If you need help getting started, feel free to address one of the following topics:
- How does the author create sympathy for the protagonist?
- Nancy Farmer is an American writing about Africa. Does she show any bias for or against the culture she describes?
Remember to write at least one well-organized paragraph on the topic. Then respond to at least two other students' writing.
The way that the author creates sympathy for the protagonist is really interesting. On most books, the author usually makes the main character an almost perfect person that everyone likes. In this case, the author makes us feel some kind of pity towards Nhamo, because she isn't treated very well by Aunt Chipo, which is the person that is supposed to take care of her. The author also makes us feel like she isn't treated fairly in comparison to Masvita, since she does most of the chores, and her cousin does only a couple. Nhamo really likes Masvita, but always tries to find a way to have to dislike her, because she appears to be perfect, and makes everyone really like her and in a way, prefer her to Nhamo. Further in the book, I think that Nhamo is going to run away because she feels like she has had enough of Aunt Chipo, who obviously dislikes her. I also think that one of the reasons she will leave the village, is because she really wants to find her father, so she could figure out whom he was and who her Vatete was going to be.
ReplyDeleteI think that the author uses some African religion or beliefs when she talks about sacrificing cattle for the spirit to return home and when she talks about spirit animals such as leopards. One reason of why I think this is because African tribes believe in spirits and that after the person dies the spirit stays close to the body but if the body is taken by a wild animal, then they sacrifice a very valuable animal, such as cattle, and by doing this and putting the animal on the person’s grave they believe that the spirit will come back to the grave. Also when the author talks about spirit leopards it made me believe that some African cultures believe in spirits animals for symbols, such as the leopard may symbolize fear or strength since the animal is very strong, fast, and agile. Although using African culture in her book, A Girl Named Disaster, Nancy Farmer doesn’t disrespect their culture at any time throughout the book. That in my point of view is very hard and important for an author who is writing about another culture that she might know nothing about. I really admire her for this. That’s why I think she uses both religion and beliefs in this book.
ReplyDeleteI think Nancy Farmer wrote this book with bias. I think she made the setting too poor and too unrealistic. She only showed poor from the Africa. I know a family who live in Africa, and they say Africa is not so poor. They also showed us a picture of an Africa and I could see that African countries are not so poor. If I compared to the book, she is writing the setting too poor. From that point I think she wrote this book with some stereotype which caused bias.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Maria Clara's post:
ReplyDeleteYour comments are insightful!
The author creates a very realistic character in Nhamo. As you say, she is not perfect. We are shown her weaknesses, such as her jealousy toward Masvita. At the same time, we see how difficult Nhamo's life is as a result of Aunt Chipo and her missing parents. In my opinion, the author does a great job in getting the audience to quickly sympathize with Nhamo.
Regarding Riki's comments:
ReplyDeleteIt is true that the audience mainly sees the lower class of Mozambique in this novel (so far). However, my question is this:
Is it an author's job to show all aspects of a society?
The author of the novel A Girl Named Disaster, Nancy Farmer, helps creating sympathy for the protagonist, Nhamo, by making her do a plethora of work for her aunts and by making her have a depressing past. First of all, she has the worst works to do for her family. It is her who has to go to the other side of the stream to take firewood for the fire in her tribe, babysit her aunts’ children, and take water to make food. Moreover, Aunt Chipo, her oldest aunt, has a profound hatred for her. After in the novel, we learn that Nhamo’s mother, Runako, was very intelligent, and, because of that, Chipo hates her sister and now projects her hatred in Nhamo. She is not the preferred of the rest of the family as well. Her cousin, Masvita, is docile and talented, and all her relatives consider her perfect. The wanting of Nhamo to be like her cousin is evident right in the first pages of the story. Furthermore, a leopard ate Runako when Nhamo was three years old and her father ran away, leaving the possibility for the family to make use of her since she has nobody to protect her. Since she is always pretending to drink tea with the spirit of her dead mother and dreams with reencountering her father, the author makes us feel like she needs attention and care, what doesn’t happen towards her in her tribe. Since we live in a society where children go to school and are mostly treated well by their families, it is a whole new experience to know Nhamo’s culture and the way she behaves towards it. Here in Brazil, people feel sorry for children who have to work and that are mistreated by their relatives. Because of all these reasons, we create sympathy for Nhamo right in the first pages of the novel.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion the author is trying to tell you that the belief of Nhamo and her tribe is true. Although the story dosen´t give an exact awnser. It leaves it for you to decide by the facts. For instance Nhamo pretends that she is at a nice dinner table with her mom and that could mean that she imagines her mom talk to her. It also says that she tried to imagine her dad there too. This showes that it could be imagined. However as Thales has pointed out there are lots of things in the book talking about spirits. Such as the cattle being sacrificed so that the spirit will return to the grave site. Also the leopard that might have turned into a bush. But the leopard could work for both ways. Maybe she was just scared so she thought it was a leopard or it might have been a real spirit. So right now I think that the Nancy Farmer is having it teeter inbetween the religon being true or not. But in my opinion it is teetering a tad bit more to the tribes belief system.
ReplyDeleteAlso responding to Maria Clara´s post: I think that you are absoulutly right. Usually you find the person´s defects later but it dosn´t matter because you already have that person´s mental picture in your mind as practically perfect. This does some of the defects first so you feel bad for her and it helps you make a better picture of a nice girl who is forced into work she dosn´t want to do.
