SECTION B: ESSAY QUESTIONS
LIT 001: Introduction to Drama
- Examine the dramatic techniques used in Al Hakim's Fate of a Cockroach and relate it to the theme(s).
- Examine how humour is used to pass Aristophanes' message in Lysistrata.
LIT 002: Introduction to Prose Fiction
3. Explore the theme of recompensation of wrong in Oseyande's Warri Nor Dey Carry Last.
4. With reference to Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, enumerate and discuss the features of a realistic novel.
LIT 003: Introduction to Poetry
5. Discuss the significance of colonialism in African history using Sola Owonibi's "Africa".
6. Explain how visual and auditory imagery complements mood in Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard".
LIT 004: Literary Appreciation and Practical Criticism
On the third day of rain they had killed so many crabs inside the house that Pelayo had to cross his drenched courtyard and throw them into the sea, because the newborn child had a temperature all night and they thought it was due to the stench. The world had been sad since Tuesday. Sea and sky were a single ash-gray thing and the sands of the beach, which on March nights glimmered like a powdered light, had become a stew of mud and rotten shellfish. The light was so weak at noon that when Pelayo was coming back to the house after throwing the crabs, it was hard for him to see what it was that was moving and groaning in the rear of the courtyard. He had to go very close to see that it was an old man, a very old man, lying face down in the mud, who, in spite of his tremendous efforts, couldn’t get up, impeded by his enormous wings.
Frightened by that nightmare, Pelayo ran to get Elisenda, his wife, who was putting compresses on the sick child, and he took her to the rear of the courtyard. They both looked at the fallen body with a mute stupor. He was dressed like a ragpicker. There were only a few faded hairs left on his bald skull and very few teeth in his mouth, and his pitiful condition of a drenched great-grandfather took away any sense of grandeur he might have had. His huge buzzard wings, dirty and half-plucked were forever entangled in the mud. They looked at him so long and so closely that Pelayo and Elisenda very soon overcame their surprise and in the end found him familiar.
(a) Explore the significance of any four literary devices used in the passage. (b) Isolate and explain specific words and phrases that describe the old man's predicament
A Taxi Driver on His Death
by Timothy Wangusa
This docile elaborate horse,
That in silence seems to simmer and strain,
Shall surely revolt some tempting day.
Thus I shall surely die; not that I care
For any man's journey,
Nor for proprietor's gain,
Nor yet for love of my own.
Nor yet for these do I attempt the forbidden limits,
For these defy the traffic-man and the cold cell,
Risking everything for the little little more.
They shall say, I know, those who pick up my bones
'Poor chap, another victim to the ruthless machine'—
concealing my blood under the metal.
8. Examine the tone and attitude of the persona in the poem to his vocation. [15 Marks]
ANSWERS
1. Al Hakim's Fate of a Cockroach uses allegory (the cockroach kingdom mirrors human society and existentialist struggle), symbolism (the cockroach represents futile human ambition against fate), dark comedy/irony (absurd juxtaposition of trivial insect struggles with profound philosophical questions), and parallel plotting (the cockroach king's story runs alongside the human civil servant Adil's story). These techniques reinforce the theme of the futility of struggling against an inevitable fate/destiny, and the absurdity of human pretensions to control their circumstances, whether insect or man.
2. In Lysistrata, Aristophanes uses humour — bawdy sexual jokes, exaggerated physical comedy, and witty wordplay — to criticize the futility and destructiveness of war (the Peloponnesian War). The comic premise of women withholding sex to force peace mocks male pride and political folly, allowing serious anti-war and pro-peace messages to be delivered in a way that entertains while provoking reflection, softening the sting of political critique through laughter.
3. In Warri Nor Dey Carry Last, the theme of recompensation of wrong plays out through characters who suffer injustice or betrayal but ultimately find restitution, poetic justice, or empowerment — reflecting the Warri (Niger Delta pidgin) philosophical outlook that wrongdoing does not go unanswered forever, and that resilience and cunning eventually restore balance for the wronged.
4. Features of a realistic novel evident in Robinson Crusoe:
- Plausible, ordinary protagonist – Crusoe is an everyman, not a hero of noble birth.
- Detailed, factual narrative style – meticulous descriptions of survival tasks (building shelter, farming, tool-making).
- Chronological, diary-like structure – events unfold in believable time sequence, often with dated journal entries.
- Psychological realism – Crusoe's fears, doubts, and religious reflections are explored in depth.
- Verisimilitude/plausibility – the setting and events, though extraordinary, are presented with enough realistic detail to seem credible.
5. Using Owonibi's "Africa," the poem laments the lasting scars of colonialism — exploitation of resources, cultural disruption, and psychological subjugation — while also addressing Africa's resilience and search for identity in the aftermath. Colonialism is portrayed as a defining historical force that reshaped African politics, economy, and self-perception, and its legacy continues to influence post-colonial struggles for true independence and dignity.
6. In Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," visual imagery (the "ivy-mantled tow'r," dim twilight, the darkening landscape) creates a somber, contemplative mood, while auditory imagery (the tolling curfew bell, droning beetle, distant owl's complaint) reinforces stillness and melancholy. Together these sensory details evoke quiet, reflective sadness appropriate to the poem's meditation on mortality, obscurity, and the humble lives of the rural dead.
7(a) Four literary devices in the Márquez passage:
- Magical realism – the extraordinary (a winged old man) is presented matter-of-factly within a mundane setting, blurring fantasy and reality.
- Irony – the neighbour woman's confident, matter-of-fact declaration that he is "an angel" contrasts with his pitiful, undignified appearance, mocking human assumptions about the sacred.
- Imagery – vivid sensory description (the ash-grey sky, mud, stench, decaying wings) creates a bleak, decaying atmosphere.
- Symbolism – the old man's wings symbolize the intersection of the miraculous and the ordinary, and how society reduces wonder to mundane, self-serving explanation.
7(b) Words/phrases describing the old man's predicament: descriptions of him being entangled in mud, his "huge buzzard wings, dirty and half-plucked," his image as a "drenched great-grandfather," and his inability to rise despite "tremendous efforts" all depict physical helplessness, decay, and lost grandeur — a being once perhaps majestic (an angel) now reduced to a bedraggled, powerless figure, treated with suspicion and pity rather than reverence.
8. The persona (a taxi driver) speaks with a tone of grim fatalism and resigned acceptance toward his vocation. He is certain of his eventual death on the road ("Thus I shall surely die") yet expresses indifference to the causes typically associated with risk — not for a passenger's journey, an employer's profit, or personal attachment. His attitude reveals quiet defiance and desperation, risking everything ("the forbidden limits," evading "the traffic-man and the cold cell") purely for marginal economic survival ("the little little more"). The tone shifts to bitter irony in the final stanza, anticipating how society will dismiss his death as just another mundane casualty of the exploitative transport system ("ruthless machine"), reflecting the dehumanizing pressures faced by informal workers.