Xala

Xala pages 1-50

When I first started reading Xala I thought El Hadji was a very weak man. Yay Bineta wounds his pride so he ends up getting sucked into a third marriage, to N'Gone, to prove that he is "the master in his own house." He doesn't really care for his family at all other than to show that he is the leader of them. He throws money around by giving some to either wife or children when they ask for it and by spending a lot on the third wedding. He even buys N'Gone a car for her wedding, for being a virgin (or so he thinks).

On his wedding night El Hadji, is unable to perform so he thinks someone put a curse on him, which is called xala. He calls upon the President of the "Business Group" to help him who then takes him to a marabout. Of course this doesn't work so he sees many healers, who take advantage of him because he is dressed in eastern business clothes and drives a nice car. El Hadji fails to see this and spends a lot of money trying to find a cure. His relationships such as they were with his other wives starts to dwindle, Adja knows of the xala but does not comment on it and Oumi N'Doye thinks El Hadji is beginning to neglect her in favor of his third wife. Adja is embarrassed by what people are saying and she is too ashamed to even leave the house. His oldest daughter Rama, who does not agree with polygamy, which I would have to agree with her even if it is the way some religions practice, is worried for her mother but like all of the children, I think, has no real relationship with her father.

In the few weeks since the wedding El Hadji is consumed by trying to break the xala, he is starting to neglect his business, but he keeps on spending as if he has all the money in the world. His bitterness over this is starting to age him immensely. Babacar, N' Gone's father, takes El Hadji to see a seet-katt (a seer), but I don't think he finds out anything new about the xala or who caused this curse on him, except that it was someone close to him and that it was carried out during the night. Which I thought from the beginning it was someone close to him who wants to see him fall apart, not only financially but physically and emotionally as well, since any blow to his manhood is a big blow to him at his pride, and since I think El Hadji is such a weak man, to wound his pride is not something that can go overlooked. Of course, I think now the Xala is going to consume El Hadji's life until he finds a cure or ends up letting the obsession of it completely destroy him.

Nervous Conditions

In the first chapter of the book you learn that the narrator, a young girl named Tambudzai, has lost her older brother. She opens up by saying that she is not sad her brother is dead. At first it seems really strange. Then you learn of her situation. Her life in a very destitute village, and her brothers escape to a mission with their wealthy uncle. You get the feeling that her brother often gloated about his more fortunate situation and had become disdainful of his families lifestyle.

Chapter two gives you a little insight of the uncle, Babamukurus life. He was educated at a mission as a young boy and sent to England to finish his studies as a young adult. When he came back from England he decided to help his nephew, Tambudzai's brother, get a good education. As the benefactor of the family he felt it was his duty. Tambudzai begins to see the injustice of her situation. She feels it is unfair that she cannot go to school while her brother is sent to a mission to study. She asks her father for her own corn so she can raise her own crop and hopefully make enough to afford her own school fees. Her brother, Nhamo ends up stealing some of her crop and giving it away, but fortunately a teacher takes her to a near by town where he is able to help her make ten pounds in order to pay for her education by selling what is left of her crop. When Tambudzai's father finds out how much she made, he attempts to take it from her. When the school will not allow him to take the money, their father/daughter relationship turns into two people who simply try to coexist.

In chapter three Tambudzai tells of her uncles homecoming from England. Her family considered him to be a god like figure in the family. On that day, Babamukurus tells her father that Nhamo needs to get a quality education, and that he, Baba, will pay for it. Tambudzai is very jealous and feels cheated, but is also alarmed by how different Baba's children are. She feels she hardly knows her cousins anymore. When her brother comes back for his first break after being at the mission she sees similar changes in him. Since she has never been found of her brother she doesn't really care that he is different because he talks to her less. At the end of the chapter the family is waiting for Nhamo to arrive home for another visit. He is very late, and eventually Baba shows up without Nhamo, who has passed away. Tambudzai learns that she will fill his place at the mission and she feels like justice has finally been done for her. She feels like she worked harder to earn her education then her brother ever did, and she also wishes for the opportunity to prove her father wrong.

In chapters four and five, Tambudzai is arriving at her uncles house. To her it seems like a castle. She cannot believe the luxury that they live in compared to her families squalor. It is overwhelming and exciting to her. After talking to her uncle she is determined to prove herself and do a good job. She also feels better about her cousin, Nyasha.
Tambudzai starts to learn alot about her cousin in chapter five. How the aversion she thought Nyasha felt towards the family on the homecoming trip was really just nervousness. However she also sees a side of Nyasha that she feels is disrespectful, proud, and ungrateful. She feels Nyasha treats her parents with out respect, and her aunt and uncle agree. Tambudzai starts to adjust to life at the mission. She makes many friends and finds out that Nyasha doesn't have many of her own. She learns that her aunt has a masters degree, but for some reason doesn't get to keep any of the money she makes doing her job. Tambudzai doesn't learn where the money goes but she sees the great sacrifices her aunt has made for her family, above all her children.

