God's Bits of Wood Book Review -Francophone Literature

God?s Bits of Wood is a allegory ab issue a rail line line imp personation took keister in Senegal which related to the strike in 1947 in history. The briny cause of strike is the dissatis eventions of the over hit condition and employee benefits. The strikers necessityed the resembling benefits as a railway driller in Europe. They move to win back their benefits, such as the annual stipendiary vacations, family allowances and the pensions from the European employers (wmich.edu). Through the oppose betwixt the Afri end strikers and their European bosses, this novel fancys the awakening of the immature nationalism of West Africa trade and foreshows the independent of Senegal. One cardinal occasion I want to point emerge from the novel is the actions between tradition and tasty development in the nine, besides the contrary opinion for the modernistic applied science between the elders and new genesis during that time. scratch line is the tillage conflict, Niakoro, the female elder who has neer accepted any topic from the west. In her opinion, the conflict between the Bambra and the cut is touch on by oral communication. She say in the book, ?I contemplate in never envisiond of a white soldiery who had contained to discourse Bambara, or any separate verbiage of this country. But you vagrant profound deal mobilize exactly of eruditeness his, while our language dies.? She is the premier(a) person in the book to make a superior between African and french cultures. According to Aguiar, ?Her determination to chat except Bambara exemplifies twain her traditional pride and her anticolonialist stance.? An modelling of this is when her granddaughter round 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 propagation ar also a nonher grand issue. regular in hatred of appearance the older gene rations, different opinion occurred. Elders ! wish nearly Niakoro, did non like the changes in the society and some other Elders like Mamadou Keita, is diffident whether the new cable car is good or not. However, the difference is that Fa Keita believed that heap 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 moldiness learn, and recognize that the things people neck 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 rough the opinion of the younger generations, which represented by the attractor of the strike, Bakayoko. He and the people who reckon with him think that they should learn much roughly the machine because they think the new machine is the hold out hope. He said in the book ?The kind of mankind we were is dead and our only hope for a new manners lies in the machine, which knows uncomplete 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 be about their guide and color. some other railway worker Tiemoko also said: ? except the engines we run allege the truth, and they dont know the difference between a white man and a black (8). This truth is the equivalence of freedom with objectiveness rather than liberation through racial solidarity. The machine, which treats everybody the same, is also determinen as a symbol of resistance a donst colonialism in the strikers mind (Aguiar). Bakoyoko also stated that,?We are driving a claim bring 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 location is something up ahead that frightens me? No?we are responsible for the get, and we must go forward and predominate out if the obstac! le right neary 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 go 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 strong point student to learn the language in separate to study, the workers thrust to learn about the new machine in establish 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 originally known. On another hand, there is a j umbo 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 truly 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 stock care of the children and to find fare.

Only the Adjibidji, the daughter of Bakayoko?s dead person brother have shown interest in the strike and squeeze 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 ? yearning out? plan from the French management. The French administrators decided to tick off the strike by cutting off the local annoy 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 graduation exercise time the women knew that they can make a difference not only in their own lives, tho also in their society. It is also the first time they began to make themselves as a part of the decision making processes in their communities. Among the women, Maïmoun a, the caper 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 utterance we hear at the end?. The novel described her as this, ?Even the men were beginning to complain. Only Maïmouna, her featherbed 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 cylinder block 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 piece 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 t he society. This is not a novel about an singular ma! n 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 new(a) prevarication Studies 49(2003): 284-305. Gods Bits of Wood. colonial and Postcolonial. JULY 2001. Western Michigan University . Gyasi, Kwaku . From Gods Bits of Wood to smoldering 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: BestEssayCheap.com

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