plantation Flashcards
The plantation is ‘an emblem of life’ and the description includes such details as the ‘high-pitched whistle of birds’, the ‘early morning dew’, ‘the endless reams of foliage’ and ‘trees that glistened with sap.’
The first section presents Namidi’s discovery of the leaking petrol pipe and his decision to exploit it. Adagha ironically emphasises life at the beginning of the story to set up a contrast with the ending.
odd sickly smell’
‘alien’
The description of the petrol as having a “sickly smell” and being an “alien” presence creates a sense of foreboding and unease. These words suggest that the petrol is out of place and potentially harmful.
the sun is ‘blocked away’/
Namidi’s face is ‘a picture of dark brooding’.
‘listening, watching and sniffing’.
Threatening and dark imagery.Aghda also creates tension by building up the anticipation before the discovery of the petrol by using foreshadowing.
The passage shifts from celebrating life and fertility to darker and more threatening imagery as Namidi detects the presence of petrol. The triplet here further adds to the tension of the scene.
‘a thin, shrivelled woman’.
His wife suffers too: Mama Efe is described as ‘a thin, shrivelled woman’. Adagha makes clear that Namidi has been reduced to desperation by the ircumstances of his life. (While men came to lay oil pipes through the village ‘many years ago’, the wealth accrued through the discovery of oil has never reached the village.)
‘a flash of blurred images writhing inside a great flame’
‘funereal’ and ‘ghoulish’
Mama Efe, of all the adults, is wary and resistant to the temptation of the oil. She has a sense of unease and fear that the oil will bring trouble, but is powerless to stop her husband or the events that happen.
Adagha uses death-related lexis throughout this section of the story, with adjectives like ‘funereal’ and ‘ghoulish’, while the owl, ominously flying during the day, ‘sounded a doleful note’.
‘brief pang of foreboding’
Namidi ‘tossed’ away the ‘brief pang of foreboding’ when he notices ‘the doubt and anxiety’ which ‘clouded her face’
‘laughing and swinging’ in play; they ‘giggled with glee’,
This characterisation continues in the third section as Ochuko and his friend Onome are ‘laughing and swinging’ in play; they ‘giggled with glee’, the alliteration emphasising their carefree happiness.
‘gliding overhead like a circle of fire’
Meanwhile, with deft use of pathetic fallacy, the sun is ‘gliding overhead like a circle of fire.’
‘ceaseless mania’
‘the avid thirst of animals long deprived of nurturing milk.’
The desperate greed of the adults is also communicated by the phrase ‘ceaseless mania’ and the verbs, which ironically suggest nutritional properties for the oil – it is ‘swallowed’, there is ‘sucking’, and Adagha uses the metaphor of ‘the avid thirst of animals long deprived of nurturing milk.’ The whiteness of milk accentuates the irony of the metaphor; the oil is far from ‘nurturing’; it is ‘foreign to its depths’.
flash of light’ and ‘deafening explosion’
‘blanket of yellow light’, ‘a gut-wrenching choir of yelling’
‘the demons’
Adagha portrays the explosion as a hell-like vision, appropriately beginning with the fall of innocence as Onome drops from the tree at the ‘flash of light’ and ‘deafening explosion’. Apocalyptic references to fire continue, with a ‘blanket of yellow light’, ‘a gut-wrenching choir of yelling’, people who ‘broke out frenziedly from the smoky interior’. This line of imagery reaches its climax with Ochuko’s perception of ‘the demons’ which are ‘screaming and gathering behind him in a swift veil of smoke and blackness.’
‘gallantly’ still lit – the lamp ‘which his mother always kept alive’,
Again Adagha uses poignant irony, with the lamp ‘gallantly’ still lit – the lamp ‘which his mother always kept alive’, though it is clear his mother herself is no longer alive. Ochuko, though he has survived, lies like a corpse with animals crawling over him.
‘coming dawn’
The ‘coming dawn’ offers no relief, an ironic reversal of the customary optimism of references to sunrise. It could also be a symbol of hope/ life that goes on.
