Question
English Essay About Novel Ghana Must Go
Essay 1
The purpose of this assignment
is to give you the opportunity to produce a short piece of formal literary
analysis focused on Taiye Selasi’s 2013 novel Ghana Must Go, including concepts relevant to World Literature such
as Afropolitanism, emigration, nationality, and family ties past and
present. This kind of scholarly
commentary allows you to engage a topic of interest in greater depth, and,
ideally, helps sharpen your ability to think and write critically about the
novel’s engagements with key concepts, and the contexts in which it was written
and read. The skills you exercise in
writing this paper (close reading of primary texts, cultural analysis,
engagement with secondary sources, producing scholarly prose) are essential in
the field of literary study, as well as in other professional and public
arenas. All students are welcome to
consult with me about any aspect of the paper, at any stage.
Value: 20% of final course grade
Due date: Friday,
October 28, 2022 by 11:59 p.m. via Canvas
Length: 1,250+ words (4-5
pages typed), 12-point font, 1” margins all around double-spaced; MLA format
for in-text citations and works cited page
Drafting: Drafting is strongly encouraged. I am happy to go over a draft with you in office hours or by email. Please do not send essays as email attachments. Just copy and paste the text into the body of the message. Please send no more than about 1 page of your essay at a time. Include a specific request about the kind of feedback you need, not just a request for me to “look it over to see if it is OK.” Be more detailed, since doing so will allow you to think about what revisions your essay might need. After I return comments on one part of the essay, you are welcome to resend that portion revised, or to send another section of the essay. I will usually reply to emailed requests for feedback up until the day before the essay is due.
Guidelines: Your essay should present an argument that is as specific and well defined as possible. You know that your essay or statement has an argument when a reasonable person could disagree with your position and offer a counterargument. Your argument should be supported by: 1) textual evidence taken from the primary literary text at hand; 2) detailed analysis of how the textual evidence taken from primary and secondary sources supports your argument; and 3) references to other course material relevant to your discussion, such as articles, video clips, and essays.Your essay should begin with a brief introduction and thesis statement in which you state the argument your essay will make and it should end with a brief conclusion; you should also include a works cited page in MLA format listing the novel and any other sources you consult; you should use paraphrase and brief direct citations from the text/s like this: “References to quoted lines from the novel or other texts, should be indicated in parentheses and cited like this” (Selasi 5); if there are no page numbers in your edition of the novel or other texts you are citing, provide the author’s name in parenthesis after a quote or paraphrase as shown here (Selasi).Your body paragraphs should contain analysis that is specific and focused on the assigned text and related course material. You are expected to both paraphrase and directly cite from your texts. Your writing should strive to be clear and relatively error-free. You should assume that your reader has read, but is not an expert on, the assigned text. Your role as writer is to persuade the audience that your analysis of the chosen topic is credible, well-reasoned, and well-supported. Let me emphasize, per the course syllabus, that you are expected to submit only your own original work and to cite your sources responsibly. I reserve the right to ask for an electronic copy of your essay at any time during the semester.
The Essay Grading Rubric is posted at the top of this assignment in Canvas and should be consulted for a detailed description of the elements of the essay that will be evaluated.The following topics are intended to spur your own thinking. The questions are not intended as a kind of checklist where you write out your responses to and call it an essay. Instead, you are encouraged to respond to these questions as a way to develop your own ideas about the text, and then you can organize those ideas and the supporting evidence and analysis into a coherent essay.
Topics:
1.The novel Ghana Must Go focuses on the members of the Sai family, though most of these characters fixate on how they are more different than similar, and how they are more apart than together. Select two (2) members of the Sai family (Kweku, Fola, Olu, Taiwo, Kehinde, or Sadie) and write an essay that traces their particular views of the concept of “family.” How does the character’s role in the family, their name/s (nicknames), and their appearance, and their chosen paths influence their perspective? Do their views change over the course of the novel? What significant events in the novel shape their views? What are their views of “family” as the novel ends, and does this family finally achieve a greater sense of cohesion? You are expected to provide examples from Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of the novel to support your argument.
2.Ghana Must Go is the story of a family told over many decades against a global backdrop, with characters traveling to and living in the U.S., Ghana, and Nigeria between the 1960s and the 2000s. Focusing on those characters who spend extended time living in both the U.S. and Nigerian, Ghana, or both, write an essay that focuses on two (2) of the characters listed below and that uses the following questions to develop an argument.
○Kweku Sai: how does Kweku’s childhood in Ghana shape him? How does his past impact him as a man, a husband, a father, and a professional living in the U.S.? Do things shift when he returns to Ghana, once as a married man and then as a single man? How, and why?
