WAEC SSCE - Literature In English - 2017 (Prose)

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Irony is a major device in Richard Wright's Native Son. Wright uses situational, dramatic and verbal irony to expose the contradictions of a racist society and to deepen the tragedy of Bigger Thomas.

The irony of the Daltons' charity

• The Daltons are celebrated philanthropists who donate generously to Black causes, yet they own the overcrowded, rat-infested slum tenements that keep Black families like Bigger's in misery. Their kindness funds the very oppression they claim to relieve.
• It is bitterly ironic that Bigger, hired as an act of charity, ends up killing their daughter. Their well-meant benevolence produces catastrophe.

The irony surrounding Mary's death

• Mary Dalton and Jan, the communists, try hardest to treat Bigger as an equal, yet their insensitive friendliness only terrifies and humiliates him, helping to set the tragedy in motion.
• Bigger kills Mary accidentally, out of fear of being discovered in her room, yet he is condemned as a deliberate murderer and rapist. The gap between the truth and the accusation is deeply ironic.

The irony of Bigger's empowerment

• In a cruel irony, it is only after committing murder that Bigger feels, for the first time, a sense of power, identity and freedom. The act that dooms him also makes him feel alive.
• A society that denied him any meaningful life gives him significance only as a criminal.

The irony of justice

• Bigger receives a "fair" trial in a system already determined to destroy him; the machinery of justice is used to confirm a racist verdict rather than to discover truth.
• The prosecutor exploits the accidental killing to inflame racial hysteria, making legal process a tool of injustice.

Verbal and dramatic irony

• Characters repeatedly misread one another; the reader knows the truth of Mary's death while the world condemns Bigger for the wrong reasons, creating sustained dramatic irony.

Conclusion. Through these layers of irony, Wright lays bare the hypocrisy and injustice of a racist society. The ironic reversals, charity that oppresses, kindness that terrifies, murder that empowers and justice that destroys, give Native Son its tragic force and its power as social protest.

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In Bayo Adebowale's Lonely Days, the village of Kufi is deeply rooted in traditional belief, and the people show a strong attachment to superstition. The novel presents this superstitious outlook both as part of the community's culture and as a source of the injustice that widows like Yaremi suffer.

Belief in curses and the supernatural

• The people of Kufi readily attribute misfortune, death and hardship to spiritual causes, curses, witchcraft and the anger of ancestors, rather than to natural explanation.
• Widowhood itself is surrounded by superstition; a widow is suspected of complicity in her husband's death and must undergo rites to prove her innocence.

Superstition and the treatment of widows

• Yaremi is subjected to humiliating widowhood practices grounded in the belief that a widow is spiritually dangerous or guilty until cleansed.
• Fear of the dead husband's spirit shapes how the community treats her, showing how superstition licenses cruelty.

Faith in charms, omens and traditional medicine

• Villagers consult diviners, wear charms and read omens in dreams, birds and natural signs, trusting these to explain and control their lives.
• Traditional healers and soothsayers hold authority because the people believe in unseen forces.

A mixed attitude

• Superstition is bound up with genuine communal values, respect for ancestors, custom and social order, so it is not presented as wholly negative.
• Yet the novel is critical where superstition breeds injustice, especially against vulnerable women, inviting the reader to question harmful traditions.

Conclusion. The people of Kufi are strongly superstitious, explaining life through curses, spirits and omens and enforcing tradition-based rites. Adebowale portrays this attitude with understanding but also exposes how it fuels the mistreatment of widows, making superstition central to the novel's social criticism.

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In Richard Wright's Native Son, Mrs Dalton, the wealthy white woman for whose family Bigger Thomas works, is literally blind. Wright makes her physical blindness a powerful metaphor for the wider moral and social blindness of white America toward the humanity and suffering of Black people.

Literal and symbolic blindness

• Mrs Dalton cannot see with her eyes, and it is precisely her presence in the darkened bedroom, when she cannot perceive what is happening, that leads to the accidental smothering of her daughter Mary. Her literal blindness triggers the catastrophe.
• This physical fact becomes a symbol: white society, for all its supposed goodwill, is blind to the real condition and inner life of Black people.

The blindness of white liberalism

• The Daltons see themselves as kind philanthropists who help Black causes, yet they own the slum housing that traps Black families like Bigger's in poverty and rats. They cannot see this contradiction.
• Their charity is blind to the human being before them; they treat Bigger as a project, not a person, never grasping his fear, anger or humanity.

Mutual blindness in race relations

• Whites are blind to Blacks, refusing to see them as full individuals, while the fear and hatred bred by racism also blind Bigger, so that he cannot see whites clearly either.
• This double blindness makes genuine understanding impossible and drives the tragedy of miscommunication and violence.

