Blue Bible 10 Non-fiction Texts Flashcards
The danger of a single story structure and form (need quotes)
Speech, anecdotes - portraying her point and life story about the danger of a single view through them
Repetition - through repeating the use of “single story”, the title links to the speech and describes her point furthermore
“all my characters were white and blue eyed, they played in the snow”, “we didn’t have snow”
Juxtaposition between her characters and herself. Emphasises the ridiculous contrast between her fantasy and her reality. Single story as she has been influenced as a child by the British and American books to think that all characters in stories need to be like that.
“My mother sent yam and rice, and our old clothes, to his family”, “‘Finish your food! Don’t you know? People like Fide’s family have nothing’”
Tricolon - mother felt obligated to send food and resources to Fide’s family because the family is poor, influenced the writer’s thoughts and pity Fide’s family.
Dialogue - mother told her that Fide’s family has nothing and do not have enough food for their whole family, led to the writer thinking that Fide’s family cannot achieve anything except for being poor in her subconsciousness
“Beautifully patterned basket made of dyed raffia that his brother ad made”
Imagery - vivid, detailed, remembers every single small part of that basket as that caused an epiphany: people like Fide’s family, despite their poverty, can achieve far more than people would imagine. Caused a mental shift and opened a new door for the writer. She found it shocking and unbelievable that such a beautiful basket could be made from the people that her mother pitied and gave to. Realised the danger of a single story
“She assumed that I didn’t know how to use a stove”
Single lined paragraph, portrays the writer’s utter shock towards what her roommate thought she was. The ridiculous stereotype of Africa was this place where no one had any knowledge of the modern world with modern technology was patronising for the writer. She knows this is a single story as she spent her childhood in Nigeria and she had a good childhood with the availability of a stove. The roommate was myopic and reductive, her assumption of the fact she didn’t know how to use a stove was condescending, even if she didn’t mean it
“No possibility of Africans being similar to her in any way, no possibility of feelings more complex than pity, no possibility of a connection as human equals”
Tricolon - “no possibility” emphasises the striking pain that a single story can bring. Just because they were born in Nigeria, they have been assumed of being poor and clueless in the “different” world in America. People assuming they have no knowledge of doing anything like how the writer thought Fide’s family couldn’t do anything other than being poor. In the writer’s point of view, there was no possible way for the people like her roommate to see them as equals, since all they can see in them is not the individual, but the stereotype of the whole area being an area of conflict and struggle. They can only feel pity subconsciously.
A passage to Africa form and structure (need quotes)
Newspaper report, use of repetition and anecdotes
anecdotes - more personal, persuasive, able to think about it in the writer’s shoes more
Repetition - smile, portrays the writer’s confusion and shock of how the people can still smile after all these misfortunes. And the epiphany and realisation that he later discovered was the meaning behind all the smile. He finally understand what these people are going through and what they think about
“I saw a thousand hungry, lean, scared and betrayed faces […] but there is one I will never forget”
Asyndetic list - the faces are in pain and agony as they were in the area of war. The daily struggles of getting food, water and staying safe is grave. Thousands of these faces were seen by the writer and were recording, yet there was only one of a sea of faces that the writer vividly remembers. This hooks the reader as it is interesting that the writer could never forget that one particular face. The readers want to understand why the writer could only remember so vividly of only one face within so many. This heightens the anticipation.
“like the craving for a drug: you require easier and more frequent doses the longer you’re at it”
Simile - the writer explains to us why he is doing this job and how, after seeing all these horrible places, he can keep going. He has been desensitised to the harsh reality of wars and terrible conditions that made people suffer so much. He is a journalist and he must portray the area in the worst way possible to interest his audience. He describes it like a drug, illustrates his guilt of being hardened to the suffering of the people. He is addicted to this drug and he hungers and craves it. He wants more but he will never get enough of it. It lets the reader understand what the writer thinks and believes
“reaching the final, enervating stages of terminal hunger”
Personification - hunger was personified as a sort of devil, that had the capacity and ability of sucking and draining the life out of people of these situations. It is connoted as cruel and calloused, with no shame or regret of what it has caused. The hunger is able to take life away from people and certainly causing death among many under this excruciating occasion.