In chapter six Tambudzai describes a little more about life on the mission. More about the missionaries themselves. She and Nyasha are friends with the daughter of a missionary. This girls name is Nyaradzo Baker and she has two brothers, Brian and Andrew. Nyashas brother Chido good friends with the Baker boys and attends the same private school as they do. In this chapter Nyasha finally convinces Tambudzai to go to one of the school dances. Tambudzai finally loosens up and has a good time. On the way home Tambudzai and Chido go directly into the house while Nyasha and Andrew linger to long in the front. Baba's frustration with his daughter finally reaches its breaking point and they actually get into a physical fight which has the family upset for days. While Tambudzai sees that the plight of females stretches everywhere, not just in her poor homestead, she feels that Nyasha was still out of line. However, Tambudzai doesn't know how to organize her thoughts to process how she feels about the way women are oppressed and held under men. She has known it all her life, and even though she doesn't like it she accepts it.

After a visit back to Tambu's homestead, Baba is disturbed by the presence of Tambu's aunt Lucia. Lucia is Tambu's mothers sister who came to the homestead to look after her sister. Lucia has been known for being out spoken and "loose". Lucia gets pregnant and the father is a cousin of Baba's. Baba is very ashamed and says the family is living in disgrace. He is unable to force Lucia to leave and Decided the next best course of action is for Tambu's parents to marry, since they have been living in sin.

Tambu is humiliated by the thought of her parents being paraded around by Baba in this wedding ceremony. She feels that she can't attend because she won't be able to bear it. However, she has never defied Baba before and she feels that that is a sin in itself, after how much he has done for her family. Yet she starts to have more negative feelings about him.

In the end, Tambu refused to go to the wedding. Baba pays her back by giving her 15 lashes and making her do the maides chores for two weeks. Lucia and Nyasha feel its very unfair, Lucia even agrees with Tambu that the wedding was a humiliation and she should not have had to attend.

Tambu's mission is visited by a group of nuns. The girls at the mission are very impressed by the nuns clothing and way of life and all of them want desperately to attend Sacred Heart. Tambu is chosen among all of them to go to the school. At first Baba doesn't want her to go, but with the help of her aunt she is permitted.

After Tambu arrives at the school she sees that things will not be quite as glamorous for her because she is black, but she knows that the education she will receive will help her greatly in the future. Nyasha starts go miss Tambu greatly, and falls very ill. She is wasting away and doesn't want to stop it because she feels like the world is an unjust place for women. She doesn't want to be trapped in the way her mother is, yet she sees no other option.

At the end of the book you kind of get the idea that Tambu will do something great. She finally sees the limits put on women, and finally sees Baba in a more realistic light. Even though she does not hate him, she refuses to worship him like the family had in the past.

The Year of the Elephant Part 2

I thought that this book was extremely interesting. I was very pleased with the way it was written and I thought that the main character, Zahra, was incredible in the story. She started out with nothing left of life and turned it into something worth while.
She not only was divorced, which was something that was considered bad by her society. But she recreated a life for herself. She began to learn how to get by and not depend on anyone but herself. It goes back to the days when her husband was in prison and how she risked her life to help with an escape for a convict. And how she did other things that were dangerous but I think it helped shape who she was today.
I think that she is better off without her husband. To me it sounds as if he held her back in life. And they were in a loveless relationship that was unfullfilling. I am glad that her husband asked her for the divorce. It helped her become a more independent woman. And it reminds me of my mom and how she and my dad are getting a divorce and how it has turned our family and our world upside down yet it has made her a happier person and I'm glad for that. I truly believe this story is something that any women should read. Marriage and men aren't always lasting but the choices you make in life help build who you are today.

Year of the Elephant

A House In The Woods:
I thought that this story was a lot like my childhood. I have two older sisters and they would always boss me around and we all used to play in the woods and try and build stuff. I thought it was funny how they are builing a house and by the end of the story the house is destroyed. I remember one time when me and my sisters tried to build a teepee out of sticks and by the next day it had fallen down and we moved on to other things. I also was wondering who the man was in the story. It could possibly be a relative, looking after the girls. At least that's what I thought.

A Vacation:
In this story it talks about these two cousins who can't stand each other and end up locked in a cellar together. And Roukia get's scared while in the cellar, whereas her cousin gets hungry. And once she finds something to eat she somehow gets a chick pea lodged up her nostril. Finally a woman finds them and they go back to the house. And they give the cousin sneezing powder and she gets the pea out of her nose and starts crying and wants to go home. If I were her I would want to go home to after being with that crazy family.

The Discontented:
This story reminded me a lot of how many people are unhappy with their lives. The official was going to help the custodian get a better job, but in the end the custodian ended up not taking the job. If I were the official I would have been mad at the custodian for turning down the job last minute. I think that's why at the end of the story he is so angry.

