The Disorganization Of Language In Sozaboy By Ken Saro-Wiza

Improved Essays
Ken Saro-Wiza was a Nigerian activist and author. He is most notably known for his novel, Sozaboy, which promotes his antiwar platform. In his book, we see Wiza use language in an original way while also being effective in his own way. He does this by using pidgin English to preserve and promote Nigerian culture, and by comparing the disorganization and corruption in Mene’s life to the brokenness and the disorder of the pidgin English that is spoken by the characters in the novel. In the introduction of the novel, Saro-Wiwa immediately explains to us what Rotten English is. The text stated, “Rotten English, as he explains is a blend of pidgin English, corrupted English and ‘occasional flashes of good, even idiomatic English.” (Saro-Wiwa …show more content…
Because government cannot arrest government. So therefore, everything will be okay for the big big people who are chopping the bribe (3). Here in America, government officials and police officers who take bribes would immediately lose their positions, however, in the novel, this is something that the people of Dukana are used to, due to the fact that it is so common. I strongly believe that the “broken English,” that the author of the book made his characters speak can be compared to the broken and messed up society in which Mene and the other townspeople live in. An article written by Chijioke Uwasomba stated,” Given that war itself is a lawless and disorderly exercise, Sozaboy’s language is disordered, dislocated and discordant. The language of the novel reflects the lawless and chaotic environment in which Mene, the Sozaboy and his people find themselves (Uwasomba 19).” Uwasomba was saying in his article how Saro-Wiwa’s usage of pidgin English was to represent how corrupt and chaotic the environment where Mene and his people were. In the novel, the government officials were taking advantage of the people and the war was starting to pick up, which was just making the situation that Mene was in even worse than before. I find that Saro-Wiwa effectively used language in this part of the novel by making sure that we understood how bad things were for Mene and his people. The same way that we struggled to understand the pidgin English and had to put some thought …show more content…
(Uwasomba 019).” Uwasomba was just talking about how important language is when it comes to communication between humans. Without language, fully understanding each other would be really difficult. Saro-Wiwa also said in the book,” Big big grammar. Long long words…But now grammar begin to plenty and people were not happy...We cannot understand plenty what was happening (3). In this section of the book, we see Mene explaining how grammar language is hard for him and his people to understand. He said how people were upset when communication became too complicated for them to understand. I believe that when we forget how to communicate with each other or struggle to understand language, that is when trouble can occur. It is possible that the war the people of Dukana found themselves in could have been avoided if they were able to communicate and fix their problems verbally. This is another great and effective way Saro-Wiwa used language to show how Mene and his people struggles when it came to communication. He helped to show the importance of

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Language gives to you opportunity to share potential ideas to an audience or simply use your voice to advocate. Being able to express yourself intelligently and fluently is not only a vital role in a meaningful…

    • 963 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Amy Tan Ethos Pathos Logos

    • 1040 Words
    • 5 Pages

    There are many people who can’t speak proper English, maybe because English wasn’t their first language. Or simply because they didn’t grow up around it. In the passage Mother-Tongue by Amy Tan, Amy wants to let the audience know about another language. This is another language that she speaks people refer it to as “broken” english. In her passage she uses some rhetorical strategies such as pathos, logos, and ethos.…

    • 1040 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Language has been a part of society for as long as history can remember. What about language makes it so vitally important? How does language shape our society? In Speech Sounds by Octavia E. Butler, she explores the meaning of language and how it affects the world we live in. Butler uses a post apocalyptic setting to show the ways that communication are part of and define society.…

    • 1007 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Many stories in literature portray tragedies that occur to unsuspecting characters rather frequently. Even more peculiar, some stories show that tragic events happen to characters when it’s noteven their fault. In the story Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe tells of a story in which a young Nigerian Okonkwo rises to power and nobility through persistence. His desire to work assiduously isinspired from his hatred of his father’s laziness as he strives to earning the highest title in the village of Umuofia. Unfortunately, his efforts are disturbed by the introduction of “White men” and he eventuallycommits suicide when he realizes his village no longer supports the ambitions…

    • 108 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Effects of Language on Expression of Emotion In both 1984 by George Orwell and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the societies are depriving themselves of language. Fahrenheit 451 presents us with the horror of a society choosing to discard all that elicits deeper, meaningful thoughts. Combined with the nightmare portrayed in 1984 of a world systematically destroying their own tools to communicate with others, I decided to look into what effects language has on the expression of emotion in our society today. Language consistently conveys critical messages which are necessary to move forward.…

