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Essay on An Ex-Mas Feast Summary

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An Ex-Mas Feast Summary Uwem Akpan’s story, “An Ex-Mas Feast” is a story of the struggles that one family goes through to give gifts on their upcoming Christmas season. Akpan introduces the reader to the struggles of the main characters, which directly ties into the details of impoverished town that they live in. Jigana, one of the story’s main characters, starts off as a naïve 8 year old little boy who was anxious to start going to school. In a stark contrast, Maisha, the eldest sister at 12 years old, held her own and prostituted to bring in money for her family. The second oldest, Naema, was closer to Maisha than any of the others, and Maisha gave her tips and tricks of her trade. Akpan begins the story by saying that the …show more content…

As a result of this newfound concept that Maisha is considering going into the brothel, Jigana undergoes a big transformation. He states adamantly that if she is going to the brothel, he will not go to school. This begins the climax of the story, and in response to his claim, she says that she will not support the family any more if Jigana doesn’t go to school. When he brings up their parents in front of the other prostitutes, Maisha gets extremely angry and ends up ignoring him for weeks. From there, their life continues, and the siblings continue struggling to make ends meet; nevertheless, they still take Baby out to earn a little extra money. When Naema comes home from her shift with Baby, she announces that Maisha is moving out tomorrow, full time. Akpan makes an important point at this point of the story saying that “no matter how rootless and cheap street life may be, you could still be broken by departures” (21). Consequently, Jigana begins feeling guilty that Maisha is leaving, as if he could have stopped her from leaving if he had just joined a street gang so that she wouldn’t be tempted by the musungu men to make money. Jigana then starts to have nasty thoughts, now blaming the white tourists who lure Maisha in their Jaguars and take advantage of her young self. He begins plotting ways he could get back at them, by enlisting the help of Naema’s powerful boyfriend, and hurting them with their dull blades.

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