THE UMBRELLA MAN Siddhartha Gigoo PDF

THE UMBRELLA MAN- Siddhartha Gigoo

 

Focus

·        The need for hope in the face of adversity. 

 

 

The Umbrella Man Synopsis 

“A thing which had been discarded and instead of having been disposed off with other useless things, had found refuge in the solitary ward of Number 7”

The Umbrella Man by Siddartha Gigoo is a story of a mentally ill patient confined to the depressingly dull and bleak life of an asylum. The main character has lost identity due to insanity and is simply referred to as Number 7. This is a story about having hope in a colourless, bland world of patients in a mental facility. 

Due to his calm disposition and compliance, Number 7 is allowed to wander out of the asylum gates and spend time in the street nearby. Other inmates could only stroll within the walls of the asylum.

“Beyond that brick and stone wall was vast darkness, oblivion”

Although rain had evaded the place for months, Number 7 hopes that it would rain that evening. He has an umbrella with yellow and red stripes which has become his playmate. No one knows how he acquired the umbrella. Like the other inmates, he has not received any visitors for years. The umbrella has become his inextricable companion.  

“It was the most beautiful thing in the entire asylum; more beautiful than the bed of wild flowers along the wall of the compound. The very sight of it in the mornings brought a smile on his lips.”

The inmates have no worldly possessions. The other inmates look at Number 7 with amazement, admiring his beautiful umbrella. “But no one was attracted to the dazzling beauty of his dainty yellow-and-red stripped umbrella as Number 7.”

“Not many in the asylum knew what beauty was.”

The gloomy nights in the solitary wards are lonesome. Number 7 imagines he is not alone but with an illusory child. He would wake up from his apprehensive sleep to comfort the child and lull him to sleep. He would pray in silence, convinced that some power would answer his prayer. He tells the child, “You are not alone my child”. As much as he seemingly lives in a world of hopelessness and sheer despair , he still clings on to hope and even offers his imaginary young friend companionship. He knows that with hope there is power and that is why he prays hoping for help from the infinite universe.

“For years during his life in isolation in the asylum, the child never grew up. The man grew old”

Number 7 grows old but remains hopeful like a child. His face is covered with white strands of hair and he has little strength in his bones but he keeps hope alive. It does not fade.

Number 7 also spends time beyond the gates of the asylum conversing with his other friend, a puny little fellow. They talk about the hope brought about by the bountiful nature, the bees, the flowers, the beehive, and the bees. The puny little fellow reminds number 7 of hope and nature’s miracles.

“Do you believe that someday it will rain here and that the earth will turn moist and smell of wild flowers?”

It does not rain for several days after that. Some months later, Number 7 is discharged from the facility. He receives the news from two smiling doctors. The doctors never smiled. They tell him the committee had agreed that he be set free. Their efforts had borne fruit, they say. After careful examination, evidence and facts, Number 7 is deemed fit to leave. Keeping hope alive finally pays off. This is his last night in confinement. This is an ordinary night for him. He narrates a story to his imaginary child companion who falls asleep. He also falls asleep.

It rains on the day of his release.

 “He woke up to a strange smell that wafted into his cell from the compound. A strange fragrance flooded the ward. Outside, a wet puddle greeted him. The wild flower drooped in the wet soil.”

After a long wait clinging on to nothing but hope, it finally rains on the day he is released from the grim forbidding walls of the asylum. Finally his umbrella is useful.

“What good was an umbrella if it had not been used in the rain? The dance of the raindrops on the nylon cloth held together by slender aluminum strips was a distant dream.”

Without rain, an umbrella is surely worthless. It has no real value or use. The same can be said about a man living without hope.

In life, the wait may be lengthy and the path lacerating but one needs to stay hopeful no matter how bleak and murky the future seems.

