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.