2013 Literature WAEC Past questions CBT

Hint

 The Blinkards is about how people perceive the way of life of the African and that of the European. One view point is that the European way is superior to the African.

In presenting African life as not only adequate but also appropriate for the African environment, Sekye uses sative which makes Mrs. Borotosem and her condemnation of African life look ludicrous. The position of Mrs. Borotosem, members of the cosmopolitan club and others like them is that African life is crude. Mainly through the influence of Mrs. Borotosem, characters like Okadu and Miss Tsida adopt this stance towards African culture.

Mrs. Borotosem and her likes assume that the things that European do are what should be done and that the way they do them is the way things should be done. For this reasons, she does and seems things through an obviously faulty perception of the European life she so highly esctols. She usually begins her attack on African culture at home. To her husband’s charging, he must not sing Fanti song! He must drop cigar ash on the carpet and not wear cloth. He is under obligation to kiss his wife at random and call her “duckie” because “Mrs. Gush my friend at seaborne on the East Coat is always addressed by her husband as “duckie”.

Through Mrs. Borotosem influence over Miss Tside and the ahyenterto Mrs. Borotosem decrees that European dress be preferred to African cloths and African foods and drink be regarded as unwholesome for civilised persons. It is ironical that Mrs. Borotosem herself does an about-turn to embrace African life, acknowledging that her earlier attitude has been a mistake.

Mr. Onyimdze is attached to his culture. However, he accommodates the European way. He does not reject European dressing; he wears his lawyer’s robe and regards it as appropriate for his calling. However, after work, he takes it off, preferring African clothes. His diet comprises both European and African foods, hence when Miss Tside and Mrs. Borotosem visit Mr. Onyimdze, Nana Katawerus and Na Sampa and the atamturato hold a contrary view. For them, an African must look like and be African.

The Mrs. Borotosem and Onyimdze factions clash continually until the advocates of African culture prevails through Onyimdze winning of the court case for Nana Katawerwal. All in all, African life is presented as adequate and suitable for the African. It is now left to Mrs. Borotosem, who has defended African culture that strongly to admit that “Really, Onyimdgze was right all along…”  

Hint

Mr. Okadu is a clerk in Chutney’s store. He is one who follows western beliefs and practices blindly and treats African culture contemptuously. He cuts a ludicrous figure in his attempt to ape the Whiteman with his bad English and his ridiculous mannerism. 

            In presenting the character of Mr. Okadu, the playwright satirizes Africans who copy western beliefs and practices indiscriminately. For example, when Mr. Onyimdze suggest at the garden party that they should speak Fanti, Mr. Okadu objects “why, Sir, this is a garden-party, Sir English idea. We must be talk English, Sir”. This characterises his behaviours throughout the play.

            Mr. Okadu serves as a destabilising forces in the Tside household. His relationship with Miss Tsibe tears the home apart. First, it is a source of conflicts between Tsibe and his wife, he source Mr. Tsibe support the union between he sees in it a route to enahcing the status of his family. Na Sampa is incensed and does not conceal her hatred of Okadu. Na Sampa quits her home because of her opposition to the union and threatens never to speak to her husband again. Furthermore, the relationship Mr. Okadu and Miss Tsibe results in Na Sampe’s heart failure and eventual death. This accentuates the negative influence of Mr. Okadu those around him.

            Okadu epitomizes the alienated African who attempts to defend the beliefs and values he has uncritically adopted when they come under threat. For example, when Okadu;s marriage to Miss Tsibe is threatened with dissolution, he drags Miss Tsibe to court on a charge of bigamy. He is stubborn and refuses to let go even though it is clear that he has little support. Interestingly, this action leads to the climax of the play. The triumph of lawyer Onyindze over mr. Okadu in court symbolizes a triumph of traditional values over imported western beliefs and practices. This hastens Mrs. Borotosem’s rehabilitation at the end of the play

Hint

The supernatural looms large over the people of Owu and keeps the entire kingdom under its influences. It is the combined acts of the gods and the blessings of Edumare, the supreme God of the Yoruba that culminate in building and making Owu the safest of all Yoruba cities. But it is also the option of inaction of the same gods that leaves the same city in ruins. This is attested to by no less a goddess then Lawumi, the ancestral Queen mother and goddess of the Owus during her conversation with Anlugbua after the fall of the Kingdom.

