An analysis of Voiceless in MK Asante’s Buck through a Post Colonialism Theoretical Framework
In MK Asante’s Buck, you’ll notice many life related issues, such as the main character, Malo getting into problems and having many issues with his family. People who struggled and been through many challenges in life, will understand every issue the characters experienced. I’ve felt like I didn’t have a voice once in my life, which was when I faced one of my biggest fears, that I thought I would never get over. Losing my mother was one of the hardest experiences I’ve ever had to face, felt like my identity was stripped from me. The purpose of this essay is to examine the theme of “voiceless” in the MK Asante’s Memoir, Buck, through a post colonialism theoretical framework in regards to Malo, his mother, and Uzi.
In the beginning, Ma-lo, the author, starts to talk about Philadelphia and the relationship between his brother Uzi and himself. Uzi could roll a blunt with his eyes, said Ma-lo. ”Another perfect blunt, jawn looks like a paintbrush”, was what
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the author stated. Jawn can be anything, sometimes when they’re telling a story and don’t want anyone to know what they’re talking about, they would say jawn. Malo’s mom is very insecure and she tends to over think everything. She talks about how fat she has gotten and how Chaka isn’t interested in her anymore. I feel as if Malo’s mom is overwhelmed and unhappy with her life by the way she speaks in her journal, but towards the end everything changes. Uzi only gets one free hour each day for a visit and Malo wants to break down but he has to be strong for his mom. Uzi says he didn’t do anything and that the girl told him she was sixteen. He keeps telling them to get him out of there. Uzi is still Malo’s hero; he says to him “everybody makes mistakes”. Post colonialism is a theoretical framework that states how you regain your identity back after it’s stripped from you. Malo is American but his parents were born and raised in Africa so he has two sides of him. Hybridity is embracing your culture; but adapting another culture. The comparison of this theory and Buck is that many of the characters were voiceless and felt like they had no one to talk or express their feelings too. The purpose of this essay is to examine the theme of voiceless in MK Asante’s Buck, through a post colonialism theory in regards to Malo. Being the youngest in the family, he feels as if he is voiceless to every situation. He loses his big brother and his father leaves the family. His father leaving because of the condition the mother is going through but he doesn’t care for how Malo is feeling. . He demonstrates feeling voiceless when he says, “the movement is moving and there’s nothing I can do” (Asante 93). In this example, the reader is detected to how Malo feels hopeless. Uzi, his brother, his hero, the only person he could talk too, is in jail for ten years and that makes everything harder on Malo and his mom. Malo doesn’t understand why all of this is happening and he can’t do anything about it. Through all of the pain and struggles he has at home, Malo doesn’t say anything to anyone; he expresses it on the basketball court. He states “basketball clears my mind, takes me away from the bullshit. On the court, I’m the judge” (Asante 87). Losing his best friend and almost losing his mother was the reason he chose to get his life together and go back to school. His teacher at his new school is the first to tell him to write anything he wants but Malo doesn’t want to fall for it. He says “I know this trick. She’s bullshitting. Teachers always tell you to express yourself, then when you do, you get in trouble” (Asante 200). In this example, the reader is exposed to how Malo feels deceived. I feel as Carole, Malo’s mother feels more voiceless then the others in this story. She feels alone and hopeless. Her having no one to talk too, she expresses her feelings and thoughts in her journal. She demonstrates feeling voiceless when she writes,” Chaka thinks that both boys’ behavior points directly to me” (Asante 59). Before the stress and build up pressure, Carole was an astonishing dancer. Having two teenage boys is very challenging for her. One of them is in jail for ten years and the other is following his footsteps. She feels as Malo will be the smarter one then the rest of the guys he hangs with. She states “Malo has the best chance to make it, not because he is exempt from mischief and even mayhem but because he is a listener and observer” (Asante 101). In this case, the reader is uncovered to how the mother feels like a believer and passionate. She writes everything in her journal, from her secrets to her deep thoughts about life. Malo betray her by going through it, she feels hurt and denounced. Everyone was in her life while she was marriage, but now no one seems to come around or see how she’s doing. Carole says “The crowd of friends around me disappears after Chaka leaves. Every now and then Malo says, “So and so said to say hello.” I ask him, Why didn’t you tell me that you saw so and so” (Asante 123). The reader understands how she feels lonely and ashamed. The character in the article “ On My Knees Again” feel depressed because the people around her isn’t paying her any attention and no one is there to listen to her.
