Transcript for:
Understanding Anansi: Themes and Characters

welcome to my crash course on the play and Nancy written by Aleister 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 a c-sec English B exam 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 clip 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 season 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 comments 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 a Nancy is part man part spider the first Spider-Man and certainly the one with the smartest move 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 and hence he represents the idea that wit and wisdom can Triumph oversize and might Anansi is a fictional character that stars in many Caribbean and Western folk tales but it was created by the people of Ghana an ancestories made it into the Caribbean when Africans are 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 an anti-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 a Nancy 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 stores 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 and hansi weaved his web up to the heavens and climbed up to see the sky God he tried to buy the stories from Naomi who laughed at him telling him that even great kingdoms could not afford these stories so how could he attend his 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 an anti 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 or Nini the python the mobora Hornets or sebo of the leopard and moetia the first Spirit on Earth could a little spider capture these creatures well to make a short story shorter and then to fooled the snake into stretching himself along a bamboo stick and then tear 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 title then he tricked the Hornets into believing that it was raining 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 doll 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 a Nancy 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 an scene 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 drums 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 onboard setting on board we see what happens on the ship from time to time however an old woman will share an anti-stores 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 are in the forest this small heading will be the title of an announced story so we can consider the setting changes between onboard 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 stores in the forest as we read the play we should be finding connections between the two narratives the Nancy stores 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 this 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 literal devices employed but for now we are really focusing on the plot we start with our first onboard act which means we're on the ship this act is titled The Good Ship hope West African Coast 1791. [Music] 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 are presenting rules stereotypes this isn't a specific Captain rather it could be any Captain the typical captive 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 shoe's house turn and cool 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 looks so framed clearly he has never seen this kind of thing before but the father can't be bothered with the boys stupid questions and tells boyoff 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 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 a 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 this year round 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 we 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 man if even the stage direction is just as cruel as he 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 feet 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 tone 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 dairy injury his Dairy 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 you see that he was initially looking forward to coming on this trip he thought it was just about picking up coffee and Rome 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 Dairy injury 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 would perhaps be Africans on a 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 bee girl laments about the dire situation they are in she seems particularly depressed about the darkness of the ship the darkness here is to symbolism represents this dark time that the Africans have been dragged into while girl expresses the spear 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 girls that the darkness talking about the metaphorical Darkness cannot change who they are in fact the white men cannot strip them of their identities girls 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 boys 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 but down in the hold woman and girl have a quiet conversation again girl is disappearing 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 is 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 my questions Captain about what will be done with the slaves once they reach Jamaica we learned that they will be sold 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 a 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 Africa and 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 all African Heritage alive woman reveals the girl that the name of the spider is a Nancy girls coughs at the little spider for not being able to easily craft his web but woman reminds a girl that while they are bound up it is the spider that is free eventually an empty does successfully craft his web watch the girls 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 [Music] 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 an ancestors this scene is titled naming the stories and anti 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 show us announces unique Charisma charm and Mastery of language tiger enters the scene big bad and feared his entry is marked with the Roar of Thunder Anansi isn't really phased however he even insults stagger 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 an answered trick stagger into agreeing to name the stories after him a Nancy 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 pool 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 a Nancy 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 the Nancy but due to this Mr Snake also lets his guard down thinking he has a Nancy all figured out but then the real trick restarts when Anansi mentions the 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 a Nancy who manipulates him and plants this idea into his head and then she quickly ties Nick to the tree at the end snake angrily curses at a Nancy 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 anansin know about something that isn't yet invented did 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 [Music] the next ACT begins and we are returned to the hold where girl and woman are conversing girl realizes the Paradox of a Nancy 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's 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 a Nancy 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 a 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 Shear 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 captains calls 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 note Stone 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 under Nancy share some similarities they are both in a sense small and insignificant and answer 