The fall of Owu Kingdom not comes as a surprise to the gods, especially Lawumi. The fall is even supernaturally contrived, aided and abetted. It is consequences of Owu’s condemnable acts of omission or commission.

One such act is the Owu people’s blatant shows of arrogance not only to Lawumi but also to the Ile Ife, the cradle of the Yorubas. “Drunk with prosperity” the Owu’s throw caution to the wind and sack Apomu, Ife’s commercial satellite town, and send people away into slavery. By so doing they break the sacred law of sango, the Yoruba god of thunder, that no Yoruba man shall sell his compatriot in to slavery. For this, Owu must be punished by the gods and it is the consuming fire power of the Allied forces.

The percussive influence of the supernatural is also seen in thee unfailingly gloomy prediction of the oracle. Through the priest, the oracle warns that prince Dejumo must be killed in his cradle or else he will ultimately bring gloom and doom to the kingdom. However, Erelu, the mother, ignores the warning and spears the life of the son. The ill-fated Prince grows up and abducts Iyunloye after the sack of Apomu. The aggrieved husband, an artist-turned-soldier, leads the allied forces to invade Owu and destroy it evern beyond Lawumi’s wildest imagination.

But the supernatural influence is not over yet because the destruction of Owu does not leave Lawumi and even Ogun-the god of metallic Ore unbrusied. The gods agree to collaborate with Lawumi to avenge the apparent excesses of the Allied forces in flattering and desecrating their shrines even as women and children throng there to seek refuge. And as Orunmila-the god of divination, predicts, the return of the Allied forces will be filled with grief. Esu will create problem for them at every cross-road, Orisa who will turn forests against them while Anlugbue, the ancestral father and deity will unleash storms on them on their homeward journey. With their lives largely ruled and controlled by the supernatural, the Owu people seem to have no doubt in their minds that all this will come to pass

Hint

To the casual observers Maye is successful artist, suddenly turned soldier and leads the Owu campaign for selfless and patriotic reasons. One reason is the need to punish Owu for attacking Apomu, the commercial satellite town of Ife. The other is to stop the slave trade.

However, a close examination of Maye’s real motive reveals other reasons. Maye is essentially an artist, not known to be a warmonger. Rather he is a lover and defender of all that makes life worth-living. And so he will rather go to war for reasons of romance than those, of heroism. As events later show, the motive behind  the man’s war exploits is the burning desire to reclaims Iyunloye, his abducted beautiful wife.

Against all expectations that Maye will summarily execute Iyunloye for her promiscuity, he allows her to defend herself an opportunity that Iyunloye seizes to seduce and bewitch him.

Maye against very stiff opposition especially from Erelu, rules that Iyunloye will no longer be killed in Owu but in Ife. To the dismay of soldiers and civilians alike, Maye and Iyunloye go back to Ife in the same caravan in a most erotic mood. This is how maye actualizes his hidden agenda.

Hint

Major Sergius Saranoff is a Bulgarian army Commander who leads his regiment to win a battle against the Serbs at silvinatza. However, both his critics and admires consider him to be a failure and he admits he is.

To Catherina, who seem him as a future son-in-law and to reing his fiancée, he is no doubt the gallant and the perfect soldier. But he is an inexperience soldier who leads “a charge on his own responsibility and ability” “sweeps through the guns with ordinary swords”.

Bluntschlis assessment of his performance at the war front is even more damning. Bluntschlis describe him as a foolish, tactless and quiocotic soldier who, without initiative, fights at close range with swords against enemies with fire arms. He is “like a drum major, and he and his men are like fools” let loose on a field to battle where he leads them to commit suicide.

Because Sergius is an inexperience soldier, he does not know how to save the lives of his troops. As he foolishly owns up himself, he conserves his own life but loses his men while the Russian mercenaries loose only two generals but preserve all their men.

As a tactless and inexperienced soldier who ungtonly wastes the live of his men on the battle field, Sergius is therefore seen as a pyrrhic victory. For this reason Major Pettcoff refuses to promote him after the war. This is why he resigns prematurely from the army.

Hint

Major Pettcoff’s coat makes up a significaint contribution to the development of the plot. Much of the action of the play hinges on Bluntschil’s “borrowing” of Major Pettcoff’s coat and its return, which builds the play’s suspense.

