Welcome to my crash course on the play Anansi, written by Alistair Campbell. The objective of this course is to help you come to a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the play as you prepare for your CSEC English BS exams. We'll be looking at everything.
Plot, characters, themes, literary devices, all that stuff. While I will be quoting many lines from the play, what we will not be doing is reading the play. Read the play yourself.
before taking this course. The information here assumes that you've read the entire play at least once. The play is pretty short and I read the entire thing while making notes in about two hours.
Very kind of Seaset to give us a short play to work with since we already have so many other texts to get through. By the way, if you have any questions or ideas while taking this course, leave them in the comment section and I'll be sure to respond. Even if you have lots of questions, I'll respond to all of them so don't be afraid to post your questions while you go through the videos.
Anansi is part man part spider. The first Spider-Man and certainly the one with the smartest maw. He is both hero and villain but mostly hero I believe. He's a trickster who finds all sorts of devious ways to defeat his enemies and also friends who are much bigger and stronger than he is. Anansi represents the idea that wit and wisdom can triumph over size and might.
Anansi is a fictional character that stars in many Caribbean and Western folktales, but it was created by the people of Ghana. Anansi's stories made it into the Caribbean when Africans were brought here as slaves. Since Anansi was always smarter than his adversaries and always found a way to escape difficult circumstances, these stories served as a means of encouragement and hope for the African slaves. This will be clearly seen in the play. Also, African heritage was preserved through Anansi's stories, as the older Africans would always tell the youngsters these stories, who would in turn grow up and pass them on to the next generation, and so on.
In fact, Anansi himself can be considered a sort of keeper of stories, or even god of stories. But how did Anansi come to be so involved with storytelling? What was his origin story?
Well, to find out how Anansi became so powerful, we have to go back to one of the oldest and most famous Anansi stories. I'll link a video in the description that tells and animates the story beautifully. But for now, I'll give you a summary. Long ago, there were no stories in the world because Nayame, the sky god, kept all of them.
He had all the stories of all the animals and people who had ever existed. Anansi weaved his web up to the heavens and climbed up to see the sky god. He tried to buy the stories from Nayame who laughed at him.
telling him that even great kingdoms could not afford his stories. So how could he, a tennis fighter, afford to buy them? But whether or not Anansi had money, what he did have was undying confidence.
So he told the sky god to name his price. The sky god gave Anansi an impossible task as a price to pay for the stories. He had to capture the four most dangerous creatures in the world and bring them to the sky god.
Onini the python, the Mubara hornets, or Sable the leopard. and Moetia, the forest spirit. Who on earth could a little spider capture these creatures? Well, to make a short story shorter, Anansi fooled the snake into stretching himself along a bamboo stick and then tied it up easily, capturing it. He then tricked the leopard into falling into a pit, then pretended to rescue it, only to capture it and tie it up.
Then he tricked the hornets into believing that it was reigning and into taking shelter into his gourd. Of course, he sealed them inside, trapping them easily. Finally, he lured and captured the forest spirit using a dog, since she was lonely and wanted company. Having captured all four creatures, the sky god had no choice but to give the world's stories to Anansi.
And this is how Anansi became, in a sense, the personification of storytelling, and also of wit and cleverness. Now that we have some background on Anansi, let's take a look at this play. Usually, plays are divided into acts.
which are then further divided into scenes. However, there are no acts in this play. Well, not in the usual sense anyway. Instead of acts and scenes, the play jumps back and forth between two distinct settings.
The first setting is aboard a slave ship, where the protagonist, a little girl, is held captive. We can call this the on-board setting. On board, we see what happens on the ship.
From time to time, however, an old woman will share a Nancy story with this little girl. These stories will happen in an imaginative world, in a setting called the forest of stories, or just the forest for short. Each time we jump on board or into the forest, we get a couple of scenes. We know the scene changes when we cross the dotted lines on the page.
Also, when we cross these lines, we will see a small heading. This heading indicates what part of the ship we're on when we're on board. But when we're in the forest, this small heading will be the title of an Anansi story. So we can consider the setting changes between on board and the forest to be the acts of the play, the division of the acts. And the subdivisions indicated by the dotted lines and small titles to be the scenes of the play.
So we're kind of following. two narratives or two settings at the same time. We have the story happening on the ship and the collection of Anansi stories in the forest.
As we read the play, we should be finding connections between the two narratives. The Anansi stories are told to the girl on the ship to help her deal with the dark reality of being captured and also to help her to make sense of what is happening and of course to make her strong enough to overcome her circumstance and somehow become victorious. Now that we have covered the format of the play, let's get into the story.
We'll go scene by scene and discuss what happens. Also taking note of the characters, looking at themes explored, and pointing out some literary devices employed. But for now, we are really focusing on the plot. We start with our first onboard act, which means we are on the ship. This act is titled The Good Ship Hope, West African Coast, 1791. The first scene happens in the cabin.
This scene introduces two important characters, the ship's captain, called Captain, and his son, called Boy. The characters aren't given names because they're not representing individuals as much as they're representing roles, stereotypes. This isn't a specific captain, rather it could be any captain, the typical captain.
Captain is looking at ledgers and maps, doing his duties as a captain. While his son is doing his duty as the captain's son, which is to learn. But Boy complains about having to study. He would rather be hanging out on the deck with everyone else.
Captain, with his first line of dialogue, shows how stern and cold he is, even towards his own son. Boy begins to show that he is somewhat naive, innocent. He doesn't understand how the people on the shore, the Africans to be enslaved, could possibly be cargo. He questions why they are tied up and look so frightened. Clearly, he has never seen this kind of thing before.
But the father can't be bothered with the boy's stupid questions, and tells boy off, even slapping him when his mouth gets too smart. The first scene tells us a lot about the relationship between Captain and boy, and about how each of them sees the world. Captain is ruthless and stern, while boy is innocent and compassionate. Also, we see that boy doesn't seem to have any interest in following in his father's footsteps as a ruthless captain. This is the beginning of the conflict between Boy and Captain.
Also, this scene introduces a theme into the play, one of desire versus destiny, but we'll get into that a little later. Before we move on to the next scene, also note the irony in the act's title, in the name of the ship. Of course, there's nothing good or hopeful about this ship, at least not for the Africans that are dragged aboard.
The ship is good and hopeful for Captain and his crew, and in general for those who can benefit from the exploitation of the Africans. But the ship represents displacement, terror and suffering for the Africans. The next scene takes us on deck where we have two more characters, Girl and Sailor. Girl is one of the Africans who have been dragged onto the ship to be transported to the plantations to work for the rest of her miserable life.
She's terrified and confused. She tries to speak with the crew on the ship but they can't understand her. Even if they did, what difference would it make? Girl spends a whole paragraph panicking in confusion.
She asks many questions, none of which will be answered, at least not yet. Looking at the language, we see some interesting repetition in blue and water, representing the infiniteness of the see-around girl, as well as the impossibility of escape and return to safety. We know that this nothingness, this infinite see-around girl, is symbolic of the confusion and hopelessness that she's suddenly plunged into.
Girl also asks for her mother, which will be important later on when you meet another character named Woman. Sailor also speaks in this scene. He refers to the girl as goods that he cannot afford to damage, reinforcing the idea of the slaves being less than human.
They're like cattle to the white men. Even the stage direction is just as cruel, as he is said to bundle her down the hatch, as if she were a bale of cotton. By the way, the sailor, while being caustic and sarcastic to girl, foreshadows her fate with the mention of cotton, which the girl will likely be expected to pick as a slave.
