Linda+Nguyen


 * The Bride Price**
 * Buchi Emecheta**
 * Pgs 100-168** 24/25

Aku-nna’s and Chike’s love persisted, though they tried not to catch too much attention from the village people. Chike tried to talk to his father about his feelings toward the girl; though Chike’s father is not happy with the situation, he agreed he will come and ask Aku-nna’s uncle Okonwo and her family for their marriage. One afternoon, when Aku-nna returned from her bath in the lake with a group of girls, Ma Blackie, Aku-nna’s mother, rushed toward her excitedly for she found out that her daughter had started her menstrual cycle. Okonkwo on the side was happy himself, for he knew that the entire bride price that Aku-nna would fetch would all go to him, especially now that Ma Blackie is conceiving his child, and he could easily manipulate her to his demand. To celebrate her womanhood, a party was thrown for her. This also gave young men in the village the opportunity to introduce themselves. Throughout the night, however, Aku-nna was only longing for Chike. Okoboshi - a boy in the village who is paralyzed in one leg - was one of the boys that came into Aku-nna’s hut. When Chike arrived later in the night, tension was created, for many people in Ibuza had been suspecting Aku-nna’s and Chike’s relationship. Okoboshi, with his boasting and arrogant personality, began to bring to light of the fact that Chike is a slave descendant and shamed him in front of the crowd. It came to the point that Chike, unable to control his temper, struck him. Eventually Ma Blackie came and settled the event. Nights later, Aku-nna and a group of girls gathered and walked to a hut to practice their festival dance. Along the way, Aku-nna was told by Chike that she had passed the examination test. As the girls were practicing their dance (Chike left by then), a bunch of men hoarded in and kidnapped Aku-nna. The rest of the girls ran home. Aku-nna’s cousin Ogugua announced the news to her family, and seeing that Aku-nna had not come home like the rest, they knew she was the one being kidnapped. They spent the night looking for her. Aku-nna arrived at the town Umueze, where Okoboshi lives. She was kidnapped because he wanted to make her his wife, and was consented by his family. That night he tried to sleep with her, but she refused. Feeling helpless of being unable to protest physically, she cried to him that she had slept with Chike many times. After hearing this, Okoboshi casted her aside and beat her up, and by morning the whole town knew that she was a disvirgined girl. The shunned Aku-nna, unable to even return home to face her uncle, planned an escape with Chike. They came to a town that Chike had lived before, and there Aku-nna got a job as a teacher in a missionary school. Thanks to Chike’s father, they were able to live comfortably in the beginning. Aku-nna soon conceived a baby, but she was malnourished to have it in her. She ultimately died of childbirth. The author ended the novel by reinforcing the Ibu traditions.
 * SUMMARY**

The pacing of the second part of this book was very fast, especially towards the end, where Aku-nna’s pregnancy only took up nine pages of the novel. I like the book overall. It was interesting to experience the Ibu cultures through the lens of the rebellion of society. Many of the practices included in the novel kind of shocked me, especially the forced marriage through kidnap, but the overall women inequalities in general. Though it was a sad ending, I think it was the perfect ending to reinforce the message that life in a tribal life of a town like Ibuza is not a fairytale.
 * ANALYSIS**

In relative relation to the course essential question, this particular group of Ibuza people explicit a quite unique culture in humans. The society that Aku-nna arrived to required women to be perfect in harmony with her surroundings, though suppress them to be low in society and does not provide training to have them perform such tasks. Women were expected to keep their virginity until they are married, be able to cook and feed her family, don’t have a say in the households, not get too ahead in education and many more. Any misplacement could subject her to be rejected by society. Very wordy Aku-nna by nature displayed the opposite traits that society had set for her. She grew up to be a fragile, undernourished girl, though raised in a quite wealthy family and attracted many boys in the village. When she arrived to Ibuza, her education was way ahead of the rest of the boys in her school. Her shy personality was not appreciated in the tribal life, notably when women were expected to bare their tops before marriage. The most important contrast, which the story focuses on, was that she followed her heart towards the love of her life, an action that was never forgiven by her town and even her own family. Instead of accepting the planned marriage that everyone in town would have accepted, she chose to marry a slave descendant, which her town never thought was decent of a girl her status. Though she lived happily for a short period of time after the marriage, she suffered the “curse” that the people had put on her – a curse granted when the bride price was not paid. This seems like a clash of culture between two societies – one of the traditional tribal life filled with rules and expectations that one are expected to fulfill to meet up with society, and one with a more Western theme, where everyone is encouraged to be unique and able to follow their heart. We as readers, or perhaps it was just me, tend to favor the more modern, Western view of the protagonist. But by reading books like this, we learn that there are so many different cultures around the world and perhaps we indriectly learn more about ourselves and our own culture through this tidbits of other people and places.
 * APPLICATION**