Bluntschli, is a swiss mercenary fighting on the side of the Serds, in a bid to escape from his pursuer, strays into the bedroom of Reina, Major Pettcoffs daughter. He needs to escape and Reina, already attracted to him, lends his her father’s coat to facilitate his escape. The coat is therefore used to advance the plot as it services as a vehicle for Bluntschlis escape from Bulgaria.

Reian place her portrait in the pocket of the coat. This raises further complications in the plot of the play. When Bluntschli returns the coat, he gives it to Catherine with Reina’s portrait still in the pocket.

Major Pettcoff has notice that the coat is missing although his wife has tried to convince him to believe the contrary. When he finds the coat, he seems Reina’s portrait in it. He, however keeps quite, waiting for a satisfactory explanation. As he is preparing to go with Major Sergius and captain Bluntschli for the rehabilitation of the Bulgarian soldier he calls for the coat. Cleverly taken them the coat from Nicole, Reina stealthily removes the portrait before putting the coat on her father. To her father’s surprise, the portrait is no longer in the pocket. This development provokes an anxious moment of accusation about who may have removed. To everybody surprise but relief also, Bluntschli speaks up and the whole story surrounding the escape is told at no coat to the Major player. The matter is therefore, resolved to the satisfaction of all.

Hint

The play abounds with humour. The must serious matters are dealt with humorously and the mannerisms of some of the xters exude humours.

            First we seen Algerian eating up the cucumber sandwich he has prepared for his aunt, his denial creates humours. It might have been a serious situation, perhaps, had it been a matter between aunt and nephew alone. But lady Bracknell’s question elicits a lie from the master of the house, and this untruth is humorously supported by the servant, such that the audience wonders whether it has not been rehearsed.

There is also the lineage of Jack which is another source of humour. Lady Bracknell’s interview is, in itself humorous. But the purpose and matter are even more so.

Among many other things she suggests to Jack in her interview, she asks Jack to “acquire some relations as soon as possible”. How he is to do this and produce at any rate one parent-before the season is quite over is ridiculously funny.

The quarrel between Guendolen and Cecily is funny, especially when we remember Algerians comment that two women meeting for the first time must quarrel to get on. As we watch Cecily carefully ask what Guendolen will have, and after her dislikes, we find the country girl matching the city girl boot for booth.

lady Bracknell surprise when Dr. Chausuble asks Jack and Algerian whether they are ready for the Christening is an occasion for humour. Apparently her ladyship is under the impression that the unborn child of her daughter and Jack is the object of the christening,

Jack’s anger with the Algenon leads to revelation that are complicated and funny. With lady Bracknell determined to defend her nephew’s honour, Jack is raging that Algenon has “obtained admission” to the house by pretending to be his brother. But Algenon is Jack’s brother.

Hint

Marriage is an important them in the play. All the major stars are deeply concern with the issue of marriage and at one time or the other express strong views on this issue. It serves as a force which motivates most of the important actions in the play. Further, it forms the subject of many arguments and very lively, if not heated, debates.

The issues of marriage is brought into every conversation, however trivial it may be rightat the start of the play Algernon brought the subject in conversation with his bother, lane. He asks the question “why is it that at a bachelors establishment the servants invariably drinks the champagne? Lane response hits straight home at the point. “I attribute it to the superior quality of the wine….I have often observed that in married household the champagne is rarely of a first-rate brand. They then launch into a short conversation on the nature of marriage in which Lane remarks that he does not find the subject of marriage an interesting topic for discussion. This leads to Algernon’s comment when Lane insists that “Lane’s views on marriage seem somewhat I “.

The conversation between the friends Jack and Algernon, inevitably touches on the issues of marriage. Jacks sincere belief in the romanticism of marriage is countered by Algernon cynical views. While Jack expresses the wish to always enjoys company of his wife when he does marry, Algernon insist that the marriage man should always create an alter ego which will give him an opportunity to run away from his wife from time to time. Algernon views, of course, change when he falls in low with Cecily.

The question of marriage occupiers the top spot in Lady Bracknell’s list of priorities. Her perspective on marriage is expressed solely from a materialistic view point. Her “list of eligible young men” does not therefore, include Jack who wents to marry her niece, Guendolyn.

Lady Bracknell put status first “a man should always have an occupation of some kind”. Her “list of eligible young men is based on social status and wealth”. Therefore, Jack with his “ nondescript origin” having been found abandoned in a handbag at Victoria Station will never make her list.

