Town and Country Life in Okeke the Magician by Ogali Ogali
This story is about family friendship and war. The village has been
torn apart by war and poverty, with rebel soldiers destroying
everything in their path. The friendship part of the story is about
two childhood friends who live in the same village, their names are
Okeke and Veronica. They are completely different people because Okeke
wants to become a very famous doctor in the big city and Veronica
wants to stay in the village to get married, become a mother and live
a quiet life.
Veronica is a completely different person to Okeke because she is very
poor and her father is a 'brute", he always beat's her and her 'weak'
mother. Veronica is a very poor and weak person, this is a big problem
for Veronica because she can't afford to go to school. She is the
eldest child of the family, she has lots of responsibility for
bringing up the other children in her family. Veronica lives no where
near her school. Every night Veronica is beaten by her father who is a
'morbidly suspicious man' who hates all visitors except for his
'drinking companions'. Everyday Veronica has to go into the woods to
collect the fire wood, so her family can keep warm and stay alive. Her
clothes are 'shabby'. Okeke helps Veroinca fetch water and chop the
fire wood. Okeke knew that Veronica's father was beating her, this
made Okeke angry because he couldn't do anything. He cursed himself
for his 'own physical inadequacy'. He could hear Veronica crying from
her room, this must have been awful for Okeke as he says 'night after
night I would lie awake listening to her screams'.
When Veronica's best friend was going to the big city to become a
famous doctor, she could have gone as well but she refused. She
refused because she had 'no qualifications' and she said 'The city is
for you', because Veronica was a woman she didn't have the same
opportunities that Okeke had.
The author Ralph Ellison is a renowned writer and scholar with significant nonfiction stories credited to his name. He was born in Oklahoma City about the year 1913. His family had a small business wherein his father worked as a foreman but soon died when he was only three years old. After several years, he later found out that his father wished that he would someday become a poet after the great American essayist popularly known as Ralph Waldo Emerson who became his namesake. His mother was Ida Millsap Ellison who was involved as a political activist campaigning for the Socialist Party. Moreover, she was arrested several times in violation of the segregation orders.
Throughout the article “The Code of the Streets,” Elijah Anderson explains the differences between “decent” and “street” people that can be applied to the approaches of social control, labeling, and social conflict theories when talking about the violence among inner cities due to cultural adaptations.
In this science fiction story, LeGuin introduces us to a utopian society that is characterized by mere beauty and a lovely environment that is harmonious. The city is described as a bright tower by the sea. The author emphasizes on its pristine and natural setting, with its great water-meadow of its green field. The existence of its people both young and old is that of harmony and peace. The children run around naked that symbolizes their innocence and that of the city. Though much emphasis is put on the natural beauty of Omela’s people and its environment, a lot remain to show its darker side which is hidden from the innocence of the kids until they reach the age of 10 (Le, Guin, 65). This is a total contrast to the lovely exhibition of the city and its harmony. It indicates a cruel society that exposes a child of years to unnatural suffering because of utopic beliefs that the success of the town is tied to the kid suffering. Other members of the town leave Omela in what seems like the search for an ideal city other than Omela but ...
his own seemed to be inane and dull. Besides, Hugh’s childhood stories were so adventurous
Okonkwo’s fear of unmanliness is kindled by his father, who was a lazy, unaccomplished man. Okonkwo strives to have a high status from a young age and eventually achieves it. He has a large family, many yams and is well known throughout the village for his valor. He raises his family by his mentality of manliness and is ...
Because of the life that Christine leads, the role of mother and daughter are switched and Rayona often finds herself watching out for her mom. When Ray comes home from school, she would often learn that her mother had gone out to party. Times like this meant that Rayona had to care for herself. It is not uncommon for one to stay out late; but when it is the parent who is doing so, one must question the responsibility of the person. When Christine leaves the hospital, Rayona shows up and helps prevent a potential disaster. She realizes what her mother plans to do, and that her mom will not crash the car with her on board. While Christine is not very reliable, she has no wish to hurt Rayona either; Ray's prediction was correct. As a child, Rayona must fulfill more obligations than a normal teen. Over the time that leads to her abandonment, Rayona begins to feel displaced from her mother. Christine's increasing self concern causes Rayona to feel her mom is ignoring her, when that is not true at all.
I read the book Lonesome Howl, which is a drama book and a love story. The book was about two main character whose names are Jake and Lucy. They lived with their family in two different farms, but in the same community besides a mountain covered in a big wicked forest where many rumors took place. The farmers around the place lost many sheep’s since a feral beast. It was a quite small community and a lot of tales was told about it to make it even more interesting. Lucy was 16 years old and lived with her strict father and a coward of mom who didn’t dare to stand up for her daughter when she were being mistreated and slapped around by her father. Lucy was a retired and quite teenager because of that. She had a younger brother whose name was Peter. Peter was being bullied in school and couldn’t read since the education of Peter was different compare too Lucy’s. She helped him in school and stood up for the mean bullies, although all she got in return was him talking bullshit about her with their cruel dad which resulted with her getting thrash.