The sailor calls the girl's language some heathen tongue, indicating a complete disregard for what the Africans believe in, and suggesting that any belief system that is not Christian is heathen or evil. Heathen not only means non-Christian but also uncivilized, uncultured. This is how girl and her people are perceived by the white men. Next, we jump back to the cabin for a scene with Just Boy. Here, we get a lot more insight into his character.
He's reading a diary entry. His diary gives us a direct view into his thoughts, his wonders, his fears, his conscience but also his loneliness. He must confide in a diary because no one is willing to answer his questions or share his perspectives. No one really listens to him. We see that he was initially looking forward to coming on this trip.
He thought it was just about picking up coffee and rum. He had no idea that they would be picking up, binding and beating people. He talks about how confused he is about this whole ordeal and how he isn't getting the answers he seeks.
There are two interesting details in Boy's diary entry that we should note. The first is the boy's observation of a specific African woman. Even though she, like the rest, was being treated like an animal, was being given no respect at all, she stood stiff and proud.
This shows that this woman in particular, but perhaps the Africans on a whole, still managed to retain some dignity, some sense of self-respect and self-knowledge, even in the circumstance of being captured and treated like animals. The other interesting thing is that this woman reminded the little boy of his own grandmother with his childhood innocence, The boy sees all people as equal. He doesn't see the Africans as less than or different from white people.
Next, we move on to the hold, which is a space for carrying cargo. We see from the stage narration that hundreds of people are tied up in the hold. They are the Africans to be shipped.
Among these Africans are two of the most important characters of the play. Girl and woman, who are tied together on a beam. Girl laments about the dire situation they are in. she seems particularly depressed about the darkness of the ship.
The darkness here, through symbolism, represents this dark time that the Africans have been dragged into. While Girl expresses despair, this unseen woman somehow exudes a sense of hope. Woman, who will increasingly play the role of mother or guardian to Girl, says that Girl should face reality.
She also tells Girl that the darkness, talking about the metaphorical darkness, cannot change who they are. In fact, the white men cannot strip them of their identities. Girl should therefore find the strength to live and fight in her African-ness.
Back at the cabin we have another scene with boy and captain. Captain conducts a dictation session where boy should write down what he says. Captain gives a report about how the slaves are doing.
He's happy that only three slaves of the last batch have died. Ironically he thanks God for that. Just like animals the slaves are branded and insured.
Also interestingly captain says the slaves are to be exercised. Here, it is not the slaves themselves who are exercising. Instead, they are being exercised in the same way plants are watered or chickens are fed to be kept healthy. He also notes that one cup of maize porridge per slave per day is enough food for them. This is of course just enough to keep them alive.
Back down in the hold, woman and girl have a quiet conversation. Again, girl is despairing, complaining, while woman offers encouragement. Unexpectedly, woman offers a riddle. What part of you stays free when your arms and legs are tied?
Girl is unable to find the answer and becomes increasingly frustrated with woman and her nonsense. But though girl doesn't solve the riddle just yet, she makes a step in the right direction when she notices a spider by means of a bit of light that leaks through a crack in the roof. There's much symbolism here. In the darkness, which we already know is symbolic, girl glimpses the light, which leads her to the spider. The spider and Nancy that will enlighten her.
We'll get back to the spider soon but for now we head back over to the cabin again where we have Boy and Captain. Captain speaks of a sickness that is running rampant on the ship. This sickness seems to be an equalizing factor for the black and white people as crew and slaves alike are showing signs of infection. Boy questions Captain about what will be done with the slaves once they reach Jamaica.
We learn that they will be so. Before the scene ends, Captain says something very interesting. He says that there is no man alive who does not have a master. Could this mean that he thinks that all men are in some way slaves?
Slave to someone or something? Perhaps Captain is a slave to money or to his lords in London. Perhaps Boy is a slave to the destiny that awaits him.
The destiny of one day becoming Captain. Or perhaps this idea of everyone having a master is used by Captain to justify his hand in African slavery. We now head back to the hold for one final scene in this act. The narration hints that the spider's web somehow connects the Africans. The web of the spider here represents that spirit of storytelling, of keeping the flame of our African heritage alive.
Woman reveals to girl that the name of the spider is Anansi. Girl scoffs at the little spider for not being able to easily craft its web. But woman reminds girl that while they are bound up, it is the spider that is free.
Eventually, Anansi does successfully craft his web, much to girl's amusement. Woman then tells girl that Anansi was once a king. The story behind this will be told in the next act as we move into the Forest of Stories.
We are now in the second act which takes place in the Forest of Stories. The setting changes from the ship to the forest as we will now find out how Anansi Stories came to be called Anansi Stories. This scene is titled, naming the stories. Anansi opens with a monologue of self-introduction. He claims that he is the cleverest of all the forest dwellers and he does so in poetic style.
His use of rhyme and rhythm already separates him from the other characters and shows Anansi's unique charisma, charm and mastery of language. Tiger enters the scene being bad and feared. His entry is marked with a roar of thunder.
Anansi isn't really phased however. He even insults Tiger with his witty sarcasm. But Tiger isn't sharp enough to understand. Anyhow, Tiger has been thinking about what to name the stories that will be told of these forest dwellers.
Of course, he wants himself, the Great Tiger, to be lauded in the title. Anyway, Anansi tricks Tiger into agreeing to name the stories after him, Anansi, instead. Well, not quite yet.
First, Anansi must do an impossible task for Tiger. But as we all know, Anansi is good at doing impossible tasks. If Anansi can bring Tiger Mr. Snake tied to a pole, he will be able to name the stories as he pleases.
Now we move on to the next scene, which is a story titled Tricking Snake. The story will be familiar to you as we covered some version of it earlier when we talked about the origins of Anansi. Anansi first pretends to try to trick Snake with some obvious traps.
Snake sees through the fake traps. which gives him a boost in confidence against Anansi. But due to this, Mr. Snake also lets his guard down, thinking he has Anansi all figured out.
But then the real trickery starts when Anansi mentions to Snake that his reputation for being the longest creature is on the line. To prove himself, Snake decides to measure himself against a bamboo tree. The depth of the deception is that Snake thinks that this is his own idea.
But of course, it is Anansi who manipulates him and plants this idea into his head. Anansi quickly ties Snake to the tree. At the end, Snake angrily curses at Anansi, who teases the embarrassed squirming creature in return. Before we move on from this scene, Anansi says something quite curious as he teases Snake.
He mentions that scissors aren't invented yet. How does Anansi know about something that isn't yet invented? It seems the little spider's knowledge isn't limited. to his own time and place.
That reinforces the idea that time and space are constructs that do not exist in the forest stories. In that, the stories can be weaved in any way by the storyteller. After all, Anansi is as wise and powerful as the storyteller imagines him to be. The next act begins and we are returned to the hold where girl and woman are conversing.
Girl realizes the paradox of Anansi, noting that he is both the weakest and the strongest at the same time. I would go as far as to say that he is the strongest because he is the weakest. To compensate for his lack of size and physical strength, he finds ingenious ways to defeat and trick anyone and to accomplish tasks that seem impossible.
Woman enforces the idea of Anansi stories being a generational link, a tradition passed down from the old to the young. Kept alive through time even without ever being written down. Just as her mother told her the stories, she will tell this little girl the stories, who will in turn continue to pass these stories down the line.
Woman says another important thing here. She tells girl, Africa is your mother. Allegiance to the motherland makes us Africans strong and keeps us united. As girl and woman continue to talk, we shift to another scene back in the cabin with boy and captain. The stage direction here points to an irony.
The two share a close physical space but are ideologically very distant. What makes this irony legitimate is the fact that the physical space they share may represent their familial relationship as father and son. In this scene, Captain scolds boy for keeping a diary, even saying that such a thing is for girls.
