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Zahrah The Windseeker And You CanT Touch My Hair Analysis

Decent Essays

Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu and Phoebe Robinson, through their respective books Zahrah the Windseeker and You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain, eloquently tackle the ways their characters recognize and overcome the fear of the unknown through word choice and character development. In her book, Zahrah the Windseeker, Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu does not waste any time and explicitly states in the preface that it is “a general fear of the unknown that plagues the entire society of the Ooni Kingdom” (Okorafor). Okorafor’s use of the word “plague” utilizes the negative connotation with this fear and indicates that future characters have to overcome this “plague.” Referring to “the entire society,” Okorafor also includes …show more content…

Due to the fact being dada is so rare and no one else from her hometown is dada, the townspeople fear Zahrah because they do not know or understand what it means to be dada and what separates them from normal people. As a part of the bullying, people call Zahrah names like: ‘“Vine head,” “snake lady,” “swamp witch,” and “freak”’ (Okorafor 3). Despite initially believing the vicious nicknames and allowing those words to define her, Zahrah overcomes her submission to society’s perception of her and embraces her hair, as well as her other dada qualities. In the end, after completing her quest and saving her best friend, Zahrah stands before a mirror and studies herself: “I look at myself in the mirror, my dark brown skin, my dada hair… I looked into my own eyes and smiled when I saw the new glint in them” (Okorafor 277). A “new glint” in her eyes represents a new perspective of herself; a perspective that is not defined by society’s fear of her. For Zahrah, it took going on an incredibly dangerous and nearly-impossible mission in order to accept herself and to shake people’s fear of the unknown. She now has confidence in herself and believes in herself. Similarly, Robinson deals with this same issue of facing other the fear of the unknown, however she deals with the problem in a more realistic manner. Phoebe Robinson deals with white people’s fear of her natural hair. As mentioned earlier, Robinson clearly recognizes this fear, and writes in her book, “ when something

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