Challenges facing the inmates at the asylum

1.     Restricted movement/ Limited liberty (Pg46)

 

·       Allowed to go out of their wards only in the evening

·       Could only stroll within the compound of the asylum

·       Due to his obedience and calm disposition, Number 7 is the only inmate allowed to saunter out of the gate to the nearby street but the 90-something yards narrow avenue also ends at a wall

·       Thus, he earned this limited liberty. It had taken months

·       Restricted by a wall enclosing the 120 square metres asylum

·       Nowhere to go beyond the wall – their life ended at the wall

·       Beyond the brick-and-stone wall was vast darkness, oblivion.

·       Booming siren to return to the cell (Pg49)

·       Number 7 seems to envy the puny little fellow when he says, “But you are free to do whatever you want to do and roam around without any restrictions” (Pg 50)

·       Rely on a committee of “serious people who never concurred” (Pg50)

 

2.    No visitors or worldly possessions (Pg48)

 

·       Number 7 has not had any visitors for many years

·       None of the inmates had visitors

·       Had no worldly possessions – just two sets of clothes (woolen and cotton)

·       The umbrella is number 7’s only companion

·       He lives in a solitary ward

·       His umbrella makes him smile – it is beautiful

·       Not many in the asylum knew what beauty was

 

3.    Loneliness (Pg 48)

 

·       On lonesome nights, number 7 imagines he’s not alone in the cell

·       He would see the image of a child

·       He had nervy sleeps

·       He comforts the child, “It is just a dream”

·       Strokes the child's hair tenderly, “Go back to sleep, I’m by your side.”

·       Talk to the child night after night

·       Worries about the child every single night

·       Prays for it

·       He has become a father and a mother

·       The child never grows up, Number 7 grows old

 

4.    Doctors

 

·       Two attending doctors beaming with smiles give Number 7 good news

·       The doctors don’t smile on most days

·       The good news – Number 7 is free to go now

·       According the doctors, “Our efforts have yielded fruit”. The committee agreed to their assessment. They assess evidence,  facts and conduct a careful examination.

·     Committee had serious members, never concurred, never signed any discharge papers  - the inmates freedom is in other people’s hands.

·       Day of his release and permanent freedom

 

 
Number 7’s conduct earns him a better life at the asylum compared to other inmates

 

·       Given limited liberty by the doctors (Pg46)
·       The umbrella may be a gift from one of the asylum orderlies or doctors (Pg48)
·       He has leisurely walk on sunny afternoons – other inmates watch from windows of their wards (Pg48)
·       He’s released by the doctors, committee unanimously (Pg50)

·       When he is released, orderly says, “ I will miss you” (Pg50)

 

 

 

Moral lessons

• Hope is essential (absolutely necessary) for man's survival. 
• One who clings on to hope in the face of affliction sees the light at the end of the tunnel.  

 

Next: Window Seat by Benjamin Branoff 

See analyses of all stories in Memories we Lost here

 NO NEED TO LIE – Rolf Schmid

Focus

• Strong willpower and determination lead to victory 
• Coping with cancer

What would you do if you were diagnosed with a potentially fatal disease?

Rolf Schmid, a 50 year old chef, had resolved to live a healthy lifestyle when he is diagnosed with stage 3 cancer. What started as harmless bout of tonsillitis turns out to be cancer. When it persists and needs the doctors to carry out a biopsy, Schmid is fearful that it may be AIDS. He is somewhat relieved when Dr. Rupani informs him that it is cancer. It is still devastating news nonetheless. His wife Asmahan receives the traumatic news with tears in her eyes. (Pg 125) 

Rolf Schmid is certainly a strong-willed character. When he books himself into a spa and loses 12 kilograms, he receives praises from his wife and friends. He later develops a sore throat that he mistakes for tonsillitis that could be soothed with Strepsils sweets. (P 122)

His doctor, Mrs. Ven Enk, refers him to Doctor Rupani, a specialist, since she knows this is not your ordinary tonsillitis. Schmid infers that it may be more serious than he had imagined. He is gripped by fear when he thinks of AIDS, a death sentence at the time. He imagines the stigma. A bullet to the head could solve the problem; 

“Suicide is for cowards and I am not one of them,” - comes his strong conviction. (P 123)

He seems determined to fight through his afflictions which since remains a mystery to him-at least for now.

