Assignment of paper 14

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Name : Gediya Disha Vijaybhai

Roll No : 10

Class: Sem 4

Paper No :14

Subject : Struggle between old and new way of life in Africa in Swamp Dweller

Words :1,545

Email : dishagediya11@gmail.com

Submitted to : Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumar Sinhji Bhavnagar University

Introduction:

A play which presents the dark side of Africa ‘The Swamp Dweller’ Written by Wole Soyinka.  Here Soyinka introduce us with the condition of people in Africa by the life of people who lives their life in Swamp area. Here Swamp is also used as one metaphor for life of people.

The play shows the individual struggle with society. The power of nature is presented by Soyinka here which is difficult  when one tries to survive and built a life and preserve the culture. Soyinka shows the power of social injustice, struggle, frustration and different mind set of people of in the play.

About the play:

The play shows the picture of Swamp area where the family of Makuri lives. They live in Swampland on the Niger delta.  His elder son Awuchike , leave the village who has attraction towards city life and now dead for the family. The younger son Igwazu  also gone to city but he has not get the position and wealth which his brother Awuchike got from city life. In the beginning of play there was a dialogue between  Alu and Makuri. Igwazu has just return from city and he gone to his field because the flooding the swamp are treacherous. Then the door was knocked and the beggar come.  A conversation between Makuri and beggar was about beggars life and his journey towards here and about the desire of beggar to do work in the area of swamp. Then the character of Kadiye came who was the serpent priest. He has done a talk with Makuri about igwezu’s return and about his wealth. After sometime Igwezu came and have conversation with Kadiye  on the life of him, his wife and about the city life between them. By the rude behavior of Igwezu, Kadiye become anger and leave the place. Igwezu left the hut and a play ends with the character of beggar.

Struggle between the old and new way of life in Swamp Dweller:

In the African culture ,there is a struggle between old and new way of life of Nigeria.

Old way of life:

In the play character of Makuri and Alu believes in old way of life. They live the life with tradition and not ready  to accept the new way of life. They think that new tradition may ruin the life of people. The culture, society, and their convention present their old belief of life. They were happy in their old way of life. There is not any influence of western culture in the life of Alu and Makuri. They think that the western culture make dirty mind of people and they will lost their morality and  spirituality. The western culture leads towards chaos and will spoil the life of people.

The idea of join family ,can be included here that people of old morality have belief in join family rather than small family. Alu and Makuri wants that their son live together but in actual they were not live together because they like to live modern life in city rather than the traditional one.

The  people  of village have more trust in their myth and God which we can not find easily on the modern life. The village present the struggle to connect myth and actuality in old way of life. Here  Makuri and Alu have more blind faith in their religion and in their myth of African culture.

New way of life:

In the play character of Awuchike present the new way of life with the idea of modernity. He live the life in city and never came in to the village. He think that the life will good in city rather than  village.

The idea of new way for life present the change in society. How people follows the command given by new way of life and modernity and become modern. Their thinking also become different from old traditional people. Here the thinking way of Awuchike is totally opposite from Makuri. After British colonization , the native people came under the influence of modernity and leave their tradition and morality. The new way of life in Swamp Dweller present the idea of accepting new tradition and they forget their own culture .

Village and city life in the play:

With the idea of old way of life, the best example for it is village life in the play. Village is   place where you can find swamp and dirtiness all around. Frogs ,rain and other noise can shaken your mind for few minutes in village. Old hut and swamp may be make you more uncomfortable in the situation. There is an unemployment which leads you towards fall of life. The only implement of income in village is agriculture.  

The life of city’s people is totally opposite from village life. It shows modernity in life. The people of city can get more chance for   employment than village’s people. City is a best place for money making. But it is also a place where you can find frustration of people. City life make people all alone with a daze around him. Alu and Makuri believe that the city life will swallow their son from them. In the play  there is a dialogue by Makuri about city life as bellow

Makuri: It’s  a lie . All the young men go into the big town to try their hand at making money..  only some of them remember their folk and send word once in a while.

Makuri: And if he didn’t ?The city is a large place. You  could live there all your life and never meet half the people in it.

So the dialogue between Alu and Makuri present the main idea of city life and  how they think that their son come in to this influence and forget them.

Character present the old and new way of a life:

Character of Alu and Desala

In the play character of Alu  present old way of life. She believes in village life rather than city life. She is more faithful wife than Desala.  She loves her husband than money. She loves the swamp tradition and the life of swamp. Character of Alu is simple and honest one  which present the traditional life with old morality.

The character of Desala is modern character who does not like to live in swamp like Alu. She has modern idea for living life. She accept new way of life rather than old. She is unfaithful character who leaves her husband for money and live with Awuchike.  She is more careless character of the play who demanding for money and have attraction for urban life.

Character of Awuchike and Igwezu:

Awuchike  is the best example who shows the   new way of life. He believes in modernity and not want to live the life with old morality. He leave swamp area and set his life in city. He has interest to life with new morality and modernity. He is more self centered character of play who has not any kind of sympathy for his mother and father. He is disobedient character. He also live with his younger brothers wife which shows modern idea. So the character like Awuchike who is egoist and undutiful create an image of new way of life of African people.

The character of Igwazu is totally opposite from his brother who present the  old way of life in play. He choose to live life in village rather than city because in city he can get nothing. He is an obedient son and shows his duty faithfully towards his parents. He choose to live life with parents rather than alone.

Character of Beggar and Priest:

The character of beggar present old idea for life though he is blind. He believes to earn by his own and for work hard which is old way for living. He choose to earn by laboring. His look and clothes also shows his old moral way of life.

The character of Priest presents the new way of life of people. He choose to get things from village rather than to earn his own. He earns money by false bait and deception. In modern way of life , people do this in every situation. People become less hard workers and use to do corruption rather than earning money by their own hard work. This shows the new way of life that people become more lazy and use wrong way for survive. Soyinka has make satire by the character of priest that how the modern people become more lazy and choose wrong way for earning money.

Conclusion:

So the play shows the idea of new way and old way of life by the characters and by some incident also. How  African people change their lifestyle and accept modernity in life is shown by Soyinka very clearly. How the modernity change the life and leads towards chaos and how old morality saves people from disaster is  mentioned here.

Work cited: (The swamp dweller)

(old and new ways of life in swamp dweller)