There are many themes that occur and can be interpreted differently throughout the novel. The three main themes that stand out most are healing, communication, and relationships.
Jean-Louis Kerouac aka Jack was born on March 12th, 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts to Leo and Gabrielle who were immigrants from Quebec, Canada. Kerouac learned to speak French at home then he learned how to speak English at school. His father owned a print shop and his mother stayed a home. In the summer of 1926 Jack's older brother Gerard died of rheumatic fever at nine years old. The family was overcome by grief and became more involved in church as is shown in some of his books. Jack loved to play sports and read on his free time. He was on the basketball, track, and football team. Even though he wanted to start writing he felt that playing a sport wound help him more in his future. During the great depression his family struggled financially and his father became an alcoholic and gambler while his mother got a job at a local shoe store to provide for her family. In 1936 the family was devastated by the Merrimack River flooding that wiped out there printing shop which only increased his fathers alcohol addiction and the family lived live in poverty, but jack shined in his sports as he was the star running back at his high school Lowell High. With this he obtained a college scholarship. After graduating Lowell in the year 1939 he received his scholarship to Columbia University. But before attending university he went to Horace Mann preparatory school for boys for a year in Brooklyn at the age of 17.(biography.com) During his freshman year at Columbia university he cracked his tibia. He also argued to mush with his coach, Coach Lou Little, who benched him. While being benched jack began writing for the Columbia Daily Spectator student newspaper with sports articles and later joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. As his footb...
Magic Realism in Wise Children by Angela Carter Magical realism is a primarily Latin American literary movement from the 1960s onwards, which integrates realistic portrayals of the ordinary with elements of fantasy and myths. The result of this is a rich but disturbing world that appears at once to be very dreamlike. The term ‘magical realism’ was first used by German art critic, Franz Roh, who said it was a way of depicting ‘the enigmas of reality’ and literary critic Isabel Allende has said that ‘in magic realism we find the transformation of the common and the everyday into the awesome and the unreal. It is predominantly an art of surprises.
Societies are widely portrayed across literature as groups of people living together in an organized community while sharing a similar culture. However, not all societies have developed properly to be classified as civilized. A civilized society is one that has been brought to a stage of social, cultural, and moral development, causing it to be considered more advanced. In the novel, Things Fall Apart, author Chinua Achebe depicts the Ibo society as civilized through their egwugwu justice system, worshipping of a spiritual Oracle, and patriarchal dominance.
At many places Yeats tries to blend the natural with the supernatural to achieve some desired goals. Edward Said refers to the same fact when he says that Yeats used Irish ‘backwardness as a source for radically disturbing, disruptive return to spiritual ideals lost in an overdeveloped modern Europe’(Cult.and Imp. 274).As a freedom-loving human being, he felt disgusted with the social reality of his time. Injustice and exploitation at the hands of foreign colonial power presented a heart-rending scenario to his inner-self. As a politician he was well-aware about helplessness of his fellow Irish men. However, through his poetic potentialities he tried to raise the banner of resistance through various means. The world of fairies for him was not only limited to mythical interpretation,rather, he used it symbolically to highlight the picture of independent
Okonkwo sees his father’s gentleness as a feminine trait. He works hard to be as masculine as possible so that he will be the opposite of his father and overcome the shame his father brought to his family. Okonkwo deals with this struggle throughout the entire book, hiding the intense fear of weakness behind a masculine façade (Nnoromele 149). In order to appear masculine, he is often violent. In his desire to be judged by his own worth and not by the worth of his effeminate father, Okonkwo participates in the killing of a boy he sees as a son, even though his friends and other respected tribe members advise him against it. (Hoegberg 71). Even after the killing of Ikamefuna, Okonkwo hides his feelings of sadness because the emotions are feminine to him. He goes so far as to ask himself, “when did you become a shivering old woman” (Achebe 65), while he is inwardly grieving. The dramatic irony of the secret fears that Okonkwo has will open the reader’s eyes to how important gender identity is to him. This theme is also presented among Okonkwo’s children. He sees his oldest son, Nwoye, as feminine because he does not like to work as hard as his father (Stratton 29). When Nwoye eventually joins the Christian church, Okonkwo sees him as even more feminine. On the other hand, Okonkwo’s
novel, is that the fact that it was so very long and it has a
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is a story of great sacrifices being made for the sake of principle. There are many examples of this throughout the book made by many of the characters but some or more evident than others. In Book The First, entitled Recalled to Life, the most obvious sacrifice for the sake of principle was made by Dr. Manette. He is imprisoned for eighteen years in the Bastille, for no apparent reason. Another noticeable sacrifice made for the sake of principle was made in Book The Second, entitled The Golden Thread, also by Dr. Manette. Charles Darnay reveals the truth about himself and about his family history. He tells Dr. Manette his real identity and that he is heir to the Marquis St. Evremonde. In Book The Third, entitled The Track of a Storm, Sydney Carton makes an astounding sacrifice for the sake of principle when he fulfills his promise to Lucie Manette, his true love, that he will one day sacrifice himself for the person whom Lucie loves.