Other Voice

Hiya, I'll give you a quick lesson on cooking Blognese pasta. It's pretty easy. Here are the steps:

1.  Go out and buy the needed ingredients
2.  Get out the food (Easy enough)
3.  Preheat the pan and make your sauce
3.  Start cooking.

Now its time to start talking about raking leaves . . . Don't ask me, I just do what I'm told. It seems like a pretty self explanatory thing: When you have leaves on your lawn, you rake them. I don't really know how I'm going to elaborate on this, but I still have a few minutes left. A rake is a long piece of wood attached to a plastic shape with prongs on the end. You pull it towards you, creating piles of leaves which you then put into garbage bags. Then you throw out the garbage bags? I'm kind of at a loss here. Just follow these steps and you'll be alright. Got it? Have fun!

Anowa Homework Post II

In our last class, we read Phase II of the Anowa. I thought that the second phase was interesting, and many of the key conflicts in the plot arose during this time. Anowa and her husband, Kofi Ako, are now somewhat prosperous. They have managed to accumulate wealth through some kind of trade. One of the main conflicts that has arisen in the story is how they deal with this new wealth in relation to the purchase of slaves. While Anowa is strongly opposed to human bondage, Kofi Ako sees it as a way to become more successful. As demonstrated by Anowa's parents and the old man and women, slavery was an accepted norm at the time, and it is Anowa who is acting in opposition to the standard of society. A second primary conflict emerges in Anowa's request to Kofi Ako that he marries more women. Here is where Kofi Ako differs form the social norm and Anowa maintains it. I found this to be an interesting contradiction that together they both embody social norms of modern society, yet oppose the other. They offer an interesting balance of both being for society in some ways, and against it in others. Oddly enough, they seem split on almost every issue, yet it is evident that Kofi Ako sincerely cares for Anowa. From the text, I can't help but feel that Anowa is somewhat more detatched in their relationship than Kofi Ako is. Compared to Okonkwo, Kofi Ako is a great husband to Anowa. I wonder how the two will continue to hold together in the future. 

Anowa Homework Post

In our last class, we discussed the first scene/section of the play Anowa. The story is about a young women and her two parents, discussing the daughters decision to marry Kofi Ako. Her two parents represent oddly mirror the two "narrators", whom the author dubs "the-mouth-that-eats-salt-and-pepper" Compared to the other three works that we have read, Anowa seems to have a more modern, western feel to me. It is the first novel that has solely highlighted domestic, family troubles without emphasis on the westernization of Africa. Apart from a few lines in the introduction, the play seems to be entirely focused on a characters decision to marry.  Anowa as a character has been an interesting combination of somewhat understandable on the stage, yet viewed by both the narrator and her parents as being somewhat of a loose cannon. A question arises as to which characters are reliable in the story-telling, and which are meant to be the bias. I can't help to think that after reading this chapter that Anowa in the future may do something that will be considered reckless.

Harkness Reflection II

Sept 27 - I spoke around average.
Sept 29 - I spoke more than most in the class
Oct 17 -I spoke slightly below average.
Oct 19 -  The sheet says I didn't make any points, but I remember talking in that class twice. Regardless, a below average participation.
Oct 21 -In this class I spoke slightly above average.
Oct 27 -  I spoke more than most in the class.
Nov 3 -  In this discussion I spoke a slightly above average number of times for a slightly above average amount.
    In this unit, I have tried my best to limit the comments I make to be substantive, text-based points and responses. I feel that I have been able to speak this unit with relevant and constructive points without drowning out the other students. While my participation did dip down for one class, overall I have participated a fairly high amount. I do, however, make an effort to step back and let others comment, absorbing the thoughts and interpretations of my class mates. In the future, I will try to do a better job of starting new trains of thoughts instead of expanding on those of my classmates.
Grade: 19/20

