2024 NECO LITERATURE: 2024 NECO LITERATURE ANSWERS (6032)

Yoko is one of the thirty seven wives of Chief Gbanya. She is his favourite wife. The chief does whatever Yoko tells him to do. This does not go well with Lamboi and Musa. They look for ways to kill the Chief and take over the reign of Mende Kingdom. Their opportunity comes when the Chief is flogged mercilessly in their presence by the Governor. He sustains injuries during the flogging. Lamboi and Musa mix a poisonous concoction using alligator gall. They give it to him. He drinks it. Before he dies, he hands over his Chiefdom to Yoko after she persuades him. This does not go well with Musa and Lamboi. They look for ways of removing her from the throne. Meanwhile, Yoko upon ascending the throne, sacrifices her womb as it is in line with the tradition. During her reign, she is able to conquer more territories and add them to her kingdom. She also maintains a cordial relationship with the Governor and act according to the dictates of the imperial representative. In a plot to dethrone her, Musa and Lamboi kidnap and kill Jeneba and lied to the people that it is Madam Yoko that use her for ritual. This allegation makes Queen Yoko to be subjected to humiliation and disgrace from her subjects. She finally goes to the poro bush and clears her name of the allegation. In a bid to avoid further embarrassment and disgrace, she asks her maid to prepare for her a poisonous concoction. She drinks it and takes her own life. She says 'copied from e x a m p l a z a . c o m free' it is better than facing further humiliation.

(1)
Yoko is the favourite of all Chief Gbanya's thirty seven wives. The chief does whatever Yoko tells him to do. This does not go well with Lamboi and Musa. They look for ways to kill the Chief and take over the reign of Mende Kingdom. Their opportunity comes when the Chief is flogged mercilessly in their presence by the Governor. He sustains injuries during the flogging. Lamboi and Musa mix a poisonous concoction using alligator gall. They give it to him. He drinks it. Before he dies, he hands over his Chiefdom to Yoko after she persuades him. This does not go well with Musa and Lamboi. They look for ways of removing her from the throne. Meanwhile, Yoko upon ascending the throne, sacrifices her womb as it is in line with the tradition. During her reign, she is able to conquer more territories and add them to her kingdom. She also maintains a cordial relationship with the Governor and act according to the dictates of the imperial representative. In a plot to dethrone her, Musa and Lamboi kidnap and kill Jeneba and lied to the people that it is Madam Yoko that use her for ritual. This allegation makes Queen Yoko 'copied from e x a m p l a z a . c o m free' to be subjected to humiliation and disgrace from her subjects. She finally goes to the poro bush and clears her name of the allegation. In a bid to avoid further embarrassment and disgrace, she asks her maid to prepare for her a poisonous concoction. She drinks it and takes her own life. She says it is better than facing further humiliation.

(6)

Jimmy Porter is the “angry young man” of the play, usually found spouting tirades against the complacency of the British upper classes, and especially against his wife Alison and then his lover Helena. Born working class but highly educated, like his friend and roommate Cliff, but has an ambivalent relationship with his educated status, seeing himself mostly as a working class man and yet frustrated that his education can do nothing to affect his class status. “He is a disconcerting mixture of sincerity and cheerful malice, of tenderness and freebooting cruelty.” Jimmy “alienates the sensitive and insensitive alike,” and his “blistering honesty, or apparent honesty…makes few friends.” Jimmy is a frustrated character, railing against his feelings of alienation and uselessness in post-war England.

Jimmy Porter is the “angry young man” of the play, usually found spouting tirades against the complacency of the British upper classes, and especially against his wife Alison and then his lover Helena. Born working class but highly educated, like his friend and roommate Cliff, but has an ambivalent relationship with his educated status, seeing himself mostly as a working class man and yet frustrated that his education can do nothing to affect his class status. “He is a disconcerting mixture of sincerity and cheerful malice, of tenderness and freebooting cruelty.” Jimmy “alienates the sensitive and insensitive alike,” and his “blistering honesty, or apparent honesty…makes few friends.” Jimmy is a frustrated character, railing against his feelings of alienation and uselessness in post-war England.

