LITERATURE ANSWERS
INSTRUCTION: ANSWER ONE(1) QUESTION FROM EACH SECTION
SECTION I
(2)
COLONIAL IMPERIALISM: The presence of the colonial governor, the messenger, the fighting white men and the denigrating treatment of local traditional rulers suggest the colonial atmosphere that surrounds the entire play. Dr Rowe’s treatment of Gbanya is highly suggestive of the aura of impudence and self-professed superiority colonial administrators exuded. By deciding to strip Yoko of her newly-acquired territories, Dr Rowe further demonstrates how these colonial administrators took Africans for granted. It will be recollected that Yoko painstakingly consults the governor before she embarks on her conquest of new territories. She does not go off limit but the governor strips her of the territories all the same.
Considerably, the powerlessness and puppetry of African traditional rulers is brought to notice.
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(4)
(i) Marriage and Love;
Sidi is the centre of attraction in the play. Her beauty endears her to the village men and of course, the visiting stranger. Baroka and Lakunle show their love for Sidi in their own individual ways.
The marriage institution is also well foregrounded in The Lion and the Jewel. While Lakunle hopes to seek Sidi’s attention through flowery language and his promise of an equal union, Baroka takes a more practical approach in inducting Sidi into his harem of wives. In the end, Sidi marries Baroka.
(ii) Deceit;
The theme of deceit manifests through Baroka. He lies to Sadiku, a loose tongue, about his being impotent. Sadiku in turn spreads the news about Baroka’s humiliation. It is on the premise of this lie that Sidi decides to honour Baroka’s invitation to sup with him.
Sidi would not have honoured Baroka’s invitation had she known she was being deceived. And if she hadn’t, she would not have felt Baroka’s sexual prowess and consequently, might not have married him. Baroka wins Sidi’s heart through deceit.
(iii) Cultural conflict;
In the theme of cultural conflict, kunle see the tradition of Ilujinle village as outdated and old. He doesn’t like it, especially when it comes to paying of bride price. Just like in the novel, Kunle insisted that he won’t pay bride price on Sidi.
Lakunle also, don’t like the way the Ilujinle people dress as it shows sensitive part of their body. But that was how the Ilujinle people dress. Teacher Kunle sees all that as barbaric and outdated.
Baroka on the other hand, had to bribe the surveyor to make sure that the train track do not pass through Ilujinle village. He did that to avoid the western culture.
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SECTION II
(6)
(i) APATHY AND PASSIVENESS;
Although Alison is the direct target of Jimmy's criticism, her apathy and passiveness are just the immediate representation of the attitudes that Jimmy sees as discouragement in the whole society. It is the satisfied flashiness of society that infuriates Jimmy. The Church too, comes under attack in part because it has lost relevance to contemporary life. Jimmy sees the Church as providing an easy escape from facing the pain of living. For Helena it spells a safe habitat, one that defines right and wrong for her, although she seems perfectly willing to ignore its limits against adultery when it suits her. Of course, Jimmy has also slipped into a world of sameness as illustrated by the three Sunday evenings spent reading the newspapers and even the direct replacement of Alison at the ironing board with Helena.
(ii) REAL LIFE;
In the play, Jimmy Porter is consumed with the desire to live a more real and full life. He compares this burning desire to the empty actions and attitudes of others. At first, he generalizes this emptiness by criticizing the lax writing and opinions of those in the newspapers. He then turns his angry gaze to those around him and close to him, Alison, Helena, and Cliff. Osborne's argument in the play for a real life is one in which men are allowed to feel a full range of emotions. The most real of these emotions is anger and Jimmy believes that this anger is his way of truly living. Jimmy's desire for a real life is an attempt to restore raw emotion to the theatre which hitherto had subsumed the emotions of characters in British theatre and rendered them less realistic.
(iii) LOSS OF CHILDHOOD;
The idea of a lost childhood impacts the characters of Jimmy and Alison Porter as a the ne. Osborne uses specific examples like the death of Jimmy's father when Jimmy was only ten, and how he was forced to watch the physical and mental demise of the man, to demonstrate the way in which Timmy is forced to deal with suffering from an early age. Alison's loss of childhood is best seen in the way, at she was forced to grow up too fast by marrying Jimmy. Her youth is wasted in the anger and abuse that her husband levels upon her. Osborne suggests that a generation of British youth has experienced this same loss of childhood innocence. Osborne uses the examples of World War, the development of the atomic bomb, and the decline of the British Empire to show how an entire culture has lost the innocence that other generations were able to maintain.
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SECTION III
(9)
(i) Inordinate Quest for power/ Power tussle:
The poem explores the inordinate ambition and power tussle found in many African leaders. The reader is first made to know that they stake their claim to power. To stake means to get firmly tied or to clinch on to something. Everyone exhibits their quest to clinch to power by all means. All of them have to claim to the leadership pack or the other. This breeds power tussle. The lion sticks to his claim of being the most superior leader. The hyena claims the crown is made for him. The Giraffe craves a place in the front. The Zebra maintains that it is his right to lead. This power tussle continues until the most potent one trudges into the power tussle. His emergence sets others on the run because they dread his trampling feet.
(ii) Incompetence of our Leaders:
The poem explores the high level of incompetence found in our leaders. Many struggle by all means to get power even when it is clear to them that they lack competence and moral standing to be there. The poet describe this situation as having lethal appetite. To have a lethal appetite is to have a steady mongering for power despite the person's gross incompetence and ineptitude. according to the poet their eyes are too far from the ground. The lack basic foundations and tutelage to be in the leadership level.
(iii) Hope for the Masses:
The Leader and the Led also explores the theme of hope. The masses are not forever left in utter despair. Hope comes at last as a saviour comes to salvage the situation. He has come to maintain sanctity and sanity in the entire polity. Such a leader has a proven integrity and other qualities required of his calling. He is a man of many parts; one who responds to the calls for a hybrid of habits. He is indeed, a leader who is principled but humble; a good follower.
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SECTION IV
(12)
(i) Repetition: The poet uses his customary repetition of words and sounds to express the sense of loss he feels about nature destroyed by humanity. The last five lines of the poem appeals to the gentility and beauty of village scene. Lines 20 – 25. The poet’s repetition of some words with end rhyme makes the poem musical thereby giving it an aesthetic appeal. This is scene in the first stanza of the poem. The poet even uses coinages to achieve such effects.
(ii) Synecdoche: Synecdoche is the use of part of a thing to represent a whole or a whole to represent a part. This poem makes use of synecdoche by representing nature or natural product with ‘aspen’ and ‘binsey poplars’. The tree represents nature and how man has destroyed nature and its beauty. Binsey which is the city represent worldwide destruction of nature by civilization and modernization.
(iii) Simile: This is comparison of two things that share same features but are from different nature. The countryside is compared with the ‘’Seeing Eye’’ lines 14-15 ‘’that, like this sleek and seeing ball,’’ But a prick will make no eye at all.’’ This means that eye is a delicate thing and it should be taken care of properly.
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COMPLETED
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October 20, 2013, 09:25:39 am
