Marriage is a private affair

- Chinua Achebe, Nigeria (1930-2013)

I. Literal Comprehension

            Context: This story is written by Chinua Achebe (1930-2013), Nigeria. He is one of the most influential twentieth century African writers who wrote in English.

            Nene and Nnaemeka are engaged and are going to marry. Nene asks Nnaemeka to write to his father, Okeke, about their plan, but he doesn’t. He has a plan to go home on leave after six weeks and tell his father about it face to face. He knows that his father won’t be amused with the information because he has already chosen another girl called Ugoye Nweke, Nnaemeka’s former classmate at school, the eldest daughter of his neighbor, and a girl with a proper Christian upbringing, for him in the village. Only he hasn’t shown his father’s letter to Nene. Moreover, she is an outcaste for his father.

            Okeke is shocked to hear that his son has already been engaged with a girl rather than his choice in the town. Moreover, she is a teacher. He strongly believes, as a true Christian, that no woman should teach. He would accept even that, but she is not an Ibo girl. That completely upsets him. But he doesn’t show his violent anger to his son. He simply walks away into his room and stops talking to his son frequently. Finally, he gives up his son as lost.

            The villagers hear about the argument between the son and the father. They come to meet and sympathise with Okeke. Some of them advise him to consult a native doctor to bring his son to his right senses, but he rejects.

            Six months later, Nnaemeka receives a short letter from his father. He has sent Nene’s photo in the mutilated condition. It’s cut from the wedding photo that Nnaemeka had sent to his father. Nene cries, and Nnaemeka consoles her.

            For the next eight years, Nnaemaka’s father has nothing to do with him. He doesn’t allow him and his wife to return home. He always displays so much temper whenever his son’s name is mentioned that everyone avoids it in his presence. Even his relatives often ignore Nnaemeka and his wife. But as time goes on, Nene proves herself better than her husband’s relative women in housekeeping.

            One day, Okeke receives an emotional letter from Nene. While glancing through the letter without seriousness he is appealed by some lines in it. Nene has written that his two grandsons are willing to see their grandfather. Then, he feels he is fighting a losing battle. He fears that he might die without seeing his son’s family.

            The weather condition also reflects Okeke’s mood. The sky is overcast with black clouds and very soon it starts raining accompanied by thunder and lightning.

II. Interpretation

            This story has presented its subject matter, i. e. a marriage without parents’ consent, along with some crucial ideas to the readers. The first one is the generation gap that exists between Nnaemeka and his father. Nnaemeka’s father thinks that marriage should be done only with parental consent and the girl he has chosen for his son is the most suitable one because she has a proper Christian upbringing and belongs to his own tribe. On the other hand, Nnaemeka thinks that he has the right to choose a girl for himself and she must be educated, not necessarily of his own caste. Though the father hates his son’s wife and avoids taking his son’s name for eight long years, he never stops loving him. Nnaemeka himself shows a great patience and awaits the chance to amend the relationship with his father. This means though we may have generation gaps in our family we must deal with it considerately. Racial discrimination is another issue presented in the story. Nene is rejected by Nnaemeka’s father because she doesn’t belong to Ibo community. Even the relatives show prejudice against her. But Nene doesn’t fight or argue with them. Rather she has patience and proves herself worth respect by keeping her house better than them. The story might also be trying to tell us that there is no place for rigidity on the issue of marriage. Nnaemeka’s father tries to avoid his son and daughter-in-law for eight years, but cannot forget or give up them forever. At last, he feels remorseful and decides to be liberal.

III. Critical Thinking

            Some questions arose in my mind while reading the story. How can a marriage be a private affair if it affects one’s family members, especially parents, and the society so much? Why was Okeke so much rigid at first and crumbled at the end? Is it just because of his love for his grandsons or his loneliness and helplessness? Was it necessary for the writer to use the symbol of rain at the end of the story? Anyway, it’s a very nice piece of story.

IV. Assimilation

            I found the characters used in this story picked up from my society. I see many people like Nnaemeka and Okeke around me. The new generation people are educated and more liberal than the old generation people, therefore they are attracted to interracial marriages. Personally, I support inter-caste marriages. I think it is a very much effective tool to fight racial segregation and racial supremacy, and to establish racial harmony and tolerance in the society. But it takes time to make the rigid people understand its value.

TV can be a parent

                                                                                                          -          Ariel Gore, USA (1970- )

I. Literal Comprehension

            Context: This essay is written by Ariel Gore (1970- ), USA, a poor single mother with a daughter. She has expressed her ideas in favour of TV in this essay. This is actually her resentment expressed in the form of an essay.

            The big companies have shifted the job market to the developing countries. The employees are underpaid, and the working single mothers do not get child-care assistance. But the cost of living is very high. On this context, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has suggested the parents that they should not allow their children below 2 to watch television.

According to the AAP guidelines, TV is not helpful for the early brain development of the children because it deprives them of the chance for the direct interactions with parents and other significant caregivers. Therefore, exposing young children to television programmes should be discouraged.

As a single mother, the writer doesn’t agree with the pediatricians.  She believes that TV can be a helpful electronic baby-sitter or a co-parent. The writer’s mother and her friends stayed at home and provided communal care to their children because they were poor and could not afford TV. But she cannot do so. She also doesn’t agree with the idea that TV watching kids cannot interact with their parents or caregivers. She thinks that instead of attacking shows that try to help children, the pediatricians should warn parents that they not watch programmes made for adults when the children are in the room. Like the writer, some entertainment companies that produce programmes and cartoons for the children have criticized the AAP guidelines saying it’s an effort to picking on them while others have welcomed them as an encouragement for the parents to spend more time bonding and playing with the children.

The writer thinks that better educational programmes for the children should be broadcast on TV and the culture of war and the media’s glorification of violence should be ended. The American government should provide salaries for stay-at-home moms and living-wage jobs for the career women.    

II. Interpretation

            The main point of this essay is that TV should be used for the benefit of the children. The child-friendly and educational programmes should be promoted while decreasing the number and trend of glorifying violence and war on TV. Parents should spend more time with their children and they shouldn’t be allowed to hang on with TV day and night. If used rationally, TV can be a good part of parenting.   

III. Critical Thinking

            I agree with the writer that TV can never be so much harmful for the children if used properly by the parents. I also agree with her that there is a dire need of stopping the glorification of violence and war on TV screens, but is it going to happen anyway? Day by day, I see, the number of such programmes is increasing. The modern parents are busy and TV has become a means for escaping of their parental responsibility of spending time with their children. I don’t think parents are ever going to think in the way as the writer has.

IV. Assimilation

            Now I know why TVs are not going to be thrown out of our houses at least in the near future. Parents, willingly or unwillingly, are enforced to depend on TV sets for baby-sitting. But I’m sure most of them are unaware of the bad effects of letting their children watch TV programmes that basically glorify sex and violence.

                                                                                                          

The wretched stone

                                                                                                           - Chris Van Allsburg, USA (1949- )

                                                                         (Excerpts from the log of the Rita Anne by Randall Ethan Hope, Captain)

I. Literal Comprehension

                Context: This story is written by Chris Van Allsburg, an American writer and illustrator of children’s books. This is an allegory, a story with visible symbols for an abstract idea, written in the form of a diary entries, which begins on May 8 and ends on July 12. Therefore, the sub-title of the story is ‘Excerpts from the log of the Rita Anne (a ship’s name)’. The narrator of the story is Captain Randall Ethan Hope.

                When the supplies were brought into the ship, it started its voyage on a fine day with clear sky and fair winds. Mr Howard, the first mate, brought a group of sailors, who read books a lot and played musical instruments, on board. They passed their free time singing, dancing, and telling stories. On June 5, almost a month after they had started their journey, they discovered an unknown island. They stopped there and explored the island. They found strange and unexpected things there. They also found a two feet long rock, roughly textured, gray in colour, and unbelievably heavy. A surface of the rock was flat and as smooth as glass that emitted a beautiful glowing light, pleasing to look at.

After the rock had been brought on board, the crew was fascinated by its peculiar light. They stopped telling the stories or dancing or playing the music and kept on gazing at the rock. After some days, the sailors started showing strange symptoms. They had fever and started shrieking. They also lost interest in their work. The captain decided to throw the strange rock into the sea, but the next day he found all his crew members locked inside a room with it. They did not want him to throw the rock.

When the sky was covered with dark clouds and a dangerous storm headed towards the ship, the captain became hopeless because his sailors sat around the rock and left him alone with the trouble. Moreover, when he forced them to open the closed door he found that they were no more human beings. The whole crew had turned into hairy apes grinning at the terrible rock and unable to understand his language. When the storm was gone, the ship was still afloat but the masts and the rudder were lost. Because of the lightning that had hit the ship twice, the stone had gone dark.

The captain discovered that playing music and reading books to the crew would have a positive effect on them. Then, he read stories to them and turned them into human beings again. Those who could read themselves recovered faster. He covered the rock and kept it closed in a compartment. When another ship came to rescue them, he set a fire on the ship and sent the rock down to the bottom of the sea. Finally, they decided not to talk about the rock anymore.

               

II. Interpretation

                The writer has used a symbol in the story. It’s the rock that stands for a television set. Before the TV set was discovered, people talked, sang, danced, and amused each other. They stopped talking to each other when they started gazing at the TV set. They became lazy and inactive. They stopped behaving and thinking like human beings and turned into imitating apes. They can be restored if TV sets are thrown and the habit of reading books can be inculcated into them.   

III. Critical Thinking

                The story has raised some critical questions in my mind. Is TV so much useless as the writer thinks? Doesn’t it provide us a chance to get knowledge about various fields and news from around the globe? Is it possible to throw TV sets from the modern households? I’m sure the writer will be in trouble with these questions.

IV. Assimilation

                The story is very much amusing and close to the reality. Nowadays, I see modern people of all age groups sitting around their TV sets and shrieking or grinning. Especially school-going children and youths have lost interest in their studies, and keep themselves busy on watching television. It’s a worrisome situation, but I don’t think throwing the TV sets will solve this problem.