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 and anti uses words to manifest populate others while boy through his diary use his 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 no Carl's 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 women 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 man 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 are finding value in the lesson so far do give the video a like so it can reach more students more easily thank you [Music] 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 Tyga in comes Mantra a creature that is as huge and horrible as one imagines there is screaming and panic as man crew 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 crew then we move to the initiation where we have grand and solid solidar will prove an important and interesting character we have some humorous banter between the two but things get serious when Saturday tells grant that he is going to challenge mankro Grand seems confident in solidine but insists that he needs special arrows to take on this Dreadful monster Grant gives him six arrows one for Hope one for weeks 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 mantro 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 solid air 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 a girl rely on in order to access her true strength and the strength of her ancestors they are the very arrows that grand gives to saliday girl needs hope without hope there is no will to fight she also needs wits 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 any human should be owned by another girl girl I find power in her 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's 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 solid air fires arrows one by one but Minecraft tanks each hit like a beast seemingly taking no damage at all but that is until solidifier's the final Arrow this is the secret it catches macro off guard and kills him in the end it is not of power inherited or obtained but an innate fundamental power one that we must unearth from within us that is our greatest strength Saturday takes one of mancro's feathers to present the king as proof of slaying the beast but Anansi who has been watching all along snags won as well and beats solidly to the punch reaching King and claiming to have killed mankro himself we are now in the last scene of this act a story titled the reward King rejoices and Praises a Nancy solidi finally enters the scene and Nancy knows what is about to happen so he disappears with some of the food from the celebratory banquet realizing An ancestry the servants chase them around but as usual he escapes anyhow saliday ended up getting his rightful reward and Nancy even after all this insists upon the lie that he was the one that killed mankro this act features not a Nancy but solid a human as the true hero this might indicate that in the end the Fantastical strength of a Nancy is only truly 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 a girl helping her to understand herself and access her Inner Strength while Grant gives solidity advice and tools he needs to defeat makro perhaps women are naturally Adept at guiding nurturing and inspiring [Music] we now jump on board to begin another act girl is asking why Nancy is always looking for trouble the rich 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 ananti uses his wits for both heroism and villainy although calling announces 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 sword back on Deck sailor gets a bit more CH time as he chats with boy boy is crying in a corner 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 than the black people being thrown overboard must also have been made in God's image Godzilla 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 earliest seen Selah 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 boiler means 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 Dairy overboard Captain also disciplines the boy with shorts and slaps then storms up 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 a 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 guesses 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 a girl outrightly acknowledges woman as her new mother woman replies by a 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 a Nancy and the tiger coming the Summer sun is Raging which gives Anansi the perfect opportunity to pull a fast one on tiger she takes tiger to a pool or he can swim and relax and Nancy 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 a Nancy convinces tiger to take off his fat some monsters in the pool won't try to eat it unwillingly and somewhat embarrassed tiger complies while tiger takes a nice cool swim a Nancy stands guard by Tiger's fur and fat what a good friend but of course a Nancy has ulterior motives it isn't long before Anansi is making a yummy stew out of Tiger's fat but the nosy Rat Bat who has been following tiger under Nancy shows himself he wants some of whatever Anansi is cooking up and answer 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 skin to frame ratbat a Nancy tells ratbat that to enter the contest he must sing a song about tiger fat how convenient so ratbot goes off singing his new original song about tiger fat well fancy we can assume enjoys his tag of attitude tiger gets out of the pool and becomes enraged when he sees that his fat and caught are missing tiger threatens to kill a Nancy but there is no need for all that because an answer knows who the culprit is a Nancy leads tiger to song City where he hears right back singing about delicious tiger fat implicating himself in a crime he did not commit but before tiger rips right back to threads he realizes that Anansi must have had something to do with this whole Fiasco but it's too late a Nancy has already made a full 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 an answer 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 a Nancy if girls should survive her dire circumstance she will need to be able to wrap people around her finger like a Nancy 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 a girl the tiger fat she seeks might be freedom who knows perhaps her tiger fat could also include Revenge [Music] the next ACT takes us back to the hold where girl is dying of laughter after hearing this ridiculous story about tiger fight woman gives girl another riddle that she doesn't get the term to answer pause here and read the reader let me know in the comments what you think the answer is what is this home that we're all going to girl claims to know the answer but before she sees it they quiet themselves as sailor and boy come down woman accepts her fit 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 yum tiger fat alluding to the previous Forest Story this can be taken in two ways for one it can be seen as a girl threatening boy and sailor just as Tyga'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 content is clear as he's doing his best to protect the best beasts in the herd the ends the dictation readying to prepare the Legends 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 [Music] the next ACT takes us to a new place Kingston Harbor where the slaves will be auctioned off we see some interesting character development in boy now he walks up Brighton's turn he has an ear 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 ear 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 letters 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 are still not sure just how much like Captain boy has become we see that he