Divorce:
I felt sorry for the emaciated man's wife in this story. He not only acts depressed all of the time but he also is a bitter man. He is unhappy with his life, with his wife and also how his father treated him. If I were the wife I'd be happy at the end when he goes and files for divorce.

Silence:
I thought that this was a strange story. These two sisters are living with each other and they hate each other. The first sister got married to the second sisters husband. The first woman picked up her sister from the hospital because she was ill and brought her to her house. The second woman gets into it with her sister and ends up leaving and dying. And the first woman ends up getting a telegram that her sister is dead and she is happy about it. I would have hated to be the second woman because she not only was shamed with being a divorcee but her ex married her sister.

Dinner in the Black Market:
This story is about a woman who ends up jipping a couple that goes to her house for dinner. She takes all of their money and their cigarettes. She fooled them all by being a hostess and then taking all of their money. I thought it was funny that the she had everyone fooled about who she was. What's crazy is that there are so many schemes out there these days and you can never really trust anyone.

The Stranger:
I thought that this was the strangest of all the short stories. I was confused why this man, Aziz, at the end of the story goes home and why his old 'caretaker' or I guess you could say babysitter? ignores the fact that he's come home after she goes to talk to his mother. And comes back and tells him that Aziz died 30 years ago. I thought this was strange. I'm not to sure what really happened and if that was really Yasmine from his childhood, why did she ignore him?

Out of Work:
I thought that it was great that when this man is suddenly out of work he gets to rediscover his city. A lot of people's lives are so fast pace now that they don't have time to stop and smell the roses.

Year of the Elephant (First two chapters):
I thought that the first two chapters of this book took some getting used to. At first it was hard for me to follow along with the story line but I eventually began to understand it. The story sort of jumps around from time periods, showing flashbacks or memories of her former life and life before her divorce and life as a child growing up in a small little town.

The Marsh Part 2

I thought that the end of The Marsh was wierd. I began to get confused about what was real and what was just a hallucinatory fantasy. I understood the first 12 chapters and it seemed as the story went on the more confusing it began. In chapter 13 he goes to the river and sees a motor boat and gets on the platform it is tied to and rocks it but then a family comes and takes a ride and has to pay fifteen tomans. And the ride only lasts a short amount of time and when the narrator asks the boy if he could take him a little further the boy refuses. I understood why the boy would refuse because the water was too shallow and if he tried his boat would get stuck. So he did not take a boat ride.

Next the narrator has another dream about his father and he dreams that he is in a row boat with his father and Mr. Golchin, his fourth grade teacher. They are headed for the marsh and so he jumps out of the boat at the very end to avoid going there all the while it being a dream. He wakes up to hitting his head on the corner of the table in the living room of his former aunt's house. Then he tells his wife about his dream and she falls asleep in the middle of his description.

After that night all he does is dream of his father and you never know if he is living in the present or simply in a dream. He begins to see his father at his shop and at his house that he has with Hamid and Khashayar and he starts to see him everywhere.

He then goes to his elementary school to find out about Mr. Golchin and figure out why he also keeps appearing in his dreams. At the school he finds out from the secretary that Mr. Golchin drowned in the river. And he also finds out that he was the swimming champion of Isfahan.

As the story goes on he ends up divorcing his wife/cousin and gives her the shop for a price and moves back in with his two roommates. He keeps seeing his father everywhere and you never know if he's just gone crazy or if he is hallucinating or if his father is really there. I thought that the end was odd, because it sounds like he goes into the river and ends up drowning. Overall I thought the more you read the more confusing it became. I'm not sure if I really like this story at all. It just got to confusing and jumbled and became like a puzzle that had missing pieces and I'm not sure if sense could be made out of this.

The Marsh

When I read The Marsh, at first I was confused, because as the book starts out you think that the narrator's father has drowned in the river. And you don't find out until chapter 7 that his father never drowned that day but died at his sewing table. But as I read on, I became more and more intrigued with the story. You definitely had to pay attention as you were reading because the narrator, whom has no name in the story, has many flash backs and they are all at different ages.
At first it took some getting used to when they would say some of their names or what they call things, because they were so hard to pronounce. It took me a couple of chapters until I really became interested. But from the very beginning they hook you by not telling you whether or not the narrator's father drowned. And from there on you want to know what all happens in this narrator's life.
When the narrator marries his cousin it grosses me out, but that is what there culture is like and who am I to judge. It's almost sad after him and his cousin get married. It seems as though they have nothing in common and are about to lead down the same path that his mother and father's relationship was like.
But when they open up the shop and his wife begins to sew, I think that is something that may help keep their marriage together. Except now you find out in chapter 12 as he runs into someone he used to know, that he was in love with her. I almost feel like we will find out more about her and possibly get to know her more.

Kristie Amann "Lit 205"

Kristie Amann
Lit 205