ReplyDeleteNow also responding to Riki´s comment: Just because the author uses a poor area dosn´t mean that there aren´t rich areas. Notice the author even mentions that there are rich areas of Africa. You just have to dig a little bit to find it. In the magazine it shows an expensive house. The magazine came from the tractor showing that there are nice area´s in Africa. This story however is about the poorer parts. Mrs. Kuhn´s question is great:
ReplyDeleteIs it an author's job to show all aspects of a society?
Responding to Dallin's comment:
ReplyDeleteI really like your point about how the author leaves it up to the reader to decide whether Nhamo is pretending or really speaking to her mother's spirit. The author makes us wonder, and that draws us into the novel.
In the book “A Girl Named Disaster”, Nhamo, the protagonist, is badly treated by her aunt and the author makes it seem like she is having a bad time in the village. She has to do all the jobs, Aunt Chipo treats her badly and people close up to her when she tries to talk about her family. Nhamo is also very jealous of her cousin Masvita, because she (Masvita) is prettier than Nhamo and doesn’t get any hard jobs. The author creates a sympathy for the main character by making the reader believe that Nhamo has a really hard life in the village and doesn’t get or doesn’t have a chance to get what she want, especially when it came to her father and mother.
ReplyDeleteNancy Farmer, the author of the book, doesn’t seem to bias the African society, she actually seem to respect it and wants to show us how life is like in Africa. She shows the culture of society really well and doesn’t do against it, she later actually seem to go for it. That’s pretty much how I think is the book.
Responding to Riki:
ReplyDeleteI disagree. I don't think the author shows any bias towards the African culture. It is true that maybe Africa isn't so poor, but as we can see, the community that Nancy Farmer is describing is very isolated from everything else. When they arrive at the trading center, we can see that there are many different things available for trade, which tells us that it's not really as poor as the village Nhamo lives in. I think that the author is just saying that because she is trying to really emphasize that the village is isolated and different from other parts of Africa, such as the trading center.
After reading this far on the novel "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer, we can already notice many literary devices, but the one that most calls our attention is the specific foreshadowing about the leopard. Since the beginning of the story, Nhamo has had this mysterious encounters with a leopard, may it be spiritual or a real one. With a little inference and some analysis of the book, you can see that on the front of the book, there’s a map of Nhamo’s journey where there is a stop in the “leopard cave” and she will be attacked by what she believe are dogs, and if you read the back cover of the book, you’ll see that Nhamo will runaway. Based on these facts, we can then assume that, eventually, she will encounter the leopard, but we are still not sure about if it’s a live or even a spiritual one. We also can have insights, thinking about the idea that the animal is a figure that keeps reappearing again and again, but we are never sure if it’s real. We also can’t be sure about if when Nhamo talks to Mother, she is really talking to her dead mother or it’s an inner dialogue occurring in her mind. We can’t be sure about the encounter with the leopard, but we surely can take it as the most attention calling literary devices: foreshadowing. It is indeed predicting something that is very likely to happen on the main characters future, so therefore it we consider this as the strongest and showiest literary device on this novel.
ReplyDeleteIn the book A Girl Named Disaster, the author Nancy Farmer starts out the book introducing the main characters, the setting and the beginning of the conflict. Nhamo, the protagonist, is a character who lost her mother and confronts lots of problems with her aunt, Aunt Chipo. Nhamo isn’t treated well. She receives the hard and dirty jobs and the only family member who cares about her is her grandmother or Ambuya. Why is she treated so badly? That was the first question that flourished in my mind when reading the book. Maybe Aunt Chipo is just jealous, because Runako, Nhamo’s mother, was the most intelligent of her sisters and went to school, where she received knowledge.
ReplyDeleteWe can predict what the conflict may be, but we can’t make sure our prediction was right. For example, we can see that Nhamo is not having a good life and that maybe she will run away to find her father. She would probably run away to find a better way of life with her father. After page 50, I could see that she hates her father, in a way, because he killed a life. Even though she has now this idea about her father, she is more afraid of a curse or the man’s spirit. The spirit of the man her father killed. The book is getting interesting every time we read more and more. We can see in a deeper way Nhamo’s feelings and her situation.
Responding to Maria Clara:
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. The author makes us feel some kind of pity towards Nhamo since she is always behind Masvita regarding her family ties. Also, that Nhamo doesn't have her parents and her aunt keeps chastising Nhamo because she arrives late. Nhamo is very unfortunate and she will definitely make something out of all those years of her father's bad actions being put on her shoulders. That's why I agree with Maria Clara about the author making readers pity Nhamo.
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ReplyDeleteRespoding to Dallin:
ReplyDeleteI agree. I also think that the author was really trying to show the tribe's strong belief towards spirits. One of the reasons why I think that Nhamo isn't faking talking to her mother's spirit is because when she fought with another girl and got locked for the night by Aunt Chipo, she started talking to her mother, which later "drifted away". I think that if someone would want to fake something like that, they wouldn't make the spirit leave when they still wanted to talk to them. For example, when Nhamo asked a question to the spirit, before it could answer her, it left. Nhamo would have her mother's spirit all of the time with her if she was faking it, not only when she was facing problems or when she was alone. So, I strongly believe that the author is trying to make us believe that Nhamo is really talking to her mother's spirit.