(i)THE DESTRUCTIVE NATURE OF UNCONTROLLED JOY: The poet persona is obviously happy and joyous about his retirement from service after thirty five years in service. This explains why he organises a party to mark his retirement. However, his joy gets the better of him and he drinks to stupor, something he has been able to control for over thirty-five years in government employment. His over-joyousness lands him in his grave. Thus, in everything we do, there is need for moderation. Had the retiree been moderate while rejoicing and compliant to his erstwhile driving code, he would have enjoyed his retirement in peace. All his years he “pummeled his boozy throat” in compliance with his duty rules just went to waste.

(ii)THE DANGER OF DRUNK DRIVING:This is another significant theme in A Government Driver on His Retirement. The poem expresses the universal driving rule that drivers should not drive when drunk. It is widely believed that driving when drunk makes the driver(s) susceptible to auto-crash as in the case of our newly retired government driver. Driving when drunk pushes him to his early grave. His drunkenness “sent him home to rest in peace”. The poem exposes us to the dangers of driving when drunk and of course, that of careless driving.

(iii)DEATH: Towards the tail end of the poem, the theme of death manifests. Death is an inevitable phenomenon every human being must undergo. Every one of us will die someday. However, the poet persona hurries his death time as a result of his carelessness and unrestrained joy.

(i) THE DESTRUCTIVE NATURE OF UNCONTROLLED JOY:
The poet persona is obviously happy and joyous about his retirement from service after thirty five years in service. This explains why he organises a party to mark his retirement. However, his joy gets the better of him and he drinks to stupor, something he has been able to control for over thirty-five years in government employment. His over-joyousness lands him in his grave. Thus, in everything we do, there is need for moderation. Had the retiree been moderate while rejoicing and compliant to his erstwhile driving code, he would have enjoyed his retirement in peace. All his years he “pummeled his boozy throat” in compliance with his duty rules just went to waste.

(ii) THE DANGER OF DRUNK 'copied from e x a m p l a z a . c o m free' DRIVING:
This is another significant theme in A Government Driver on His Retirement. The poem expresses the universal driving rule that drivers should not drive when drunk. It is widely believed that driving when drunk makes the driver(s) susceptible to auto-crash as in the case of our newly retired government driver. Driving when drunk pushes him to his early grave. His drunkenness “sent him home to rest in peace”. The poem exposes us to the dangers of driving when drunk and of course, that of careless driving.

(iii) DEATH:
Towards the tail end of the poem, the theme of death manifests. Death is an inevitable phenomenon every 'copied from e x a m p l a z a . c o m free' human being must undergo. Every one of us will die someday. However, the poet persona hurries his death time as a result of his carelessness and unrestrained joy.

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(i) Repetition:
There are a lot of repetitions within this poem especially the repetition of lines due to the unique pattern of repetition used in this poem. For examples are repetitions of lines like 'do not go gentle into that good night' (line 1) and 'rage, rage against the dying of the light' (line 3). These repetitions are made for emphasis. The constant and deliberate repetition of 'good night' and 'dying of the light' emphasizes the theme of death while at the same time teaches the readers about the transience of life. Its repetition also foregrounds the will with which the poetic persona wants the readers to reject death and all other symbolic ideas of it. 'Do not go gentle into that good night' is repeated in the first, second, fourth and sixth stanzas. The repetition of this line, other than serving as a refrain, helps to emphasize the poet's message, which 'copied from e x a m p l a z a . c o m free' is that death should not be simply accommodated without a protest. The use of the words, 'gentle' and 'good night' help to give a positive connotation to the underlying meaning expressed through them. 'Rage, rage against the dying of the light' is also repeated at the end of various stanzas in the poem. The repetition of the word, 'rage' creates a vivid image of anger and strong protest. It underlines the strong emotion which the poet persona evidently feels towards the subject matter of the poem. He insists that nobody should simply submit to death. In addition, the expression 'the dying of the light' presents death in grim, dark terms. 'Light' here is a metaphor for life.
Repetition also serves an aesthetic purpose in this work. It helps the poem to achieve musicality and rhythm by emphasizing some cogent rhythmical lines. Repetition plays numerous roles at once in this poem-creating emphasis in meaning, bridging lines and stanzas and providing the poem with rhythm and musicality.

