WAEC SSCE - Literature In English - 2019 (Prose)

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Yaremi's marriage is at the heart of Bayo Adebowale's Lonely Days. Much of the novel is told through her memories of life with her late husband Ajumobi, so that her marriage becomes both a picture of traditional Yoruba wedded life and the measure of the loneliness she suffers as a widow.

A companionate and loving union. Yaremi's marriage to Ajumobi was, on the whole, a warm and fulfilling one. Through her recollections we see a partnership built on mutual affection, shared labour and understanding. Ajumobi was a farmer, and the couple worked and lived together in the daily rhythms of village life, sharing joys, difficulties and the raising of their children.

Not free of trials. Like any marriage, theirs had its quarrels and hard moments, and Yaremi remembers disagreements as well as tenderness. These realistic touches keep the marriage from being idealised and show a bond tested and strengthened over time. The union produced children, fulfilling the traditional expectation of the married woman.

The shadow of widowhood. The marriage gains its deepest meaning through its ending. Ajumobi's death leaves Yaremi a widow, plunging her into the "lonely days" of the title. The loss exposes her to the harsh widowhood rites of Kufi and to pressure to remarry or to be inherited by another man.

Loyalty beyond death. Out of respect and love for Ajumobi's memory, and in defence of her own dignity, Yaremi refuses to remarry. Her steadfastness reflects both the strength of her marriage and her determination to remain her own person, resisting the community's attempts to dispose of her.

Conclusion. Yaremi's marriage is portrayed as a loving, productive and largely happy traditional union whose loss defines the rest of her life. Through her fond memories and her loyal widowhood, Adebowale celebrates the bond of a good marriage while exposing the cruelty of the customs that a widow must endure.

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In Richard Wright's Native Son, Bigger Thomas has a hostile and dismissive attitude towards religion. To him the Christianity of black America offers no answer to the oppression and fear that define his life, and he rejects it as an evasion rather than a comfort.

Scorn for his mother's faith. Bigger's first exposure to religion is his mother's devout Christianity. She sings hymns, prays, and urges him to trust in God, but Bigger regards her piety with impatience and contempt. He sees her religion as a way of enduring suffering rather than ending it, a means of accepting misery instead of fighting the conditions that cause it.

Religion as escapism and passivity. To Bigger, Christianity keeps black people submissive. He believes it teaches them to look for reward in heaven while accepting humiliation and poverty on earth, blinding them to their real situation. He wants to face the hard facts of his life directly, and he feels that religion would only lull him into passivity, robbing him of the energy of his anger.

Rejection of the cross in prison. In prison, the Reverend Hammond brings Bigger a cross and urges him to seek salvation. For a moment the old comfort tempts him, but Bigger ultimately rejects it. His revulsion is deepened when he associates the cross with the burning cross of the racist mob and the Ku Klux Klan, so that the very symbol of Christian salvation becomes for him a sign of white hatred. He throws the cross away, refusing the consolation of faith.

Seeking meaning in himself. Instead of religion, Bigger searches for meaning in his own actions and in a bleak self-understanding. Even his crimes give him a terrible sense of identity and freedom that religion never offered him.

Conclusion. Bigger's attitude to religion is therefore one of rejection and contempt. He sees Christianity as an opiate that pacifies the oppressed, and tainted by the hypocrisy of a racist society, and he turns away from it to confront his existence on his own harsh terms.

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In Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, Theodore is the young hero through whom order and justice are finally restored. Beginning as an apparently humble peasant, he proves to be the rightful heir of Otranto, and his role is central to the working out of the prophecy and the fall of the usurper Manfred.

The mysterious young stranger. Theodore first appears as a handsome, brave peasant who astonishes onlookers by his striking resemblance to the portrait of Alfonso the Good, the murdered rightful prince. This resemblance is an early hint of his true identity and marks him out as an agent of the supernatural justice that governs the tale.

Courage and chivalry. Theodore embodies the virtues of the romance hero: courage, honour, gallantry and compassion. He boldly helps the princess Isabella escape from Manfred's unlawful pursuit through the vaults of the castle, defends the helpless, and confronts danger without fear, standing in moral contrast to the tyrant.

