to be threatened with failure. My self-confidance began to be badly shaken, and I went through difficult moments. It looked to me as though this woman, who had killed a human being, was a much better person than I. Compared to her, I was nothing but a small insect crawling upon the land amidst millions of others insects.”

These passage shares the personal thoughts of protagonist and the author- Naval El Saadawi.  “It looked to me as though this woman, who had killed a human being, was a much better person than I.”  Naval admires Firdaus for taking the death sentence with humility and bravery. Relatively she founds herself insecure and miserable and possibly in some way even jealous to strength of the character.

“As a matter of fact, my whole life seemed to be threatened with failure.”  The author obsessive desire in pursuing Firdaus to gain the unique story reveals to itself her dependency towards her selfish ambitions. In contrast with Firdaus who does not look for glory or proving her innocense to no one.

“Compared to her, I was nothing but a small insect crawling upon the land amidst millions of others insects.”   Symbolically author draws an analogy between the insects and people in order to represent people as very small weak creatures. Likewise incests often survive within their own kind, so do people depend on each other if not physically but socially. Firdaus seem to the author as a person of its own special kind, who possess no fear against most terrifying event that might experience any human being – the expectancy of its own execution.

“Two eyes – two eyes alone fastened themselves upon mine. No matter how far I shifted my gaze, or how much I moved my head, they followed me closely, tightened their hold. Everything was now enveloped in a growing darkness in which I could no longer discern the slightest glimmer of light, except for two jet black eyes encircled by two rings of dazzling white.”

This scene, described by the words of Firdaus herself, is her reimagining her growing fear when she was called out to pick up her school certificate but had no guardian present to pick her certificate up with her.

Her fear and glimmer of hope is described in contradicting detail. As Firdaus is called up but she has no guardian present, she is “enveloped in a growing darkness”— a sense of fear described to us as darkness is beginning to overtake Firdaus. But in this growing darkness where she cannot “discern the slightest glimmer of light”, her beacon of light, is not light at all but eyes described as “jet black”. Firdaus cannot discern the slightest glimmer of light, but contradictorily she is able to discern the “jet black” eyes that followed her closely and “tightened their hold”. These two jet black eyes are the eyes of her teacher Miss Iqbal, who approach Firdaus and takes her up stage to receive her school certificate from the principle. This usage of detail stands out, because this passage is constantly developing an image of darkness to the reader, yet what grabs Firdaus’s attention are jet black eyes. It’s only once she notices the jet black eyes is that they are also “encircled by two rings of dazzling white”, which acts as a more symbolical representation of a “beacon of light”. She wasn’t able to notice the “dazzling white” with the growing darkness, but she was only able to notice the dazzling white by noticing the jet black eyes first.

“The bell rang announcing the passing of the day and the end or work. The throngs of children rushed toward the gate, which was opened again. I bade farewell to friends and sweethearts and passed through the gate. I peered around but found no trace of my father, who had promised to be there. I stepped aside to wait…..After I had taken a few steps, a middle-aged passed by…… Good Lord! Where was the street lined with gardens? Where had it disappeared to? Where did all these vehicles invade it?….High buildings taken over, the street surged with children, and disturbing noises shook the air….”

This quote show the timelines from the author’s childhood to his adulthood. He starts with his childhood first by showing that the gates acts more like a portal, and act like a invitation of the real world. When he explained that he found no trace of my father, we eventually know that the father has died and that the author has to find his own sense of direction on his own. The strange part was that the author had no emotion, because usually without our parents, we experience sadness and confusion on what to do without the guidance. As he started growing older, he started to struggle in adjusting to present time, to know that he doesn’t see the land that he once knew. From the beautiful nature as a kid to the vehicles and high buildings as a elder, this is linked to urbanization (taking on the characteristics of a city). It was then that he has started to give up on his life and experience sadness, as the young lad (believed to be a spirit) take him to the afterlife.