This does bring up themes around gender roles and expectations. Apparently, self-reflection isn't a very manly vocation. Boy notes down in his diary that he heard the Africans singing a song that was warm and deep.
He could somehow sense a spirit of hope and togetherness in the African song. Another interesting thing to note here is that Boy continues to show a smart mouth as he talks to his father, reminding us of Anansi's witty defiance. Perhaps Boy and Anansi share some similarities. They're both in a sense small and insignificant.
Anansi is a little spider. while Boy is bossed around by his father, unable to make his own decisions. Yet, both Anansi and Boy use words as a way to cultivate their own power. Anansi uses words to manipulate others, while Boy, through his diary, uses words to reflect on reality and attempt to grasp a deeper understanding of himself, others, and the world around him.
Now we jump back to the hold where we find Girl and Woman. Interestingly, Girl now calls Woman, Mother. accepting woman as her guardian, her elder, her family. This shows a tightening of the relationship between the two.
Woman again encourages girl to look past her present confinement and find strength in the forest stores. But how could girl look past the sailor who was dragging her body out of the hold? Girl compares the white men to animals, but woman corrects her, saying that animals aren't cruel. And when girl says that these men deserve to die, woman asks, Who can say who deserves to live or die? Showing that her heart is not boiling with bitterness and judgment, but with a kind of calm and clarity that girl might one day attain.
Woman takes this further, saying that she pities the white men. Boy and Sailor enter the hole to check on the slaves for sickness, but Boy himself seems sick. As they leave, Woman starts up another riddle, and this time girl quickly embraces it.
By the way, we're about halfway through the longest chapter of the course. If you're finding value in the lesson so far, do give the video a like so it can reach more students more easily. We are back in the Forest of Stories for the next act, where we open with a story titled, The World Blotted Out. This story features not just animals, but also humans, hinting that the events in this story we're about to see are especially connected to the human world. In fact, we will see many more appearances of humans in the forest stories as we continue, highlighting the link between the two worlds.
In the beginning of this story, we see animals chanting merrily until thunder rolls across the sky. But this time, the thunder rolls in someone much more fearsome than Taiga. In comes Mancrow, a creature that is as huge and horrible as one imagines.
There is screaming and panic as Man Crow threatens to kill and devour even the babies. The next story is called The Proclamation. Here we have Servant and King, two minor characters. We have some comedic relief with the Servant who talks a little bit too much for the King's liking. But this is balanced out with the seriousness of King's proclamation.
King declares that great rewards await whoever defeats the mighty and dreadful Man Crow. Then we move to the initiation where we have Gran and Soliday. Soliday will prove an important and interesting character. We have some humorous banter between the two but things get serious when Soliday tells Gran that he is going to challenge Mancrow.
Gran seems confident in Soliday but insists that he needs special arrows to take on this dreadful monster. Gran gives him six arrows, one for hope, one for wits, one for fear, one for anger, one for his name, And the last arrow is a secret. Remember that we are reading the forest stories parallel to the narrative that happens on the ship.
So we can imagine that this big bad man-crow must represent the highest and deepest powers of oppression, of subjugation, of evil. Just as man-crow strikes fear into the forest dwellers, so do the slave masters, so do the proponents of slavery at the highest level, the Lords of London. Even drive fear into the hearts of the captured blacks. But can this immense power be defeated? Well, Soliday intends to find out.
He must represent the rebellious spirits of the Africans. The iron will to fight back, to counter-attack, to usurp and overthrow the white man. And what are the tools needed to challenge these powers? In the fight for emancipation, what are the weapons we must rely on? More specifically, what virtues must girl rely on in order to access her true strength and the strength of her ancestors?
They are the very arrows that Gran gives to Soledad. Girl needs hope. Without hope, there is no will to fight.
She also needs wit, cleverness. Like Anansi, she must be able to outsmart even those who are stronger and more privileged than her. She also needs fear.
Without fear, we cannot feel courage. Without fear we act recklessly and senselessly. We need anger, rage that burns against not so much the white man as against the system of slavery and oppression.
The ideology that any human should be owned by another. Girl also needs to find power in her name, in her identity, her ancestry. And the last arrow is a secret.
It is a power unique to each person that holds it. We each need a special secret weapon. Whether it be a certain belief, a certain virtue, a certain dream, a certain memory, a certain purpose, there is a power that must come from within girl, from within each slave who wishes to stand and fight.
Who wishes to again taste freedom? Next we go to the battle. The epic battle rages as Solidaire fires arrows one by one But Mancrow tanks each hit like a beast Seemingly taking no damage at all But that is until Solidae fires the final arrow, the secret.
It catches Mancrow off guard and kills him. In the end, it is not a power inherited or obtained, but an innate fundamental power, one that we... must unearth from within us that is our greatest strength. Soliday takes one of Mancro's feathers to present to King as proof of slaying the beast. But Anansi, who has been watching all along, snags one as well and beats Soliday to the punch, reaching King and claiming to have killed Mancro himself.
We are now in the last scene of this act, a story titled The Reward. King rejoices and praises Anansi. Soliday finally enters the scene. This scene knows what is about to happen.
So he disappears with some of the food from the celebratory banquet. Realizing Anansi's trickery, the servants chase him around But as usual he escapes Anyhow Soliday ends up getting his rightful reward Anansi, even after all this, insists upon the lie that he was the one that killed Monk Roo. This act features not Anansi, but Soliday, a human, as the true hero. This might indicate that in the end the fantastical strength of Anansi is only true valuable if it is internalized and then manifested by humans, specifically by the Africans.
Before we leave this act, note the similarity in Gran and Woman. Both women play an important guiding and supporting role to an upcoming hero. Woman encourages and teaches Girl, helping her to understand herself and access her inner strength, while Gran gives Soliday the advice and tools he needs. to defeat mankrow.
Perhaps women are naturally adept at guiding, nurturing and inspiring. We now jump on board to begin another act. Girl is asking why Nancy is always looking for trouble, to which woman replies, if you have wits like a Nancy, you have to use them.
But her answer becomes ambiguous as she adds that such cleverness can be used in wrong or right ways. We see that Anansi uses his wits for both heroism and villainy. Although calling Anansi's tricks villainy might be a little harsh, the girl then questions her fate even though she already knows the answer. Woman confirms to her that the slaves that aren't thrown away are eventually sold.
Back on deck, Sailor gets a bit more stage time as he chats with Boy. Boy is crying in a con. Sailor tells him that big boys don't cry, enforcing some gender expectations.
Boy expresses that he feels alone and confused. He eventually asks a staggering question. What color is God?
Boy rationalizes that if humans are made in God's image, then the black people being thrown overboard must also have been made in God's image. But Sela enforces the idea that slaves are not people, but are more comparable to beasts. To this, Boy insists that they are not beasts, but are just as human as white people.
Mentioning Girl, who he had earlier seen. Sailor ends the argument by simply refusing to think, saying that in the end he has a job to do. Basically, he doesn't care what is wrong or right, what is absurd or logical.
He has a role to play and he must play it. And so does Boy apparently. We head back into the cabin for another scene with Boy and Captain.
Boy laments to his father about the slave he saw get thrown into the sea. Captain, angry at Boy for caring about the slaves, says that Boy has betrayed him. and tells him to toss his diary overboard. Captain also disciplines the boy with shouts and slaps, then storms out.
Back down in the hold, woman is clearly quite sick. Yet, as we would expect, she tells girl not to worry about her. Sailor and boy come to check in on girl and woman, but boy quickly exclaims that he's ill. Sailor quickly takes him away to see the doctor.
