A SILENT SONG ANALYSIS PDF – Leonard Kibera
A Silent Song and Other Stories
“Mbane, Do you
believe in God?” Ezekiel asked.
“I don’t know.
I don’t think it matters.”
Mbane, a blind disabled young man is the epitome of anguish. His short life is filled with pain and hopelessness and thus he sees no reason why he should believe in God. Despite the unrelenting bleakness, he has an iota of hope. He dreams of a future bright life beyond the pangs of darkness, and this gives him optimism and he sings his own happy song, silently to himself, secretly.
He hopes that death will free him from his pain.
Characters in A Silent Song
- Mbane
- Ezekiel – his brother
- Sarah – Ezekiel’s wife
Key Events In A
Silent Song
- Pain (pg. 17)
- Resigned (pg. 17)
- Hard street life (pg. 18)
- Unfulfilled dreams (pg. 18)
- Loneliness in the streets (pg. 19)
- Judgmental Christians (pg. 19)
- Hope and the silent song (pg. 20)
- Freedom at last (pg. 20)
Focus
- Plight of people living with disability
- Difficulties that come with disability
A SILENT SONG SUMMARY
The gloomy tale
opens with a description of Mbane’s agony. He suffers paralyzing pain in his
spine and stomach. The torturous moment is short lived but he anticipates
another attack. Mbane capitulates in despair. Giving up the fight, he lets go
his chin and hits his forehead on the flea ridden floor.
Mbane is utterly
hopeless. His desolate world is filled with gloomy darkness. Things like time,
day or beauty have no meaning to him. Due to his sightlessness, such things are
beyond his reach. In his desperation, he lives only to withdraw. He never hits
back. Since he is lame, he crawls away from threats, resignedly awaiting his
impending ominous end.
As much as his
current situation is despondent, it was worse before. He lives in a suspicious hut
after his brother, a preacher, rescued him from the streets of the city. He is
rescued from the difficult life on the rugged, noisy streets where he survived
on the mercy of the busy city people who occasionally heeded his entreaties and
dropped a copper in his hat.
In the serenity of
his new domicile, Mbane felt meaning in his brother’s silence and strangeness
in his voice. His brother avers that he rescued him so that he could “see
the light of God.” (pg. 18)
As much as the
street had come to being his life, Mbane had no capacity to perceive its
length, width, beauty or size. He could only hear but not share about the
bright weather, lovely morning or beautiful sunset. He was taunted by the
pedestrians’ songs about the blue sky and their whistles to the gay morning
which to him were totally indiscernible. He was happy about the gay people
since they answered his plea unlike the dull, anxious people with empty
pockets.
During the day, Mbane
endured the torturous heat of the unforgiving sun and the tenacious flies while at night he had no choice but to
brace the biting cold. He also had to put up with the occasional thieves. The
city people worked during the day and enjoyed themselves in bars and brothels
at night. The strange rhythms from the buildings in which they had fun, lured Mbane.
Mbane’s brother
married around his own age. Mbane can only harbor fruitless desires for such
fulfillment but his reality is a world of darkness and lameness.
When his brother’s
wife gives him medicine, he experiences another bout of pain. She encourages
him with thoughtful words but he knows that she is not frankly optimistic for
him. When his brother comes in, both men remain silent for a long time. This is
not unusual for Mbane who was accustomed to speaking to himself in his thoughts
while on the streets.
Ezekiel, his
brother, asks him if he believes in God and he replies that he doesn’t know and
it doesn’t matter.
Their late
religious mother equated all men to one stream, flowing through the rocks of
life. They cried in the falls and wild whirl-pools but laughed and sang when
the flow was smooth and undisturbed. The water branched into a narrow heavenly
pool and a wide gulf of a chaotic flood. Mbane feels distant and removed from this
mythical description of humanity that he is not part of. He feels like the
bitter fluid in his own throat, not the good water. He sees no reason to
believe in God. (pg. 19)
While God
represents light, Mbane wallows in forgotten darkness. While some Christians
offered him coins on Christmas Day, others cursed him calling him an able-bodied
pest crippled by his lazy loafing ways.
In his world of
eternal darkness, Mbane clings on to his belief and dream of future life. He
hopes for a bigger, meaningful, glorious feeling beyond his sightlessness. He sings a secret silent song that fills
him with expectation and desire. He wishes for his journeys end so that his
soul could experience this wonderful destination. Mbane's soul is imprisoned in
his sweaty, unwashed body and he wishes that it was free. That is a welcome
reprieve from his suffering and damnation.
His brother
desperately wants him to accept Jesus and be baptized before he dies. That is
why he brought him here.
Before long, Mbane dies a peaceful, painless death – smiling.
What are some of the challenges that Mbane experiences?
Next: Ivory Bangles analysis
Read A Silent Song and Other Stories Essays and Answers PDF here
Hard work and determination pays validate the statement
ReplyDeleteI need answers
ReplyDeleteCan you please assist with points where Mbane is hopeless but gets imagined hope
ReplyDelete