1.
How does the political aspect of the novel make it different from the previous
works that we have read?
2.
How does the game that Sepha Stephanos and his other Ethiopian friends play
contribute to their ideas regarding the place they immigrated from? Does it
portray a sense of mockery or a sense of nostalgia?
3.
Why does Stephanos choose to remain resistant to change and growth despite
living in America for seventeen years?
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ReplyDeleteThis game allows Sepha and his friends to reflect on the socio-political struggles of Africa, which have been fueled by civil wars fought between various African nations and battles against the French to gain independence.
ReplyDeleteKenneth and Joseph’s input, over glasses of scotch stir memories and discussions in Sepha's store which serves as the foundation that harnesses their national pride and awakens their self-awareness about their country's history and the end less list of wars. Sepha says, "No matter how many we name, there are always more, the names, dates, and years multiplying as fast as we can memorize them so that at times we wonder, half-jokingly, if perhaps we ourselves aren't somewhat responsible (8)." Sepha's roots are deeply connected to Africa in a way in which he feels he directly contributed to the violence it has experienced.
In a reference to a rumor that circulated around Emperor Bukassa, Kenneth asks Joseph, "He was a cannibal, wasn't he (9)?" Kenneth expresses African pride but appears misinformed about this particular leader's image. Joseph replies, '"According to the French, yes. But who can believe the French? Just look at Sierra Leone, Senegal. Liars, all of them (9)." Sepha and his friends understand how views on their prominent African leaders have been shaped according to tarnished reputations smeared on them by their oppressors.
Sepha owns a failing grocery store that's mostly uninfluenced by profit, which serves as the space where his only two companions, Kenneth and Joseph, African immigrants meet to share their bitter nostalgia and yearning for home. Sepha's reluctance to change is shown in his disinterest toward assimilating into American culture and helps him preserve his heritage.
Other novels that we have read throughout the semester tend to be apolitical and more narratives of unbridled thought about living America with little context about the government relationship between their 'old' and 'new' countries. This novel differs because the personal has become the political for Mengetsu. What separates these stories most drastically is the reason for 'immigration', in Bread Givers, Lucy, Brooklyn, No-No Boy, etc., the protagonists or their families move to America in pursuit of education and opportunity– whereas Mengetsu writes of exile, and flee from the Ethiopian Red Terror in the 70s to Washington, D.C.. These varying reasons for immigration to the U.S. give the novel a bleaker demeanor.
ReplyDeleteThe weekly game that Sepha and his friends play is a bittersweet memoriam. I feel that the game is a way of reassuring their lives in America, by literally turning African history into a game. This also is a method of normalizing, maybe even trivializing painful memories. Sepha wants to honor the past, but not live in it. "Father: a man stuck between two worlds lives and dies alone."
In Sepha's mind, the American dream that the country swears it is attainable has all but failed him. He compares himself to his friend Ken as a way to say that there is a clear disparity between their accomplishments in this new country. Sepha's store represents his financial shortcomings as well as feeling of living without a place in America. Alongside the gentrification of his neighborhood, he feels the forces of the next American generation slowly but surely displacing him. This combination of discouraging circumstances in his past, present, and future, make it difficult for Stephanos to embrace where he is wholeheartedly.
1) The political aspect of this novel differs from some of the previous novels we’ve read because most of them are centered or focused on the protagonist’s experience with as they struggle to find their place in American. The politics in Mengestu’s novel has direct and permanent consequence on Sepha that causes him to struggle with his ability to move forward with a new life. Similar to John Okada’s novel No-No Boy, Ichiro too, faces the consequences of siding with his mother politically, which in term leaves him jailed, and struggling to live a normal life once he is released. However, Sepha’s political connection, not only causes the death of his father, but burdens him with the guilt of being the catalyst. These two characters differ in that Ichiro’s actions only effected himself, while Sepha’s actions effected his family as well as himself. This makes a distinct difference between the two novels because while Ichiro is struggling with regret, Sepha is burden with guilt which stunts him emotionally, and prevents him from growing and changing his life in America.
ReplyDelete2) The game Sepha, Joe, and Kenny play is a way for them to reminisce but it’s a way of normalizing the violence and chaos that come along with constant revolution. One way to cope with pain is to make fun of it, which we discover later is what Sepha does, as his political affiliations get his father killed. Sepha comments that no matter how many leaders they will be able to remember, more will constantly pop up, so it becomes a way for each of the men to desensitize themselves from the violence. It could also be a way to keep them connected to their homeland while simultaneously separating themselves; “othering” those they left behind. These men are not just reflecting and remembering their histories, but they are trying to bury things they don’t want to feel. This game is their own way of trying to heal from their pasts and connect to each other’s pain without having to vocalize it.
3) Sepha is resistant to change because he is simultaneously living in the past and the present. He is weighted down by the blood he believes he has on his hands. He is consumed with guilt over the death of his father and while he is able to be present (which we see with his interactions with Naomi and Judith) he is not motivated to take advantage of the opportunities in front of him. Sepha’s grocery store is failing and he has no urge to save it from eviction, because he feels he doesn’t deserve to succeed in America. His path to America is tainted with his father’s death and while he does immigrate, he doesn’t feel the urge to progress and move forward, like his friends who work hard to get ahead. It isn’t until he has this epiphany that Naomi and Judith were his chance to move on does he realize that he needs to let go of his pain. This leads him to a hopeful future where he can continue on with his life.
2) The game that Stephanos and his friends play is a really interesting one since it has some form of familiarity paired with detachment. Similar to how people in real life make light of events that were once difficult, the game that they play is a coping mechanism. Through this mockery they can detach themselves from the actual events that live in their memories. It's reminiscent? Yes, but by making it a game, Mengestu's characters are making these realities of war feel insignificant to these characters. To them it's just a game.
ReplyDelete3) In a way Stephanos is comfortable where he is. Comfortable may not be the right word, but to him everything about his life is familiar; there's a pattern to it. Stephanos' refusal to grow from where he is stems from this familiarity and later in his hopelessness of achieving the American dream. He's watched his friends grow as individual, earning more money and living better lives, he feels as if he's missed his boat. Also looking at how the neighborhood seems to change around him without him doing anything about it, his hopelessness shines since he doesn't adapt. It's as if everything is changing to fast for Stephanos to keep up.
One of the biggest ways this novel differs politically from previous works we have read is that the main protagonist arrives to America in many ways a political refugee. Sepha comes to America seeking to escape the devastation of the revolution taking place in his home country of Ethiopia. Sepha has a very personal experience with the war because his father is murdered when he takes responsibility for communist literature that Sepha had brought home. Although this isn’t blatantly stated in the book I would characterize Sepha’s move to the U.S. as displacement more than I would immigration because his home country was completely destabilized from the war given many citizens no choice but to flee. Also because Sepha never really seems to assimilate into American life, he seems stuck, which is probably due to trauma from his fathers death. But the fact that this seems more like a story of displacement than immigration is one of the ways in which this novel differs from previous.
ReplyDeleteWeirdly I feel the game they play, in which they name different African dictators, is a form of nostalgia for the continent. The game represents one of the many ways in which these men are able to bond/connect in this new country(America) by reminiscing about the different dictators who ruled in different African countries. Despite Sepha’s distancing from anything thing that reminds him of Ethiopia this game is a way for him and his friend to not only make light of the situation of the African continent but also subconscious longing to return.