Ngugi's Writings

            I really liked Ngugi Wa Thiong’s particular style of writing. He stresses the important reasons to have and use your native language.  One particular story that really stood out to me was “Minutes of Glory”.  This author uses the colonization of names to emphasize their mindsets.  Beatrice’s identity is not who she really wants to be. She really does not like Nyaguthu and wants to be like her, while in the mean time Nyaguthu is not happy with herself and wants to be more like Beatrice. Deep down these two main characters envy each other which is a great example that Ngugi is showing to exemplify the gender bias in the story.

          Looking back I can say I relate a lot with Ngugi’s writings. I always think to myself I am not smart enough and I want to be more like this or that person but in reality the way the United States is set up to me is to colonize the mind. We see a lot of this taking place in magazines, TV, and etc. Sometimes I give people a name just to fit in with a particular crowd in which I don’t belong just to give off a new identity or less negritude.

Gordimer's Writings

                I really did not like the style of Gordimer’s writings because she had a particular style that she wrote in that was very stereotypical to me.  For example in the story “Amnesty”  there was a character that did not have a name because that person was to represents one side of the population as a whole such as all white men or all black men in the United States.  So not depending on who you where but what race, county, complexity, sex, religion, or language you were you were already given a back ground coming into the story. One important think that I did notice that the author did was set up the plot to the readers could find symbols in the story. The man in the story named the daughter Inkuleleko which means South African Independence when is a symbol that he is in control of the future.

          When reading “Six Feet of the Country” it really disgusted me. How the system does operate.  When the wrong person gets involved bad things may happen. This should not be the case. When you hear the word authority you do not think of disrespect, prejudice nor ignorant and this is exactly what came to my mind when reading this story. Statements such as “He had no identity anyways”, or “there are so many black faces, surely one will do”. What type of system or authority shows this type of disrespect? Maybe one where the writer is somewhat stereotypical in there writing. This is strictly my opinion though.  Only one side of the  black people where portrayed in the story, the country people being ignorant, backwards and, not dressing well. What about the country people with educations, dress well and own land? I think to make the story more interesting the author should of not only made a nameless character to represent one side of the population but all sides.

Achebe's Writings

          My whole views of the Writings by Chinua Achebe were positive.  I related on so many aspects. People can create their own realities. In your previous class we read the short story “Continuity of Parks” the author to me had very similar ideas. He believed that if a person believed in it deeply fiction does become the reality in which we live. 

The story that stood out the most to me was “The Madman”. If you did not read the story correctly you would get very confused on who actually was the mad man and who actually was not. If you are always told something you start to believe it. Well in the story Nwibe was not crazy he was just modest and going about his business when in actual reality the madman was the man that was really crazy and insane.  It makes me wonder if in an unjust system what your best option is. Is it to go crazy? Yes I feel that way you get to set yourself free and no longer have to deal with being told “you’re crazy, your ugly or etc” deep down inside you know the truth and why your actions provoked you to act in such a way. I like the author’s particular style of writing because instead of making one character crazy she made both characters crazy which made the story come to life more. It also showed me the differences of how Colonization of the mind happens, and in this story it exemplified it well.  

"The Stranglehold of English Lit"

In the poem I read “The Stranglehold of English Lit” it confused me a lot. When I first started reading it I came across many words that I felt had nothing to do with English Lit in our society. But the more and more I read I seem to figure out that the author Mnthali was questioning the works of Africa.  He uses works such as stab; jab and gore to answer the question would Europe in Africa stood the time of English Lit.

One thing in the poem that stood out to me the most was when Mnthali said “While history went on mocking the victims of branding irons and sugar plantations” he is stating in that quote that The people of Africa or as we call them today African Americans are the people in history being looked down upon and with people like Jane Austin around how could this be stopped or how could these questions be answered. English Lit back then was just seen as a cruel joke and in the colonization of the mind the British often conquered the Africans. And the Sons and daughters that have been disposed, Africans that had been educated were a mockery to them and didn’t exist.

When I reflect back on this poem it makes me take a whole new perspective of English Lit. I will never view English Lit the same. When I think of English Lit I think of all the positive effects it has over its entire people. I never thought of it singling out the Africans. But also when I think about it maybe this poem was a way that the author explained and got across his points to the people who read it what exactly was going on.