is no Stern and confident but also unlike Ceylon Captain he seems to retain his bullish ability to think for himself we see this in his brief conversation about God sealer 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 women 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 stars to tell a story no she's 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 hit who adopted child slaves for herself foreign [Music] 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 brick they suggest that her finds a new slave some fresh meat so to speak dog cat and crab put out an ad to attract a new slave for her with the caveat that if they can guess her'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 a Nancy dressed up as a girl of course we change scene to the next story at the river and then to soon gets crap to tell him her his 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 the crabs 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 Buck 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 and 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 ananta 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 onboard Acts but this time girl gives us two whole paragraphs of the final fourth 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 attends what does this convergence of the Two Worlds mean it might mean that girl has no fully internalized 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 an answer within her she is free even whilst being a Slave and we end at Kingston Harbor for the final and shortest act in which girl is finally sold here girl starts to tell a story but not a finance 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 look at the characters there are 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 peer 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 seeing 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 this waves 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 if 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 woman girl is in many ways a character that is parallel boy in that they're both children whose Destinies seem to be set before them in that way they are 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 in home again anyone would be frightened in this situation not to mention a child however girl shows a spirit of determination and cleverness and proved to be a fast learner as she gleans from woman taking interest in their Nancy stories woman on the other hand from the place beginning plays the role of a kind of 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 strength is transferred to girls through the store as she passes on through the lessons girl learned from her as you 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 Nancy 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 reinforced Captain's ideals sailor like Captain sees the slaves as beasts as cargo not as people then we have Auctioneer who appears at Kingston Harbor 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 card the most important character is of course an anti 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 a Nancy we must also look at Tiger and snake these are big strong creatures who always end up being outsmarted by a Nazi they create opportunities for an answer to show off how smart and manipulative he is besides the Nancy solide 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 a Nazi he courageously takes on and vanquishes the Dreadful Mangrove while Anansi may represent our ability to rise above insurmountable obstacles through cunning and wit through trickery and deception solid a represents our ability to overcome evil with good through righteousness virtuousness 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 solidarity defeats Mangrove he was himself tricked by a Nazi we can't speak of solidity without mentioning another human Grand serves a similar purpose to woman just as woman teaches girl Grand teaches holiday giving him the tools he needs to slay mangrove Grand 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 Monroe are also important they are 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 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 have come up with after a very careful consideration you will 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 the power 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 Mercy the Africans are polished 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 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 enhanced 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 player 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 babies over in the forest of stories we see the mighty monster Mantra and the terrible woman her exert power over others however we also see that they are eventually defeated by the likes of solidae and the Nancy indicating that even when one feels or appears to be powerless there's always a way to achieve importance fantasy versus 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 of financing 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 are almost Inseparable this shows the extent to which girl internalizes the forest doors appearance versus reality there are several cases in display in which things appear to be one way but are really another the most obvious case might be in the fortitude of a Nancy and Nancy 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 a Nancy as so little and weak as seen in Act One 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 well 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 proved 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 versus 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 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 versus Darkness or good versus evil since the First Act the theme of light versus 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 filters 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 the knowledge that she must awaken through her journey into the forest stores on page 9 woman makes an interesting statement no amount of fear and darkness can change to 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 filters down through the crack in the roof her endurance and confidence are boosted of course girl claims not quite to the literal light but instead to the new understandings gained from the Anansi Stories it is women who enlightens her in the first first 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 Mangrove and represents an air of dread and hopelessness as well as the evil of Mangrove we also see that macro is described as dark huge and horrible also mankray 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 solid air defeats Mangrove when mankro is defeated King declares the day is saved the Sun is bright weakness has triumphed over might here the light represents solidar'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 a 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 of 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 Harbor 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 a girl and woman boy is also alienated as he seems to be the only non-slave on the ship who wonders why the Africans are 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 versus 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 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 exercise power not only over slaves but also over his crewmen even people like him aren't free he says do you think there's someone 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 into forest stories where both mankro and her exert cruel poor over others the theme is more pronounced as you look at her who enslaves children in the end an answer outsmarts her taking half of her positions right after this we see that girl doesn't look frightened anymore indicating that announce his 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 a girl warms up the 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 you 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 Shields phone 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 women 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 Evangelical informs the captains of thinking her only pretends to do so we see that he takes on the rule 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 up Fortune selling these 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 an answer a Nancy's desire is different from story to story but 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 his interested not only in 14 but also in Fame as we see from the first Forest story where Anansi tricks dagger into letting the stories be named after him a Nancy 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 Light 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's 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 instead of his father the captain God when Captain announces that only three slaves have died on the Six-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 boy it 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 image of God yet for some reason the black 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 God 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 cones 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 Sila tells him not to cry simp a lad a boy such vulnerable displays of emotion are not for boys or men but for girls for women 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 folk tales Alive by telling them the girl we see that grand plays a similar role as she encourages and supports holiday as he prepares to battle Minecraft that's it for characters 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 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 look at the devices that are extremely important to the play following that we look at some devices 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 hoop which likely references is 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 you see another irony when boy sees girl 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 today instead feel bitterness and hatred toward them but instead she pities how depraved and broken there 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 under stood by the characters for example going back to when girl is introduced to a Nancy the audience sees how oblivious girl used 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 a Nancy is speaking of a Nancy 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 are typically underestimate the Nancy that makes his victories over them even Sweden dramatic irony adds to the comedy and satisfaction readers feel in the forest stories another dramatic iron 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 an answer for granted until he ends up tricking everyone out of everything they have girl is seen by Captain and sailor as just another stupid slave and is seen by Boy perhaps as someone to be pitted symbolism we have 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 Grand helps solidate to prepare to face Mangrove she gives him six arrows and Grant 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 Minecraft and her even enhances regular adversaries like tiger and snake might in this place symbolize the slave masters imagery this played as an excellent job of creating Vivid scenes in the reader's mind we're made to clearly see and feel the environments of both the slave ship and the forest in the first act when we were first taken to the hole where the Muslims are kept where I painted a 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 player 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 and will continue to look at the purpose of having two narratives run side by side those being the onboard stores and the fourth stories one of the reasons is that the forest stories often provide comic relief there's much comedy in how an anti outsmarts everyone around him and makes fools of them and Nancy of course creates comedy through his actions but just as much through his words for example in the first Forest Story he insults Tyga 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 have 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 they share 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 foreign 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 schooling 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 Tyga and again when he talks with snake repetition well 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 girls 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 women 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 hole is she employs a simile saying that it is as dark as the big Hut with no windows where the tribe stores greens this makes it easier for us to imagine the darkness of the world but it also sheds a bit of light on girls previous experiences and things she can relate to such as the hood she describes girl also mentions that there were tied together like boards waiting for the knife this shows how the Africans were treated no better than animals throughout the play The White People continued 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 similarly 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 sailor 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 hole 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 the whole pale and sick he looks metaphor metaphors play a similar role to similes in the play but tend to provide even deeper insights and similes do in some stage narration for act 1 it it is said that the spider's web links the Africans together through metaphor this means that the stories and spirit of financing 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 women 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 Similan metaphor is personification in girls first lines she says that she remembers the river carrying her further and further from her mother on its great prone back here as the river is given human-like characteristics we can see how helpless girls 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 slave singing was previously said bye 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 morning grids also we see a contrast with the singing of the Sea and the morning of the greats reinforcing the Dismal atmosphere that the slaves are forced to endure since we are on the topic of personifying the sea still in Act five boy says that the sea looked angry as the African man was thrown 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 towards 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 is often seen speaking in Rhymes in fact his first monologue is done in rhyming couplets he tells of how craft he is while being crafty with the words themselves rhyme is also used by other characters for example in Act 4 Ram is used to showcase the vibrant Spirit of the animals their gleefulness and mariness then Rhymes are used to introduce the dread and Terror that man crew 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 Nancy 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 bee videos like this 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