Lady Bracknell interviews of Jack accentuates the ludicrousness of her criteria for eligibility. For her, “a man who desires to get married should know either everything or nothing”. To Jacks response that he knows nothing she says “I am pleased to hear it”. While is certainly poking fun at Victorian ideals of marriage here. The important issues, such as a person’s favour of long back seat. “I am not in favour of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other xter before marriage, which I think is not good thing”. Lady Bracknell as it turns out, Jack is actually Lady Bracknell nephew-and Algernon brother. This accentuates the foolishness of prohibiting marriage on the grounds that the proposed after all, she admits herself that when she married Lord Bracknell she “never dreamed for one moment of allowing that to stand in my way”. 

Hint

Expelled is a poem which addressed problems associated with changes in the person’s life. The change is externally induced and it can be inferred from the poem that it is brought about my Colonialism. The first two lines are suggestion “We had traded in this market place competitively perfect/till you came in the boat…”What is suggested here is an erstwhile communal life in which everyone understand the rules of the game, but not so any longer. The colonialist (you) virtually destroyed everything, material and spiritual. This fact is expressed in the lines “cut our ribs, dried our cows” etc.

            The allusion to Sodom and Gomorrah completes the pictures of the perversion and destruction that colonialism brings about generally. At the personal level, it is suggested that the persons never overcomers the suffering colonialism inflicts upon his compatriots. He refers to his personal loss, as living in both poverty and penury, unable to pay his debtors who “tapped my rusty door”. Now he has become a pariah, as everyone avoids him while he himself plays hide and seek with death. Nature itself  afters no consolation, as the broke line run across my face indicating his ageing too quickly. The last two lines with their image of the auctioneer hammering away the goods left behind are pathetic in their confirmation of the total deprivation that has become his lost

Hint

The poor in the poem do not have home. The live “under bridges”. But they come to terms with their situation with equanimity. They see themselves as significant and playing a particular active and useful role in society.

            By their situation the poor rely on the rich for survival. But they work for their upkeep. They rise at daybreak and play their trade and “beg for aims”.

            The curious thing about the occupation of the poor beggar is that it sustains the system. They are clear eyed and fully aware that they form a “necessary part your society”. It is the ironical, even paradoxical, that the rich should imagine that they are removed from the work of the poor. As the person puts it, the poor people are the “translator of your dreams”. This refers to the rich their society, who have everything while the poor have nothing. The poor say that they carry the burden of the rich.

This is significant because it hits at the very root of offering aims. Anyone who gives aims wants to be blessed. In requesting and accepting aims, therefore, the poor are “agents” who “open gates of blessing for the rich.

The link between poverty and wealth is put succinctly in the paradox of the couplet “we are the lack/that take your lack”. The rich lack blessings as much as the poor lack wealth. When the wealthy give the poor a little of their possession, the acceptance of the offer of aims opens the gates of blessings for the givers. In this way, the fortune of the poor and those of the wealthy are intertwined.

Hint

The poet’s attitude towards the sun is more complex then it first appears. There are two discriminable attitudes which the poet adopts towards the sun.

            Initially, the poet is irritated by the sun. He starts the monologues on querulous note. The question he asks indicates the irritation which the sun is causing him, the sun is personified as a “Busy old fool” who persists in asking him and his lower up even though no one has invited him to do so. The sun is here, a busybody and night do will to mine his own business. The poet’s later diction reinforces his contempt for the sun when he sees as a “pedantic wretch”. This suggest the suns unimaginative and ostentations following of rules. The poets dictates is obvious here. The implication that the sun, if it wants to follow the rule of waking people up early daily, should look your others are laws earnestly engaged, such as “late school boys and sour prentices”. These other are engaged in unindare activities and should therefore be the target of the sin rays. He and his lower are enjoying a relationship which is on a much higher level then the activities of “court-huntsmen” and “country ants”, so the sun which really determines time, can have no effect on them.

            The poet’s irritation is mitigated later. The sun is no longer a decylody. He focused on the suns pretentiousness, “they beams so reverend and strong/why shouldn’t thou think”? thus the poet’s concert is a pointer to the fact that he believes that in the realms of things, the sun is really like a bleep on a screen. The poet could shut his eyes and the sun will cease to exist. A further shift in the poet’s attitude is discriminable. He still feels that the sun is insignificant though the focus has now shifted to himself and his mistress-the two are the most important beings in the whole world. “She is all states, and all princes I/nothing else is”.