The author creates sympathy for the protagonist. This is because Nhamo is hated by everyone except for her grandmother. I think the author is trying to make us feel pity for Nhamo, because she has to do all of the chores, and all of the work. An example would be Aunt Chipo, she treats Nhamo very bad. She treats Nhamo very bad because of how her father was like. Aunt Chipo has a daughter, but because Nhamo has no adult protection exept for Grandmother to protect her. So Aunt Cjipo takes advantage of that time.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Maria Clara’s post:
ReplyDeleteI also think that Nancy Farmer made a character that will make us look at her book in a different way. I think that because this character has no parents and she also made Nhamo a not perfect character. Another way Nancy did this was that she made every other character Nhamo knows dislike her by giving her all the heavy chores and the worse stuff also goes to her. Nhamo would also like to know her father and she keeps asking her grandmother, which is the only one that “likes” her, which is probably foreshadowing her adventure. So, I end up agreeing with Maria Clara’s response.
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ReplyDeleteThe author creates sympathy for the protagonist Nhamo in a very interesting but common way. She creates sympathy by endlessly exposing Nhamo to various situations in which she is, with no actual reason, blamed or chastised, be it by receiving the blame or being assigned a chore. In the book, aunt Chipo continuously gives Nhamo hard or tiring chores, and shows NO care or love for her. Nhamo is also treated unfairly with the distribution of chores; she always gets a hard or tiring chore. Another way she creates sympathy for Nhamo is by making her life a tragedy. For example: Her mom is dead, she never met her dad and the only aunt who was nice to her dies. Having no one to defend her other than her grandma, who is only there sometimes, Nhamo is used by the aunt Chipo to do things no one else wants to. As if that wasn’t enough, when her grandma passes away, aunt Chipo is going to be able to order Nhamo with no interference from any other person. This is how the author, Nancy Farmer, creates sympathy for the protagonist, Nhamo.
ReplyDeleteResponding to Thales,
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you that the author doesn't disrespect the culture and tries to make us imagine how close is their religion connected to their needs in life. I also agree with you that it may be that the animals and spirits represent something in their religion. Their cattle is rare and sacred, leopards are feared and respected and animals appear in all kinds of ways.The spirit leopard is an example, they fear Nhamo disrespected it by kicking its bush. The author makes it seem like religion and Nhamo's imagination are real, such as her mother talking to her and how bad luck fell in the village after Nhamo disrespected the leopard.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNancy Farmer, the author of the book, finds a fine way to create an environment where this poor girl, who lived an unhappy past has the worst life she could possibly create. This girl is being mistreated by most of her family members and she doesn’t seem to be very happy in the life she is taking. I believe that the author, through this method find a way for us to have sympathy for this character. Nhamo, a poor ordinary girl, is living an unfair life and been mistreated, but not for her own actions, but for the action her parents took in the past. Through this environment she managed to make us feel a lot of sympathy towards this character, who has not only suffered throughout life but is being judged unfairly.
ReplyDeleteI think that Nhamo is treated a little too bad by her aunts. I mean the picture you get of aunt Chipo is not nice. The way she treats Nhamo is horrible. I mean when Nhamo and Tazviona fell into a fight, aunt Chipo punished her by hitting her with a leather strap was not nice at all. And aunt Shuvai also harass her and make fun of her, for example the time when Nhamo came back late and aunt Chipo was mad at her, Shuvai commented with “She probably fell asleep under a tree.” I don’t get why her aunts get on treating her so bad, if it’s her mother that wasn’t nice, why are they being mean to Nhamo for that. Nhamo’s grandmother is nice to her though, because Ambuya always liked Runako more than Shuvai and Chipo. That off course annoys Nhamo’s aunts a lot. So, I think that Nhamo should be treated better by her aunts.
ReplyDeleteResponding to Riki:
ReplyDeleteI disagree with you, the author is definitely not bias. She is simply exposing the story from a different point of view. Most books and stories that take place in Africa usually show lush forests, like in Tarzan, or desert-like places. On news, we are used seeing the poverty of Africa, and rarely we are exposed to the rich culture and all the spirituality they carry. In this book, Nancy Farmer does an excellent job showing us a little bit deeper into Africa, diving into more than the lines of poverty and famine, but she is still very realistic. She shows how their culture is diverse, amazing and enriched, but she also shows us the difficulties people have and how much they actually have to work in order to barely make a living. She also shows us how actual society there works: the hierarchy, the beliefs and a small part of the economy. It’s a different reality, and through this book she makes sure to tell us specifically about the land of contrasts that is Africa: Nhamo lives in an isolated village where there is no electricity, no mirrors and defiantly few contact with technology, but at the same time this happens in now-a-days time period, so upper in Mozambique, I believe specially in Maputo, we’d be confronted with a technological city (or at least more technological then their village) where we’d identify ourselves more easily. Therefore, I do believe the author was not bias at all while writing the book “A Girl Named Disaster”.
Responding to Isabela K.:
ReplyDeleteI also think Nhamo is eventually going to fight with a leopard. The clues the author, Nancy Farmer, gives makes us think abouth the future. This literary device is called forshadowing. Like Isabela said, in the beginning of the book, we can see a map of Nhamo's odissey and we can notice that there's a place called "leopard's cave". The event could be one of the rising actions or even the climax of the plot in the book.
If you notice, a common scene many books have is when the protagonist, of the book, overcomes her fear. So that may be one of Nancy's Farmer step.
Respoding to Isabela K.:
ReplyDeleteI also think the author is giving us interesting and important literary devices. The leopard especially, I think that one of the rising actions will be that Nhamo will have to face a leopard by herself, and not escape. It will be a matter of confronting her past. Even when I hadn't seen the map in the first pages, it is almost definate that she will have to make her way through that path that her mother couldn't make, making her different than her mother that couldn't protect herself. Or it could be a matter of facing her father that wasn't there to protect her mother, Runako. That's why I think that the author is giving important literary devices in "A Girl Named Disaster".
