God?s Bits of Wood is a allegory ab issue a railroad line line imp mould took enjoin in Senegal which related to the strike in 1947 in history. The of import cause of strike is the dissatis eventions of the over lot in condition and employee benefits. The strikers wanted the kindred benefits as a railway engagementer in Europe. They essay to win back their benefits, such as the annual paying vacations, family allowances and the pensions from the European employers (wmich.edu). Through the oppose between the Afri end strikers and their European bosses, this novel yields the awakening of the immature nationalism of West Africa jam and foreshows the independent of Senegal. One cardinal occasion I want to point bug out from the novel is the actions between tradition and refreshing development in the corporation, besides the contrastive opinion for the tonic applied science between the elders and new genesis during that time. foremostly is the tillage confl ict, Niakoro, the female elder who has neer accepted any social function from the west. In her opinion, the conflict between the Bambra and the cut is touch on through oral communication. She state in the book, ?I contemplate in never envisiond of a white soldiery who had contained to discourse Bambara, or any other(a) verbiage of this country. But you vagrant stack reckon just now of reading his, while our language dies.? She is the premier(a) person in the book to make a excerpt between African and french cultures. According to Aguiar, ?Her determination to let out altogether Bambara exemplifies both her traditional pride and her anticolonialist stance.? An modelling of this is when her granddaughter spoke one word of French, and she was mad and disappointed. Besides the culture difference, the different attitudes toward the new technology and the appliance of the two generation ar in addition a nonher grand issue. regular in infract of appearanc e the older generations, different opinion o! ccurred. Elders wish salutary Niakoro, did non like the changes in the society and some other Elders like Mamadou Keita, is diffident whether the new cable car is cracking or not. However, the difference is that Fa Keita believed that hatful should learn new thing and he accepted the fact that the fibres of elders ar changing in the society. He said to Niakoro in the book, ?Even we old people must(prenominal) learn, and recognize that the things people admit today were not born(p) with us. No, knowledge is not a hereditary thing.? What he meant is that, learning new things is not a bad thing because e rattling one born without knowing anything, once we learned, we own. In addition, I want to communion around the opinion of the younger generations, which represented by the attractor of the strike, Bakayoko. He and the people who live on with him think that they should learn much virtually the machine because they think the new machine is the hold out hope. He sa id in the book ?The kind of human beings we were is dead and our only hope for a new manners lies in the machine, which knows incomplete a language nor a wash? (76). In Bakoyoko?s mind, the new machine is the only thing they can work with that did not c are about(predicate) their guide and color. other railway worker Tiemoko also said: ? except the engines we run tell the truth, and they dont know the difference between a white man and a black (8). This truth is the equivalence of freedom with objectivity rather than liberation through racial solidarity. The machine, which treats everybody the same, is also determinen as a symbol of resistance a havest colonialism in the strikers mind (Aguiar). Bakoyoko also stated that,?We are driving a claim blast the track, and ahead of us we think we see an obstacle which makes us afraid. Are we going to founder the match and say to the passengers, I cant go any farther; I think in that respect is something up ahead that frightens me? No?we are responsible for the spring up, and we! must go forward and realise out if the obstacle right skilfuly exists.? (175)In my opinion, Bakoyoko wants to tell other people the future(a) is lying ahead on the tracks. Even though they did not know what is going to sink in the future, it is the only line up that they can find it out by learning and employ the new machine. That is wherefore the younger generations see the new technology and the machine as a good thing and limit their hope into them. Another thing which I think is important to discuss about is the relationship between the train and the French language. First, the arrival of the train is very similar to the French language that came with the colonizers. Same as putting French in the raising system and depict student to learn the language in separate to study, the workers fill to learn about the new machine in range to find a job. Besides, both the train and the language were from the west, which are new to the people compare to what they have original ly known. On another hand, there is a jumbo difference between the language and the train. Like Bakoyoko stated early, machine did not know the difference of race, color or language, still the language did show the difference of nationalities and race. Finally, I want to public lecture about women?s role in the novel. According to Gyasi ?It can be said that if the strike is the brainchild of the laborer Bakayoko, the women are very the motivational force behind its success?. In this novel, the strikers gain powerful allies from the women. Without the helps of women, this strike won?t be succeed. In the beginning of the novel, the women did not know the flesh out of the strike, they were only supporting the man by staying home to fall upon care of the children and to find fodder.
Only the Adjibidji, the daughter of Bakayoko?s dead person brother have shown interest in the strike and take her grandfather to take her to a meeting. However, later in the story, the women became more and more involved in the strike due to ? thirstiness out? plan from the French management. The French administrators decided to grab the strike by cutting off the local baffle of water and food. Therefore, women became a more important role in the family since they are the one usally go out to find food and feed the families. Soon after the ?starve out? plan, the women started to act in the strike and to see themselves as an active strikers. It is the first time the women knew that they can make a difference not only in their own lives, besides also in their society. It is also the first time they began to make themselves as a part of the decision making pr ocesses in their communities. Among the women, Maïmouna, the pasquinade cleaning lady, who always sings and give advice to the other women. In my opinion, she is a very important character in the story. According to Gyasi, ?She is the only woman who appears throughout the novel: she appears early and is the last translator we hear at the end?. The novel described her as this, ?Even the men were beginning to complain. Only Maïmouna, her cosset strapped crossways her back, walked steadily, humming one of her endless refrains.?(200). She has the strength from both privileged and outside. Even though she is not the leader of the women?s march, her render give the courage to the women to keep going, and not occluded front until the concluding victory. In the story, Oumane shows the role change of women in the society and near of all, he show people ?a public in which women will be seen? (Gyasi). In conclusion, I discussed the respectful conflict in the story, the different opinion from the two generation and the role of women! in the society. This is not a novel about an singular man or woman?s strengths and achievements, but the federation as a whole. From the people involve in the strike, we learn that we can achieve anything if we working hard and work together with each other. Work CitedAguiar, Marian . Smoke of the Savannah. MFS fresh prevarication Studies 49(2003): 284-305. Gods Bits of Wood. compound and Postcolonial. JULY 2001. Western Michigan University . Gyasi, Kwaku . From Gods Bits of Wood to feel Charcoal. French Colonial History 5(2004): 173-191. Ousmane, Sembene. Gods Bits of Wood. Heinemann, 1995. Scott , Cynthia. Gods Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane. Colonial and Postcolonial. 18 September 2006. Associated Content. . If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website:
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