The metaphor extended

• Even well-meaning characters fail to "see" Bigger truly; only his lawyer, Max, begins to perceive the social forces that shaped him.
• Mrs Dalton's sightless groping in the dark mirrors a whole society groping blindly, unable or unwilling to see the injustice it perpetuates.

Conclusion. Mrs Dalton's blindness is far more than a physical trait. It is Wright's controlling metaphor for the moral blindness of white America, a society that cannot, or will not, see the humanity of the Black people it oppresses, and this blindness lies at the heart of the novel's tragic vision of race relations.

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In Amma Darko's Faceless, Baby T, the fourteen-year-old sister of Fofo, is one of the clearest victims of social injustice. Her tragic story, from abuse at home to prostitution and finally murder, embodies the novel's protest against a society that fails to protect its vulnerable children, especially the girl-child.

A victim of a broken home and irresponsible parenting

• Baby T is the daughter of Maa Tsuru, a poor, superstitious woman burdened by a supposed family curse, and is neglected by the men in her mother's life.
• Her stepfather figure, Kpakpo, and the household's poverty expose her to danger instead of protection. Those who should shield her betray her.

A victim of sexual abuse

• Baby T is sexually molested at a young age by men close to the family, and her innocence is destroyed by adults who exploit her helplessness.
• Rather than being defended, she is blamed and pushed further into vulnerability.

Sold into prostitution

• Driven by poverty, Baby T is effectively handed over to Maami Broni and forced into child prostitution, becoming merchandise for men's pleasure.
• She is exploited by Onko and others, showing how economic hardship and adult greed reduce a child to a commodity.

Her murder and facelessness

• Baby T is finally murdered and her body dumped, discarded like refuse near Agbogbloshie market. Her death is the ultimate injustice.
• She dies nameless and unmourned by society, the very image of the "faceless" children the title condemns.

The wider indictment

• Through Baby T, Darko attacks poverty, the neglect of the girl-child, the failure of family and the indifference of society and authorities.
• The efforts of MUTE and Kabria to uncover her story are the author's call for these injustices to be exposed and corrected.

Conclusion. Baby T is indeed a victim of social injustice. Poverty, abuse, exploitation and neglect combine to destroy a defenceless child, and her fate stands as the novel's most powerful protest against the mistreatment of vulnerable young people.

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In Amma Darko's Faceless, the friendship between Fofo and Odarley, two girls who survive on the streets of Accra, is central to the novel's exploration of poverty, homelessness and the vulnerability of the girl-child. Fofo's visit to Odarley is significant because it deepens our understanding of street life and advances the plot toward the investigation of Baby T's death.

The context of the visit

• Fofo and Odarley are close companions who share the hardships of life on the streets around Sodom and Gomorrah, the Accra slum.
• After the shock surrounding the murder of her sister Baby T, Fofo turns to Odarley for shelter, comfort and companionship.

Significance of the visit

• It reveals the harshness of street life. Through Odarley's circumstances, Darko exposes the squalor, insecurity and daily danger faced by homeless children, especially girls who are prey to abuse.
• It underscores the theme of friendship and survival. The bond between the two girls shows that solidarity among the poor is one of the few sources of safety and emotional support they possess.
• It advances the plot. The visit and the girls' shared knowledge feed into the effort by MUTE, the NGO run by Kabria and Dina, to uncover the truth behind Baby T's death and the wider abuse of street children.
• It highlights the plight of the girl-child. Odarley's own story mirrors Fofo's, reinforcing the novel's protest against a society that leaves young girls faceless, nameless and exposed to exploitation.

Conclusion. Fofo's visit to Odarley is significant because it dramatises the reality of street life, celebrates the sustaining power of friendship among the destitute, and moves the narrative toward exposing the truth about Baby T. It embodies the novel's central concern with the neglected, voiceless children of urban poverty.

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In Bayo Adebowale's Lonely Days, Ajumobi is the late husband of Yaremi, the central character. Although he dies early in the story, Ajumobi is portrayed through Yaremi's memories, and his portrayal is largely positive, standing in contrast to the harsh treatment widowhood brings her.

A loving and devoted husband

• Through Yaremi's recollections, Ajumobi emerges as a caring, affectionate partner. Their marriage was marked by warmth, companionship and mutual respect.
• His memory sustains Yaremi in her loneliness, showing the depth of the bond they shared.

A hardworking farmer and provider

• Ajumobi is remembered as an industrious man who worked the farm and provided for his family, embodying the ideal of the responsible rural husband.
• His diligence and skill earned him respect in Kufi, the village community.

