Response to the End of "Tail of the Blue Bird"

I rather enjoyed the ending of Tail of the Blue Bird. I think that I am definitely a person who deals in absolutes, so the fact that the mystery wasn't explicitly solved was slightly irksome. However I am a fan of ambiguity as I often find myself stranded in that realm. I liked the person Kayo had become. He so much freer now and he is much more accepting. I think that he inherently is willing to believe most things (in as non-naive a way as possible) but he choses to go for absolutes and logic. I was a little sad that his grandfather's death wasn't really resolved. By that I mean that he attempted to solve the case or, because the evidence probably didn't last that long, at least tried to go through the proper channels to attempt to solve the case.

I think this book was incredibly enjoyable. It's perfect for teenagers because it's got a little bit of magic, a little bit of dubious behavior (like spiking their drinks at dinner) but feels serious enough for kids who think themselves adults. It also helps show kids a different way of life than the one they know, while contrasting it with one that is apparent to them.

Tail of the Blue Bird Thoughts, October 19th

On page 37 there is a line that reads, “His younger brother, Kakra, would soon finish his National Service assignment and start university; that meant he would be paying accommodation costs for both his siblings.” I made me think that Kayo was like Babamukuru, but I like Kayo a lot better. He doesn’t try to subjugate people.

The pidgin is become easier to understand, just because now I know that it is in fact pidgin, I am more prepared to read it when it comes up. I am confused about the prevalence of the language, however. It seems strange that sometimes characters will use it when speaking to each other, even though they have two other perfectly viable languages to speak in. I don’t know. I don’t know what they’re trying to achieve by speaking it, it just seems like they are subjugating themselves.

I like the whole element of magic in the story. It’s pretty fun to read. I like the way that it is interwoven with the story. The part at the end starting on page 73 is really weird. I wouldn’t have expected them to burn the matter; I thought they should bring it back to Kayo’s lab (does he have a lab right now?) But then the thing with the tree. Either Garba was being annoying and joking around (which his language and the language before seem to allude to), or the tree was magicked or something so that it would feel heavy at first and then be lighter once the remains were burned. The blue feather at the scene was interesting too.

I kind of feel like it is all just one giant conspiracy, like in that movie about the priests in the village with the Black Death. I feel like the village didn’t want to be found out but took precautions in case they were (not knowing the smell, the preparations, the aphrodisiac). It is a very interesting story, and I can’t wait until it progresses further.

First Impressions of "Tale of the Blue Bird"

I think that Parkes is trying to tell a story. In contrast to Things Fall Apart and Nervous Conditions, there is no central idea that we are trying to draw from this book, we just have to enjoy it. Things Fall Apart was written to combat the ideas of Africa that were permeating Western culture. We not only had to enjoy it as a narrative, but it was almost our obligation to take something away from the reading. It is a book written to educate, which means that the narrative falls by the way-side because there is another purpose besides telling the story. The same is true for Nervous Conditions. The story was written to educate Western women about the struggles they would have to go through, were they living in Rhodesia, and to provide Zimbabwean women with characters that they could related to and use to understand their own situation. Tale of the Blue Bird is without a doubt a pure narrative. Its purpose is to take you on a journey. In this case, the journey is one of mystery and science.

The first chapter was very hard to read. I understand that the character is supposed to be unused to writing down his thoughts, but I feel like it was incredibly over exaggerated. It was only exaggerated when Yaw Poku was speaking English or trying to portray a Western ideal. I did, however, like that the English words were italicized. I thought it was a nice sort of twist, because usually the African words would be italicized.

I am sympathetic to the character of Kayo. I think he demonstrates great integrity in regards to himself. I find it incredibly admirable that he chooses to do what he loves, regardless of what his parents think. I also felt very sympathetic towards him because of the way he found his grandfather and I can imagine the way in which he told his supervisor the story of the discovery. All in all, I find him an incredibly more likable protagonist than Tambu. I think that I appreciate him even more than Okonkwo, because Okonkwo was driven to the edge by his fear which makes me feel more sorry for him than enthusiastic about his character.

I think this story will prove to be rather interesting, instead of something used to educate.

End of the Book Stream of Consciousness

• Nyasha's feelings of falling apart and not having a way to express her fracturing
• Babamukuru is a nervous and frenzied sort of man who seems to hold control but is really just frantically grasping at it
• His "maleness" makes me think of him as a completely nervous and uncomfortable person
• Tambu's mother is passive out of depression, not because she actually cares about how her husband feels
• Melancholia: "Those who are depressed are the most calm in dangerous situations"
• Tambu knows she is passive but at this point doesn't care to change because all the things she is passive about are not that important
• Her reverence for Babamukuru led her to become demotivated because if makes the decisions, she doesn't have to try hard to obey him
• Babamukuru breeds "unnatural children"
• Nyasha and Chido as hybrids
• Tambu's utmost and all consuming respect and reverence for him
• Babamukuru only has two mindsets, good vs. spoiled
• Uses the "spoiledness" of the girls to deny them basic privileges
• So worried about his authority he is absolute when he doesn't allow people to object to him, instead of letting them object and then explaining to them why that is not okay.
• Has no sense of honor or decorum, unlike Okonkwo
• Goes straight to threatening instead of negotiating and being reasonable
• Lots of talk of obedience
• So panicky
• Never seen as human in the eyes of the others
• A way of the woman oppressing themselves
• Didn't earn his respect
• Babamukuru skates the line of being misogynistic and it's very annoying
• Nyasha's worry about others led to her being proud Maiguru left and also her psychotic break
• Weird things with "the girl" and "the man"
• Distancing herself from her family
• Female competition over education prevalent everywhere
• The passage about "looseness" on page 184