I think the author creates a lot of sympathy for Nhamo for many reasons. She creates sympathy for Nhamo because all the time, Aunt Chipo treats her terribly. She has to do all the chores, like making the food, getting the fire wood and getting some water from the river. Also, the author puts Nhamo in the worst of the conditions ever. She has a cousin, Masvita, which is much brighter, beautiful and nicer than her. So because of her, Nhamo is ignored all the time. Everything is for Masvita. She's treated well and has to do no chores. Another reason because Nhamo is treated badly by Aunt Chipo is maybe because her mum (Runako), who is Aunt Chipo’s sister, was way smarter than her and she could go to the university. So, this made Aunt Chipo very jealous and because Runako is dead, Nhamo has the right to assist to the vengeance of Aunt Chipo. So all because of this, the author makes us feel really sorry for Nhamo and it makes us want to protect and take care of her. So, the author creates a lot of sympathy for Nhamo.
ReplyDeleteI think the author, Nancy Farmer, creates sympathy towards Nhamo by making the other characters hate her. That way, the reader, or us, feel pity for Nhamo and wish that those other characters would stop being so mean. Also, I think that Farmer does not show or write anything that appears to be biased against the culture she describes. As a matter of fact, it seems like she likes alot the culture she explains because when she does talk about the culture she goes deeper into it than other parts of the book.
ReplyDeleteResponding to Riki:
ReplyDeleteI don’t think the author wrote the setting of the book with bias. She just picked a side of Africa that most people don’t know to write her story. When we talk about Africa, we usually think in the Sahara desert, the luxuriant rainforest of Congo, the large cities of South Africa and the misery in Ethiopia and Somalia. I would never think about the traditional tribes in Zimbabwe! Moreover, the setting is actually very rich: Nancy Farmer describes Nhamo’s village and its surroundings with great vivacity and suspense (when the leopard is around). Finally, responding to Mrs. Kuhn’s question, I don’t think an author needs to show all the aspects of a society in a novel: he or she needs to show what is interesting for the reader to know and focus in the place where things are happening. In this case, the story would be very awkward if the author kept coming from Nhamo’s village to the house of a rich family in Maputo. Therefore, the author didn’t write the book with bias, the setting is richly composed and an author doesn’t need to show all the aspects of a society.
The author creates sympathy for the protagonist in a very interesting way. She creates sympathy for Nhamo is various ways. One way is giving Nhamo a pretty hard life which makes most of us feel sorry for her. Another way is having Nhamo have no parents or siblings which also makes us feel sorry for her since she is all alone. The way that probably makes us feel the most sympathy for Nhamo is the mean-adult-in-charge method because it totally ruins Nhamos life and really makes us feel empathy for Nhamo.
ReplyDeleteResponding to Alex,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, the author creates a sympathy for Nhamo by the way she is treated. It also seems like Aunt Chipo holdes a grudge on Nhamo, Aunt Chipo is usually the one who asks Nhamo to do the chores. Only the Ambuya protects Nhamo. It also seems like Masvita has an easy life compared to Nhamo, being that mostly only Nhamo gets the chore and Masvita escapes likely. The problem is that Nhamo wants to hate Masvita, but there is no reason to, Masvita is almost perfect.
In the novel "A Girl Named Disaster," by Nancy Farmer, the author creates sympathy for the protagonist in several ways. Instead of making the reader want to be like the protagonist, such as other authors do, she makes us want to help the character and we feel bad for her. The main character in this book is a girl named Nhamo. The author does not tell us, the readers, how old she is, but we assume the girl is about ten or eleven years old, because she has not had her first period and her chest is still flat. First, the author tells us that her mother has died when she was still very young and her father left them. This makes us feel compassion for Nhamo. Who wouldn’t feel melancholic being an orphan? What also made me feel pitiful for her is that the people who are supposed to be taking care of her, Aunt Chipo and Uncle Kufa, do not truly care about her and make the girl do all of the village’s hard work. For example, she needs to cross the stream to gather wood, water, and collect seeds. When she is caught eating a fruit after all the hard work, it’s as if she has committed a heinous crime. At one point in the book, Nhamo’s grandmother, the only person who actually loves her, tells her that her father had killed a man long ago. This just made me feel more pity towards the girl. One of the events that made me feel absolutely sad because of her was the meaning of her name. Nhamo means disaster. Wouldn’t it be just the worst feeling ever to know that your name has such an awful meaning? As I have said before, the author of "A Girl Named Disaster" makes the reader feel a lot of sympathy for Nhamo because of how much she has already suffered.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Klaus’s post:
ReplyDeleteI also think that Nancy Farmer made a character that will make us look at African’s life style in a different way. I think that because this character has no parents, which may or may not be common in Africa, and she also made Nhamo a not perfect character in the sense of she isn’t the prettiest in her village. Another way Nancy did this was that she made every other character Nhamo knows dislike her by giving her all the heavy chores, miss treating her, and the worse stuff also goes to her. Nhamo would also like to know her father, and she keeps asking her grandmother, which is the only one that “likes” her, which is probably foreshadowing for her adventure. So, I end up agreeing with Klaus’s response.