At this point he patronise the sun by referring to its age and suggesting that it needs some rest. By shinning on them the sun will be doing its duty to the world.

Hint

The principal purpose of the poet is to debunk the astrologer’s wild claim that they can read the positions and movement of the stars and use their observations to tell people’s fortunes. The poet reminds the astrologers that, it is fate and not the so called staring influence that unalterably determines events in people’s lives. He agrees that fate is God ordained and is therefore above human knowledge. For this reasons, nobody including the astrologers can pretend to know the destiny of any other person. “And no man knows his treasures, no not you”. He thus considers them as impostors for fraudulently using the so called starry influence to fools and dupe such gullible people as are worried by issues of danger, position, love and the like.

            The poet further argues that God, who made the stars which the astrologers daily read and fraudulently exploit to eke a living, does not reveals to anybody, not least the astrologers, his secret purpose of creating them.

He reminds them of the helplessness of their Egyptian predecessors to save Pharaoh and his cohorts from the wrath of God in their futile confrontation with Moses. He seems them engaged in dubious calculations and permutations about the sacred, purpose of the work of the creator which is beyond their limited comprehension. Accordingly, he dismisses them as charlatans who are as “blind” as their calculations and as “drunken” as their conjectures.

The poet accuses the astrologers of being presumption and holds out that man does not need their services, being favourable equipped by the Divine to achieve his set objectives. Accordingly he condemns the fortune-tellers with their spurious claims as liars since it is only man and what he does that make or mar him. 

Hint

Pokuwa and Korema are very close friends. As girls, they spend a lot of time in each other’s company and share a lot of things and play Ampe and Asogoro. Fortunately, the girls meet and fall in love with two friends, Kofi Daafo and Kofi Dede respectively. The tow couples get married at about the same time.

            Unfortunately, the two women are no blessed with children early in their marriages. Their attitudes to their predicament are however different. Despite the stings surrounding a woman who is presumed barren, Koramoa sticks to her guns and endures her deprivation with her husband. She does not leave him and search for a solution elsewhere, even though the temptation to do so is very strong. Pokuma, on the other hand is very impatient. She soon starts to fret and eventually succumb to her mother’s pressure for her to move on, against the advice of Koramoa, marrying two other husbands after her first marriage.

            Pokuma’s change of husband does not lead to immediate results. She still remains childless. In the meantime, Koramoa persistence pays off. She conceived and gives birth to child. This upsets Pokuma all the more as at that time she is with her second husband, Kuaku Fosu and still childless. In her frustration, Pokuma confides in Korama her intention to discontinue her sacrifices in a bid to get the gods to bless her with a child. Korema is rational in her approach and reveals this in her plans with Pokuma not to give up hope.

            Korama has had a child, but also catches her husband with another woman. This almost leads to a break-up in their marriage. However, it must be noted that Kuadwo Fordwuo, in spite of his first wife, is more committed to their relationship. He continually encourages Pokuma, raising her hopes when in a state of despair. He admonishes her “to give up sacrifices is to give life itself”.

            In time, Pokumaa conceives with her their husband though she still irks at having to share him with his other wife.

Hint

The novel abounds with religions belief and practices. The people of Brenchous believe in and worship deities, the most popular one being Tano whom they consider a great god. Fotie is a day set aside for the worship of this god. Fotie is atestive Friday which is observed every six weeks. The people go to the shrine, Tanofie, to worship and consult the ancestors for solution to their problems. On Fotie, it is held that the “gods and goddesses move among men to feast and grant people’s request”. Consequently, the plot begins when Pokuma is prepared frantically to go to Tanofie to present the items that she has been asked to bring as a sacrifice to the gods so that her ancestor and the gods would bless her efforts to get a child. Koramoa, Pokumaa’s playmate and childhood friend, is also there to thank the gods for blessing her with a child.

            The people of Brenchous also consult the deities and ask them to intervene on behalf of anyone who may have wronged others or, where the sins of the parent or ancestors are being avenged on an individual. Pokumaa has been told by the priest at Tanofie to get a black hen so that the deities could be sought to spare her the pain of not having a child of her own in case “she herself had wronged anyone or if the sins of her parents or ancestors were being avenged on her”.