Mysticism in Tail of the Blue Bird

At the end of Tail of the Blue Bird, we are in a way left without a concrete answer to the mystery of the murder. It is said by the characters in the village that Kofi Atta died because of the curse, and consequently aging backwards. This may just be the cold-hearted cynic in me, but I have a hard time accepting this mystical solution to the investigation. Instead, I view Kayo's acceptance as more of a symbolic shift from his scientific approach to a more intuition based method. To me this is similar to the moment in mysterious detective stories in which the investigator considers that there may indeed be a non-logical solution. While most stories go on to the detective reasoning out the true, rational cause, Tail of the Blue Bird stops there. For stories such as Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, the suspension of disbelief in necessary in order to understand the plot. I believe that belief can only be suspended, however, in the creation of the perimeters of the story. For example, in Harry Potter belief is suspended in that we believe that within the story, there is a wizarding world.  Within that world, however, there is still parameters that cannot be broken. If Voldemort suddenly turned good, I would have a hard time suspending my disbelief. That is how I feel about the ending to The Tail of the Blue Bird. I feel that within the parameters of that world, the conclusion that many in the class drew exists too far out of the realm of possibility. Consequently, I view Kayo's acceptance as more of a symbolic departure from reason, instead of the actual cause of death.

Tail of the Blue Bird

Yaw Poku is the first narrator of Nii Ayikwei Parkes' novel, Tail of the Blue Bird. Poku narrates the novel in an interesting way: he uses a combination of English and the Ghanan language to describe what is going on in his village. In his narrating, it is clear that he lives in a very isolated village, and would not be what we consider today to be "modern". One quote of his that I found intriguing was "The tale English man calls history is mostly lies written in fine dye," (Parks, 2). I thought that it was an interesting take, and reveals the almost non-linear perspective of this narrator. He is clearly a man of tradition, when he describes the umbilical cord on page 2, and when he is upset with the policemen for not showing the proper respect. He talks in jointed sentences, for example when he addresses the policeman, saying "OK, listen. I no get plenty time. I dey house for Accra wey I get call say some woman find something for here wey e dey smell. You know something for the matter?" His superstition is further revealed when he sees the after-birth like mess, saying"I was not meant to see what I saw.. no one without the right powers was supposed to see it" I think Yaw Polu is going to be a very important character in the novel.
     The majority of the works we have read this year have had to do with the westernization of Africa. So far in the course, I believe we have yet to see a character as unwesternized as Yaw Poku. He is clearly an older man, and at this point in the novel I believe the story will focus around the coming of the European ideals into this small village. Yaw Poku, as an older superstitious member of the village, will most likely have an interesting reaction to these new ideas. He also provides a good contrast to the other narrator in the novel right now, Kayo. Kayo is a forensic chemist, and is a foil to Yaw Poku as a hunter. The two professions are complete opposites. The two are also opposites in there names. Together, these two narrators should provide an interesting viewpoint into the story that is about to unfold. So far in the story, there has also been an interesting combination of English language and the native langauge of Yaw Poku. This may be some literary technique used by the author. It will be interesting to find out why he used tese two languages together from him when he comes to visit us.

Nervous Conditions Final Reactions

     The ending of Nervous Conditions was very interesting. One topic that I found to be particularly of note was the presence of the westerners. It is clear from Nyasha's state at the end of the book that the presence of western thought has not necessarily been kind to her. I wonder if that in the long run Tambu will regret the western influence on her or be proud of being a combination of Africa and the west. It seems like for the most part she was unhappy when she was subordinate to men, which was the case early in the book, but is that better than the anorexia and mental unstableness of Nyasha?
   I was also wondering about the character of Babamukuru. Is he a good, noble character or is a sort of antagonist? He displays many interesting qualities, and seems to be a combination of a hard working, more native man and a christianity influenced character. I wonder what his presence may be for Tambu, as it has evidently been somewhat alienating towards Maiguru and Nyasha. I also find Chido's role in the novel very interesting. As a man in the family I thought it funny that he would leave with Miaguru. I also thought it was interesting when Babamukuru said that "there can only be one man in this house" it was to Nayasha instead of Chido. The perspective of the novel has been extraordinarily female, without much emphasis on characters like Chido.
I wonder whether or not Tambu will be happy in life or end uplike Maiaguru. At this point Tambu is a well educated woman from Africa, much like Tambu. I am left wondering if it is socially acceptable to be this way where she is. In the west, Tambu may feel alienated from her culture, family, and history. In Africa, she may be repressed to traditional roles of a woman and be unable to use her education. I wonder which one she prefers. Based on her reaction to her parents christian wedding, I would be surprised if she prefers the western life
"But about my escape and Lucia's: about my mother's and Maiguru's entrapment: and about Nyasha's rebellion - Nyasha, fair-minded and isolated, my uncle's daughter, whose rebellion may not in the end have been successful."
Who then is central? Why is there a lack of male perspective? Is this a purely female novel? Who isn't dealing with entrapment?