The way the author, Nancy Farmer creates sympathy for Nhamo, is really great! The way she does it is the following. She projects Nhamo as the child without a father and mother, because in the book, it explains how Nhamo's mother died, which was by a leopard, and also, that the father ran away even before Nhamo was born. I think that, that is already a good enough reason to make us feel sympathy for her. Also, there was the fact that Nhamo was put to work, to do all the jobs in her community, because of her Aunt Chipo. But there could also be another point of view, which is that just because Nhamo's father left Nhamo and her mother, and all the anger was put on Nhamo. That is one reason. Another reason why Aunt Chipo is so mean to Nhamo, could be that she ( Aunt Chipo) wanted Nhamo to die instead of the mother, because Nhamo's mother died protecting her from the leopard, and that made me feel sorry for Nhamo. But, even so, later in the story, Nhamo runs away, and the reason is quite obvious, really, it was the fault of her mean, wicked, Aunt Chipo. Those are the reasons why I think the author; Nancy Farmer did a great job on creating sympathy, for Nhamo in the story.
ReplyDeleteResponding to Barbara:
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you. Nhamo is a young girl who is really mistreated for the mistakes others did in the past: her mother going to school with a scholarship and married a worthless man under the Christian religion without telling her family. Her father killed a man while he was drunk and ran away, leaving her alone. She is punished for all of this mistakes others did, which sums up to be something truly unfairly made. She slowly is exposed to the truth of why she is treated the way she is, and it is definitely too much for a young girl to handle by herself. At this point, the author is also very good: the sympathy we end up expressing for Nhamo indeed makes the story more interesting; it makes us wonder what the next disaster will be inflicted to this young girl. We always shall hope for the best for her, but a part of us will always seek for the mystery of why this girl is so misfortunate. The author is very successful in making us feel sympathetic for the character, and therefore I do agree with your statements.
Responding to John
ReplyDeleteI think John is right saying that Nahmo is being treated very poorly and does not deserve to be treated this way. Nhamo is a person that does all of the chores and she is pretty much the person that is the victim of the tribe. She has to do everything.
Responding to Alex's post:
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about how the author wants to make us feel pity for Nhamo, but i disagree with one thing. I do not believe aunt Chipo treats her poorly because of how her father was , I think it is because aunt Chipo had always envied Nhamo's mother. Since her mother is dead and her father is not there to protect her, aunt Chipo discharges all her envy of Runako on Nhamo.
*Responding to Max*
ReplyDeleteI agree with Max that Masvita is the one who is treated the best and I think that she is only treated well because she is pretty. That is really unfair and I think that the grandma is the only one who actually makes Masvita do a little chores.
So far the novel A Girl Named Disaster, writen by Nancy Farmer has a perculiar exposition, where some facts are not being given out directly but the author is trying to make you solve the puzzle. The protagonist is Nhamo,whos mother,Runkao, died attacked by a leopard and her father, Proud Jongwe, ran away close to the time period when Nhamo's birth took place and deserting her. Of course, she had to be taken care of and so Aunt Chipo provided her a shelter, food and cloth. This has its good sides, but she her aunt had given her a lot of chores everyday. She never got to rest and had to always to tasks that nobody else wanted to do. In my opinion, she was, in some way, a slave. Everybody was disrespecting her and not treated her as if she had importance in the social ranks. One question that was being asked about during the novel was, Why does everbody hate Nhamo? On page 40, where Ambuya and Aunt Chipo were arguing and fighting about the fact that Ambuya preferred Aunt Shuvai and Runkao better than Aunto Chipo, the following quote explains many mysteries: “ That’s right! Attack me. You always liked Runkao and Shuvai better… Who came home with the fat belly and a no-good husband. Clever Runkao! Too bad she and Shuvai are dead. I’m all you’ve got left! “said Aunt Chipo. That quote revealed what everbody was wondering about. She had been jealous of Nhamos’ mother and for then disliked Nhamo. Something else that is really interesting is when Nhamo, Ambuya, Masvita, Uncle Kufa, Aunt Chipo and more people all travel together to go see the muvuki. As they pass through a village, there a lot of different events going on, such as a parrot talking, chickens being sold and more. Nhamo gets so interested in this and so she goes back to explore it at night. As she passes through a man talls her she can be there, because there was beer. This is strange, that they were able to get beer. More and more through the book, new objects are appearing that are adding to the question of the period of time that the book is taking place.
ReplyDeleteTo santiago.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Santiago is not being treated fairely, and is more like the victim. She has to do everything. Aunt Chipo tells Nhamo to do all of her chores, and to do all of the hard work. I think it is not very fair. The author makes it stick, and might make something change farther in the book.
I think that the author, Nancy Farmer, don’t show any bias. The way that Nhamo lives, is reality a lot of Africans live in tribes with their families, they face danger for example the leopards. This book is realistic fiction. They have the same hierarchy and Nhamo is the last one to be served or has less privileges. Nancy Farmer maybe wrote this novel to show to the world how people suffer and the way that Africans live. Showed the religion also, where Nhamo’s tribe believe only in spirits, for example the leopard spirit. Also, she thinks she talks to her mother as a spirit. We think that’s weird but for them it’s normal. The author creates sympathy for Nhamo first, her mother died, that already makes think that she is alone without the person that takes care of you and plus her father ran away and let her alone with her aunts that don’t care of her. She needs to take care of the children and eats very bad and always the last one. So the author makes you to care for Nhamo.
ReplyDeleteResponding to Santiago,
ReplyDeleteYes, I also agree that the author creates sympathy for Nhamo, by making the others hate her. But, there could also be other reasons why the other characters hate her, and are being mean to her. But also keep in mind that not everyone hates Nhamo. Her grandmother doesn't hate her and Masvita too. The other reasons could be, because Nhamo's father ran away before she was born. And that her mother died instead of Nhamo. So those could also be the reasons why most of the others hate Nhamo.