“her sick, yellow eyes and smell it in the putrid air she recycled”
Imagery - visceral disgust, involuntarily horrified, detailed description appealing to senses. She recycles air like a machine rather than a human being. No longer living, only rotting and waiting for her death. Strong sense of pity and wanting to help her but the sense of rejection and disgust towards her is also portrayed, cannot help. Seems more like a monster rather than a human in need of help
“To be in a feeding centre is surreptitiously to wipe your hands on the back of your trousers after you’ve held the clammy palm of a mother who has just cleaned vomit from her child’s mouth”
The switch from first perspective to second perspective - allows reader to think is their shoes. As much as the reader would like to protest and do the opposite thing, the read has to agree with the actions of the writer. Reader is able to think in the writer’s shoes. The horrid of the mixture of sympathy and disgust is petrifying, however, it is also understandable at the same time. This is conflicting and a juxtaposition is used between the action in public and the action in private. We feel pity for the mother in that situation but we also understand the disgust of the writer from holding her hand. As much discomfort as it comes from agreeing with the writer’s actions, we understand that if we were in their situation, we would do the same thing.
“smile”
Repetition - the face that the writer could never forget has finally been revealed. The sense of anticipation has changed to a sense of realisation and understanding. After experiencing and seeing the horrid of the war conditions that had shaped the people there, what people would never expect was a simple smile from the people who were undergoing conditions like that and situations that are matters of life and death . The writer was completely caught off guard along with the readers. The sense of surprise and shock was portrayed. This juxtaposed with the paragraphs above which were stating how lifeless the people were. Now they are smiling. Curiosity. This is beyond pity and revulsion and the effect was inscrutable to the writer. This emphasises the impact of this on the writer.
The explorer’s daughter form and structure (need quotes)
Journal, lexical fields - “spectral play of colour”, “glittering kingdom”, “butter-gold”, magical and ethereal, ineffable view, breathtakingly beautiful, surreal and the irresistible pulchritude of the place was dream like
“man and whale”
Juxtaposition - man compared to whales are insignificant and like a speck of dust. However, under the light of the Arctic, both creatures seemed like equals and both trying to survive.
“six feet in length, was used for harpoon tips and handles for other hunting implements […] for carving protective tupilaks”
Listing - lists of the uses of the narwals were stated to reflect the essential role that they have on the Inuits as a community. It justifies the community’s actions and emphasises the narwhals as crucial for their survival and does not hunt narwals for fun. Only for survival. Usefulness of the narwals, community use whatever they have, further describes how much they need the narwhals
“It was like watching a cast, waterborne game”
Simile - anticipation for the hunters and their families. Will they catch a narwhal or will they fail? Will they survive? Readers are hoping for the community to survive, also for the narwhals to survive. Certain people want to cheer for one side, certain want to cheer for other side, like a game. Nervous and worried
“My heart leapt for both hunter and narwhal”
Hyperbole - anticipation and anxiety, hoping for the best of both community. Heart cannot leap, hence it is hyperbole, suggests the tense situation and the danger of trying to catch a narwhal, easy to lose a life, reader understands this from hyperbole, writer is not involved in capturing the narwhal, yet still tense and nervous, danger of occasion
“my heart also urged the narwhal to dive, to leave, to survive”
Personification and tricolon - The writer used these techniques to present the situation as nerve wrecking since a heart cannot carrying out the function of thinking. However, the writer still described the desire for the whales to survive by personifying the heart as another side to the argument of whether the hunter should survive or the whale should survive. The tricolon further emphasises this feeling, emotive and portrays the conflict within the writer’s mind, also the readers.