 * The Bride Price**
 * Buchi Emecheta**
 * Pgs 7-99 24/25 **

This book is about a Nigerian girl named Aku-nna under the oppressive tribal traditions toward women. The novel starts out with the unexpected death of her father after three weeks at the hospital without returning. Without the father - the breadwinner and shelter of the family - Aku-nna, her mother Ma Blackie, and her brother Nna-nndo were forced to leave their city life in Lagos and move to a rural village called Ibuza where their closer relatives reside. According to the Nigerian tradition, Akun-nna’s father’s brother Okonkwo took Ma Blackie as his fourth wife. Through this marriage, Okonkwo would inherit everything that his brother had worked for, and he had already set his sight on his brother’s properties and the bride price that the daughter Aku-nna would fetch when she gets married. Upon the family’s arrival to Ibuza, Aku-nna observed that life there is completely different from what she was accustomed to in Lagos. Children in Ibuza, particularly girls, do not have the opportunities, or have the intention, to heighten their education. In fact, none of Okonwo’s sons show any liking for school, because they think that it is a place for slaves to go to, in order to appease the missionaries in the old days, not for the sons of free men. But later, it was the same educated slaves that hold key positions in the village. On the first day in Ibuza, Aku-nna met her teacher Chike for the first time and they secretly fell in love, though their love was not expressed until later. Chike is the teacher at the school of the Church Missionary Society, but is also the son of a prosperous former slave. As Aku-nna tried to familiarize herself to the new lifestyle, she found herself isolated from everyone. Her mother is so occupied with the new husband, and whenever Aku-nna wanted to share the loneliness feelings with Ma Blackie, she would scold her. One day, Chike noticed that Aku-nna is falling behind with her schoolwork. As the topic was brought to the whole class, Aku-nna burst out crying, and when Chike came to comfort her, he pointed out that she had started her first menstrual cycle – an indication that Aku-nna is ready for marriage. During this moment Chike and Aku-nna confessed their love for each other.
 * SUMMARY**

I am really into this book as I get deeper into it. The book is very fast-paced, although the first few chapters only focused on the funeral procession Aku-nna’s father, which was quite tedious. Although this is a work of fiction, the author made the plot quite realistic by adding more secondary characters to the settings than I think necessary, like the two conflicting uncles who appeared in the beginning while Aku-nna and her family were still in Lagos; their only role in the novel so far was to announce the death of Aku-nna’s father. In addition, the author Buchi Emecheta did a great job in introducing a new perspective of the African, specifically the Nigerian, culture and especially the treatment of women there to non-Nigerian reader. The author is very direct, and does not use a lot of sophisticated writing techniques to implement her points, but rather narrates the story and let the readers do the interpretation.
 * ANALYSIS**

This novel depicts various aspects of the human culture and ideals. For one social hierarchy is a vital part of people’s lifestyle. In the book, the Ibuza society segregates different groups and offers them different treatments from the rest. For instance, slave descendants, though previously severely oppressed and condemned as the lowest class, are now mostly respected by their key positions in the village, like doctors and teachers. However their past can never seem to escape them; though on the surface the villagers show gratitude toward their good deeds, gossips and rumors are spread behind their back. In addition males completely dominate over females. Furthermore the theme of the book concentrates on the extreme patriarchal system that this Nigerian society enforces. The division in social classes is one of the highlighted characteristics that identifies those who live in Ibuza – the rugged way of life of the civilians that the people are accustomed to. Women privileges are very limited, for the foundation of the family rests in the hands of the father. Secondly education is demanded by higher standard of living. The people of Ibuza find that education brings up a man’s social status. In this novel and in the real world, education brings forth knowledge and allows people to achieve greater things with it. For example, the slave descendent Chike strived to be a teacher after going to school to become a teacher, and is now among the respected group in town. As for Aku-nna, her education is what separates her form the rest of the girls her age. A high level of education is frowned upon by the traditional tribal life, therefore her education would not be fully applied. However, her bride price would increase substantially.
 * APLLICATION**
 * This is well done. There are just a few grammatical things I might correct, but they are more style-related. **

Many things have come across my life to shape me into the person that I am today. 1) The most important thing is my siblings, who also developed my most important value, which is family. We are far apart, age-wise, but we can always share our feelings and supportive of each other when times are rough. 2) Along with that, my sister has also made many changes in me recently ever since her departure from home to college, and now to her first official job. She is like my best friend, who I just learn to really appreciate in recent years, and now that she is not home anymore, I really have to cope with times that I really need a strong supporter like her. 3) As equally important, the birth of my younger brother is like a blessing to the family, because he came unexpectedly, but is truly a gift to me. he helps me to learn to be a role model, and develop my character to be able to look over him. 4) A big event that turned my family's world to a new adventure is the arrival to the US from Vietnam. We came here about seven years ago, and life just got really different form then on. 5) Another thing that made a big impact on me is my so-called job. My mom has a family business, and though I don't like to work in there, I have to come and help quite occasionally. The environment of the job sometimes helps me develop my strength to over come other inner weaknesses, but sometimes it kind of makes me forget who I am. 6) In addition, my family has been supportive and encourage me to achieve big ambitions, and I am grateful for that especially in falling times and failures. 7) My grandparents are also extremely important to me, for they are like my second set of parents who I can come to to get away from things I can't talk with my parents. 8) Setting family business aside, a big factor that is really affecting me right now is school. Taking honors and AP classes, though are quite overwhelming, really build my inner strength, to test what I am really capable of doing and let me explore so many stuff that can be explored. 9) Faith has also carry me through times of confusion and uncertainty. Though I am not a strong believer (in Christianity), giving in faith during tough times really help me get through it. 10) And finally, money really is the main catalyst to my transition into adulthood (though I am not quite there yet), but that might as well apply to any teens, with life decisions like college and cars and so many other components. As you can tell, family influences me greatly. It is really the foundation of how I got to where I am right now, a fact that I appreciate greatly.

Sydney Adams~ I think it's really nice how you have such a strong bond with your siblings despite their age difference. Also I see the family importance aspect in your life is very important to you regarding how you see your grandparents as being a second pair of parents.

What is your mother's business? Do you still have family in Vietnam? Do you visit or intend to visit again? -Mrs. Sands