**Responding to Maria Clara**
ReplyDeleteMaria Clara, I completely disagree with you. You say that most authors create a main character that is perfect in every aspect; that is completely wrong. Most authors create a main character that is disgraceful in every aspect and then they find a way to make you fill sympathy for them. There are many examples of this happening, take the two most famous books for instance. Harry Potter is this poor little disturbed boy who has lost his two parents on the same day and now has the world’s most dangerous wizard is chasing after him. Then you take “Twilight” for example, Bella, this odd girl who has nothing special about her is stuck in the middle of a world where vampires and werewolves are fighting all the time, and she, just like Harry, has the most dangerous creature (in her world) chasing after her. Do you say that as perfect, cause I really don’t.
Responding to John:
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about Nhamo should be treated better because she should be treated fairly like the others. I totally agree with the part where they are being mean to Nhamo not Runako. I think it is not fair to be mean on Nhamo. She did nothing so bad to get teased to the aunts. The part where Nhamo had got hit by the leather strap is the part I think the most unfair and mean so far. So I really agree with you and Nhamo should be treated better.
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ReplyDeleteThe way in the book A Girl Named Disaster “ that the author creates sympathy for the protagonist, Nhamo, is different from other books and really different. It`s not very common to see one book where the whole story happens in one continent that is almost all poor but as we can see very rich in culture. In the story the author describes Nhamo in a sad way, this usually is more attractive than the “normal” way that is describing the protagonists as a perfect person and a beautiful life. In the story the author attract us making us fell sorry about the life that Nhamo is having because her mother was killed by a leopard, her father ran away before she was born, the life she takes in the village she lives, how she is treated in the village, etc . The way the author describes her life is realistic fiction, unfortunately this is the life style many girls in Africa have. Maybe this life she has is strange for us, but for the people that lives there it is normal because it is their culture.
ReplyDeleteResponding to lennart :
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you, I think that this way the author choosed to describe Nhamo makes the story more interesting for us because we want to know what is going to happen with her.
Responding to Paul :
ReplyDeleteI also think like this, how I said in my paragraph and you continued further this realistic fiction that Nancy Farmer created shows how the life of many Africans is and will continue because this traditions are part of the life in this African tribes.
Responding to Javiera:
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the author is trying to hide some facts of the story to keep us wondering about them. I find this a very good strategy to make readers get interested in the book, because we always want to know what will happen next and why many facts in the novel are what they are. What a dull book this one would be if, in the first chapter, Nancy Farmer already revealed us why Aunt Chipo hates Nhamo, why Nhamo’s family hates her father, the vengeance of the spirit of Goré Mtoko, among so many others! I also want to discuss about you thinking Nhamo has been treated like a slave. How we are studying in Social Studies, Africans had slaves and they were even sold to other places. Would Nhamo be a kind of modern slave, more “free” but still doing so many chores? Or is Nhamo doing so many chores because her family hates her and her father so much? I would go for the second option, because she is not being treated as an object as slaves were. Let’s continue reading and check whether she gets more privileges throughout the novel or not. I hope many puzzles will continue to be solved and others will arise in the next pages and chapters of this interesting novel.
Responding to Paul,
ReplyDeleteYes, I think you are right, the author does show a lot about the African culture, but we also think it's weird, but it's the reality of what's going on in Africa. And we'll just have to accept it. And also, the author does make Nhamo talk to spirits, because probably people in Africa really do believe a lot in spirits and stuff.
Characters in the story really act differently towards Nhamo. Firstly, there’s Aunt Chipo, who likes making Nhamo’s life harder since she is Runako’s daughter, by making her do heavy chores. That is because Runako was a intelligent girl who made her mother ( Nhamo’s Ambuya) really proud. She also is hated by her Uncle Kufa maybe because his wife hates Nhamo. Her ambuya loves her and calls her “Little Pumpkin”, and tries to always make Nhamo’s life easier. Masvita is her cousin, Kufa and Chipo’s daughter, and she is the most ‘valued’ girl for some of the villagers since she is pretty and nice. Masvita doesn't have heavy chores like Nhamo since Aunt Chipo doesn't give her them. Masvita isn’t influenced by her mother to hate Nhamo since one of her traits is being understanding and sweet with everyone, which annoys Nhamo since she wants a reason to hate her cousin. When Nhamo and some villagers go to the trading post, there is Joao and Rosa, who treat her like a daughter and want her to stay with them, which doesn’t happen. This is how different characters treat Nhamo.
ReplyDeleteResponding to Riki’s comment:
ReplyDeleteI disagree with you. I disagree with you because I think that the novel A Girl Named Disaster is not biased. I agree with you when you said that there are a lot of rich countries in Africa. But the major part of the population from those countries is poor. It is true that she showed a lot of only the poor part of Zimbabwe but she wants to show how poor Africa really is. So, she is showing the real face of Africa. So, I think that this book is everything but biased.
Responding to Mrs. Kuhn’s question, “Is it an author’s job to show all aspects of a society?”
ReplyDeleteI think that it isn’t the author’s job to show all aspects of a society. The author should just talk about one specific class. Otherwise, if the book is mostly talking about a book with poor people, the author isn’t going to talk about the rich people. Why wouldn’t she do this? Because I personally think it isn’t interesting to talk about several classes in a book. Also it would be completely off topic. Moreover, if an author talks about two different classes, it would be too much information and it would confuse me. So, this is why it isn’t the authors job to show all aspects of a society.