    • 1841 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Language has power to upset, uproot, and shackle” (Ngugi 2005: 41). For Nanapush, it is a weapon against evil and oppression. It is an evidence of his own…

    • 91 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Syntax, according to Rhetorical Grammar, is defined as “the way in which the words of the language are put together to form the structural units, the phrases and clauses, of a sentence “(Kolln and Gray 270). The syntax of sentenes is important because it places emphisis on certain parts of a sentece, and when we flip that around, it can change the meaning of a sentence all together, or get the meaning…

    • 1492 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    ‘You know that I have always said I fight with words, not guns,’ I told her” (Rusesabagina 70-71). Rusesabagina believes the better option of problem solving is to take the time to use words in order to minimize the amount of mishaps while trying to survive the war. This theme was also conveyed by Rusesabagina living by example and acting as he feels others should act. The explanation of Rusesabagina’s choices while battling war help illustrate the importance of words when trying to overcome…

    • 1325 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Luzzi's "speaking to my father in a dead dialect" and Anzaldua's "how to tame a wild tongue", they give us insight on how they faced challenges with their own language, one was becoming forgotten by time while the other was being forced to break apart, however similar the context might be, their stories, experiences and closures highlight the differences in their writings. Story: -Luzzi describes how their old dialect was slowly being forgotten with the passage of time as they moved from Calabria to the United States, where it was rarely used. With his parents as the only speakers known to him, and with his own dialect changing to a newer one, he tells a story of the experiences his parents had in a country where speaking in standard Italian or English were the norm.…

    • 500 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Money is a wonderful thing, except when people grow greedy for it. That is when a person’s worst is brought out. Greed for money and success is helpful to a certain point and then it becomes dangerous. Within the two books The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga and 419 by Will Ferguson the idea explored is that money outweighs people’s morals. Lawmen, politicians, lawyers, although they are there to fight for the law they can become corrupt if money is involved.…

    • 1558 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Okonkwo, the protagonist of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, is the epitome of the self-made man. He starts from humble beginnings and turns himself into a successful farmer, wrestler, and warrior, propelled by a fear of seeming weak and womanish like his father, Unoko. At first, Okonkwo makes conscious behavioral choices as a reaction against Unoko, but over time, his desire for strength and masculinity becomes a subconscious personality trait and manifests itself in the way he reacts towards others. Eventually, Okonkwo’s impulsive actions bring about a great consequence, his suicide. This tragic end marks him as a victim of his own personal flaw, fear of effeminacy, which is the root cause of his personal transformation over the course…

    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Adichie’s novel Half of a Yellow Sun is told with true brilliance through her use of pendulum narration, moving from one character narration to the other. The three key narrators of her novel are divergent in every sense – adding to the richness of the books storytelling as their lives interweave through the use of an extradiegetic narration. Ugwu takes us through the life and experiences of an adolescent houseboy coming of age. Olanna shows us the world of a well-educated and privileged woman whose life is irrevocably changed during the tragic events of the Igbo massacres and Biafra war, and Richard, an Englishman and writer, who adopts Biafra as his home country. Each character narrates various pieces of the story and “become dependent on…

    • 2271 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Edward Finegan argues that there is no right or wrong when it comes to language. Finegan says that, “English is now changing in exactly the same ways that have contributed to making it the rich, flexible, and adaptable language so popular throughout the world today.” Finegan describes descriptive and prescriptive views of language to argue that English is not falling apart, but simply changing as time progresses. John Simon, on the other hand, argues that “good English” needs to be preserved because any other form of English is a product of ignorance. Finegan starts off his argument by analyzing descriptive and prescriptive grammar.…

    • 1087 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Analyzing “Decolonizing The Mind” In Decolonizing the Mind, the author Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o, writes about the importance of language and how it communicates one’s culture. He first writes about growing up in Kenya; describing the language, Gikuyu, and how storytellers told stories that were mostly about animals or humans. He considers Gikuyu as the language of his community, culture, and work. Later, due to the English colonization in Africa, he went to a “colonial school” where he was forced to learn English.…

    • 890 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The novel « Things Fall Apart » by Chinua Achebe is written in English. However, there are some Ibo expressions set in this novel to introduce the reader’s mind into a more authentic and unique African atmosphere. The author, Chinua Achebe, is the first to write a novel about colonialism in the perspective of a colonized tribe from within. Furthermore, he is the only African who has ever described the African culture before and after the settlement of the Christians. This essay will examine how the Ibo expressions are used in the novel and what kind of effect they have on its audience.…

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays