MEMORIES WE LOST ESSAY: HITTING BUDAPEST ANALYSIS

Memories we Lost and other stories KCSE essays

Review of KCSE 2020: Hitting Budapest-NoViolet Bulawayo

Children growing up in urban slums today face many challenges. Using illustrations from NoViolet Bulawayo's “Hitting Budapest”, write an essay to illustrate the truth of this statement.

 

How to answer KCSE essay questions based on Memories we Lost

1.     Read the question carefully

2.     Identify KEYWORDS to aid in your inference of the question

3.     Come up with points of interpretation

 

The keywords in the question include “children”, “urban slums” and “challenges”. This question is quite straightforward since all you have to do is to identify the problems or trials faced by children growing up in ghettos.

 

The points you give must be in relation to the events in the story “Hitting Budapest” and not simply the general obstacles faced by children in slums.

 

You only score a full mark when you support each point with adequate textual illustrations.

 

Task

·        Identify challenges experienced by the characters

·        Explain how the challenges affect the children

 

Steps to answering the set book essay question

1.     Identify a challenge

2.     Give sufficient textual backup

 

Reasons why students lost marks in this question 

Most students correctly identified the challenges but failed to give sufficient illustrations from the short story.

 

Memories we Lost essay: Hitting Budapest-Introduction

1.     What is your interpretation of the question? What challenges do children in the slums experience?

2.     Include the keywords in your introduction

3.     Paraphrase instead of simply rewriting the question

4.     Mention some of the challenges

5.     Be brief

 

Memories we Lost essays: developing the body

1.     Give at least four fully developed points

2.     Each point falls on a separate paragraph

3.     Give adequate textual illustrations on the challenges and how they affect the children  

NB: Your point should appear on the first line of each paragraph  

 

 

Points of interpretation

1.     Lack of food

2.     Shabby clothing

3.     Squalor living conditions

4.     No schooling

5.     Unwanted pregnancy

6.     Poor parenting

7.     Violence

 

Paragraph Development

Challenge: the children living in Paradise lack food

Illustration:

·        The children are forced to steal food

·        They are not allowed to cross Mzilikazi road but they are pushed by hunger pangs (p97)

·        The narrator feels like someone took a shovel and dug everything out of her stomach

·        She would die for guavas or anything to eat (p97)

·        Basta is supposed to be watching his little sister Fraction while the narrator is supposed to stay home and her mother would kill her if she found out she went-but they still go (p97)

·        Chipo is pregnant but she remarks that she does not want the baby or anything, just guavas (p98)

·        They used to steal from Chipo's uncle's tree

·        They finished all the guavas and moved to strangers’ houses

·        They have stolen so many times until they have lost count

·        Godknows is tasked with methodically picking the street from where they steal guavas

·        When they meet Mello, they cannot stop staring at “the thing she was eating”-her food

·        The children have never seen anyone throw away food.

·        As Mello chews, the narrator swallows with her

·        The children plan to move from stealing guavas to burglary and break-ins (p102)

·        They overeat and their stomachs are so full that they almost crawl home

·        They will only drink water and sleep

·        They anticipate constipation - it is usually so bad that it feels “like giving birth to a country” (p104)

 

The lack of food (challenge) forces the children to steal guavas from Budapest (effect). Without adequate illustrations, you do not score a full mark.

 

 
Sample set book essay question (and answer) based on Memories we Lost

Children growing up in urban slums today face many challenges. Using illustrations from NoViolet Bulawayo's “Hitting Budapest”, write an essay to illustrate the truth of this statement.

 Many children growing up in urban slums today undergo unimaginable crises for example poor sanitation, crime, violence, unwanted pregnancy etc. The children e.g. Basta, Sbho and Chipo experience innumerable challenges which affect them in various ways.

The children lack food. The lack of victuals forces them to steal guavas. The narrator would die for guavas since her stomach feels empty like everything had been dug out with a shovel. The children are not allowed to cross Mzilikazi road but hunger drives them out of Paradise in search of food. Chipo, who is pregnant, is more preoccupied with guavas than her unborn baby. The children have stolen all guavas from her uncle's tree and have moved to strangers’ houses. They have stolen so many times until they have lost count. Godknows leads the pack of illicit gatherers, carefully picking new streets to steal from. At Budapest they are fascinated by the food Mello is eating. They stare at the thing in her hand even as she throws it away. They have never seen anyone throw away food. When Mello speaks to Chipo, she is absent minded still brooding over the food on the ground. As Mello chews, the hungry children swallow with her. They end up overeating and fearing for the ensuing painful calls of nature. Food is a basic need but to children in ghettos, it’s a luxury that is hard to come by.

