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Discuss the different styles used by literature writers in the post-colonial period in Kenya

      

Discuss the different styles used by literature writers in the post-colonial period in Kenya

  

Answers


Faith
The writers use a variety of styles to communicate to the readers. In the novels and lays of
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o a lot of oral literature material is employed. In the play I Will Marry
When I Want, there are songs that are used to communicate and break monotony of
dialogue. A song is involving and so it makes whatever it is communicating interesting
and memorable.
There is Biblical allusion in the Christian songs and in the conversations. Ngugi uses this
to show the hypocrisy of the Christian characters. An example is in the song „Good news
have come' when Kioi has succeeded in making Kigunda take a loan when he is sure that he cant repay and he is waiting to buy his farm once it is auctioned by
the bank. In the novel Petals Of Blood there is a journey similar to that of the Israelites
leaving Egypt to the promised land. Ngugi uses the journey motif to move his characters
from the land of ignorance to the land of consciousness. There is the use of proverbs when
Ngugi communicates the evils of corruption by the proverb „The antelope hates less who
sees it than the one who shouts?. Juxtaposition is used in the characters who are of diverse
character traits. An example is in Abdulla and Kimeria in Petals of Blood. Abdulla went
to fight in the Mau Mau warfare and lost his leg. Kimeria was a collaborator who betrayed
his people and he got rich from ferrying dead bodies of the Mau Mau in his lorry during
the struggle. When independence came, Abdulla lives in poverty but Kimeria is a rich man
enjoying the
„Uhuru? he worked against. Irony is shown in characters and events. Wanja a character in
Petals of Blood suffers from sexual harassment and cannot get the education she also
wished because Kimeria impregnated her when she was in primary school. When Wanja
becomes rich, she owns a brothel and sells young girls to be used by men they don't know
as sexual workers and she pays them meager wages. She states that you are either eaten or
you eat. Symbolism is used by the writers. A symbol is something that stands for another

thing. In Petals of Blood Ngugi uses the title symbolically. The petals of a flower are
beautiful, but some children see a flower with pale petals and they report to their teacher,
others see many more. On looking closely at the inside of the flower they see a green fatty
worm sucking. The flowers are symbolic of the citizens and they are the workers. They
are pale because the employers symbolizes the green fatty worms are sucking them.
In Macgoye's Coming to Birth, Paulina symbolizes the country. It has suffered in the
hands of the whites who are symbolized by Martin. The miscarriage is symbolic of the
'Uhuru' we got that did not satisfy the ones who were waiting. The child has to be born
live to survive. Paulina conceives by Martin, there is an abortion. Kenya is always
aborting because of foreigners. Paulina carries Simon's pregnancy to term but the child
dies. What is the reason? The child is illegitimate. Simon is a married man. He commits
adultery with Paulina when his wife goes to their rural home. There is a deaf aunt in the
house. She can see but she can't talk. Kenyans are deaf and dumb. They see evil but they
keep quiet and so the evil takes root.
In the poems in Ezekiel Alembi's collection and Amateshe's Antology, the poets use
a variety of styles also. Henry Barlow's
'Building the Nation', the PS stands for the elite rich rulers while the driver stands for the
employees whose pay is so little as to make them go without lunch. The driver has to wait
faithfully for the PS who goes to attend delicate matters of the state while he is actually in
a luncheon at a hotel. Barlow has paralleled the two to show class disparity. In the other
one 'I refuse to take your brotherly hand?, the persona tells his brother that his fingernails
are dirty with filth. This filth is corruption. He prefers to trudge the long way up for the
shortcuts are soiled and slippery. This means that to acquire wealth genuinely, the persona
has to go along way because the shortcut is through corruption which is immoral. It is also
slippery because there are the eyes of the hungry citizens watching his brother.
Titany answered the question on November 11, 2021 at 08:27


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