Here, an interesting idea is reinforced, one we might consider a theme throughout the text. And that is, the fundamental sameness of all people. The white people may think that they're different from, better than the Africans, but universal factors like sickness and death affect every and anyone without regard, revealing the true equality of humans. Woman goes on to tell girl another riddle, but not before she makes a curious statement.
When girl asks why the white people hate the Africans, woman says, when they see us, they see the thing they fear the most. What could this mean? Pause the video right now and help me figure out what this means.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Woman also says that they treat each other no better. indicating that these white people in some sense abuse and exploit one another as well. Next, we get to the woman's riddle. She asks about something that is exceedingly light, beautiful, and strong.
Girl guess is Anansi's web. The woman acknowledges this answer, but says that the deeper answer is the soul. Even if the white men can beat and break our bodies, as long as we retain strength of soul, we will never truly be defeated. Another development happens in this scene as girl outrightly acknowledges woman as her new mother. Woman replies by promising girl that she will never leave her.
What she means is she will be with her through the many stories and riddles she intends to pass on. And with that we move on to the next act heading over to the forest of stories. Back in the forest of stories this story is titled down by the pool.
Ratbat, a new character, is singing when he hears Anansi and the tiger coming. The summer sun is raging, which gives Anansi the perfect opportunity to pull a fast one on Tiger. He takes Tiger to a pool where he can swim and relax. Anansi advises Tiger that he should take off his fur coat before entering the pool so that it doesn't shrivel up. This sounds logical to Tiger.
and so he complies, though somewhat reluctantly. But this is only step one. Next, Anansi convinces Tiger to take off his fat so monsters in the pool won't try to eat it. Unwillingly and somewhat embarrassed, Tiger complies. While Tiger takes a nice, cool swim, Anansi stands guard by Tiger's fur and fat.
What a good friend. But of course, Anansi has ulterior motives. It isn't long before Anansi is making a yummy stew out of Tiger's fat.
But the nosy Ratbat who has been following Tiger and Anansi shows himself. He wants some of whatever Anansi is cooking up. Anansi tells Ratbat about a singing contest happening in Song City.
Ratbat, a proud singer, is excited to hear about this. Of course, as we know, the contest doesn't actually exist, but is rather a part of Anansi's scheme to frame Ratbat. Anansi tells Ratbat that to enter the contest, he must sing a song about Tiger fat. How convenient! So Ratbat goes off singing his new original song about Tiger Fat while Anansi, we can assume, enjoys his Tiger Fat stew.
Tiger gets out of the pool and becomes enraged when he sees that his fat and coat are missing. Tiger threatens to kill Anansi, but there is no need for all that because Anansi knows who the culprit is. Anansi leads Tiger to Song City where he hears Ratbat singing about delicious Tiger Fat, implicating himself in a crime he did not commit. commit.
But before Tiger rips Ratbat to threads, he realizes that Anansi must have had something to do with this whole fiasco. But it's too late. Anansi has already made a fool and spectacle out of Tiger, who looks shriveled and pathetic without his fat. He also ends up making a fool out of Ratbat, who has stupidly auditioned for a non-existent song contest with a stupid sounding song. And most importantly, Anansi gets to fill his belly with some delicious Tiger fat.
This is one of the more light-hearted of the forest stories and one used to provide comic relief while reinforcing the wit and wisdom but also the playful villainy of Anansi. If girl should survive her dire circumstance she will need to be able to wrap people around her finger like Anansi can. She will need to find cunning ways to get her tiger fat, to get what she needs without getting herself killed in the process. Of course for girl the tiger fat she seeks might be freedom.
Who knows perhaps her tiger fat could also include revenge. The next act takes us back to the hold where girl is dying of laughter after hearing this ridiculous story about tiger fat. Woman gives girl another riddle that she doesn't get the time to answer.
Pause here and read the riddle. Let me know in the comments what you think the answer is. What is this home that we are all going to? Girl claims to know the answer but before she says it they quiet themselves as Sailor and Boy come down. Woman accepts her fate.
Being old and sick she will be thrown overboard but she takes solace in the fact that she has already taught girl all she needs to know. As Sailor drags woman away, Boy shows what could be seen as sympathy as he tells girl that she mustn't cry. He might just be parroting what his father had said to him earlier when he was crying. Girl turns her head away. and sings to herself, Yesterday this time, me and young tiger fat.
Alluding to the previous forest story. This can be taken in two ways. For one, it can be seen as girl threatening boy and sailor.
Just as tiger's fat was stewed and eaten, she will somehow skin and eat them. Not literally, hopefully. It could also be that she's just lamenting about unfair treatment, unjust punishment.
Just as Ratbat who sang the song was framed. was blamed for something he didn't do. Girl and woman are being treated terribly by no fault of their own. In the next scene, we have Captain and Boy.
We see even more tension between them as the relationship grows increasingly stiff, cold, and formal. Captain does dictation while Boy takes notes. Captain, in cruel irony, thanks God for losing only 150 slaves.
and 12 crew members on the seven-week passage. He also plans to toss overboard slaves that aren't healthy to ensure that they don't devalue the others. As usual, the language he uses to talk about the slaves is language that is usually used to talk about cattle or machinery.
He even says that his conscience is clear as he's doing his best to protect the best beasts in the herd. He ends the dictation, readying to prepare the ledges for tomorrow's auction. Interestingly, he coughs violently, indicating that he also is diseased.
We see that disease doesn't care how powerful you think you are. The next act takes us to a new place, Kingston Harbour, where the slaves will be auctioned off. We see some interesting character development in Boy. Now he walks upright and stern.
He has an air of confidence, like he has matured since we last saw him. But what exactly has he matured into? The sailor asks Boy sarcastically if he has yet found out what color God is, referring to their previous conversation about God.
Boy replies with one resolute and confident word, yes. His confusion and curiosity seem to have been replaced by a kind of certainty. Sailor warns Boy about blasphemy, saying it is bad for the soul. To which the Boy replies, is it? Suggesting an air of defiance.
even audacity toward the sailor's idea of God. We then see that Boy is playing the role of captain as captain is sick. Now it is Boy who does the ledgers. It seems that curious innocent Boy has become much more like his father over the time it took the ship to reach Jamaica. Does this suggest the inevitability of destiny?
Sailor acknowledges how much Boy has matured saying he has become a man. We're still not sure just how much like Captain Boy has become. We see that he is now stern and confident.
But also, unlike Sailor and Captain, he seems to retain his boyish ability to think for himself. We see this in his brief conversation about God. Sailor drinks to a safe voyage back home from this uncivilized place. Next, the auctioneer speaks.
The slaves are being sold, including Girl, who doesn't understand the auctioneer's language. However, Through the guidance of woman, she has become keen enough to realize what is happening even without understanding the language. As soon as girl is sold, the scene freezes as she starts to tell a story. Now she is playing the role of storyteller, the role not of girl but of woman.
She vows that like Anansi, she will find a way to help herself. She goes on to introduce the story that the next act will tell. Speaking of an evil woman with a heart full of hate, who adopted child slaves for herself. Now we are transported back to the forest of stories where we have the story entitled Quenching Her Thirst. Four characters are introduced.
First we have the wicked old woman, her. And then we have the laboring children, dog, cat and crab. The woman works the children half to death, then feeds on their tears.
But they are so overworked that they have no tears left. And in order to catch a break, they suggest that Hur finds a new slave, some fresh meat, so to speak. Dog, cat and crab put out an ad to attract a new slave for Hur, with the caveat that if they can guess Hur's name...
they can have half of everything she owns. Her, with some convincing, decides that this is fine, as no one will be able to guess her real name anyway. Dog, Cat and Crab supposedly know her's real name, but they wouldn't dare tell anyone, right? And so the new worker comes in, which is Anansi dressed up as a girl, of course. We change scenes to the next story, at the river.
