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What Is The Theme Of The Palm Wine Drunkard

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“The Palm-wine Drinkard” is a short story that follows a man whose life was centered on the drinking of palm wine and with the help of his palm wine tapster, he could drink as much as he wanted together with his friends. His tapster finally dies after falling from a tall palm tree whilst tapping palm wine.The man who is referred to as the “palm wine drunkard” buries the body of his tapster and embarks on a very long journey to find him in the land of the dead, which reveals various supernatural encounters throughout his journey. Although the author masterfully uses magical realism, personification, simile and irony to vividly tell the story of the drunkard, the improper poor use of proper grammar surprisingly made the text more understandable to read.
The setting of this story is not clearly disclosed but from the author’s choice of words like the use of “juju”, “traveling from bushes to bushes” and “native blacksmiths”, there is a clear depiction of a typical African village setting. In the story, the author seeks to create a picture of a world of traditional mythologies in the mind of the reader, where human beings easily mingle with beings from the spiritual world. The author also presents a world where …show more content…

The point within the story where the drunkard turned into a bird, death commanding the strings of a drum to tie the drunkard and also the Drinkard commanding the ropes of yam to tie him whilst the yam stakes beat him picture the use of magical realism within the text. Also, the fact that the drunkard claimed he was the “Father of the gods” who could do everything in this world and yet still, he spent all his time consulting various characters where he could find his dead tapster creates some irony at this point. But at a point in the story, there is also evidence that he is indeed the “Father of the gods “since he was able to capture death and turn into a bird at a

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