After the biopsy, Schmid learns from a family friend, one professor Alberto, that his condition is grave. Is it cancer or AIDS?

Schmid says, “I just could not let myself die”. 

He wilfully adds that he was not going to give in to cancer. 

When Dr. Rupani calls him at 8 o’clock in the morning to inform him that he has cancer, he thanks God saying “my willpower was strong and determined.” (Pg 125)

Schmid feels that he is too young to die.

At the radiation room, he sees patients who had lost hair and looked appalling. The appliances in the radiation room look humongous and terrifying.

It is not long before the cancer takes a toll on Mr. Schmid. He suffers excruciating pain, oral ulcers and the peeling of the skin covering his gums. He is a pale shadow of his former self. He now weighs a measly 87.3 kg from 125. His wide biceps and 54 centimetre chest have been chewed away by cancer. (Pg 126)

Does he capitulate? Your guess is as good as mine. The unyielding cook is devastated at the thought of imminent death. However, his ardent personality keeps on reminding him not to give up.

“When I was at my lowest, I summoned the faces of my children one by one as a visual reminder of the reason I had for living, I kept telling myself, ‘you can’t die now’” (Pg 126)

Schmid suffers pain and endless medication. He is forced to eat and take at least three litres of liquid lest the doctor feeds him intravenously while confined to a hospital bed. He is scared about the thought. Schmid is forced to feed by a half inch rubber pipe. It is a painful but inevitable ritual.

Schmid compares his battle against cancer to a judo match. He alludes to the words of a Japanese judo sensei, adorned in a white judogi, commanding him to meditate and focus on the task at hand to knock out the opponent.

“The confidence of years of training years of service and years of pain assured me of victory”

But this was not a judo match! 

“This was life and death, my life”. (Pg 127)

The feeding is painful and Schmid would often scream in severe pain. He loses several friends due to his predicament. The insurance company he assumed would pay for his medical expenses would not pay much since he is self-employed. Some of his friends opt to fundraise for him. He does not give up. (Pg 127)

Schmid realizes that many cancer patients die not because of the malignant malady but because of despair and lack of hope. This gives him an unstoppable desire for health.

“I was going to live and see my children grow up, play more polo, do more sculptures and be with Asmahan, my beautiful wife.” (Pg 128)

He wilfully endures four agonising sessions of chemotherapy. He had heard about people losing hair and going completely bald, among other miseries. (Pg 128)

In the face of adversity, Schmid is optimistic that he was going to beat cancer. “but am I going to be alright? I mean no more cancer?” (Pg 128)

Alberto does little to calm his anxiety. He tells him that he has to be brave. It all depends on how his mind copes with it. Our good old mulish chef concludes that cancer, like any other adversity or predicament, is a process that requires a strong willpower, (food) and optimism. (Pg 128) 

When Mr. Schmid attends his first chemotherapy on a Saturday evening at seven o’clock, he feels like a condemned convict on the way to the gallows. He endures a nerve wracking 8 hours intravenous drip without feeling sick. The lovely nurse is astounded by his unyielding strength. “Heee Bwana, you are strong really strong.” She calls him a real ndume (strong man).

The headstrong chef decides to head down to the polo club after the chemo session to show everyone how tough he was. This is testament to his strong will and optimism Alberto thought he was crazy. He had lost almost 36 kilograms! He used to weigh 125 kilograms now weighs only 56 kilograms. His horses must think he is somebody else! (Pg 129-131)

After the four chemo treatment Schmid has lost half his hair but was spared by the devastating ill experience most cancer patients undergo. He vomits while playing polo but declares this his turning point after going back to finish the chucker (a period of a polo game).

“If I could do that, death could not be waiting round the corner.” (Pg 131)

Such buoyant positivity!

Mr. Schmid has to catch a flight to Germany for specialised treatment. There is a glimmer of hope since tumour on his neck has shrunk to an almost unnoticeable size. He is, however, angry. He dismisses the doctors and their diagnosis and prognosis. He is confident that he is going live; that he has a chance. He is iron-willed; such an admirable trait.