The children dress shabbily. As they make their way out of Paradise, Basta wallops the bigheaded child to discourage the younger children from following them. The child is naked. Mello wonders how the barefooted children could handle the heat and hard earth. Godknows's shorts are dirty and his back peeps from the torn patches like strange eyes. Basta wears his black tracksuit bottom and faded orange “Cornell” T-shirt everyday. The children lack proper clothing.

The children live a life of squalor. The surroundings in Paradise are extremely dirty and unpleasant owing to the poverty in the slum. There is a notable contrast between Paradise and Budapest. Budapest is like a different country. The residents are different from those in Paradise. Even the air is fresh unlike that one in Paradise which chokes with burning and rotting things and the smell of cooking food. The houses there are big, have nice fences, flowers and green trees. If she lived in Budapest, which is areal place with real people, the narrator would wash her body daily and neatly comb her hair. The kids fantasize about escaping the life of squalor and moving to better places like America, South Africa and Botswana. Sbho wishes to marry a man from Budapest so that she could move away from the dirty, unappealing shacks in Paradise. The poor children can only impotently admire the big houses, which look like mountains, with large swimming pools. Surely, slum children live a miserable life of squalor.

Children in slums do not attend school. Instead they spend their time either stealing or fighting. Basta, who is eleven, and the younger ones who attempt to follow them are all out of school. Basta wears the same clothes everyday, a black tracksuit bottom and a faded orange T-shirt, an indication that he does not attend school. Chipo fondly remembers her teacher Mr. Gono who advises that you cannot make money without education. She says his name proudly as if he is her father. She wonders how Basta would make money to buy the houses he desires when they don’t go to school. He says he does not need school to make money. At the juvenile correction centre the children learn how to read and write. The narrator plans to write to Mello to apologize for their misdemeanor. Chipo wishes to continue her studies and become a counsellor to guide and help the children from Paradise.

Chipo is pregnant after she is defiled by her grandfather. He was arrested and detained but the innocent little girl is left to suffer. She used to outrun everyone but not anymore. She has to keep stopping to rest. Basta gets impatient with her. He warned the other children to stop playing with her. The children are young and naïve but have a faint idea of pregnancy. They talk about the possible sex of the baby and how people get pregnant. Chipo is not sure about her due date but she knows the baby will come someday. She is only ten. Mello looks at her pitifully probably because she has never seen a pregnant child before. As they leave Budapest, they have to stop for Chipo to vomit. Her baby is eventually born at the juvenile correction centre. Children in slums suffer unwanted pregnancy.

Another challenge the children suffer is poor parenting. They easily sneak out of Paradise while on their mission to steal guavas. It easy for them since their mothers are busy with hair and talk. They simply glance at them and look away nonchalantly. The men's eyes are glued to the draughts as they while away under the jacaranda trees. The children are surprised when Mello smiles at them and asks if she could take a picture of them. No one smiles at them and adults never ask them anything. Adults are indifferent about the children. No wonder they are always arguing and fighting. Basta has beaten all of them except Stina. The children lack parental care.

Lastly, the children in slums are prone to violence. When the younger children try to follow them out of Paradise, Basta does not hesitate to wallop one of them. He has beaten all the children except Stina. He needlessly picks up a fight with Sbho when she voices admiration for one of the houses in Budapest. He throws a guava at the big, blue house she likes. He walks backwards facing Sbho for he likes facing whomever he is quarreling with. He also taunts another girl about her ambition of going to America. He says she will end up in nursing homes cleaning poop. The girl fantasizes about beating him up for saying that. She would slap him, butt him and punch him until he spits his teeth out and vomit all the guavas. Then pin him to the ground and jab him pulling his head back until he begs for his life. These violent thoughts, coming from a nine year old, manifest a lifetime of experiencing violence while growing up in the slums.

In summary, children growing up in slum areas experience all sorts of challenges.

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