Tomorrow is too far, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

BIOGRAPHY

About her biography, I send the link of another work in the English Book Club:

https://blanesbookclub.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-thing-around-your-neck-by.html

Analysis

More analysis

Review

A deep essay

Video comment

An interview

Written by Elisa Sola:

A little introduction about Nigeria and its ethnic and linguistic diversity 

Nigeria is a very ethnically diverse country with 371 ethnic groups, the largest of which are the Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo.

In spite of this diversity, Nigeria has one official language: English, as a result of the British colonial rule over the nation. Nevertheless, it is not spoken as a first language in the entire country because other languages are majority in terms of number of native speakers. Nigeria stands out as one of the world’s most linguistically diverse nations, with over 500 languages, spoken among 223 million people. Some of the most popular languages spoken in Nigeria are: Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Edo…

Chimamanda Ngozi was born into an Igbo family in Enugu (Nigeria), and in her formal education, Chimamanda was taught in both, Igbo and English. Although Igbo was not a popular subject, she continued taking courses of Igbo in high school.

 

SUMMARY

 

Tomorrow is Too Far tells the story of a family tragedy and the consequences it has on the protagonist and on all of her family.

The main character is a twenty-eight-year-old woman (we don’t know what is her name) who clearly relives the moment when her older brother (Nonso) died eighteen years earlier, when he was twelve years old. She, who was ten at the time, reveals that she caused Nonso’s death by challenging him to climb an avocado tree and then scaring him by telling him there was a dangerous snake (echi eteka), the “Tomorrow is Too Far” snake.

The story takes place in Nigeria, in Gradmama’s yard, in a humid and warm summer. The atmosphere is important because it shows us an exuberant and ripe nature, which is about to explode, like the feelings of the girl, who was torn between the hate and jealousy she felt towards her brother (for the preferential treatment he received  ̶ patriarchal upbringing) and the love and desire she felt for her cousin Dozie, thirteen years old.

A fatal triangle is drawn that will bring tragic consequences and will dynamite not only the relationship of all family members between themselves, but also their entire lives.

The decision to keep the secret for all these years in order to try to achieve the love and recognition of her parents means that she has not been able to overcome the facts, and at this moment, eighteen years later, she’s still not able to understand what happened in the “amoral kingdom of her childhood”. Things being like this, when she receives the news of her Grandmama’s death, she returns to the scene of the crime in a state of shock.

The fact that the story is told in the second person by an omniscient narrator helps to picture the image of a girl who is shocked, and she has difficulty expressing herself: everything we know about her is told us by this narrator who is inside her, but she is silent, blocked.

The representation that we have of the cousin is of a passive and sad character, overwhelmed by the events. When the girl asks him “what did you want that summer?”, trying to share the blame a little, his answer is categorical: “What mattered was what you wanted”.

The story ends with a beautiful image of ants, because, in fact, she and the entire family is like a “column of black ants making his way up the trunk, each ant carrying” a bit of guilty and a lot of sorrow.

 

QUESTIONS

-Apart from being the name of a snake, has the title another meaning in the story?

-In your view, the "kingdom of childhood" is amoral? Is / was childhood a paradise, for you?

-Why do you think the story is narrated in the second person (you)?

-There is a raw sex scene in all the story, but only one, and there's no more references to it. According to you, what is the purpose of this?

-In your opinion, Nonso's death was a crime out of jealousy, or only an accident due to a misplaced joke?

VOCABULARY

cashew, mat, soggy, pluck, limb-free, nudge down, padded, pods, moult, harmattan, makeshift, coaxed, choking, clogged, petting, clucked, cinnamon, cowries, toddler, mar, inching, fluff, roiling

Enoch's Two Letters, by Alan Sillitoe

Analysis 

Prezi presentation

Another analysis

It's a Long Way to Tipperary

Biography

Enoch's name in the Bible

SUMMARY

Enoch is an eight-year-old boy, the only son of Jack and Edna, although we don’t know for sure that Jack is his biological father.

It seems that Enoch is a good boy: he goes to school, he has friends, he behaves well, that is, he does the normal things for a lad of his age, and he’s a bit afraid of his father’s authority.

The Boden family appears to be a happy family, or at least a peaceful family that stays together. But almost at the beginning of the story, we find out that things aren’t what they seem, because Jack is going to leave his wife and home, and, on the very same day, his wife is going to do the same. However, neither of them knows anything at all about their partner’s plans. Jack is running away with his lover, a workmate, and Edna is fed up with her married life.

When Enoch comes home after school, he doesn’t find anybody there; but he isn’t very worried because he thinks they are just getting late. He imagines that his mother is paying a visit to a relative, and that his father has had an accident at the foundry where he works and that maybe he’s dead. But not even this worries Enoch too much.

The boy decides to make the most of the situation while waiting for them. He has something to eat, watches television, sits in his father’s armchair… As it gets dark and nobody appears, he decides to go to bed in the living room, on the sofa, in front of the stove and watching TV. And for blanket he uses a carpet.

The next morning, since neither his mother nor his father has come back home, he resolves to go to his grandmother’s to tell her what has happened. There, he finally loses his courage and determination (or his indifference) and cries.

His grandma and he returns to Enoch’s to try to understand what has happened to his parents, and there the boy finds, lying on the rug in the hall, the two letters his parents had written.

 

QUESTIONS

-According to you, how true is love at first sight? Can you tell us any example that confirms your opinion?

-In the house, the clock is turned against the wall. The mother turns it to see the time, and the boy to wind it? For you, what can be the meaning of a clock facing the wall?

-The story happens in early spring. In your opinion, what would be the best tome of the year to change your life?

-Both parents take two suitcases to make their escape. What would you take in a similar case (hypothetically)?

-Do children, teenagers… have different feelings about death, illness, divorce than adults? Why do you think so?

 

VOCABULARY

scullery, foundry, stint, mantelshelf, tackling, for good, settee, moulds, wind, torch, swivel, pumice, fare, mangle, upper/bottom deck, nowt