Victim of Manfred's tyranny. Because he thwarts Manfred's schemes, Theodore is imprisoned and threatened with death by the enraged prince. His unjust suffering underlines Manfred's cruelty and injustice, while his patience and nobility win the reader's sympathy.

Love and loss. Theodore falls in love with Manfred's gentle daughter Matilda. Their love is tragically cut short when Manfred, in a jealous frenzy, kills Matilda by mistake, so that Theodore's happiness is shattered even as justice triumphs.

The rightful heir restored. At the climax it is revealed that Theodore is the true descendant of Alfonso the Good and the lawful prince of Otranto. The prophecy is fulfilled, Manfred abdicates, and Theodore inherits the principality. Though he mourns Matilda, he eventually marries Isabella, uniting in her a companion who can share his sorrow.

Conclusion. Theodore's role is to embody virtue and rightful succession. As brave protector, unjustly persecuted innocent, and finally the restored true heir, he is the instrument through which Walpole resolves the Gothic conflict, punishing usurpation and restoring legitimate rule to Otranto.

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In The Castle of Otranto, Prince Manfred is plagued by a series of misfortunes, which are believed to be caused by the curse placed upon his family. His son dies unexpectedly, leaving no male heir to inherit the title and property. In an attempt to secure the succession, Manfred plans to divorce his wife and marry Isabella, who is betrothed to his son. When Isabella escapes from the castle, Manfred becomes increasingly desperate and his actions become more ruthless. He orders his men to search for Isabella and kill anyone who stands in their way. Eventually, Manfred's evil deeds catch up with him and he is killed by a giant helmet that falls from the sky, fulfilling the prophecy of the curse. Manfred's downfall is a result of his greed and his willingness to go to any lengths to maintain his power and secure his legacy, regardless of the consequences.

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In Amma Darko's Faceless, the Agbogbloshie Market in Accra is far more than a physical setting; it is a symbol of urban poverty and the moral decay that drives the plight of street children, especially girls. Its significance runs through the whole novel.

• It is the harsh home of the street children. Agbogbloshie is where Fofo, the young protagonist, and other homeless children struggle to survive by petty trading and other means. The market embodies the neglect of these "faceless" children whom society has abandoned.
• It is the scene of exploitation and danger. The market and its surrounding slum expose girls to abuse, prostitution and violence. It is here, in this world of predators, that Fofo's sister Baby T is drawn into sexual exploitation and finally meets her death, the crime that sets the plot in motion.
• It is a microcosm of a failing society. The squalor, crime and lawlessness of Agbogbloshie mirror the larger failures of the nation: broken homes, poverty, corruption and the collapse of moral responsibility. The market makes visible what the comfortable city would rather ignore.
• It drives the novel's central investigation. The mystery of Baby T's murder, pursued by Fofo with the help of the NGO, is rooted in the life of the market. Agbogbloshie thus becomes the ground on which the novel exposes and questions society's treatment of its vulnerable.
• It sharpens the theme of the "faceless." The anonymous crowds of the market reinforce the title's meaning: children who live and die there are without face or voice, unremembered by the society that produced them.

Conclusion. Agbogbloshie Market is central to Faceless because it concentrates the novel's concerns, poverty, the abuse of street girls, and social neglect, in a single vivid location. As setting, symbol and stage for the tragedy, it gives the novel its moral weight and its urgent social protest.

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In the novel "Faceless" by Amma Darko, Fofo plays a significant role as the main protagonist. Fofo is a young girl who becomes a street child after running away from home due to abuse by her stepfather. Through her experiences, Fofo sheds light on the struggles faced by street children in Accra, Ghana. She is a resilient and determined character who takes matters into her own hands to survive on the streets. Fofo's character is essential in highlighting the harsh realities faced by children living in poverty and the challenges they face in seeking justice and a better life. Her journey also reveals the corrupt systems in place that contribute to the perpetuation of poverty and inequality. Overall, Fofo's character serves as a voice for the voiceless and sheds light on the plight of street children in Ghana.

