Tyler Chadduck

Tyler Chadduck

English Final

What’s your past?

“At first I was afraid to touch her. Lest I might disturb the early-morning sun rays streaming across her forehead. She might have been some kind of wanga, a charm sent to trap me. My enemies were many and crafty. The girls who slept with my husband while I was still grieving over my miscarriages. They might have sent that vision of loveliness to blind me so that I would never find my way back to the place that I yanked out my head when I got on that broken down minibus and left my village months ago.” (Krik? Krak? 92)

“’What is it child?’ said I, trying to break her grip on me. ‘You do not know me, you do not know me!’ she cried. ‘It is true I do not know you, but I know your name, you told me, it is Susan Barton, the same name as mine.’ At this she wept even harder. ‘You have forgotten me!’ she sobbed.” (Foe 74)

“For the rest of his life he would remember the livid flash of the six simultaneous shots and the echo of the discharge as it broke against the hills and the sad smile and perplexed eyes of the man being shot, who stood erect while his shirt became soaked with blood, and who was still smiling even when they untied him from the post and put him in a box filled with quicklime. ‘He’s alive,’ he thought. ‘They’re going to bury him alive.’ it made such an impression on him that form then on he detested military practices and war, not because of the executions but because of the horrifying custom of burying the victims alive. No one knew then exactly when he began to ring the bells in the church tower and assist Father Antonio Isabel, the successor to ‘The Pup,’ at mass and take care of the fighting cocks in the courtyard of the parish house.” (One Hundred Years of Solitude 185)

“That Chike was a man who for the first time in his life had fallen uncontrollably in love was plain to see. Over and over again his father had warned him that he was sticking his neck out dangerously, but Chike wanted it understood that he was not about to leave any university without Aku-nna. He had politely told his father, who had been annoyed and began to bellow in his anger, to keep his money. He and Aku-nna would manage somehow. What was the point of getting a degree anyway? It might enhance his position but it would not necessarily make him a happier person. For several weeks his father had sulked and refused to talk to him, until Chike’s mother went to plead with him, saying her son was becoming emotionally sick, not talking to her, not eating as much and looking so unhappy that she was sure something was going wrong in his head.” (The Bride Price 105)

“My powers deserted me. My charms, my spells, even my voice lacked strength when I made to summon the powers that would lead me over the last measure of earth into the land of the fleshless. You saw it, Iyaloja. You saw me struggle to retrieve my will from the power of the stranger whose shadow fell across the doorway and left me floundering and blundering in a maze I had never before encountered. My senses were numbed when the touch of cold iron came upon my wrists. I could do nothing to save myself.” (Death and the Kings Horseman 55)

Discussion

Culture changes all throughout the world and with different cultures comes different histories. We all have our pasts whether they directly relate to us or are through traditions. I feel that Krik? Krak?, Foe, The Bride Price, Death and the Kings Horseman, and One hundred Years of Solitude, all represent the theme of dealing with our past, very well.

The first novel I chose was Krik? Krak? because it covers so many different themes with all the stories it contains. The quote I chose talks about how this woman’s experience has led to her mistrust of others and forces her to deal with her past. She has had multiple miscarriages when one day she finds a dead baby in a gutter. This forces her to come to terms with her past and the forces that are out to get her. This woman cannot handle the past and this shows when she then takes care of this dead baby as if it were alive. She cannot handle having failed at bearing a child so many times. This novel is trying to show us that sometimes instead of running from our past we need to face it. In Foe, Susan has trouble dealing with losing her only daughter.

The novel Foe discusses dealing with our pasts in major ways. Friday must deal with not having a tongue and Cruso never shares his past with Susan. I decided to talk about Susan’s past because she also lost a child. Susan did not have a miscarriage, but rather her child was kidnapped. This leads to Susan’s’ journey around the world and her seeing this child outside the house who claims to be her daughter. Susan’s conscience is feeling guilty for giving up on looking for her child and maybe possibly finding her one day. There is never a lot of remorse from Susan about losing her child until this moment. Foe is showing us the same lesson as Krik? Krak?, that we cannot always run from our past and need to face our fears. One Hundred Years of Solitude is not so much about the loss of a child, but it is still the loss of a life and dealing with our immediate past.

This novel has a big focus on our past and how it affects our future. The whole Buendia family is in an endless whirlwind of chaos. Many of them must deal with the actions of the past generation along with their own pasts. I am using Jose Arcadio Segundo seeing the execution of this man to show the effect of our immediate pasts. The execution was too much for such a young brain to comprehend. He was traumatized into thinking that the man was being buried alive. This made Jose Arcadio Segundo completely change his life because the past was too much to handle. He wanted to do everything in his power to make sure acts such as this one never happened again. He will forever have this event engrained in his mind and it became a permanent part of his past. The lesson One Hundred Years of Solitude is trying to teach us is that our past does not control us and that we can make a change in the world using our experiences. However, sometimes we are not dealing with our direct past, but with the traditions of our culture and the The Bride Price shows this well.

The book as a whole demonstrates this as Aku-nna wants to continue with school, but must catch a good bride price for her family. The traditions of her culture are getting in the way of her happiness. She is faced with many inner conflicts. This quote in particular shows the struggle for Chike. He wants to marry Aku-nna, but due to the cultural restraints this would not be a likely situation. Chike has to deal with the fact that their culture is not set up so that he and Aku-nna should not be together. That does not mean that they will not find a way to be together, but the odds are against them. This shows how our cultural traditions can get interfere with our current generation and changing times. Here we see the novel trying to teach us that some traditions need to change with the times or adopt new ideas. The final novel I chose was Death and the Kings Horseman due to how it shows the struggle of cultural traditions.

The play is based around the Yoruba faith and culture. It exemplifies the theme of dealing with our pasts, as when a king dies the king’s horseman is supposed to commit suicide through a ritual to guide the king to heaven. The quote I chose is from the part of the king’s horseman as he discusses his inability to follow through with the ritual. He does not want to kill himself, but that is his cultural tradition. He is having trouble coming to terms with the past and what is required of him. The lesson found here is much like that of The Bride Price, that maybe it is time to change tradition. All of these novels are excellent at showing how people must deal with their pasts, whether it is their direct past or their cultural traditions.

In conclusion, these novels are related to the theme of dealing with our past. The connection these novels share shows us that dealing with our past is a struggle for any person or culture in our world today. We have all done things we are not proud of and I think that is what makes world literature so special. These stories all from different places can relate under the same theme in some way. It shows that while we may be from different cultures, we can still relate to each other.