Achebe (Blog #2) Annalisa Horine

I liked all of Achebe’s texts, but “The Madman” was the one that I enjoyed the most. In “The Madman”, I found it frustrating that the people of the community saw Nwibe as the “crazy” one. When, in all actuality, he was just angry. Another thing that frustrated me was how his entire community believed that he was insane, and would tell him that he was insane. When many people tell you the same thing repeatedly you start to think “well maybe I am crazy” and start to believe what you are being told.

When I was in high school I was severely bullied; all of the girls would call me “fat” or “ugly”. After a while of hearing this from them, I started to feel fat and ugly. When people tell you something over and over again, you are affected negatively. Whether you just get angry, or your self-esteem drops, you are affected.

I also enjoyed his story “Girls at War”. I thought that Gladys was a good person, even though she had to resort to prostitution. But if your only choices were to survive by becoming a prostitute, or die of starvation, wouldn’t you do the same?  I did not necessarily like Nwankwo. I thought that he was selfish; as a government official, he should have helped feed the people instead of hoarding it for himself. I liked how Gladys went back for the wounded man. It was a very selfless act. I hope that in the future, this will change Nwankwo‘s attitude toward others; maybe he would look at her act of kindness and decide to share the food. Though, I was disappointed at the end of the story that the good people died and the bad man survived.

The Stranglehold of English Lit. Annalisa Horine

The Stranglehold of English Lit. grabbed my attention fiercely. Though, I have never read any of Jane Austin’s books, I have heard much about them.  I understand where Mnthali is coming from. At first, when he states “Eng. Lit., my sister, was more than a cruel joke- it was the heart of alien conquest”, I was confused. But after reading it over a few times I understood what he meant. I agree with Mnthali. I think that teaching Africans to read and write in the English language instead of their native language is degrading. I also think that teaching them things that will not help them in the future is pointless. Why would you want to know about tea parties and arranged marriages of rich white people when you live in a place where you mostly work all day and are not wealthy? When something doesn’t apply to you personally, it makes it hard to take seriously. When I was in seventh grade I was assigned to read a book called Animal Farm. This book was boring and had nothing to do with me personally. I did not learn anything from this book because I was not concerned with it; I felt that it did not apply to my life. When assigned something that you do not have any interest in, and does not apply to you or anything in your life, it is hard to care and to relate to the assignment. This poem was very well expressed. The way that it was presented to the class also helped me get an idea of how serious Mnthali is about this issue. This poem showed much of how corrupt African education is. I think it would be better if Mnthali was to write another poem that is related to this one. If Mnthali were to write another poem, I think that it he should write should write about how he thinks the world can help fix this problem of corrupt education in Africa. I would definitely suggest this poem to my family because my grandparents are missionaries in Africa and have a school named after them, so they may possibly have some influence over what is being taught in that school. Overall, I think this poem is fantastic.