2024 WAEC LITERATURE: (5991)

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Theme of Greed and Betrayal: Hardly can these be taken away from tragic drama. Greediness will lead to betrayal and betrayal will pave way for violence.

Lambio was greedy by not been satisfied with the royal affiliation he enjoyed, he was hungry for the throne. In order to satisfy his greed, he betrayed Gbanya’s trust and further betrayed his blood sister Queen Yoko. While Lambio remained the kingpin of atrocious acts against the leadership in Mende, he dragged Musa (the seer) into his partnership because Musa’s secrets of evil deeds were at his fingertips. This is probably the most prevalent theme in the play. It plays a significant impact on the plot development of the play. Both Lamboi and Musa betray the community and some prominent characters. Lusting for power, Lamboi recruits the services of Musa, the chief priest to help with his plan to unseat Gbanya permanently from his throne, in order to prevent him from appointing Yoko as his next successor.

Musa could have chosen not to comply but he had skeletons in the cupboard; things he would not want the public to get wind of. He has offered human sacrifices severally in exchange for prosperity and longevity. He has long betrayed his good office with his indulgence in human rituals all in the name of seeking the goodies of life. When the opportunity presents itself, the duo betrays Gbanya by appearing to relieve him of the lowly humiliation Dr Rowe subjected him to. They poison him, and Lamboi 'copied from G i s t p o w e r . c o m free' attempts to usurp his throne. Thus, they betray an unsuspecting Gbanya who had trusted them with his life and taken them as allies.

Again, they betray Yoko, Gbanya’s successor. Rather than perform their advisory and priestly duties, Lamboi and Musa choose to mislead the villagers about Yoko. They kill Jeneba, mutilate her and bury her body. However, they cajole the villagers to believe that Yoko has buried the poor girl’s body alive so she could receive favours from the colonial governor. This betrayal and the humiliation that follows largely influence Yoko’s suicide. In a nutshell, Musa and Lamboi betray Gbanya, Yoko, and their public offices in their lust for power.

*(NUMBER 2)*

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Queen Yoko:

         Queen Yoko is the Ruler of Mende chiefdom who is described to have a brain made from music. In history ,Yoko is seen by many of her subjects as a usurper and a friend of the colonial adminstration; she remained controversial throughout her reign until her death in 1906. In the play,this controversy is packaged as a defiance of the cultural norm that women should not dare rule during war. Because of her loyalty to her husband and her desire to lead,being somebody else's wife after her husband does not appeal to her

           She want to inherit the chiefdom of Senehum after her husband and she played the politics of succession well. Because it is war time,her husband prefer Ndapi his chief warrior. She would rather die than share a bed with Ndapi. She is greedy and insolent. Her insistence at having control of her space and fighting a culture set up that no consideration for woman as rulers,she has to be tough and insolent to push her agenda through

         Yoko is portrayed as a beautiful, ambitions and courageous woman who joins an all male secret society (the feared poro society) and consequently loses her right to motherhood,though not to her sexuality. She knows not everyone is happy that she is the chief of Kpa-Mende, especially her brother Lamboi. In becoming a 'copied from G i s t p o w e r . c o m free' male female ,Yoko is much feared by her male contemporaries,envied by women in her constituency , and doubly pliable in the hands of British rulers. The Governor describes her as a shining example not only of African feminine pulchritude but of one who blends grace, magnanimity,bravery l, audacity , tranquillity and majesty

       Being a visionary who willingly gives up the privilege of childbearing for the leading chieftaincy title in all of Kpa-Mende,she is willing to disprove the myth of female inferiority. Kargbo had done a tremendous job of portraying Yoko as an impressive ruler of heroic proportions.

        She feel so disgraced by the Governor's boundary demarcation to reduce her territorial control in spite of her years of loyalty to him. It is a painful realization for Yoko that a this while she was being used and now she is being humiliated.

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King Gbanya:

       Gbanya is Yoko's husband,ruler of Mende chiefdom. He has 37wives but cherishes Yoko the most because of her pragmatic nature and contributions to the affairs of the Senehum chiefdom . Gbanya may have many wives but Yoko's Sterling qualities stand her out before him,besides investing into the smooth running of the chiefdok through the Sande women. She of course has a burning ambitions to inaherit the throne one day. Male chauvinism is highlighted here. This is a notion Yoko is 'copied from G i s t p o w e r . c o m free' out to correct by striving to ascend the throne of Mende chiefdom. We have a chief who has a balanced view of governance and rational in his approach . Given his military strength and capabilities,Gbanya's leadership style is guided by necessity and what is just .

