During the period of Modernism, many authors often use literature to explore the transformations in culture, belief, lifestyle and human experience to the readers. In the story, “Chick’s School Days” written by Chinua Achebe, tells us the background of an African Child’s family in the beginning. This is where the author explores the first transformation about the traditional belief of an African family. The father, Amos insists to marry a woman Osu, who was considered to be the lowest caste in the Igbo class system. According to the passage “In the past an Osu could not raise his shaggy head in the presence of the free-born. He was a slave…to be despised and almost spat on” (828) we see how low the African society valued Osu as a slave. Amos’s mother is a character representing this traditional belief, who strongly opposes their marriage as it would degrade her son. But Chike’s father influenced by the Christian, Mr. Brown, and transformed into a more modernistic person, who doesn’t care about the caste and willing to marry her. Similarly in today’s modern society, people don’t really care about spouse’s last name as a factor of marriage.

Another transformation happens to Chike, as a child of a family of five daughters “Chike was brought up in the ways of the while man, which meant to opposite of traditional” (827). Since he got raised differently than the other traditional African kid, he refuses to eat heathen food. Chike was not even fluent in English but he is sent to a Christian school to receive Christian education. The teacher, environment and school greatly influence him in the interest of acquiring the new language. “He liked particularly the sound of English words, even when they conveyed no meaning at all” (830) this detail shows how much he loves English. Therefore, he is not a close-minded African child, he has transformed into an open-minded child who is willing to learn and sing.

The theme transformation also shows up in many other readings that we’ve read in the class. For examples, Lu Xun, “Diary of a Madman”, the madman was surrounded and raised in a feudal society, where he was able to transform himself into a moral person and differs than the cannibalism around him.  The period of Enlightenment is also a transformation in human knowledge, it transforms a person from being ignorant and lack of reason to an intellectual and rational person.

Can you relate the theme transformation to any other readings that we have read?

From the story, the author, Rabindranath Tagore, uses of literature (in which presents in a narrative way) as a mean to examine the position of women in the society and its jurisdiction in India during the late 19^th century. In this society, women’s positions are very similar to the western women in the essay, A Vindication of Rights of woman by Mary Wollstonecraft that we read before. Women are treated like men’s property, their duties are taking care children, obeying men’s orders and doing house work as the only reason to live on. More importantly Dukhirman and Chidam treat them as inferior and use Chandara as a tool to cover his guilt. For instances, Dukhirman kills his wife without any hesitating, then they decides to let Chandara to take all the responsibility. Later Chidam said that “if I lose my wife I can get another, but if my brother is hanged, how can I replace him?”(895) This conversation shows that men are more important than women because Chidam chooses to save his brother by sacrificing his wife. It also reveals the society in India, in which men have the dominating position and power over women since remarriage is not a problem for men.

As a reader, we clearly see the truth that Chandara is innocent and know that it is unfair. Well! The story is called “Punishment” implicitly refers the theme of unjust or unfairness. I define the term “punishment” as a penalty for people who committed an act of offense, fault or guilt. Chandara did not commit any of those but receives the punishment of death while the real offender gets free, hence the punishment is mistaken and unjust. The reason that it ends in this way also because of the unjust and failure of the justice system, the judge or the jury decides this case solely on the basis of eyewitness accounts, without any material evidence to prove the claim. Also due to the positions difference between men and women, the judge is also biased by the class and gender, bringing the story to its sad ending. Therefore, this type of justice system is unreliable and unjust.

The question that I want to ask is “Who or what is responsible for her death?” Is it her husband/ the society/ the justice system or others?