(ii) Euphemism:
The poetic persona also makes use of euphemism throughout the work. Euphemism is a figure of speech in which words which are serious, vulgar or offensive are put in milder tones that would not affect people as badly as those other words will. Euphemism begins to come to play even from the title. The poem is titled 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night'. In simple terms, one could give this poem the title 'fight against death'. Instead of this raw and very obvious title, the poet persona puts it in milder tones. Rather than using 'fight', the poet persona makes use of 'do not go gentle'. If one is not doing something in a gentle manner especially when being forced, then such a person is fighting both physically and psychologically against that thing. Death is not called death but by all manner of milder phrases and words like 'good night' (line 1), 'dark' (line 4), 'close of day' (line 2), 'sad height' (line 16) and so on. All this helps to reduce the tension behind the use of words like 'death' and 'losing'. The effect of the use of euphemism is that it belittles what should have had grave demoralizing 'copied from e x a m p l a z a . c o m free' effects on the contents of the entire poem. Thus, the poem engages the reader with a reflective mood and a persuasive tone. This would never have been the case without the use of euphemism. The mood would have been melancholic and the tone would have been sad.
The use of euphemism also helps people to appreciate the different levels of meaning and effect that words can have on an individual. For example, 'dying of the light' in line 3 could simply be referring to the act of putting off lights in a particular place. At a euphemistic level, it could refer to someone losing fame or stardom or death.

(iii) Simile:
Apart from the above 'copied from e x a m p l a z a . c o m free' mentioned figurative devices employed by the poet persona, there are others that find expression in the poem but not in as much proportion as the aforementioned. For example, the poetic persona makes use of simile. This can be seen in line 14 where the poet persona tells the grave men to 'blaze like meteors'. Meteors are rocks from outer space that blaze when they pass through the earth's atmosphere. The poet persona compares the way the meteors fall from space into the earth's atmosphere to the grave men's lives on the verge of ending. He encourages them to still strive for life and try to leave a legacy. This is because the meteor does not just fall and die off, rather, it burns and blazes as it falls from the sky. It leaves a deep impression on every part of the earth before it finally bows to the mortality of its existence. It does not bow gladly, though, it goes down with a fight and this is what the poetic persona is trying to get the grave men to emulate. He insists that they do not have to be saddened or weighed down by their situation. On the contrary, they can be joyful. Rather than being sad, they can approach death with a defiant twinkle in their eyes.

(12)

(i) Freedom and Slavery: The predominant theme of the poem is freedom. The first line depicts this by introducing "the free bird." And the opposite theme is "slavery." A caged bird in captivity "sings of freedom." The caged bird was created for freedom as a free bird. Nonetheless, it is in an unnatural situation, trapped in a cage. Not only is it trapped, but its body has been mutilated as well.

(ii) Despair and Hope: The caged bird is in a state of despair. Being tied up in the cage compromises his movement. He is hopeful that it will transform into a free bird. That is why he sings of the anticipated freedom. Freedom seems out of reach, and his "tune is heard" in the distant hill. This tells us that the bird is hopeful one day he will fly over to the distant hill just like his voice.

(iii) Fear and Courage: While the free bird finds it easy to fly and enjoy his freedom by claiming the sky, the caged bird lives in fear. However, he is courageous enough to keep singing and use the power of his throat to fight for his freedom