A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt Review

Human nature is truly a complex thing to understand. Jackie French has lured us into a world bursting with vital historical information, she has entangled in the novel, a series of facts about the many events that occurred in World War II. French has taken the time to structure this novel with sensitivity and sophistication. She has shown great sympathy towards the Jewish people throughout this captivating novel. The author then leads us onto a path to teach us the importance of history and the endless lessons we may learn from the mistakes of previous generations.

In Abina and the Important Men, lies a portrayal of daily life and operations of the area of Asante and its relations with British jurisdiction, on the Gold Coast of West Africa in 1876. Specifically, it is a story about a girl from Asante named Asina who is sold into slavery at a very young age and her journey to achieve justice. While Abina’s story was not well documented and well known, it’s brief mention in archived stories arose attention for the powerless and the silenced. Through Abina’s narrative and her fight for justice, and the contextual history of African and British relations, the depiction of “important men” their roles and how they impact her life and people like her are displayed.

In this excerpt you are introduced to a young African boy, Olaudau Equiano, who begins to describe his everyday life before being captured. Olaudau, who is the youngest of six sons but not the youngest child, who in which is his sister. As a child, he was raised and trained in both agriculture and war, receiving a great deal of emblems in javelin throwing and shooting. However, at the age of eleven, Olaudau’s life changed forever. One day while the elders went to the fields, two men and a women invaded their camp and swiftly kidnapped Olaudau and his younger sister; thus beginning his life as a slave. “The first object which saluted my eyes when I

In 1949, many African nations began their surge for independence, and the native people did not accept the social modifications forced upon them. The revelation of the setting comes through the name “Ndume Central School” which is a school located within the African nation of Nigeria (595). Later, the setting reveals the deep divisions that take place in Africa at the time and allows the reader to understand why the villagers resists change. The separation between the school and village symbolizes the division, and this separation captures a modern school fighting a traditional village. Obi enforces the separation with the moving of the path and states that this new path should “[skirt] our premises” (597). The setting enhances the conflict between the villagers and Obi because the Africans at the time resisted the change that Obi enforced within the school. The setting of the school and village enhances the conflict because the school represents the transformation of society, while the village captures the stubborn, old way of living.

On a “Trip to Congo” Sir Richard F. Burton writes a story during his exploration to the Yellalla or Cataracts of the Congo leaving some detail insights of the customs and behavior of the African communities. He only gives his point of view from an imperialist position and sometimes denigrates and diminishes the people and their culture. Even though Burton had a translator throughout his trip the language barrier prohibits interaction with the communities and the ability to empathize with the natives. Interaction and understanding is the key to appreciate their behaviors, instead Burton

Lauri Kubuitsile Botswana’s short story “The Rich People’s School” is a tail of a young girl named Sylvia whose mother leaves her with her Gran to go live with a man in America. Sylvia’s mother makes the American man pay for Sylvia to go to the rich school on the hill. However, it is not fairytale ending for Sylvia. Sylvia is bullied so bad by the students at the school that she runs away and does not tell her Gran. In the end of the story Gran founds out and tells Sylvia she does not have to go back to the rich school and they would save the money to bring Sylvia’s mother back. Marxist views can give the story a completely different story line. The story about a little girl wanting her mother back turns into one of the elite dominating over the lower class. Botswana’s “The Rich People’s School” gives a stance on the elite using manipulation, sign value, and false consciousness to keep the lower class or proletariat under their control.

The story is seen through the innocent eyes of a 13 year old boy called Charlie Bucktin. The first person central point of view helps us to understand Charlie, to identify with him and his attitudes and values and for reader positioning. Silvey uses language

Even though the soldiers join the war as naive youths, the war rapidly changes them and they develop into young men. Surrounded by death, the boys are bound to foresee the fragility of their own lives and are stripped of the carelessness and brazenness of youth. The dreadful horrors around the boys bound them to consider a world that does not accommodate to their childish and simplistic view. They want to only see a separation between what is right and what is wrong, they instead find moral doubt. Where they had wanted to see order and meaning, they only found senselessness and disorder. Where they wanted to find heroism, they only found the selfish instinct of self-preservation. These realizations destroyed the innocence of the boys, maturing and thrusting them into their manhood.