Rolf Schmid’s children do not know about their father’s predicament. All they know is daddy is going to Germany to visit his friend Roland and will return with many presents. He fights back tears and stomach cramps while driving to the airport. (Pg 131) 

Asmahan, his wife, asks him to pray and believe in the power of prayers. He recalls Dr Meister who had died after suffering from a similar malady. Was he going to die in Germany and be buried next to his grandmother? He resolutely pushes the ominous thought out of his head. He had not even written a will. He hopes the paralyzing anaesthesia in Katharinen Krankenhaus hospital, Stuttgart would melt his worries.

In Germany, he meets his caring friend Roland, who is ever so buoyant and sanguine. Roland predicts that Rolf was going to out live him. Sadly, this comes to pasd when he dies a year later in a freak accident. 

Mr. Schmid goes under the knife in Doctor Terrahe's hands without fear or anxiety. After the operation, he is upbeat about the fact that he is alive.

“Ooh I am alive...Great. No more cancer!” (Pg 133)

He suffers a few bouts of nausea and faints when he realizes that his swollen head is twice its original size and there is a chunk of muscle missing from his neck. The doctor reassures him that normalcy will return in two weeks or so.

Schmid is as stubborn as a mule. He sneaks out of the hospital feeling triumphant. 

“I am alive! Look at me, I’ve beaten cancer.” (Pg 134) 

He faints again and is reproached by the doctor for his imprudence.

Weeks go by and he feels better and better. He calls all his friends to share his happiness.

It feels like a rebirth, a return to normalcy, a new beginning; the start of a new life. 

He returns to Nairobi to a hero’s welcome. His obstinate willpower and mind over matter attitude win over cancer!

“Of course, my stubborn refusal to be defeated by cancer and mind over matter attitude made me an example to a lot people.” (Pg 135)

Strong willpower and optimism is key to beating adversity, misfortune or affliction.

 

KCSE SAMPLE QUESTION ON MEMORIES WE LOST - NO NEED TO LIE 

In the face of misery, one needs to be strong willed and optimistic. Write a composition to validate this statement making reference to Rolf Schmid’s No Need to Lie.

Write an essay on the challenges faced by cancer patients citing evidence from No Need to Lie by Rolf Schmid. 

Next: The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World by Gabriel  Garcia Marquez 

See analyses of all stories in Memories we Lost here.

MY FATHER’S HEAD – OKWIRI ODUOR

My Father’s Head by Okwiri Oduor is an exquisite tale about a young woman trying to cope with the death of her father. As we get immersed into the riveting prose poetry, we soon get entangled in the mystery of grief and mourning.

The story opens with the words: “I had meant to summon my father only long enough to see what his head looked like but he is here now and I did not know how to send him back”.

Simbi is the first person narrator. She works as a caregiver in an old people’s home. Her father is dead. The solitude and vacuum created by his death compel her to summon him from the mysterious world of the dead. Now he is here and she does not know how to send him back. Of course her father is not here physically; he is only here as an illusion created by her memory.

Many Africans believe that dead relatives can visit sometimes in form of spirits and we can actually see them. Okwiri seeks to debunk this mystifying myth. Ghosts and spirits are actually images we create in our minds -a figment of imagination

One night Simbi spends the entire night on her stomach on the sitting room floor drawing her father. She could see his face, his mouth, irises, ear and temple and even a thick line of sweat and brown veins. His head, however “refuses to appear within the borders of the paper”

When she shows Bwibo (the cook at the old people house) some of the drawings, Bwibo says, “Your father was a good man. Good men never show you their heads; they show you their faces”

Indeed Simbi’s father was a good man. His memories linger in Simbi’s mind. She remembers how her father could chew a handful of groundnuts and feed the mush to her. She was old enough to chew with her own teeth but young enough to desire that hot masticated love. 

She remembers the day he mourned the death of his friend Sospeter son of Milkah, who taught Agriculture, in Mirere Secondary when he heard about it through the radio.

After listening to a sermon by father Ignatius Okello from Kitgum, Simbi is reminded of her own father. She says “I was stringing together images of my father, making his limbs move and his lips spew words so that at the end he was a marionette and my memories of him were only scenes in a theoretical display”

She remembers him as an industrious reliable man who was ready to help people who flocked their house every Saturday morning when the water pipes burst or when a maid flushed a baby down the toilet.

