LITERATURE l&ll -ANSWERS!
Please answer only 2. One in each section.
(5)
Bledsoe is the president of the state’s college that the narrator attended and he is a black man. Bledsoe is two faced, manipulated and a hypocrite- a traitor to both the whites and blacks. His motto is to act servile and submissive in front of the white and is actually a man who belongs to nobody. Bledsoe is ambitious and selfish and has once told the narrator that if he has to kill and hang the blacks in order to keep his position he should do so. The statement is the most evident idea for reader to see that Bledsoe is a traitor to his own race.
Bledsoe is also a man who would take any measure to gain what he wants. When Mr. Norton told Bledsoe that the narrator is not at fault. Bledsoe would on the surface agrees with Mr. Norton, but behind him, do as he likes. Bledsoe instead, expelled the narrator and sent him off with seven horrible recommended letters. Even though the narrator fell for Bledsoe “on surface kindness”, this example showed the reader what kind of man Bledsoe is. To the public, it appears as If Bledsoe is willing to help the protagonist, but as soon as the content of the letters are revealed, the protagonist or the readers, get to have more insight to his character.
Bledsoe serves as a foil for the foreshadowed narrator; because both the narrator and himself find themselves in each other’s neck throughout the novel. Because the novel is a bildungsroman, readers can make an assumption that the narrator will be normally developed as the novel progresses. By the end of the novel, readers will be able to see the great differences between the mentality of the narrator and that of Dr. Bledsoe. Bledsoe is also the figure of successful black man during that particular time, that is, to become a traitor towards the black and white.
Also, Bledsoe represents Booker T. Washington. Both men are black and believe that they should remain submissive towards the whites Washington wanted the black to be submissive towards the whites and this is also what Bledsoe has been doing.
==============================
(6)
The novel is centered on African- American representation of self definition. In the novel, the narrator’s desire to change the course of his story that makes the whites more important than the blacks contributes to the enormous struggles the narrator encountered. No black man is allowed to rise beyond a certain level because of the problem of race and his desire to self-define himself. The protagonist of the novel attributes his invisibility largely to his inability to define himself outside the influence of others. Almost everyone he encounters attempts to tell him who he is, and how he should conduct himself.
At the college for instance, Dr. Bledsoe tells the narrator that he should smile and lie to please the white. The narrator is given an honor to drive one trustee known as Mr. Norton and the narrator is reprimanded for his action at the pub. Also, he is initiated into the brotherhood to become their spoke man, but their selfish aims and objective or too many unreasonable rules makes him back out in the end. At first, the Brotherhood attempts to redefine him by giving him a new name and identity and by having him go through intense instructions to ensure he adapt to the organization’s philosophies. Fortunately, the narrator has to go underground in order to define himself. He does this because he’s not able to finds solution to racial prejudice in his society. His decision to go underground and come back later also portends that the narrator has not relent in his struggle to ameliorate the conditions of his society. This is evident in his enviable conclusion that he said to himself that In going underground I whipped it all except the mind. And the mind has conceived a plan of living must never lose sight of the chaos against which that pattern was concluded. I must come out, I must emerge… And, as I said before a decision has been made, I’m shaking off the old skin and will leave it here in the white. I’m coming out, no less invisible without it, but coming out nevertheless.
==============================
(4)
Mama continues to preach the gospel with Amen Kristi brethren; this time they are at Egba while Joe is still busy with his business and alien issue. Suddenly, the house at the front gulp fire. The mother and the children are trapped inside the building. Mama rushes into the inferno snatch the child from the mother ignoring the mother’s rushes and jumps out. Mama said to her self, I could take care of the baby, if the authorities world allow me, until the father or a relative comes Mama pleads. The damage to property is estimated at several millions of naira and it includes the loss of several lives.
==============================
(3)
Massa Awosika; She is Nii's ailing wife whose sickness appears to be intractable. She isjust twenty-two years but she bedridden till her death on their way to get spiritual healing at "God is beyond Science". Massa had been an intimate friend to Nii from their school days and this explains the reasons Nii remained faithful to her when she was alive and even when she dies. She is a good and loving wife, she cares about her husband's financial and psychological wellbeing, and being a firm believer in the philosophy of Pan Africanism, she believes Africa is home for all Africans that when she sees that her husband is worried about the fate of Aliens in Ghana, she tries to calm him down and encourages him to stay in Ghana.
==============================