○Fola Sai: how does Fola’s childhood in Nigeria and Ghana shape her? How does her past impact her as a woman, wife, mother, and professional living in the U.S.? Do things shift when she returns to Ghana as a single woman? How, and why?
○Taiwo or Kehinde Sai: how do Taiwo’s and Kehinde’s childhood in the U.S. shape them? How are they impacted as teenagers living in Nigeria? Do things shift when they return to the U.S.? How, and why?
Select any two (2) of these four characters to focus on in your response. You are expected to provide examples from Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of the novel to support your argument.
3.The novel Ghana Must Go focuses a good deal on houses–structures with four walls that provide shelter. It also focuses a good deal on the concept of home–a safe place where people can gather, rest, and form a community under one roof. Select 2-3 different houses that play a prominent role in the novel and analyze the importance of these places, both as practical structures that provide a basic need and as spaces of safety or of enjoyment that satisfy more complex emotional needs such as safety, comfort, aesthetic pleasure, community, etc. How successfully do each of these houses fulfill each type of need? You are expected to provide examples from Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of the novel to support your argument.
Here is a list of the houses you can pick from:
○ the large house Colonial house in Brookline, Boston, which Kweku buys after Sadie is born (versus the smaller, cramped rental house on Huntington Avenue)
○ Kweku’s “dream house” in Ghana, built by hand by Mr. Lamptey
Fola’s inherited house in Ghana, left to her by her surrogate father, Sena Worsonu
○Kehinde’s industrial studio in New York
○ Olu’s house with Ling (mostly, their all-white bedroom)
○ Uncle Femi’s house in Nigeria where Taiwo and Kehinde are sent
Expert Solution
Taiye Selasi that, at its core, is about the
importance of family and identity. The family consisted of a man by the name of
Kweku Sai, his wife Fola, and their four children. Both Kweku and Fola are
originally from Africa, but they met in the United States and decided to tie
the knot there. They both had to make concessions in order for Kweku to
complete his medical schooling, but in the end, their efforts are rewarded as
Kweku proves to be an exceptionally talented and well-regarded surgeon (Selasi).
Unfortunately, the happy lives that they create for themselves are shattered
when Kweku decides to move his family and start a new life elsewhere as a
result of a succession of unfortunate circumstances. The repercussions of Kweku
abandoning his family have long-lasting impacts on his wife and children, but
they are not addressed until many years later, when the family gets together
after he passes away.
The
captivating novel "Ghana Must Go" delves into the complex dynamics of
an African family, focusing on common themes such as loss, beauty, migration,
and love. The passing of Kweku Sai, a well-known surgeon in Ghana, sets in
motion a series reaction of events for the members of his family. His wife,
Fola, and their four children, Olu, Kehinde, Taiwo, and Sadie, are left to
grieve his loss and make peace with the conflicts he created after his death (Selasi).
The family is complicated, and they live in different places. Fola learns about
Kweku's demise while in Ghana and sends an urgent message to her oldest son
Olu, asking him to gather up his dispersed siblings and bring them back
together. Olu resides in Boston, Sadie studies in Yale, Taiwo resides in
New York City, and Kehinde, as far as anybody knows, is now living in
London. Reuniting after so much time apart, they must deal with the challenges
and grief caused by their father's desertion. It is therefore clear that the
family members are not as close as they used to be as children. The
relationship between Taiwo and Sadie is explored in this essay highlighting how
these two characters are more different than similar, and how they are more
apart than together.
Taiwo
and Sadie were very close to each other during their childhood. They had
similar views about their family, and they loved their other siblings and their
parents. However, their relationship was complicated when their father decided
to leave. Kweku Sai moves from his home country of Ghana to the United States,
where he excels as a surgeon and gains widespread recognition (Phiri). His
mother's unexpected death and professional setbacks shattered his hopes of ever
returning to Ghana as a prosperous prodigal son. He is successful in providing
what seems to be the best life possible for his family. But the disgrace he
feels after being sacked and banned in the medical world causes him to abandon
them for the rest of their lives. The caused division in the family and
resulted in complicated relationships between the family members including
Taiwo and Sadie. Sadie feels very disconnected with her family members
including Taiwo and she therefore decides to find a place for herself.