Anansi soon gets Crab to tell him her's real name, giving Crab a kiss in return. And of course, Anansi gets to take half of everything her owns. Upon finding out that Crab betrayed her, her angrily throws the calabash at him. It sticks to Crab's back, glued to him by the tears of the woman's past slaves. Girl then relates the story back to herself, saying that her own story will resemble this one.
Being one of a hard back, many tears and the name nobody knows. Here she acknowledges and accepts the immense hardship that is her future. The hardback refers to the inhumane hardship of being a slave.
The tears are the sorrow and pain that come with being a slave. The namelessness refers to the fact that she may never be remembered by history, by anyone, least of all by name. As she is sold off to a plantation, she may never again be treated as human or remembered as such. In fact, even in a literal sense, her name will likely be changed by her slave master.
She also says that her story is for a new world. Accepting the fact that her old world, her time of freedom in Africa, has ended, she may also be realizing that the world on a larger scale is changing, perhaps becoming more evil. But is she frightened of this? She's not. The Anansi stories have helped her to develop a kind of courage that rages even in the face of life's toughest circumstances.
It is interesting that here at the end, the real world seems to merge with the forest world. Before, neither woman nor girl themselves actually appeared within the acts of the forest stories. And besides brief intros to the stories, the forest stories were not told within on-board acts.
But this time, Girl gives us two whole paragraphs of the final forest story within the real world act. And at the end of the forest act, Girl's character appears. Usually she doesn't appear until the act ends.
What does this convergence of the two worlds mean? It might mean that girl has now fully internalized the forest stories. Just like Anansi, she can, with her willpower and imagination, free herself from the constraints of time and space, from the constraints of circumstance. With the spirit of Anansi within her, she is free, even whilst being a slave.
Music And we end at Kingston Harbour for the final and shortest act, in which Girl is finally sold. Here, Girl starts to tell a story, but not of an ad. This time, the story is about herself. She urges us to remember her.
We're now finished with the main section of this course, having dealt with the plot of the play. Now, we will briefly look at certain elements of the play in a bit more detail. We'll look at the characters, then at some themes, then add some literary and narrative devices used.
In this section of the Anansi analysis, we take a deeper look at the characters. Let's start with the characters that appear on the ship. We have four major characters in Captain, Boy, Girl and Woman, and two minor characters in Sailor and Auctioneer. Let's start with Captain and Boy, the father and son pair.
For most of the play, Boy is portrayed as innocent, naive and compassionate, while Captain is ruthless and stern, seeing the slaves as cargo, as similar to cattle. Boy sees them as people and struggles to understand why they are treated like this. Also, while we see that Captain's way of thinking is quite linear, in that he adheres unquestioningly to the way things are, Boy is seen asking questions, reflecting in his diary, and restlessly seeking to address his sense of confusion. and ignorance.
Captain's job is not just one of manning the ship and managing the crew and cargo, but also of training Boy to one day replace him. Due to this, he becomes increasingly frustrated at his son's compassion for the slaves and insatiable curiosity, which makes the two even more estranged with each interaction. Due to their stark difference in views and personality, we can consider Boy and Captain to be contrasting characters.
as they are each other's opposite in many ways. Even though boy and captain are contrasting characters, they can also be seen as a single character on two opposite ends of a chronological continuum. What I mean is, boy may just be captain's past self, while captain might be boy's future self. In that, every captain was once a boy, perhaps just like this one, kind and curious.
And every kind and curious boy eventually grows up and loses their innocence, adhering to the constructs of this cruel world. This makes sense when you look at how Boy eventually becomes much more like Captain by the end of the play, even taking on Captain's duties. The other pair of characters are Girl and Boy.
Girl is in many ways a character that is parallel to Boy, in that they're both children whose destinies seem to be set before them. In that way, they're both slaves. Also, they both start the story in a state of confusion and both ask many questions in an effort to understand the world around them and also the position in the area. Girl at first is terrified, frightened of the white men, the dark ship, the thought of never seeing her family and home again.
Anyone would be frightened in this situation, not to mention a child. However, Girl shows a spirit of determination and cleverness and proves to be a fast learner as she gleans from women, taking interest in the unanswered stories. Woman, on the other hand, from the play's beginning, plays the role of a kind of woman. mother, a sage, a guru. She is calm and collected and very wise.
Even in this situation she does not portray or encourage a spirit of anger and vengeance but rather one of compassion and understanding. As woman grows physically weaker, being sick, she pours her strength into girl, allowing girl to grow strong. Woman's strength is transferred to girl through the stories she passes on, through the lessons girl learns from her. As we look at woman, We can see what girl may become if she lives long enough. By the end of the play, we see that girl indeed becomes much like woman in terms of the resilience and wisdom gathered, along with the ability to tell a good and answer story.
Next up is Sailor, who acts as a mentor and companion for Boy. He gives Boy a little more room to talk and ask questions than Captain does. But in the end, Sailor does nothing more than reinforce Captain's ideals.
Sailor, like Captain, sees the slaves as beasts, as cargo, not as people. Then we have Auctioneer, who appears at Kingston Harbour. His only role is to moderate the selling of the sales. Next, we move on to the characters over in the Forest of Stories. We will only deal with the most important characters.
The most important character is, of course, Anansi. We've talked about him quite a bit already. In summary, Anansi is the character who represents the idea that the small and underestimated, the underdog, can somehow defeat those who are bigger and mightier. Anansi uses trickery and wit not only to overcome, but also to totally embarrass the other forest creatures.
He even defeats a human in the final story, quenching her thirst. Anansi is himself an embodiment of the fighting spirit of the slaves. The hope they have to use their wits to somehow defeat, or at least escape their slave masters.
As you look at Anansi, We must also look at Tiger and Snake. These are big, strong creatures who always end up being outsmarted by Anansi. They create opportunities for Anansi to show off how smart and manipulative he is.
Besides Anansi, Soliday is the only character who is seen to be something of a conqueror in the Forest of Stories. In fact, he is more virtuous and more heroic than Anansi. He courageously takes on and vanquishes the dreadful man.
While Anansi may represent our ability to rise above insurmountable obstacles through cunning and wit, through trickery and deception, Soliday represents our ability to overcome evil with good through righteousness, virtuosness, and determination. It can be argued though that one needs to balance courage with wit and principle with artfulness. I say this because even though Soliday defeats Mangrove, he was himself tricked by Anansi.
We can't speak of Soliday without mentioning Gran. Another human, Gran serves a similar purpose to woman. Just as woman teaches girl, Gran teaches Soliday, giving him the tools he needs to slay Mancrow.
Gran and woman together show us the role of the matriarch. They are both elders who are strong and brave, who fulfills their responsibility of passing their wisdom on to the next generation. Her and Mancrow are also important. They're both wicked, dreadful, and feared. They both might represent the looming, overwhelming problems we face.
They represent for the African slaves, the masters, or perhaps even slavery itself. However, both villains end up being defeated, indicating that these great evils can be overcome. And that is it for the important characters of the play.
There can't be no definitive list of themes for any text. Different readers will come up with their own lists. and may even have their own takes as to what qualifies as a theme in the first place. I'll give you the list of themes I've come up with after very careful consideration. You'll notice that some themes will be very similar to others and may even overlap.
First, I'll list the themes I found. Then, I'll go briefly into how each theme is explored. As you should know, having a solid grasp on the themes is critical to writing an essay on this text in the exam.