World War II is an important key point in history that addresses to young adolescents. The novel, T4 is based on a true story, in which the author, Ann Clare LeZotte is portraying a novel that is based on the theme of survival. It appears to be that the author’s argument in writing this novel is to simply maintain awareness of the past. Generally speaking, a story about survival is a difficult genre for young readers, “The majority of war stories for children are about World War II and the Holocaust.” (Huck 482) The reason war stories are mainly about World War II and the Holocaust is because it was the most recent, largest, and horrifying war during the twentieth century in Europe. Our textbook also states that these historical novels help children experience the past. Meaning, that it is important for a child to learn about the past including all the wars, conflicts, sufferings, and great happiness that had occurred so they can apply that to the present and to the future.

Collectively, these literary images go to describe a young ethnic man, probably of Latin descent, who lives with his mother in a poverty stricken area. The careful recitation of instruction given to the younger man seems to demonstrate an intricate knowledge the narrators has accrued from both predecessors and experience. Singularly, this part of the story is very powerful in that it shows a young man having to hide who he is and where he comes from in an effort to seem appealing to women, and speaks volumes about the deception that both genders go through all in name of the chase.

When in the presence of the woman Romana trying to attack him, Condé writes, “He was about to throw himself on her, knock her down, kill her perhaps, when a voice reminded him of his difficulties in the Ashanti kingdom after the rape of Ayaovi. What would happen if he now committed murder? (Condé 265).” In two ways here, Malobali has grown up. First he realizes that all his actions have consequences and that he must realize them before making unwise decisions. In realizing this, Malobali represents Africans evolving as a whole to recognize that they must work together as a people. Secondly, Malobali realizes that Women are people too who can be reasoned with and respected rather than literally beat into submission. On a grand scale, Malobali’s second revelation represents a change in attitude toward women by African people. Still, more important is Malobali’s evolution in the context of the African Slave Trade.

The story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is an enormously detailed fictional account of a wartime scenario in which jimmy Cross (the story’s main character) grows as a person, and the emotional and physical baggage of wartime are brought to light. The most obvious and prominent feature of O’Brien’s writing is a repetition of detail. O’brien also passively analyzes the effects of wartime on the underdeveloped psyche by giving the reader close up insight into common tribulations of war, but not in a necessarily expositorial sense.. He takes us into the minds of mere kids as they cope with the unbelievable and under-talked-about effects or rationalizing

In the short story of IND AFF, Out of Love in Sarajevo by Fay Weldon, she creates a world in which the characters are contemplating about morals, love, and life. A 25 year old graduate student is on vacation with her much older professor, Peter Piper, whose helping her develop her classical history thesis, but is more than her guide; also her married lover. The story takes place in Sarajevo, Bosnia in which the narrator wrestles with the comparison of Princip, a man who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in 1914, sparking World War I, and how she mustn’t follow in his footsteps. Weldon introduces a reoccurring theme in this story, which helps readers understand the conflict the narrator is facing and depicts true moments in relationships and in life. Whatever the personal connection may be IND AFF never fails to move a reader. (Living in one's dreams can be dangerous. Like all perishable things, optimism can deteriorate. Hope degrades to delusion and bitterness. Denial of reality

For some, coming of age is a time of obstacles and success in a young youth's life. It involves a number of trials that is needed to overcome to become mature. Although, obstacles are not the only features that a young adolescents will encounter. The journey will happen beginning with successes and triumphs that will come to the shaping of who they are to become. One can simply presume that the occurrence taking place in the world would have a strong impact on how an adolescent comes of age. The tale Old Chief Mshlanga focuses on the main character, the protagonist known as “she” or little Nkosikaas her encounter with an African chieftain that causes her to see the differences between her people and the natives of the land they reside. The author, Doris Lessing, uses the protagonist to show radically changing attitudes towards the Old Chief Mshlanga.

The novel wrote by Ferdinand Oyono’s, titled Houseboy speaks about issues relating to colonialism and imperialism. These communications took place in Africa. The novel allows the audience to obtain some awareness as to how the people of the African culture changed, how they were trying to live, and be like their colonizers. Within this era, the book illustrates how a young African boy from Cameroon suffered cruelty and abuse in the home. The discoveries of physical abuse from his father caused the boy to run away. When Toundi ran away, he acknowledged and understood that he have to leave behind his tribal, values, and cultural ties. Toundi hopes that he never has to face his family again. He began to change his life by going into the colonial