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In Bayo Adebowale's Lonely Days, the men of Kufi behave towards their women in ways that reflect the entrenched patriarchy of the traditional community. Through the widow Yaremi's experience and her reflections, the novel exposes the domination, exploitation and unequal treatment women suffer at the hands of the men.

Men as masters, women as subordinates. In Kufi the men regard themselves as the natural masters of their wives. Women are expected to be submissive, to serve their husbands and to accept the authority of men without question. A woman's status is defined largely by her relationship to a man, so that widowhood, the loss of a husband, exposes her to particular vulnerability.

Oppressive widowhood practices. The harshest treatment falls on widows. After Ajumobi's death, Yaremi is subjected to degrading and painful widowhood rites imposed by tradition and enforced by the community. Widows are made to undergo humiliating mourning customs, are sometimes suspected of causing their husbands' deaths, and are pressured over inheritance and remarriage, all reflecting how little control a woman has over her own life.

Polygamy and women as property. The practice of polygamy in Kufi treats women almost as possessions to be acquired, and the men's readiness to inherit or remarry widows shows an attitude in which women are valued for their usefulness rather than respected as equals.

Yaremi's resistance. Yet the novel does not present the women as wholly passive. Yaremi resists the pressure to remarry and to submit meekly to the widowhood customs, asserting her dignity and independence. Her strength stands as a criticism of the men's oppressive conduct and of the traditions that support it.

Conclusion. The men of Kufi behave towards their women with dominance and, especially towards widows, with harshness and disregard, upholding patriarchal customs that subordinate and exploit women. Through Yaremi's dignified resistance, Adebowale exposes and questions this unjust treatment.

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In Richard Wright's Native Son, the Daltons are portrayed as wealthy white philanthropists whose well-meaning charity is undercut by a deep blindness to the systemic racism from which they profit. Wright uses them to expose the hypocrisy and limits of white liberal goodwill.

Rich benefactors and employers. Mr. Henry Dalton and his wife are a rich Chicago family who employ Bigger Thomas as their chauffeur, part of what they see as their programme of helping poor black people. They give to black charities and pride themselves on their generosity, and they offer Bigger a job and the chance of night school.

Profiteers of the ghetto. Their charity is deeply hypocritical. Mr. Dalton owns, through the South Side Real Estate Company, the very slum housing in which the Thomas family and other black people are forced to live at extortionate rents in overcrowded, rat-infested flats. The wealth he gives away in charity is drawn from the exploitation of the black poor he claims to help, and he never questions the segregation that keeps them confined and overcharged.

Symbolic blindness. Mrs. Dalton is literally blind, and Wright makes her blindness a powerful symbol of the moral and social blindness of the whole family and of white liberal society. The Daltons cannot see the reality of black life or recognise how their own actions sustain the oppression they deplore.

Naive liberalism in Mary. Their daughter Mary, though friendly and full of progressive sympathy, treats Bigger with a careless, patronising familiarity that ignores the dangerous racial gulf between them, and her naivety helps precipitate the tragedy of her death.

Conclusion. The Daltons are portrayed as generous yet blind, philanthropists whose charity masks their complicity in racial exploitation. Through them Wright criticises a paternalistic white liberalism that offers piecemeal kindness while upholding the unjust system that produces a Bigger Thomas.

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In the novel "Faceless" by Amma Darko, parental negligence is a major theme that is explored throughout the story. It refers to the lack of attention, care, and responsibility shown by parents towards their children.

In the novel, several characters experience parental neglect, including the protagonist, Adjoa, who is abandoned by her parents and forced to live on the streets. The other characters also face similar situations, such as being neglected by their parents due to poverty, drug abuse, or other personal issues.

This neglect has a significant impact on the lives of these characters, leading to various negative consequences such as poverty, abuse, and exploitation. The lack of parental guidance and support also contributes to their vulnerability and difficulty in making positive life choices.

In conclusion, parental negligence is a prominent theme in "Faceless" and is depicted as a major issue affecting the lives of the characters in the novel.