Here are the 12 themes. Power and powerlessness, fantasy versus reality, appearance versus reality, desire versus destiny, light versus darkness, or good versus evil, prejudice and racism, alienation, bondage versus freedom, hopes, dreams, and desires, childhood experiences, God, gender roles. Now let's get into how each theme comes up. We'll start with Paul and powerlessness.
Throughout the play we experience a distinct power imbalance between the Africans and the white people. The Africans are overpowered and controlled, captured and treated like animals. They are powerless against their captors, completely at their The Africans are powerless not only in the immediate sense that they are tied up on a ship, but in the sense that their entire future, their destiny, even the destinies of their descendants are in the hands of the white people.
However, there is more nuance to how this theme is explored. Looking beneath the surface, we see where a woman teaches a girl how to regain a sense of power, not necessarily over the white people, but over her own state of mind, her own spirit. Girl is empowered through the Anansi stories. through the understanding of her identity and what she is capable of. There are also hints that indicate that the white people in the play are not quite as powerful as they appear.
For example, in the first act, Captain talks to Boy about the masters they must eventually report to. Boy is at first confused, but then Captain asks, do you think there's a man alive who has no master of one kind or another? Implying that no one truly has the power to just do as they please. Over in the Forest of Stories, we see the mighty monster man grow and the terrible woman her exert power over others. However, we also see that they are eventually defeated by the likes of Son of Man.
Soledad and Anansi, indicating that even when one feels or appears to be powerless, there's always a way to achieve empowerment. Fantasy vs Reality This theme is explored through the unique form of the play, in the consistent parallelism between the harsh reality of the slave ship and the fun, vibrant forest stories. While girl and woman must suffer the dark, grim reality of being captives on their way to the plantations, we see that they find relief and strength in the fantastical world world of Anansi. The forest stories also serve to break up the tension and give the reader a chance to enjoy comic relief and experience a wider variety of moods throughout the play.
As the play progresses, the worlds of reality and fantasy continually converge until they're almost inseparable. This shows the extent to which Girl internalizes the forest stories. Appearance versus reality.
There are several cases in this play in which things appear to be one way but are really another. The most obvious case might be in the fortitude of Anansi. Anansi, because of his physical stature, might appear insignificant but always proves to be very powerful, outsmarting his enemies with ease. We see that in the beginning, Girl sees Anansi as so little and weak as seen in Act 1, whereas she eventually learns the true strength of this big little spider.
On the surface, it appears that Captain would be wiser and smarter than Boy. After all, Captain is a man, while Boy is a boy. Also, Captain is the captain of a slave ship.
However, we see that while Captain is afraid to actually think for himself, Boy proves to be wiser, daring to seek out the answers to difficult questions and challenge what is accepted as truth. Boy also seems to be well educated, even making jokes about the laws of physics. Desire vs Destiny Throughout the play, we see various situations in which the reality of characters is in direct opposition to their desires.
In that, there's a battle between what they want and what is sure to happen. Consider Captain and Boy. Boy desires to pursue knowledge, to understand the world. He wants to reflect on the workings of his mind through journaling.
However, Captain consistently enforces Boy's destiny. His destiny is not to learn and reflect, but to perform his duties on the ship and eventually become a captain himself. His destiny is to be like his father.
A man who leads blindly. Who fulfills his destiny without thought or feeling. Looking at girl, we see someone who of course desires freedom. She wants her home, her mother.
She wants her happy life back. But a The different destiny is given to her by the white men who capture and tie her up. She cannot look forward to a life of freedom but must instead brace herself for a life of slavery. Light vs Darkness or Good vs Evil Since the first act, the theme of light vs darkness begins.
Even while girl and woman are thrown into the metaphorical darkness of captivity, they are also thrown into the literal darkness of the ship's hold. However, we see in act 1 that a little light fills us down from the crack in the roof. This light contends with the darkness.
It is the hope that girl must cling to. The power and knowledge that she must awaken through her journey into the forest stories. On page 9, woman makes an interesting statement. No amount of fear and darkness can change the truth. Here it is clear that darkness connects not only to evil but also to ignorance.
Meaning that light connects not only to good but also to wisdom. As girl focuses on the light that filled us down through the crack in the roof, her endurance and confidence are boosted. Of course, girl clings not quite to the literal light.
light, but instead to the new understandings gained from the Anansi stories. It is woman who enlightens him. In the Forest of Stories, we see the same motif of darkness and light in the story of the world blotted out. Here we see mentions of darkness in the stage directions. We see thunder rolls across the darkening sky.
This darkness here signals the appearance of mankru and represents an air of dread and hopelessness, as well as the evil of mankru. We also see that mankru is described as dark, human. huge and horrible.
Also, mangrove is said to be a monster that eats light, showing directly that the evil of mangrove is a kind of darkness strong enough to shroud light. Light only comes when solidaire defeats mangrove. When Mancrow is defeated, King declares, The day is saved. The sun is bright.
Weakness has triumphed over might. Here, the light represents Solidae's courage, as well as the hope that he restores as he slays Mangrove. More generally, we can see good versus evil as the Africans are captured, tied up, tortured, treated like animals, and thrown overboard when no longer needed. This is certainly evil, and it would appear as if evil triumphs in the end, as girl or protagonist. ends up being sold as a slave by the end of the play.
However, we can also see a victory for good as Woman cultivates a spirit of grace and compassion within Girl, one that seems to override her natural inclination toward hatred and vengeance toward her captives. In Act 3, Woman shows immense compassion when she challenges Girl's idea that the white men deserve to die and responds by saying that they instead need to be pitted. Prejudice and racism.
This theme is obvious and rampant throughout the play. The white people on the ship, particularly Captain and Sailor, treat the black people, the Africans, as if they are less than human, even lower than animals. Captain makes it clear that the Africans only serve the purpose of being sold as slaves.
They are just cargo, goods. Also, at Kingston Harbour, Sailor makes it clear that England, unlike Jamaica, and unlike black people, is civilized. Alienation. This is one of those themes that you might not notice until you're looking for it.
The African slaves, of course including girl and woman, are pulled away from their homeland. They become alienated from their people, physically separated from their culture and heritage, and dragged onto the ship where they are not treated as humans. Also, note that the slaves are even further isolated in how they are separated from one another on the ship, unable to communicate with each other, except in very limited and constrained ways, as we see with the girl and woman. Boa is also alienated, as he seems to be the only non-slave on the ship. who wonders why the African treated so terribly.
He's curious, thoughtful, and open-minded, and we see that Captain and Sailor cannot understand or relate to him. He is alienated from them, finding refuge and companionship only in his diary, which he is forced to abandon. Bondage vs. Freedom This is a fairly obvious theme in the text. One of the clearest differences between the Africans and the white people is that the Africans are captives while the white people are free.
Girl and woman counteract their physical bondage with their mental and spiritual freedom which they find in the forest stories. Interestingly, Captain suggests that even people like him, even a white man who exercises power, not only over slaves but also over his crewmen, even people like him aren't free. He says, do you think there's a man alive who has no master of one kind or another? Suggesting that while relative freedom exists, there is no such thing as absolute freedom as we all have masters we must serve.
We also see this theme come up in the forest stories where both Mancrow and her exert cruel power over others. The theme is more pronounced as we look at her who enslaves children. In the end, Anansi outsmarts her, taking a half of her possessions.
Right after this, we see that girl doesn't look frightened anymore, indicating that Anansi's ability to defeat her has strengthened the girl's confidence in her ability to survive slavery and perhaps one day outsmart her slave master. Hopes, Dreams and Desires. A straightforward way of exploring this theme is to simply look at the most important characters and think about what they want. Let's start with Girl. In the beginning, she wants to wake up from the dreadful nightmare of being on a slave ship.