         Gbanya believes that a woman is only good for the loins of a man and not for the important affairs of governance . He commands the finest and most courageous band of fighters in Mende land but had diplomatic disposition; he chooses carefully the war to fight and the ones to ignore . Gbanya's ignoble treatment underlines the humiliation the colonial masters subjected African traditional rulers to during the colonial period. He suffers intense humiliation in the hands of Governor Rows who flogged him publicly and equally fined him in his own domain

            Death is an inevitable end of every mortal but the manner of dying is not known to anyone until when the time comes. As royalty, Gbanya's does not want a humiliating death but he ironically foreshadows an unpleasant end. It is a dramatic irony that Gbanya falls victim to the humiliating death he fears. He died through poisons in the hands of his men with his skin turning black as charcoal. He saw through their treachery and manages to hand over power to Yoko,his wife before his final breath.

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Symbolism in Look Back in Anger

Symbol of Ironing Board Osborne also used some symbols which are integral to the action of the play. The ironing board is of course a vital symbol of the play. It symbolizes Alison’s passivity in the making of warm human relationships and her effort to detach herself from the boredom of life. It also symbolizes the inherent hiatus between Jimmy and Alison. The work of ironing represents the domestic chores and perhaps the attempts of Alison and Helena to iron out their mental agonizes to their rather odd relationship with Jimmy Porter. At the same time, the monotonous sound of the iron which even disturbs Jimmy to listen to the music of the radio is a symbol of boredom. Symbol of Jimmy’s Trumpet Jimmy’s trumpet is similarly an organ of defiance. Jimmy is a representative of all post-war youth who is unable to face the realities and reveal himself through mere words. He can only share his feeling with playing on the trumpet, the sound of which can exhaust all odds of life. Its sound is to Jimmy relieving and comfortable. But to Helena, it is a cacophony. These different effects simply point out disharmonies in human relationships. Thus, the trumpet is one of the major symbols Osborne used in the play to show not only Jimmy’s alienation from the world but also the alienation of all human beings. Symbol of Church Bell Another significant symbol of the play is the church bells. They symbolize traditional background. 'copied from G i s t p o w e r . c o m free' Although Jimmy is very eager to defy this traditional background, Alison and Helena are always willing to go back to their traditional background. When the church bells ring Jimmy asks to stop them. It indicates that Jimmy wants to defy traditional religion. He wants to challenge the false institutionalization of Christianity. But his effort is fruitless because both Alison and Helena defy him in order to retain their traditional belief. Alison went to church with Helena. Finally, when Helena leaves Jimmy, the church bells ring again. It suggests the triumph of traditional religious values. Symbol of Jimmy’s Old Shirt Apart from this, the old shirt of Jimmy that Alison puts on suggests that she accepts Jimmy’s beliefs and ideals quite partially and the expensive skirt underneath suggests that Alison still has the upper-class sartorial longing. Conclusion Osborne’s imagery and use of symbols constitute the realism of the play. All the images in the play are confined within the parameters of realism. The verbal imagery which consists principally of animal images befits the unconventional conversational style of Jimmy and other characters of the play. And the visual and the aural symbols which are in accordance with the conventional stage vehicles never disturb the quality of seeming to be true. Osborne like Ibsen and Chekov effectively enriched his realism by way of using imagery in tirades and dialogues and stage symbols.

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In the play “Fences” the conflict August Wilson uses most to drive all the other conflicts and elements of the story is Troy vs. himself. Wilson’s intent is to show how racial segregation and injustice can create difficulties in families, a lack of self-esteem, and lead to uncontrollable circumstances. Troy’s, dissatisfaction with the way his life has turned outdrives the rest of the conflicts that play out in the other events that take place in the story. Troy’s main dissatisfaction is because he never got a chance to live out his dream of playing professional baseball due to his age by the time black men could play in the league’s although he blamed the problem on racism. Turn in your highest.

Major Conflict Troy and Cory’s opposing views on how Cory should spend his future deteriorates after Troy prohibits Cory from playing football and going to college. Their relationship disintegrates further when Troy reveals he has been cheating on Cory’s mother with another woman and has gotten her pregnant and signed papers permitting Cory’s Uncle Gabe to be committed to a mental hospital while Troy lives in a house paid for by Gabe’s money.

(No 11) 

Oumar Farouk Sesay, the extremely talented poet of Sierra Leone wrote the most heart rending poem- Song of the women of my land .

The major theme of the poem is the sorrowful expression of the extremely toilsome and exploited lives of the women of the poet's mother land.

The poet cites the plight of all the women of his country who all laid their lives in struggle and toil but left behind the song of their lives .

Their song still echoes in the land reverberating and reflecting the extreme torture of slavery

they had to face . They never got any bit of justice.

There was no one to relieve them from their pain or bond. They kept ploughing the terrain of their landscape without any relief. So the theme of their song was the expression of their

collective pain .

They knew they would not survive the immense pain but their song would live after them with their souls and soils.

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