In the book, A Girl Named Disaster, there can be made many different theories about why Aunt Chipo appears to hate the protagonist, Nhamo. As you know, Nhamo’s mom, or in other words, Aunt Chipo’s sister, died when Nhamo was just born. This can lead to a conclusion of whether Aunt Chipo likes or disliked her sister. If we consider the fact that she liked her sister, then a theory made, could be that Aunt Chipo hates Nhamo because the leopard that killed her mom went straight away to her, the mom, instead of stopping to kill the baby, Nhamo. This makes sense until you read a bit farther where Aunt Chipo and the grandmother have an argument about Nhamo’s mother. The grandmother says that Nhamo’s mother was always smarter, prettier, and nicer compared to Aunt Chipo. This makes Aunt Chipo mad and says that no one ever cared about her, and that Nhamo’s mother was the one who always got the attention. Then another theory straight away pops up that Aunt Chipo hates Nhamo because her mom was always smarter than she was. This allows us to predict another theory, that since Nhamo was the daughter of Aunt Chipo’s sister, she think that the daughter could grow up to be like her mother, so she prevents this by treating her badly, to make Nhamo most percent chances not grow up to be like her mother. One other way you can think of it is that you could say that Aunt Chipo was treated badly before, when she was a child, and the way to put show her anger is by treating someone else the way she was treated, which is Nhamo. Last but certainly not least, an obvious thought could relies on the fact that when they go to Vetete’s home, the grandmother talk Nhamo’s father, and Nhamo figure out that her father was a murderer. Then she states that she thinks that that is why Aunt Chipo hates her so much. This is why I think that there are many predictions that could be made to interpret the fact that Aunt Chipo treats Nhamo evilly.
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ReplyDeleteResponding to Max:
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that yes, Masvita is treated as if she were in a higher social level maybe because she is brighter, beautiful and nicer than Nhamo, like you mencioned. Nhamo has all the chores, when on the other hand Masvita is sitting in the shades completing all of her chores, which are not a lot compared to Nhamo. Also, Aunto Chipo maybe treats Nhamo badly because of her parents, Runkoa who was so intelligent and was able to get in a university, and Proud Jonge for murdering somebody and then just running away. As a result, yes, that maybe the reasons for her feeling towards Nhamo.
Responding to Biba:
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. When Maria Clara said that most of the characters in many books are perfect, I disagreed. As Biba said, many authors try to make a character who lives in a normal life and needs to improve by their own mistakes. In the book "A Girl Named Disaster", Nancy Farmer have also created a character who isn´t perfect and have lots of weaknesses and defects, making us, the audience feel sympathy for her.
On the other hand, I agree with Maria Clara that Nhamo isn´t treated well, like Masvita. That feeling that Nhamo have over Masvita could affect her way of vizualizing herself. For example, Nhamo may think that she isn´t like her cousin and that she is someone useless. That may change Nhamo´s thoughts, making her be harsh on herself.
Respond to Mrs. Kuhn’s question:
ReplyDeleteIs it an author's job to show all aspects of a society?
I think she doesn’t have to every single aspect of a society. What I want to say is that the story is kind of too dark because the Aunts are really mean to Nhamo and people are dying and getting hurt for few reasons. I don’t really like to read a dark story because it makes me dark and sad as well. So I think the book need more happy things. I also think she might be writing lots of poor situation because at the end, Nhamo might get rich and live happy after all her life. There for in my opinion, the author doesn’t has to show all aspects of a society but I think the book is too dark.
Responding to Julian's comment:
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you that all the character treat Nhamo differently, but I disagree with two parts of it. First, I think that Aunt Chipo mainly hates Nhamo because her father was a murderer. In the book it mentions that in Nhamo's head she thought that the reason her Aunt and Uncle hated her was because her father was a murderer, like I said, and she got mad and frustrated that her father was a murderer. Second, I don't think that Masvita hates Nhamo. I think that she actually is like her grandmother and treats Nhamo differently. For example, when Nhamo had to carry all these bags, Masvita offered helped, but Nhamo didn't let her help because of how thin she was, and was afraid she would fall. So, those are the two parts of your paragraph that I disagree, but besides that, I totally agree with you that all the character treat her differently for different reason, whether mention or not mentioned in the book.
Responding to Isabella Vitta’s comment:
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, the author is trying to make us feel pity for Nhamo. Also, yes, we can see that her age is in the 10’s to 15’s, but when they comment on Masvita, later on in the book, they mention they are the same age. This is very strange, because they said that Masvita already had become a women. So, I really wonder that there are some factors contradicting each other.
I too agree, that it would be horrible to be told one day that you name meant “disaster”. Now we are able to comprehend what the title of the book means, and she is truly a troublemaker.
Extra Post:
ReplyDeletePlease answer if you now the answer to this, i have been wondering about it and i am not sure if the book already mentioned it.
When they are at the muvaki, they mention that the spirit of the man, Nhamo's father murdered, was still in their presence. Like, that he wandered around, searching for revenge. They also mentioned that he might have been in a shape of the leopard.
Technically, this is means that maybe the leopard that Nhamo saw was this man. But what is in a way “untold” and I am not sure if anybody else have thought about this before, but after the man was murdered, could he have been so angry that he didn’t go and kill the murderer himself, but instead his wife. Were then, he put himself into the shape of a leopard and attacked Runkao.
Could this be possible???
I have been dying to try to figure this out, so please if anybody has an educated guess or actual answer, please tell me. I am also very sorry, if this is common knowledge but I am not sure if this has been revealed about before in the book.
