Thursday, February 23, 2017

Allusions to the Europeans

We learned about many allusions to the European conquest of Africa in this unit. The Man and the Elephant is an allegory for the European invasion. A man (the natives) keeps building huts, but the Kings of the Jungle (the Europeans) keep taking them. Finally the man burns them all. Also, in Things Fall Apart, there is a locusts swarm. But I didn't understand why the people were happy about it. Why would the natives rejoice if the locusts are supposed to represent the Europeans?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

That's a great question Savannah! At first, only a few locusts come, which are easily handled by the village, and they even apparently make tasty food. But, after the initial small waver, there swarm comes, and that is what causes the real damage. You can see this transition from the initial wave to the swarm as a metaphor for the transition from Mr. Brown to Reverend Smith.