As much as he was a good man, people only saw his face and not the head. People judge a book by its cover. The face represents the superficial outward (physical) appearance. What people fail to see is the inner spiritual realm. A man’s trait, values or what he truly espouses.

As we try to understand Simbi’s vague stream of consciousness, we appreciate the recollection of painful pent-up memories. The father appears to her as a form of memory. 

The story is therefore about coping with loss or grief. The incomplete drawing symbolizes the incompleteness of memory as we try to recreate the past. Our dead loved ones can only return in form of hazy dim recollections, not in physical form. The fact that they existed and now they don’t may create a puzzling state of confusion.

When her father appears to her he looks paradoxical to say the least; “he was something at once strange and familiar, at once enthralling and frightening- he was the brittle, chipped handle of a ceramic tea mug and he was the cold yellow stare of an owl.”

Simbi serves him tea and tells him about his friend Pius Obote who died four years ago. He grieves bitterly. After the tea, her father asks to leave. She asks him to stay for a couple of days. She confesses, “I did not really want him back. I just wanted to see his head.”

Grief is indeed a difficult thing to comprehend. Just like death and loss, some of the characters in the story are shrouded in mystery and only vaguely described. Take for instance the woman who hawked candy, or a man whose one roomed house is a kindergarten in the day time and a brothel in the evening, or the woman whose illicit brew had blinded five people in January.

It is important to appreciate people when they are alive. Look at their head (character traits) not just their faces (appearance).

Next: Analysis of Umbrella Man by Siddartha Gigoo. 

See analyses for all stories in Memories we Lost here

HITTING BUDAPEST ANALYSIS [PDF]

Hitting Budapest
NoViolet Bulwayo

 

Characters:

Basta – 11 years old

Chipo – 10 years old

Godknows- 9 years old

Sbho – 8 years old

Stina

Narrator – 9years old

 

Main concern

·        The devastating impact of poverty on children (juveniles)

 

 

Other issues;

·        Poverty

·        Immigration

·        Social classes

·        Exploitation

·        Delinquency

 

 

Synopsis

Hitting Budapest explores the hardships encountered by children living in a poor neighbourhood ironically named Paradise. These are Basta, Chipo, Godknows, Sbho, Stina and the (unnamed) narrator.

 

They lack basic needs like food because of poverty. They are forced to steal guavas to quell their hunger pangs. They used to steal guavas from Chipo's uncle’s tree but now they steal from strangers who live in an affluent neighbourhood called Budapest.

 

Getting out of Paradise is easy since the adults are too preoccupied with plaiting hair or playing draughts. As they ran, it turns out Chipo who was the fastest among them is slower today. She is pregnant after being sexually exploited by her grandfather. She has to sit down and rest.

 

Chipo describes Budapest as “a country where people who are not like us live” There is social stratification. The children are accustomed to the life in the shanty where there is pollution from burning things and smell of cooking food and rotting things.

 

Their mission in Budapest is stealing guavas. At Budapest they meet a thin woman from London known as Mello. To their surprise, she smiles at them. Nobody at Budapest smiles at them. When Chipo asks about the food she is eating, the woman mistakenly thinks she’s asking about the camera she was holding. They have different worries; point of views. The children are surprised when woman throws away food.

 

The narrator has dreams of moving to America where her aunt Fostalina lives. She expects to live a better life there. Africans feel life is better overseas especially in Europe and America. Godknows’ uncle, Polite, lives in London.

 

As they go back to paradise the ill-mannered children spit and litter the streets of Budapest with guava peels. Chipo vomits. They admire the big houses in Budapest. Sbho says she will live in houses like those one day. Basta dismisses this as a pipedream and throws guavas at the house. Basta is violent. He has beaten all the children except Stina. Sbho dreams of marrying a man from Budapest to escape the shanties of Paradise, Heaven and Fambeki.