            The people also believe in the power of evil spirits who inhabit tree tops and wreak all sorts of havoc on them. There are stories, first of an evil spirit turning a child into a chicken and slaughter her, and another of a man turning himself into a crocodile and devouring a girl who jilted him. Pokuma’s holds on to these superstitions, when Pokumaa jet black hen meant for sacrifice gets missing, she concludes that this is perhaps the work of evil spirit “who, knowing Tano’s greatness, had spirited the hen away, to stop her from making her sacrifice”.

            The lighting that strikes the tree is considered a bad omen. It is a sign that the gods are angry. To pacify them, the women are expected to cook, and prayers offered to appease the seventy-seven (77) gods. Brenchous women are also prayed to bear children, so that when the goods pay a visit “you will always find someone here to give you something to eat”.

            The people also believe that another world called asamando exist where there is no pain or suffering. All manner of foods is prepared for them. This is demonstrated during the burial of Yaw Boakye when different kinds of foods are prepared and placed on his bed. His widows also give him couriers to pay for his passage on his way to the world beyond.

            Another practice of the Brenchous community also manifests during the burial when on his way to the cemetery his corpse seems to have been held by unseen forces. Libation has to be poured in order to facilitate easy passage and the barriers resume their movement.

            Again at the cemetery, each of the three wives runs ahead and throws a pot. This is to severe their marital relationship with the dead.

            The hornbill episode is another incidence of the superstitious belief of the people. While Pokuma was not at the river to fetch water, an angel nearly slaps her. She kills the hornbills, wraps it with leaves and takes it home, as the women of the community stare at her. On showing her mother the dead hornbill she becomes troubled because, in the first instance, nobody has the right to go to the Ananse Stream on “Akwasidge” to fetch water. Secondly, a hornbill is said to be the food of the gods and as a result it must be returned of the family does not want to incur the wrath of the gods. A purification rite has to be carried out.

            The observation of the Odwire festival meant to mourn the dead is central to the people’s belief in the continuity of their existence, it is done with loud beating of drums, and vigils are kept for the celebration. It also serves as an occasion for lovers to meet as well as settle family dispute.

Hint

Kambali and her brother, Jeje pay occasional visits to the home of Aunty Ifeoma in Nsukka. The contrast between Engenes household and Aundy Ifepoma’s home is striking and this reveals aspects of Kambali’s xter which have never before been seen.

Engene almost regimental behaviour has left Kambili a withdrawn, taciturn if not for the child. The emotional aridity of Engene home contract sharply with the warm, vivacious and liberal atmosphere of Aunty Ifeoma’s home. The children visit to Aunty Ifeoma to spend time with her and her children after Engene has beaten kambili unconscious marks a waterside in the action of the home. The short time they spend with Aunty Ifeoma exposes Kambili and Jeje to freedom and cordially they have never been exposed to  before. Kambili ask question to probe her surroundings. An instance could be seen when Kambili overhears a discussion between Aunty Ifeoma and a colleague of hers about turmoil in the university. Kambili ask Amake to explain what is happening in the university. In the past, this would have been unthinkable. Now she is bold enough to question what is happening around her. While Engene  had conditioned her to an unquestionable acceptance to whatever her told her, Aunty Ifeoma’s home has opened up, a whole new visits of experience in which the child could demand to have a say in her own future. The chains of enslavement, as it were, are now falling off.

On the domestic scene we notice a transformation and self-discovery of Kambili who hitherto has found it difficult to handle household chores, now becoming a good cook and a warm conversationlist.

Another aspect of Kambili character revealed in Aunty Ifeoma house is her open relationship to menders of the opposite sex. Up to now the dominant man in her life has been her father towering over her like a colossus, willing her to do his bidding and not ask question. Now, in Aunty Ifeoma house, she meets another man, a different kind of man altogether, Father Amadi. Whereas in the past the clergy has been synonpous with oppressive long church services made worse by her being compelled t fast for the first time, she meets a clergyman who has a human face. She therefore finds herself fallen in love. The shy girl who in the past will not even consider having a relationship with the opposite sex now opens up to a man and starts looking forward to spending time with him.   

Hint

The relationship between Kambili and Father Amadi shows that real love does not only engender happiness and peace of mind, but it can also be a durable bridge between socials and spiritual values.