Mrs.Kuhn: This is just another post, not part of the three asigned.
Extra post - Responding to Javi:
ReplyDeleteJavi, maybe the ngozi of Goré Mtoko posessed the leopard that killed Nhamo's mother. I hope this answers your question.
(Mrs. Kuhn, this is an extra post, not part of the 3 assigned.)
Responding to Natasha's comment:
ReplyDeleteI personally think that Nhamo won't go to visit her father, or in there words live with her father. I am saying this because she realizes her father is a murderer and she get mad, which lets us have a clue that she is not gonna go see her father. Also, another clue that the book gives us is at the cover. If you can see there is a map that shows her journey but it does not show were she finishes, which is the right thing to do as an author because then the reader wants to finish reading the book to figure it out. I still wonder where she might go, but we already know that she is gonna escape. So, Natasha, I agree with you on everything else except on the part of where she escapes to.
**Responding to Juliana**
ReplyDeleteYes, you are completely right about people trating Nhamo differently around the novel, but I believe you missed out on a big aspect when writing your post. You see, the only people who don't like Nhamo are the people who were jealous of her mom. I think that this shows us that Nhamo is actually a really nice person since everyone who doesn't care about her mother and father incident actually end up really loving her. Also when you were talking about Mastiva you mentioned that Nhamo wanted to find a reason to hate her and couldn't, I believe that changed a lot. In my opinion Nhamo and her cousin have become really close since the beginning of the novel. One example is that when Nhamo was offered to stay with Joao and Rose the only thing that kept coming to her mind was that she wouldn't be able to see her grandmother and her cousin everyday, and the fact that she might never see them again. I believe this facts completely show how Nhamos feeling towards her cousin have completely changed since the beginning of the novel, and her cousin has become one of the people that are the most important to Nhamo in the novel.
Responding to Javiera:
ReplyDeleteI also agree that this novel’s exposition was pretty different, interesting, and made us wonder about why things were happening. As you have mentioned, Nhamo’s aunt, Chipo, never treated her properly. In the beginning I was really bothered by how the young girl was mistreated, but as the book continues, we learn why: Chipo had always been jealous of Runako, Nhamo’s mother. Nancy Farmer also says that since the protagonist was born only a month before Masvita, she got all the attention and Chipo was extremely irritated by that. Another peculiar detail about the beginning of this story is Nhamo’s father. In the village’s culture, it is said that if a girl’s mother is dead, she should go live with her father. Although we are told that he abandoned his family before Nhamo’s birth, why didn’t she go live with him after some time? Later in the book, we discover the protagonist’s father, Proud Jongwe, had once killed a man and that’s why Grandmother didn’t allow Nhamo to live with him and his family. As Javiera has mentioned, the exposition in “A Girl Named Disaster” does not tell the reader many important facts that would help us understand the novel better. Instead, the author uses foreshadowing and makes us curious as she reveals significant information throughout the book.
Responding to Camila
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Aunt Chipo dislikes Nhamo because of what happened with her mom. Also she tries to destroy Nhamo´s self-esteem so that happened with her doesn´t happen with her daughter, to be the most disliked in the family.
Responding to Juliana:
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Nhamo is treated extremely different by people. Some love her, some like her, while others hate her. Grandmother is the one who loves Nhamo the most among all other characters. In my opinion, that happens because Nhamo reminds her of Runako, her favorite daughter. Masvita is the other character who also truly cares about Nhamo. I agree with Barbara's answer to Juliana saying that as the novel developed, these characters' relashionship got more intimate and stronger. Joao and Rosa are the others who have loved and taken care of the girl. As we all know by now, Chipo has hated Nhamo from the minute she was born and was enthusiastic about her finally leaving the village. That is how some of the characters feel towards the main character, Nhamo. I just wonder how her father, Proud Jongwe, will react to her reapearance. I hope it works out. Nhamo deserves some peace and a loving family.
Responding to Tomas comment
ReplyDeleteI agree because maybe you that it´s really harsh the way that Nhamo lives but in Africa girls may live much worse for example Nhamo at least eats. Many cases that children don´t eat and dies in a very young age. But what makes ikt equal or makes you really sorry for her the fact of her parents. One has died and the other one has ran away. Nhamo now can only depend on her grandmother, and when she dies she will be lost.
Responding to Mrs. Kuhn’s question: “Is it an author's job to show all aspects of a society?”
ReplyDeleteI do think it is the author’s job to show all aspects of a society. If an author only shows one aspect, people will only get one view of that specific society. But if the author would have shown more aspects you would get a total different view of the society. For example, in “A Girl named Disaster,” the author shows you the kind of poor aspect of the society; you don’t get to know the civilized people in Mozambique. That makes you think that everyone in Mozambique is poor and lives in the forest in some mud huts. But that’s not really how it is. I think it’s easier to understand a novel if you get more aspects too. As you see, you can very easily get the wrong view of something. So, I think authors should always try to show all aspects of a society.
Responding to Lennart:
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the author creates sympathy in a very interesting way. I also think it’s great that she creates it in various ways. By giving Nhamo a hard life you start feel pity for her. I also agree that you feel sorry for her since she is all alone, which is really sad. Everyone is also really mean to her, which you just don’t like, that’s why you also feel sorry for her. Her aunts are just too mean and I think the author tries to make them be mean so you’ll feel sorry for Nhamo. I think the authors way of creating sympathy for Nhamo works. So, overall, I agree with Lennart.