She wants her mother. She wants to return home. However, she soon realizes that there is no going back. What she then feels is hopelessness, even saying that she wants to die. Then, As girl warms up to woman and starts to indulge in the forest stories, we see that she also seeks comfort and companionship.
She eventually sees woman as her new mother. After that, we see that girl starts asking lots of questions. Interestingly, we see a similar behavior in boy but we'll get to him in a minute.
These questions show a desire to understand. She wants to understand what is happening to her and why. She wants to know what her fate is.
At the end, We see that she has found hope and strength in the forest stories and seeing as she takes over the role of storyteller from woman, we can figure that she desires to inspire others with these same stories. As for woman, her main desire is to pass on her wisdom and strength to girl. She does not want girl to live and die as a hopeless slave but to instead survive, to use the folklore of her motherland as a way to create her own freedom and also maintain her African identity.
Like girl, Boy, from the beginning, wishes to make sense of the world around him, and so he asks many questions and writes in his diary. He seems to come to the conclusion that what is being done to the Africans is wrong. He realizes that Girl is similar to him and is appalled by how the Africans are treated.
We may infer at this point that his desire is to save the Africans. However, by the end of the play, whether he eventually conforms to Captain's way of thinking or only pretends to do so, we see that he takes on the role of a Captain. At this point, it is difficult to tell what Boy's desires are. Next we have Captain, who wants to run his ship as efficiently as possible and make a fortune selling the slaves he has captured.
He also desires to inculcate Captain-like qualities into his son. While we can look at the desires of all the characters in the play, we'll just look at one more. Anansi. Anansi's desire is different from story to story.
In a nutshell. He always wants to trick everyone else and get his hands onto some kind of prize or reward. He also wants to be renowned as the smartest creature around.
He's interested not only in fortune but also in fame as we see from the first forest story where Anansi tricks Dagger into letting the stories be named after him, Anansi. rather than tiger. Childhood and growth.
Both girl and boy at the beginning of the play are naive children who really have no idea what is happening around them. They are both forced to grow up quickly to adapt to the harsh reality in which they find themselves. Girl is at first afraid and confused but eventually finds strength, courage and wisdom.
Maturing into a character that is much more mature than the average child. Boy, like girl, does not get a chance to have a married childhood. but is burdened with the responsibility of being a future captain.
At first, he is curious, empathetic, and very thoughtful, but he is soon forced to abandon such virtues in order to fulfill his destiny. We see how he matures at the end of the play, as he leaves the curiosity and emotionality of boyhood behind, acting in the stead of his father, the captain, God. When Captain announces that only three slaves have died on the sixth day passage, he declares, may God be thanked for it. Captain's idea of God does not at all conflict with his decision to capture and sell the Africans into slavery.
In this sense, slavery, in his mind, is not evil. However, Boyd doesn't easily accept that idea of God. He inquires about the true nature of God, asking what color God is. He sees glaring contradictions in the white people's view of God. God is good, yet slavery, which God apparently supports, seems evil.
Also, all men are made in the image of God, yet for some reason, the black people are not. people are not treated as if they too are made in the image of God. Boy realizes that Captain and Sailor purport an inconsistent representation of God, one that seems to be all too convenient for the white men. At the end, Boy says that he has learned the color of God, indicating that he has come to some profound understanding of gender roles.
When Captain sees that Boy keeps a diary, he tells him, that sort of nonsense is for lasses. Put that away and get on with your work. This indicates that as a boy, Boy is expected to act in a certain way, as well as to avoid certain behaviors.
Men are all about action and work, not writing, talking, reflecting, and certainly not critical thinking, apparently. He tells Boy that the only story that counts is the one that says money makes the world go round. In other words, a man's focus must be on money, on providing, on doing his job. We see also that when Boy sits crying in a corner, Sailor tells him not to cry since he's a lad.
a boy. Such vulnerable displays of emotion are not for boys or men, but for girls, for women. Woman sets a standard for what it means to be not just a woman, but a strong African matriarch. As a woman, she mothers girl, offering guidance, wisdom, and comfort, and keeps the African folktales alive by telling them to girl. We see that Gran plays a similar role as she encourages and supports Soliday as he prepares to battle Mancrow.
That's it for character. Next, we'll go on to the final section of the analysis, where we look at the literal devices used in the play. We're now entering the last chapter of this course on Anansi.
Here we'll look at the main literal devices used in the play. While there are many, many devices used, this course is focusing on the most prominent or most important ones. And of those we will discuss, some are still more prominent than others.
First, we'll look at the devices that are extremely important to the play. Following that, we'll look at some devices that are extremely important to the play. that are somewhat important. By the way, I will not attempt to list every occurrence of each device in the play. Instead, I'll briefly summarize how each device works in the play and follow that up with a couple of examples.
The first very important literary device is situational irony, where reality is the opposite of what you would expect it to be, or where things are the opposite of what they seem to be. The very first words in the play present an irony. Looking at the title of the first act, we see the good ship go. which likely references the name of the slave ship.
Of course, the irony is that nothing good happens on this ship, at least not for the Africans. And instead of hope, this ship gives the Africans hopelessness. Since Captain and his crew see the Africans as nothing more than cargo, they cannot recognize or refuse to recognize the evil in what they're doing.
Here, the irony shows the contrasting positions and viewpoints of the white men and the Africans. We see another irony when Boy sees Gorilla as being very similar to him. He feels connected to her somehow, even though she's a stranger. This happens while Boy feels very disconnected from his own father and also from the crew on the ship.
Another irony is seen near the end of Act 3, where a woman mentions that she pities the same white men who have captured her and who will shortly throw her overboard. One would expect that woman should instead feel bitterness and hatred toward them, but instead she pities how depraved and broken they are. Let us look at Dramatic Irony. This kind of irony happens when things are obvious to the reader or viewer, but are not noticed or understood by the characters. For example, going back to when Girl is introduced to Anansi, the audience sees how oblivious girl is to just how powerful and important this particular spider is.
She thinks that Anansi is weak and insignificant but we the audience already know that Anansi is quite the opposite. Of course girl eventually becomes familiar with just who Anansi is. Speaking of Anansi, we see dramatic irony in pretty much all of his stories in that while we know that he is in the process of outsmarting and embarrassing the likes of tiger and snake they are always clueless as to what is going on until it is too late.
Because the creatures of the forest typically underestimate Anansi, that makes his victories over them even sweeter. Dramatic irony adds to the comedy and satisfaction readers feel in the forest stories. Another dramatic irony is in the fact that while we can see how confident and wise woman is, and how strong and mature a girl becomes, neither boy nor captain, nor anyone else on the ship, shares this understanding.
Just as the forest creatures take Anansi for granted until he ends up tricking everyone out of everything they have, Carl is seen by Captain and Sailor as just another stupid slave and is seen by Boy perhaps as someone to be pitied. Symbolism. We've already talked about how darkness and light are used not just literally in the play but also symbolically.
Another clear instance of symbolism happens when Gran helps Soliday to prepare to face Mungo. She gives him six arrows and Gran directly states what each arrow symbolizes. Also, we can see Anansi as a symbol for persistence, resilience, and cunning. He is an embodiment of the African spirit, of the spirit that girl needs to embrace should she survive.
Meanwhile, creatures like mangrove and heron, even Anansi's regular adversaries like tiger and snake, might in this play symbolize the slave masters. Imagery This play does an excellent job of creating vivid scenes in the reader's mind. We are made to clearly see and feel the environments of both the slave ship and the slave master.
and the forest. In the first act, when we are first taken to the hold where the slaves are kept, we are painted the picture of a grim, dark cage where slaves are packed together, stifling in filth and fear. This use of imagery forces the reader to share in the desperate situation that the slaves have suddenly been plunged into.