 

Basta also dreams of going out of the country where he will make lots of money and buy houses in Budapest, Paris or Los Angeles. He wants to go to South Africa or Botswana.

 

Chipo remembers what her teacher Mr. Gono told her-that you need education to make money. Now she doesn’t attend school anymore but she thinks she does not need school to make money- that’s what the Bible says in her understanding.

 

Basta says nasty things about America and this hurts the narrator who dreams of living there. She feels boiling rage and has fantasies about violently accosting him.

 

Later, they are rounded up and taken to the Juvenile correctional centre. The narrator can now read and write. She is now reformed. She will write to Mello to apologise for their misdemeanour to the people of Budapest. She still hopes to go to America after her studies. Chipo who has since delivered, would like to continue with her studies and become a counsellor to guide and help children from Paradise.

 

Apart from basic needs like food, shelter and clothes, children also need love, compassion and guidance. They also need education and protection from predators. Without these, they engage in serious detrimental behaviour. 

NEXT: Missing Out by Leila Aboulela

See analyses of all stories in Memories we Lost here.

WINDOW SEAT Benjamin Branoff

WINDOW SEAT

Benjamin Branoff 

Focus

• Challenges of urbanization in developing countries

Key events

• Over loaded van (P 62)
• Inefficient public servants-The indifferent sentry (P 63)
• Poor dusty roads (P 63)
• Noise pollution (P 64)
• Poor waste management/disposal (P 66)
• Poverty/depravation of luxuries (P 66)
• Corruption/bribery (P 68)
• Crime/The lost wallet (P 69)

 

Synopsis

This short story captures the journey of a mzungu traveling in an African country. The author takes us on a bumpy ride through the roads of Dar es Salaam. Through the narrator’s eyes, we appreciate the challenges of urbanization in developing African countries.

The narrator has a window seat in an old Hyatt minivan commonly referred to as daladala. The van is overloaded; twenty four passengers are squeezed inside a van meant to carry about ten people. The conductor stands by the sliding door. During rush hours four more people would stand with the conductor. The old van old van build for ten could carry twenty eight people. The greedy owner of the van added more rows of seats not made with the van to accommodate more people

The narrator experience inefficient public service at the gate leaving Chuo. The indifferent sentry does a poor job of checking the van for something amiss. As the journey commences, the narrator notes, that the roads a dusty. One cannot, however, shut the window since they need fresh air.

At Mwenge, noise pollution is apparent. Horrible 80s music plays from a large stereo of a man selling CDs. Apart from that, conductor screams at the top of their voice trying to persuade people to board their daladalas.

As the mzungu heads toward the post buses after alighting from the old minivan, he notices that the town is crowded. There is high population. He fails to meet and greet a young French foreign exchange student called Monique (whom he fondly refers to as Le Fille). The bus has to maneuver through a sea of humans who walk dangerously close to it oblivious of the danger. This is probably due to poor infrastructure; lack of sidewalks or pavements.

We also notice dumping of waste and poor waste disposal; people burn rubbish and dead foliage on the roadside. The pollution is evident by the rancid smell of garbage and human filth and decomposition. The waste is pulled and left to rot or burnt by the road side.

After the next stop we meet a beautiful young woman the narrator refers to as Kanga. She looks healthy and beautiful but we can tell that she’s poor, deprived of luxuries and has to endure endless work in her lifetime. Kanga seems amiable or sincerely friendly.

The police in Dar es Salaam are corrupt and incompetent. They are not concerned with the safety of the passengers. To the dismay of impatient bus drivers and conductor, they forcefully squeeze a bribe out of them. The police man is indifferent about the overloading of the bus.

After the bumpy 45 minute ride, the narrator is shocked to find his wallet missing. In the crowded bus, anyone could have pinched it but all evidence points to Kanga. Developing African countries are riddled with crime and insecurity due to poverty.

SAMPLE ESSAY

Write a composition entitled: the challenges of urbanization in developing African countries, making reference to Benjamin Branoff’s “Window Seat”. 

NEXT: Read about  Folded Leaf by Segun Afolabi.

See analyses of all stories in Memories we Lost here.