A brave and respected man

• He is recalled as courageous, a hunter and a man of standing whose presence commanded regard in the village.
• His strength and dignity made Yaremi proud to be his wife.

A figure of contrast

• Ajumobi's kindness in life highlights, by contrast, the cruelty Yaremi suffers after his death, when relatives and custom subject her to humiliating widowhood rites.
• His absence exposes the vulnerability of widows in a patriarchal, tradition-bound society.

Conclusion. Ajumobi is portrayed, chiefly through flashback and memory, as a loving, hardworking and respected husband. His warm image deepens the pathos of Yaremi's lonely widowhood and underscores the novel's concern with the plight of widows in traditional African society.

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Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, regarded as the first Gothic novel, dramatises a clear struggle between good and evil. The forces of tyranny, usurpation and lust are ranged against innocence, rightful order and divine justice, and the novel's supernatural machinery ensures that good finally triumphs.

Evil embodied in Manfred

• Manfred, Prince of Otranto, represents evil. He is a tyrant and usurper whose family holds the principality through an old crime, his grandfather having seized it from its rightful lord.
• His ruthless ambition drives the plot: after his son Conrad is killed, he tries to divorce his faithful wife Hippolita and forcibly marry the innocent Isabella to secure his line, even pursuing her with lustful violence.
• His cruelty culminates in the accidental killing of his own daughter Matilda, the tragic cost of his wickedness.

Good embodied in the innocent characters

• Isabella and Matilda represent virtue, purity and gentleness, resisting Manfred's tyranny.
• Hippolita embodies patient goodness and piety, enduring her husband's cruelty with saintly resignation.
• Theodore, the brave and virtuous young peasant who proves to be the rightful heir, is the champion of good who ultimately restores justice.

The supernatural as the agent of divine justice

• The Gothic marvels, the giant helmet that crushes Conrad, the bleeding statue, the enormous armoured limbs and the final apparition of Alfonso, are instruments of Heaven working against the usurping house.
• These portents steadily undermine Manfred and announce that evil will be punished and the true line restored.

The triumph of good

• Manfred's schemes collapse; the castle falls, and the ghost of the true lord Alfonso proclaims Theodore the rightful prince.
• Order and justice are restored, and Theodore's eventual union with Isabella affirms the victory of virtue.

Conclusion. The novel is indeed structured as a contest between good and evil. Manfred's tyranny and lust are opposed by innocence, piety and rightful heirship, and the supernatural ensures that divine justice overthrows the usurper. The triumph of Theodore and the restoration of order confirm the moral pattern of good conquering evil.

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In Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, Manfred, Prince of Otranto, is destroyed by his own actions. His downfall is caused largely by his lust for power, his determination to keep the principality his family has usurped, though this ambition is bound up with pride, cruelty and unbridled desire.

The root of his ambition: a usurped throne

• Manfred rules Otranto through an old wrong; his grandfather seized the principality from its rightful lord, Alfonso. An ancient prophecy warns that the true owner will one day reclaim it.
• Manfred's overriding aim is to secure and perpetuate this ill-gotten power by ensuring a male heir, so his lust for power drives every decision.

How the lust for power drives his crimes

• When his sickly son Conrad is crushed to death, Manfred, desperate for an heir, resolves to divorce his loyal wife Hippolita, an act of injustice motivated purely by dynastic ambition.
• He determines to marry the young Isabella himself, pursuing her ruthlessly and even with violence, to father a new heir. His obsession with the succession overrides all morality.
• His tyranny and paranoia lead him to threaten and imprison the innocent, including the virtuous Theodore.

The fatal outcome

• Manfred's frenzy climaxes in the accidental killing of his own daughter Matilda, whom he stabs in mistake for Isabella. His grasping ambition thus destroys what he loves most.
• Overwhelmed by guilt and confronted by the supernatural apparition of Alfonso, who proclaims Theodore the rightful heir, Manfred is forced to confess his family's usurpation, abdicate and retire to a monastery.

A balanced judgement

• Manfred's lust for power is the chief cause of his ruin, but it operates through related flaws, pride, cruelty and lust for Isabella, and it runs against a destiny fixed by the prophecy and enforced by Heaven.
• His downfall is therefore both self-inflicted, through ambition, and providential, the punishment of a usurping house.

Conclusion. To a very great extent, Manfred's downfall is caused by his lust for power. His obsession with securing his usurped throne leads him into injustice, cruelty and finally the killing of his own child, bringing about the collapse of his house and the restoration of the rightful line.