It’s upsetting her the most because this is the time when she really needed someone to be there for her about something that really fascinates her. She talks about how she loves to be a teacher and can’t wait to be back at school with her kindergarteners. They’re the only people that she can talk too and will listen. They might not be able to understand any of her problems or disagreements but she knows that they are still listening. This is an example of feeling voiceless, just as Carole was feeling in the book Buck. Malo’s mother was very depressed and felt lonely because no one listened to her, but she had her journey to talk too. She would write in her diary every day and night, when she wanted to get everything off of her chest or needed something to vent
too. Uzi always felt like the step child in the family. He feels that way because of how Chaka treats him, they never get along. He’s Malo’s idol, he wants to be just like him but Uzi doesn’t want Malo to be. He’s now, locked up for something he feels he didn’t do and tells Malo to never do anything to get himself in there. Uzi and Chaka never had peace, ever since the day he asked for a toy that Chaka didn’t buy him. He states “They had everybody- Luke, Oli-Wan, Han Solo- but Dad wouldn’t get them because they’re white” (Asante 13). Chaka don’t believe racism ended or will ever end so he doesn’t respect white people. Every time Uzi and Chaka get into a fight, he starts to reminisce and talks about how he wishes he was with his real dad. Not having his real dad in his life is a huge impact on him and makes it harder for him. It’s hard for him to trust and talk to someone, he is voiceless. The only person he expresses his thoughts too is his little brother. I feel as he was voiceless when he was leaving with his family, having no one there to hear his thoughts about anything or just being there for him. While he’s in jail, he has no word on anything and can’t do anything he wants. It’s like having everything you know stripped from you. He says to Malo, “Get me outta here” (Asante 61). The reader is exposed to how Uzi feels worthless and miserable. Janet is the aunt of 13 year old Kevin, who has mental health issues which has threatened the people around him and his well-being. Kevin was charged as an adult after getting in trouble with the law and found himself in a program for the mentally ill, where he received minimal care for his condition then he was transferred to an adult prison. After Janet visited her nephew a couple of times, trying to encourage him. She figures out that the prisoners including Kevin were not being treated properly and weren’t receiving their medication. She opinionated that the prisoners would leave prison behaving the same way as they first came. The fact that the prisoners were voiceless and couldn’t say anything about the way they have been getting treated wasn’t fair. This is an example of feeling voiceless using the post colonialism theory. Uzi is a prisoner who could be getting the same treatment that those prisoners are receiving. Being in prison could take everything from you, you become very voiceless. Not being able to speak your mind or opinion on anything can kill someone. A lot can happen when a child’s feelings, thoughts, wishes, and interests are never heard, such as bad behavior, eating disorders, acting out, painful shyness, or sometimes over-responsibility. The feeling of voiceless doesn’t stop as a child but as they become adult it gets harder for them. Adults who grew up voiceless, this sense is very fragile. Without "voice" people are prone to feeling hopeless, helpless and careless. Many children become very depressed and ill because of not having someone there to talk too. Some people seem to search for powerful partners in a relationship who will validate their existence because they are used to being ignored. This post colonialism theory is regarding Malo, his mother, and Uzi, by examining the theme of “voiceless” in MK Asante’s Buck. Different people do different things to comfort themselves or cheer them up. Malo took his anger out on the basketball court before he lost one game and didn’t know what else to do but feel as everything in his life was falling to pieces. If he would’ve tried talking to his mother about the things he was feeling, he would do things a little different. Carole is lonely and sad, she feels insecure because her husband doesn’t look at her the same and children don’t listen to her. She thought she had no one but her journal to go too, until she started to understand that she had Malo. Lastly, Uzi is in prison and literally has no one to go too for help or talk too, but being is there can give him a chance to find out who he really is and what would help him is writing down his thoughts.
Laurence Hill’s novel, The Book of Negroes, uses first-person narrator to depict the whole life ofAminata Diallo, beginning with Bayo, a small village in West Africa, abducting from her family at eleven years old. She witnessed the death of her parents with her own eyes when she was stolen. She was then sent to America and began her slave life. She went through a lot: she lost her children and was informed that her husband was dead. At last she gained freedom again and became an abolitionist against the slave trade. This book uses slave narrative as its genre to present a powerful woman’s life.She was a slave, yes, but she was also an abolitionist. She always held hope in the heart, she resist her dehumanization.
Firstly, one’s identity is largely influenced by the dynamics of one’s relationship with their father throughout their childhood. These dynamics are often established through the various experiences that one shares with a father while growing up. In The Glass Castle and The Kite Runner, Jeannette and Amir have very different relationships with their fathers as children. However the experiences they share with these men undou...
“All right, but you said we had to put emotion into our art. I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel.”(p122). This quote is from the third marking period when Melinda was talking to her art teacher, Mr. Freeman. I believe she wouldn’t have said anything had it been earlier in the year.
The main character is completely alienated from the world around him. He is a black man living in a white world, a man who was born in the South but is now living in the North, and his only form of companionship is his dying wife, Laura, whom he is desperate to save. He is unable to work since he has no birth certificate—no official identity. Without a job he is unable to make his mark in the world, and if his wife dies, not only would he lose his lover but also any evidence that he ever existed. As the story progresses he loses his own awareness of his identity—“somehow he had forgotten his own name.” The author emphasizes the main character’s mistreatment in life by white society during a vivid recollection of an event in his childhood when he was chased by a train filled with “white people laughing as he ran screaming,” a hallucination which was triggered by his exploration of the “old scars” on his body. This connection between alienation and oppression highlight Ellison’s central idea.