There is also the focus on the light in the roof, which creates a visual contrast with the darkness. We won't get further into that since we have discussed it in previous sections of the course. Near the beginning of act 5, We get some incredible imagery from the stage direction that describes the smell and sound of the sea as well as the movement and freshness of the wind.
This is contrasted with the putrid stench that oozes up from the hold as well as the agonizing groans of the slaves. Comedy and Humor The play deals with the serious, heavy, and controversial topic of slavery. But the feelings of sorrow and anger evoked by the play are counterbalanced by the comedy it provides, particularly in the forest stories. We have The and will continue to look at the purpose of having two narratives run side by side. Those being the on-board stories and the forest stories.
One of the reasons is that the forest stories often provide comic relief. There's much comedy in how Anansi outsmarts everyone around him and makes fools of them. Anansi, of course, creates comedy through his actions, but just as much through his words. For example, in the first forest story, he insults Tiger several times, who is too stupid to even realize. Anansi isn't the only character who provides humor.
In the forest story, The Proclamation, there's a very comedic scene with Servant and King, where Servant annoys King by talking too much and getting in the way of the big announcement. Boy also adds a bit of tense humor with his smart mouth, which on multiple occasions gets him into trouble with Captain. Next we have contrast. Among other things, contrast is used to highlight ironies as well as differences amongst the characters.
We already discussed how some pairs of characters create distinct contrasts. We also see a contrast between the situations of the white people and the black people, with the white people being in control and the black people being at their mercy. However, we also see a contrast when you look at how terrible captain and sailor treat the slaves compared to how sympathetic, composed and level-headed woman is.
One of the most consistent displays of contrast in the text is in the presentations of the onboard stories alongside the forest stories. While on the ship we have a dark grim jury setting and situation, while the forest stories are full of color, life, and spirit. Parallel narratives.
I wanted to use the term parallelism, but that could easily be confused with another device of the same name with a totally different meaning. So we'll call this parallel narratives. What we are referring to is the telling of two stories at the same time. We jump back and forth between the slave ship and the forest stories.
The stories are parallel because the sheer thematic connections and each narrative serves to add deeper context and significance to the other. We already spoke a lot about how this device is used when we looked at the form of the play earlier. Somewhat important devices.
We are on to a few devices that show up quite often in the play but aren't actually as crucial to the play as the previously discussed ones. Sarcasm. Sarcasm is a kind of verbal irony that is used to mock or insult someone. Usually, this involves saying the opposite of what you mean.
But more generally, it can be seen as using wit or humor to ridicule someone. We see some sarcasm from Boy in the first scene, which is rewarded with a slap from Captain. He displays his knack for sarcasm again in Act 3, picking up more scolding from his father. Also, there are several examples of Anansi being sarcastic as he insults several of the forest dwellers and create comedy.
We see this in his first interaction with Tiger and again when he talks with Snake. Repetition. While it's not an essential device, repetition comes up quite frequently in the play.
We see a lot of repetition in Act 1, which highlights the confusion and hopelessness of Girl in her very first lines. In particular, the words blue and water are repeated. This repetition in Girl's lines continues two scenes later. as she talks with woman.
Together is repeated to highlight just how inhumanely the slaves are crammed together, tied up like bundles of corn. We also see some repetition from woman, but she uses the device to encourage girl and give her hope. In particular, we see a heavy repetition of the word true.
As girl and woman continue to converse, the word think becomes repeated, as girl tries to no avail to wrap her mind around her new reality. Simile. Similes are used to support imagery and provide the reader with deeper insight and clarity into what the characters think, feel, and experience. In Act 1, while Girl describes how dark the hold is, she employs a simile, saying that it is as dark as the big hut with no windows where the tribe stores grains.
This makes it easier for us to imagine the darkness of the hold, but it also sheds a bit of light on Girl's previous experiences and things she can relate to, such as the hut she describes. Girl also mentions that they were tied together like boats waiting for the knife. This shows how the Africans were treated no better than animals. Throughout the play, the white people continue to treat them like animals, even worse than animals.
Later, when Boy describes the singing of the slaves, he says it is as deep as the sea. This simile shows that Boy can somehow sense immense depth, feeling and spirit in the Africans singing. He also senses their humanity as their song is said to be warm. Later still, Saylor comments that the hold stinks like death's own backyard, showing us the inhumane conditions that the slaves must survive in.
Of course, the reinforced death here also points to the fact that many slaves would die in the hold due to poor living conditions. He uses another simile as he says that boy is as white as a little ghost, referring not to his race but to how pale and sick he looks. Metaphor Metaphors play a similar role to similes in the play, but tend to provide even deeper insights than similes do.
In some staged narration for Act 1, it is said that the spider's web links the Africans together. Through metaphor, this means that the stories and spirit of Anansi keep the Africans connected, not only to one another, but to their roots and to their identities. This web gives them the hope and resilience to survive. Near the end of Act 3, when Girl asks Woman if the white people are going to eat them, Woman answers by saying, They eat your soul and leave your body empty.
This is a metaphor obviously. It means that the white people intend to drain every drop of hope and all sense of identity from the slaves, wiping them clean of all ability to dream, hope, and even think. So dreary is the experience of being a slave that we can imagine it leaving many Africans soulless after some time. Personification.
Lumped in with simile and metaphor is personification. In Girl's first lines, she says that she remembers the river carrying her further and further from her mother on its great brown back. Here, as the river is given human-like characteristics, we can see how helpless Girl felt. It seemed as if even nature was fighting against her, doing its best to separate her from her mother. We see more personification in Act 5, when the clean fresh sea is said to be singing in the ropes.
The sea might be singing with the slaves. The slaves'singing was previously said by Boy to be warm. Perhaps the slaves see the sea as a refuge, as being cast overboard might be considered freedom in comparison to being kept on the ship.
Otherwise, the singing of the fresh sea might serve to create a contrast that highlights the deplorable condition of the slaves. Where they are is definitely not as fresh and vibrant as the sea seems to be. Instead, we see the putrid stench oozing up from the moaning grates. Also, we see a contrast with the singing of the sea and the moaning of the grates, reinforcing the dismal atmosphere that the slaves are forced to endure. Since we are on the topic of personifying the sea, still in Act 5, Boyce says that the sea looked angry as the African man was thrown off overboard.
Again, we see the personification of the sea as being connected to the treatment of the Africans. Here, it seems that nature, or perhaps even God, is displeased with the man being treated this way. Back in Act 3, we see Africa being personified into being girl's mother.
Here, woman refers to the fact that Africa is their homeland, and that allegiance to the homeland, allegiance to one's heritage, is crucial to one's identity, and also to building the strength needed to survive this difficult time. Rhyme. A part of Anansi's charm and character is his ability to wield words wonderfully. When needed, he can be very poetic and musical in his speech.
He's often seen speaking in rhymes. In fact, his first monologue is done in rhyming couplets. He tells of how crafty he is while being crafty with the words themselves.
Rhyme is also used by other characters. For example, in Act 4, rhyme is used to showcase the vibrant spirit of the animals, their gleefulness and merriness. In Act 5, the character is called Anansi. rhymes are used to introduce the dread and terror that mankrow brings. The use of rhymes here makes the play feel like a musical and adds to the surrealism of the forest stories.
Well, with that, we have come to the end of our course on Anansi. If you have any questions or comments, or if you can think of anything that I missed, do let me know in the comments. For more English B videos like this, subscribe and hit the notification bell. And as always, thanks for watching.