Professor S. Mongar
Ingl 3104 sec 141
Final Essay-Hypertext
Iti’El Figueroa Acevedo
Looking for a Rain God
A novel, like a movie, is a form of entertainment. However, some novels do a great deal more than entertain. Some pack a powerful message. For example, The Dinner party, by Mona Gardner, created controversy from the moment it is read; Too soon a woman by
Dorothy M. Johnson. Bessie Head’s Looking for a Rain God is also another example of a novel with a powerful message. It warned that humanity under certain conditions would cause them to rise up against one another. But beyond that, the novel shows how such an oppressive situation can result in a profound physiological change in the people who experience it. The following pages examine how humanity doesn’t work well under pressure in Bessie Heads story. First she explains the historical background of the seasonal weather climate. Then she presents the details to the story. Finally, she shows how the events in the story reflect the human changes that can result from the consequence due to a long drought.
Human beings depend on their environment, which is a crucial element in this story. Looking for the Rain God is a cultural story; therefore to understand the story, one must understand the cultural events on which it was based. The cultural experiences that
Head was reacting to be that of the rain-dance ceremony with their customs and ancestors. For example in the lands of southwestern United State around the early 1900 “In Arizona where drought lays the sun pulls, where the plant can no longer lift water through its system, for the connection between the skies, broken. Death follows: the grass, the heard, and then the headman. For centuries the people of this high desert have practiced their only sure way to break a drought. They pray, they dance”.
The events in “Looking for a Rain takes place in a setting unique to American history. Although no specific time or place is mentioned in the story, we knew that the background is similar to the old west and the characters are settlers. The American native rain dance ceremony is a ritual that last sixte
en days; they hunted for a snake and dance with it around their necks. There is no human sacrifice involved. We see human sacrifice in the Bible For example in Genesis. Where Abraham went up to the mountain to sacrifice his only son that God has given him in old age. Another human sacrifice was Jesus Christ and his crucifixion. And of course there are many colts and perhaps tribes who practice human sacrifice. The main action of the story tells of the courage that was necessary for survival in this vast, uninhabited land. In the plot of the story we have the exposition, Mokgobja who is 70 years of age. His wife is Tiro who has two girls Neo and Boseyong their youngest son Ramadi. The extended family we have Mokgobja unmarried sister Nesta. This family leaves their village and began a journey to plough their lands, because after seven-year of drought the rains were late that year. In early November, there were promises of good rain. One of the first families to move out to plough the fields was the Mokgobja. Little did they know that after working hard in the fields it would not rain. Days went by and the family sat down in despair waiting. They sat the whole day just waiting and that was their first mistake. There we have the rising action. Here, the author shows that humans being don’t work well under pressure. “ The adults paid no attention to this; they did not even hear the funny chatter; they sat waiting for rain; their nerves were stretched to the breaking-point willing the rain to fall out of the sky.” A man minds can easily break, or one can lose focus on realities, it could have been the hot weather, or the strain if thinking about starvation. The Human race is made to keep busy. Another example that is shown in the story where man falls apart under pressure is where the women started to scream in desperation because of starvation. The men sat quietly and self-controlled. Mokgobja started to think and remember that when he was young the customs were of his ancestors. He witnesses a rainmaking ceremony. He tries hard to remember that the rain god would accept only the sacrifice of the bodies of children. He told his youngest son and his wife. Sacrifices the two young girls, and spread their blood over the land; but not even a drop of rain fell. We can see the climax of the story here. They returned to the village. This is where the falling action begins. Everyone asked where were the girls and the family responded that they had died. Rumors soon cover the village wondering how both girls had die at the same time. The police appeared and the woman breaks down and tells the entire story (internal conflict) the true story was revealed both the father and son were given the death penalty. (Resolution). The theme that was developed in the story gives us insights into human behavior The weak and defenseless creatures in society. The girls who were the victims of war are often innocent and helpless people who are caught in the struggles of an adult world. In Characterization the author presents Mokgobja directly; she tells us what the character is like. For example, at one point in the story you have read, Mokgobja is identified as “ the most self-controlled in the family”. Later on he is described as having a “unshakable authority” These are direct comments revealing Mokgobja’s character.
In the story there is one simile “But form 1958, a seven-year drought fell upon the land and even the watering places began to look as dismal as the dry open thorn bush country…” This means that whatever places had some water it now was looking like the other dry areas in the country. Another example is the exaggeration used in the story to define the drought in the land. “…by mid-November, the rain flew away; the rain clouds fled away and left the sky bare. The sun danced dizzily in the sky, with a strange cruelty. Each day the land was covered in a haze of mist as the sun sucked up the last drop of moisture out of the earth.”
In this novel Bessie Head warns about humanity reaction under extreme pressures by showing how members of one old western pioneer family become demoralize. In the conclusion of her story, Head’s suggests that the pioneer family was a cohesive group driven by desperation and perhaps anger we see what happens to this family. Given the right conditions anyone of us could share a similar fate to the Mokgobja family.