            Father Amadi is a Roman Catholic priest at Nsukka and a friend of the Ifedioras while Kambili is the daughter of Engener Achike in Enugu. The relationship between the two begins when Kambili is on holiday with the Ifedioras in Nsukka. When she sees the priest during a visit to the Ifedoras she quickly recognise s him as the one that conducts the Igbo worship on palm Sunday in Enugu – a thing described by her father as a sin. From the moment she begins to develop a secret love for him for one major reason, her unlike her father is not a religious bigots

            Kambili’s love for Father Amadi rapidly developed. She wears Amaka’s short and tries to use the lipsticks to please him while he also eagerly takes her to the stadium and accompanies her to her hairdressers place. Kambiili sees father Amadi as someone rightly filling the vacuum created by her handed father, whose love for her only leads to fear and submission. On the contrary she has Father Amadi’s love for giving her hope and happiness and an opportunity to break from her father’s rigid moral code.

            Kambili sees in Father Amadi a friend and an equal in whom she can confide. She does not hide her admiration of his handsomeness and wonders why he should remain a priest. She is also unhappy that Father Amadi may leave her behind on his mission to Germany.

            Father Amadi love for Kambili is in a manner ambivalent. He grows found of her. But Father Amadi has enough self-control to hold back his passion and life his relationship up unto a finer place befitting his status as a priest. His leaving for Germany serves as a relief to him, which leaves Kambili distressed.

Hint

Simon is an important character in the novel. He appears to be a little retarded, while others think him “betty”. But his fits do not prevent him from being keenly insightful.

The circumstances  Simons death are tragic and regrettable. He dies back of the timing of his re-emergence from the forest. Savagery has engulfed the boys and they are absolutely unable to discern the beast, they do not care, also their fellow man.

It is significant that by his death, the conformity of Simon’s earlier observation that the death may be in doys themselves will never be known. This death obliterates the light of civilization and insightful analysis. It can be seen that Simon dies, hurting other severally no longer means anything to the tribe, it is had done so at all earlier.

When the argument at the assembly becomes a discussion of ghost, Simon says that the best may as well as be the human being. This does not go down well with the rest. This is a point that might have been cleared had Simon not died. 

Simon does see what the other have seen earlier. He does not run. He sees the strange sight for what is and even without fear, reasons about dignity that the wind deprives the dead man of. So he relates the parachutist from his dignity in death. What is left is the revelation of what Simon has come to know. This knowledge would or might have restored sanity or promoted the savagery unleashed after Simon’s murder. It appears as if his death opens the floodgates for further savagery and attack on decency. The boys  have no questions about further killing. The crushing of piggy and the conch is closely linked with Simon’s death in the sense that the questions that Simon does is taken to a higher  level by Piggy. At any rate the bespectacled “fetty” is the source of light and insight. Naturally, after the brave investigator of mysteries has been done in the bringer of light follows as a mother of course.

With the death of Simon and Piggy, the silent antagonism between Jack and Ralph breaks into open conformity and war as Jack and his tribe hunt Ralph. It can be seen that the death of Simon is significant in several ways. By his death, the aveues to obtaining the key to the mystery of the death is close. In its place, the sluice gats for the unleashing of brutal attacks on civility are opened.

Hint

From the moment Jack Merridew appears on the stage with an air of “superiority” and off-hand authority with his chorus boys, even as Ralph is already presiding over a meeting of a group of rescued on  the Island, it is obvious that power is going to be a major issue in the novel

Power is sweet and Jack and Ralph love it, like all those who love it, they both equally lay claims to it but by different means and for different reason. While Ralph relies on the privilege of holding the conch, Jack in turn exploit self-assertion as he says with bragen arrogance “I ought to be chief…..because I’m chapter chorister and head boy”.

Through a popular vote, the other boys elect Ralph their leader simply because of his size, his attractive appearance and, most importantly, because he has the conch although Jack seems to be the most obvious leader. This democratic process shows that power belongs to the people who takes it away from or choose to give it to whoever they want. This is also demonstrated when Ralph again overwhelmingly defects Jack in the second leadership contest unnecessarily forced on the boys by the rebellious Jack.

Power in the novel manifests itself in two distinct forms – inclusive and integrative. The inclusing form allows for power sharing arrangement. This is why Ralph insists on the use of meetings and dialogues to get issues resolves. It also explain why he wants to bring Jack on board by conceding to him the leadership of the choir boys after defending him in the struggle for power but power is also used to foster social cohesion and advance the cause of the people. For this reason, Ralph is earnestly concerned with the welfare of the boys and their immediate rescue.

