Bessie Head’s “A Question of Power”: The Novel of Soul-Journey
Abstract: In this paper, I propose to examine the nature of the myths which Bessie Head uses in special and unique way to establish a special signification for her novel, A Question of Power and the relation the myths hold to the universal question of Good and Evil. Bessie Head amalgamates myth and religion. Two aspects of her attitude is highlighted. One is, myths express the evolutionary nature of man’s psyche and the other is, myths ought to be set aside in context in which their efficacy to man is not their function. The heroine of the novel, Elizabeth proves it. The beauty of the desert landscapes happens to be a harmonious …show more content…
Her Scottish mother, Bessie Amelia Emery (nicknamed, Toby) belonging to a wealthy family fall in love with an African groom and was shortly sent to an asylum by her family because she was judged insane. Bessie Head named after her unfortunate mother, was born in the asylum’s hospital. The child whom no one owned was raised in a mission orphanage until the age of thirteen. After finishing her high school education, she underwent training to be a teacher. She worked as a teacher and then as a journalist for African magazine, ‘Drum’. She married Harold Head but the marriage ended in divorce in1963, and Bessie Head was left to raise her only child, a son, as a single parent. Her son provided no joy and comfort to her. After her marriage broke up, she left South Africa on an exist permit and went to Serowe in Botswana and took up teaching post there. She lived here as a stateless person until her tragic death in April, 1986 with Hepatitis infection. In Botswana, she remained in ‘refugee’ status for fifteen years before gaining citizenship. It was a punishment on her involvement with Pan-African politics. Her personal background and her experience as a stateless person informs her work making it strikingly autobiographical and personal. Her fiction draws significantly upon experience of being a non-white in South Africa. It would not be inappropriate to say that her work is a …show more content…
Elizabeth first teaches school and later becomes involved in a cooperative farming venture designed to boost the economy of the village of Motabeng and to instill some pride in the Botswana. On this level, the story has little action and few emotional hills and valleys. On another level, however, the novel is a record of Elizabeth’s mental breakdown and of her wavering in and out of the terrifying world of insanity. The daytime world of Elizabeth’s mundane chores and her routine work at the school and later in the gardens contrasts sharply with the night times world that eventually takes over and leads to her mental
Abstract: In this paper, I propose to examine the nature of the myths which Bessie Head uses in special and unique way to establish a special signification for her novel, A Question of Power and the relation the myths hold to the universal question of Good and Evil. Bessie Head amalgamates myth and religion. Two aspects of her attitude is highlighted. One is, myths express the evolutionary nature of man’s psyche and the other is, myths ought to be set aside in context in which their efficacy to man is not their function. The heroine of the novel, Elizabeth proves it. The beauty of the desert landscapes happens to be a harmonious …show more content…
Her Scottish mother, Bessie Amelia Emery (nicknamed, Toby) belonging to a wealthy family fall in love with an African groom and was shortly sent to an asylum by her family because she was judged insane. Bessie Head named after her unfortunate mother, was born in the asylum’s hospital. The child whom no one owned was raised in a mission orphanage until the age of thirteen. After finishing her high school education, she underwent training to be a teacher. She worked as a teacher and then as a journalist for African magazine, ‘Drum’. She married Harold Head but the marriage ended in divorce in1963, and Bessie Head was left to raise her only child, a son, as a single parent. Her son provided no joy and comfort to her. After her marriage broke up, she left South Africa on an exist permit and went to Serowe in Botswana and took up teaching post there. She lived here as a stateless person until her tragic death in April, 1986 with Hepatitis infection. In Botswana, she remained in ‘refugee’ status for fifteen years before gaining citizenship. It was a punishment on her involvement with Pan-African politics. Her personal background and her experience as a stateless person informs her work making it strikingly autobiographical and personal. Her fiction draws significantly upon experience of being a non-white in South Africa. It would not be inappropriate to say that her work is a …show more content…
Elizabeth first teaches school and later becomes involved in a cooperative farming venture designed to boost the economy of the village of Motabeng and to instill some pride in the Botswana. On this level, the story has little action and few emotional hills and valleys. On another level, however, the novel is a record of Elizabeth’s mental breakdown and of her wavering in and out of the terrifying world of insanity. The daytime world of Elizabeth’s mundane chores and her routine work at the school and later in the gardens contrasts sharply with the night times world that eventually takes over and leads to her mental