In the novel Segu, Maryse Conde beautifully constructs personal and in depth images of African history through the use of four main characters that depict the struggles and importance of family in what is now present day Mali. These four characters and also brothers, by the names of Tiekoro, Siga, Naba, and Malobali are faced with a world changing around their beloved city of Bambara with new customs of the Islamic religion and the developing ideas of European commerce and slave trade. These new expansions in Africa become stepping stones for the Troare brothers to face head on and they have brought both victory and heartache for them and their family. These four characters are centralized throughout this novel because they provide the reader with an inside account of what life is like during a time where traditional Africa begins to change due to the forceful injection of conquering settlers and religions. This creates a split between family members, a mixing of cultures, and the loss of one’s traditions in the Bambara society which is a reflection of the (WHAT ARE SOME CHANGES) changes that occur in societies across the world.
The reader is first introduced to the idea of Douglass’s formation of identity outside the constraints of slavery before he or she even begins reading the narrative. By viewing the title page and reading the words “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, written by himself” the reader sees the advancement Douglass made from a dependent slave to an independent author (Stone 134). As a slave, he was forbidden a voice with which he might speak out against slavery. Furthermore, the traditional roles of slavery would have had him uneducated—unable to read and incapable of writing. However, by examining the full meaning of the title page, the reader is introduced to Douglass’s refusal to adhere to the slave role of uneducated and voiceless. Thus, even before reading the work, the reader knows that Douglass will show “how a slave was made a man” through “speaking out—the symbolic act of self-definition” (Stone 135).
In the first four chapters, he explains the currents in modern African-America thought. In chapter one he tells us stories of victimology. The second chap...
After failing to excel at each task set before her, June begins to feel more and more resentment towards her mother. She sees her mother's hopes as expectations, and when she does not live up to these, she feels like a failure.
In these examples, we can see the reasons that stories truly do have the power to change things and fight colonialism, the multiple authors mentioned throughout “Home and Exile” were very influential, even if they used their power of narrative in corrupt ways to justify their action. Throughout history, there will always be an author whose words will be strong enough to fight the problems of society, truly Chinua Achebe was the author of the 1900’s whose words were powerful enough to fight for what he believed in and help end the problem known as colonialism.
In the opening of this story, someone, perhaps a teacher, has asked the narrator to talk to them about Emily. The narrator’s response makes it appear that she does not care about her daughter. However, the narrator loves Emily deeply, but feels like she shows it by working to support her.
When the Europeans arrived in Africa during the late eighteenth century the culture and the lives of the people of Africa are altered. Colonialism and Imperialism in Africa has adversely changed the way of life of the African people, and changed their culture, that had developed for so many years, unscathed by any distraction from the outside world. This dominant European influence has led to poverty in the African continent for the next 100 years, because of the institutions that were put into place by Europeans. In Things Fall Apart, it becomes clear that the Ibo culture responds in a distinct way to the European colonization; when compared to other villages and ethnic groups in Africa. These foreigners had such an enormous effect on the Ibo tribe that many of the clansmen decided to abandon the traditional ways or were too afraid to rise against the takeover of their tribe by the Europeans since the natives lacked the adequate technology to fight off the Europeans. The culture collision between Europe’s culture and the Ibo culture causes Nwoye’s sense of identity to be challenged and causes him to distance himself from his family and his tribe because of the introduction of Christianity and western ideals.
One of the central themes that Achebe developed in his book “Things Fall Apart” is the contrast between feminine and masculine in the African tribes, more specifically Umofia. In the Ibo culture the gender difference plays an important role in Umofian people’s daily life, and has become one of the centric themes of Achebe’s book. This masculinity vs femininity theme has developed through novels protagonist, Okonkwo, by explaining his different reactions toward folktales, sports, and farming.
In “Things Fall Apart,” Chinua Achebe incorporates the theme of marginalization. Instead of the typical scenario in canonical works, the focus is on the tribe Umuofia in Africa:
Chinua Achebe analyzes a culture he is not accustomed with. The Madwoman in the attic theory comes into play as a westerner writing about “savage Africa”. Things Fall Apart provides an important understanding of Africana identity and history for those in the West who may be unfamiliar with African culture. Achebe tackles female identity within this book with delicacy keeping with the Ibo view of female nature in the background of the story but the forefront of the reader’s mind. A discussion of womanhood must touch upon manhood because they operate as a complementary, opposing, and equal entity.
The Smales were a suburban, upper middle class, white family living in Southern Africa until political turmoil and war forced them to flee from their home and lives. Rebel black armies in Soweto and other areas of Southern Africa revolted against the government and the minority white race, attacking radio and television stations and burning the homes of whites. The Smales needed to get out quickly. Their servant July, whom they had always treated well and had a very uncommon relationship with, offered to guide the family to his village. The Smales, having no other options, accepted July’s offer and ran in haste and confusion to the dearth village. They knew little of the drastic adjustments they would have to make in order to survive in July’s rustic village. These adjustments would soon threaten their relationships with one another and their family’s structure.