Taiwo
was close to her twin sibling Kehinde compared to Sadie. Kehinde and Taiwo Sai,
the middle children of Fola and Kweku were very close to one another
growing up. The telepathic link that they had as twins is a recurrent issue,
but it is lost when Kweku decides to go his own way. Kehinde is the only one
who understands the real reason their father abandoned them. However, he
decided not to tell anyone as a way of protecting their feelings. This made him
feel uncomfortable and resulted to them being apart more. Taiwo blames her
mother, who she believes abandoned the family when their father left, for her
and her brother's exile (Phiri). Her upbringing by her mother's side of the
family has a profound impact on her, and she begins to destroy herself as a
result. Sadie on the other hand, was close to her mother as the lastborn.
Despite not being close with Taiwo, the death of Kweku brings the relationships
of Taiwo, Sadie and their mother closer together.
Taiwo
and Sadie have different views about their life and future. Taiwo is a gifted
writer who aspires to become a lawyer. However, her pursuit of this goal has
been significantly sidetracked due to the scandalous affair she is having with
the dean of her college. She is traumatized with her twin, Kehinde who is
a well-known painter who spends most of his time shut up in his studio in
Brooklyn. Taiwo is still physically scared from the trauma he experienced
in the past in Lagos (Selasi). Sadie, who is the youngest of her mother's
children, is regarded as her mother's favorite kid. She is plagued with
insecurity and suffers from bulimia. She is putting in a lot of effort in her
classes at the university in order to fulfill not just her parents' but also
her siblings' high expectations of what she should do in life. She makes a
valiant effort to blend in with the family of her white and affluent roommate
at the university.
Selasi's
depiction of her characters in Ghana Must Go exemplifies the complexities of
Afropolitanism by showing how each character controls their own sense of self
in the context of modern Afro-diasporic politics. In addition to being a
key issue, mobility is an integral aspect of Afropolitanism, which is also
present in the story (Wallinger). Ghanaian refugees were forced to leave
Nigeria, thus the book's title. The Sai family's movement might be seen in part
as a result of the migration that characterizes modern life in Africa. Kweku
and Fola's migration to the United States, their decision to raise their
children in a foreign culture, the children's success in the academic and
creative worlds, and the family's eventual return to Ghana are all great examples
of the tenets of Afropolitanism.
Ghana Must Go is a
narrative about the quest for a home and a sense of belonging. There are
questions and challenges to both biography and plot that this emphasis brings
to light. Firstly, Ghana Must Go was written by Taiye Selasi, who calls herself
an Afropolitan, weaves in a lot of personal elements, and provides some
guidelines for reading the work by fusing narrative and debate. The story
depicts a family's effort to form and sustain a family, as well as to construct
and remain in their own house. When people from different places and
backgrounds come together to find a feeling of home, they often discover that
the place they call "home" does not deliver the stability or security
they were hoping for (Wallinger).
Fola, a lady who has had to move around a lot due to unfortunate circumstances,
is in the vanguard of this quest to find a place to call home. Despite all
obstacles, Kweku succeeds academically, earns money, and raises a family, only
to lose both his family and self-respect. Sadie, the middle child, grows up in
a broken home and views the trip back to Africa as a form of
rehabilitation. Taiwo is scarred by a lack of safety and cruel
behavior.
To
conclude, there is weak family connections and sibling bond issues between
Taiwo and Sadie. in the novel “Ghana Must Go”. Every member of the family goes
about their own lives and has very little interaction with the other members of
the family. Taiwo, for instance, does not even know the contact information for
her sister. The oldest, Olu, is the only one who is now in a committed
relationship. His partner, Ling, is of Asian-American descent. Even though he
has followed in his father's footsteps and become a physician (Ling is also a
physician), he still struggles with many issues. Prior to enrolling in law
school, Taiwo had a troubled past that included having an affair with the
school's dean, which was later uncovered. Although Kehinde has established
himself as a renowned singer, it seems that he has never been in any kind of
personal relationship. Sadie is twenty years old and has problems
connecting with her family. In a nutshell, they each have their own issues,
some of which may or may not have been created or made worse by the leaving of
their father.
References
Phiri, Aretha. "Lost in translation: re-reading
the contemporary Afrodiasporic condition in Taiye Selasi’s Ghana Must Go."
European Journal of English Studies 21.2 (2017): 144-158.
Selasi, Taiye. Ghana Must Go. Penguin UK, 2013
Wallinger, Hanna. "Lost in Transnation: Taiye Selasi's
Ghana Must Go." New Cosmopolitanisms, Race, and Ethnicity: Cultural
Perspectives. De Gruyter Poland Ltd, Warsaw/Berlin, 2019. 207-219
Please enter your email address to h
- 100% Plagiarism-free
- 100% Human-written