On the other hand, power can be used autocratically as an end in itself. In this case, it is primarily wielded to advance the myopic interest of the ruler. Jack after seizing power builds up a cult of personality around himself and unleashes a reign of terror on the Island. The development is regretted and demonstrated even by Roger, his second in command. In the process, Jack leads his hunter boys from Rock Castle to the Beach platform to destroy the shelter under construction, molest Piggy the voice of reason, and steal his glasses. It is also the same reign of terror that prematurely terminates Piggy’s life in their wild and maddening chase to kill people. Power corrupts as shown by jack but when it is seen as effective means to a useful end as demonstrated by Ralph, it is desirable.

Hint

Santiago, an old man and experienced fisherman spends the most part of his days at sea. His fishing expedition which after take him faraway from the shore enable him to know and understand the ways of the sea and its creatures. They also give him a ventage ground from which he can have a clear view of birds and such other phenomena as the stars, the moon and the sun. as a result of his experiences at sea and his intimate observation of birds, Santiago develops peculiar vies about them.

For instance, the oldman recognises respects and empathises as well as talks to them as if they can hear him and respond like human beings. He does this at great length through his monologues. For example, he says “if the others hear me talking out loud they would think I am crazy but since I am not crazy, I do not care”.

As opposed to the views of others, Santigo always thinks of the sea as a women who gives or withholds great favorus. This may explain why he bemoans his bad luck rather then dear the sea any grudges for losing the marlin he catches.

The oldman recognizes the ability of birds to give up a fisherman an insight into where he can find fish to catch. Such is the warbler that circles over him and leads him to locate the marlin he kills. During his ordeal with the big fish, he feels sorry for the turtles but is also inspired by them as he compares his hearts to theirs which live long after they have been killed. Hence, he eats their white eggs all through may to be strong in September and October.

In his tentasies, Santiago regards fish including the sharks which he knows species by species and which also deprive him of his bug catch not only as friends but also as nobler, more beautify and more able although less intelligent brothers. He sees the sinister sharks not as mare scavengers but as creatures with friends, mothers and relative in their own right. He kills them in self-defence and protect his catch.

His unusual view about their creatures is most noticeable in his encounter with the marlin. He pities the fish in its moment of anger and anguish even as his own life is on the line. He catches and kills the fish since no one is worthy of eating it from its behaviour and great dignity. He acknowledges its equal right to live and kill him if in self-defence. He argues that he kills the marlin neither for money nor for food but simply for pride. He wishes that the big fish were like the moon, the stars and the sun that no man can kill.

Hint

Santiago lives in a shack by himself. He has lost his wife, whom he occasionally remembers by the few relics of her past existence. Though Santiago does have a home to return to at the close of a fishing day, that home is truly empty-no wife, no children and little property.

At home, Santiago is to be found with his friend, Manolin discussion football, or meals, or Africa and lions. Without Manolin, Santiago seems to have no reinforcement in life. His life is kept alive, hopeful and human by his firm friendship with Manolin. He maintains Santiago.

Santiago home life is reflected in his friend, Manolin. He is always concerned about the old man’s diet. The two play the “rice game” when they both know that the old man is going to have no supper. The least the boy can do is to humor the oldman. The oldman’s daily baits are provided by Manolin, apparently from his own resources. The boy packs the oldman’s things for him and sees his off to sea. He also welcomes the oldman when he returns from sea. He leads him home and tells him the latest gossip.

On the day of the big catch, on his return, only Manolin visits him. None of the other fishermen comes by. This seems to be the normal way things go, as Santiago appears never tpo visits anyone.

Mandolin not only mitigates Santiago’s circumstances by easing the old man plight but also enters the pains of the oldman’s condition at home. Having resolved to buy Santiago the winter things he has neglected to provide him with, Manolin does not spare himself the trouble to secure rest and recovery for the oldman. He is significantly overwhelmed by emotion as he goes about doing his duty.

Mandolin asks that no one disturb the oldman’s sleep. Then he breaks down weeping because of the state he finds the oldman and blames himself for having neglected to take better care of him.

The oldman’s home life is tangled in the boy’s who as young as he is, descares Santiago needs. He goes at this ardently like a mother as well as a wife to Santiago.

Manolin watches over Santiago as a mother does her ailing child. He never permits him to worry and always gives the oldman reason to live on.