A SILENT SONG GUIDE NOTES PDF

A Silent Song Guide PDF

A Silent Song: How to tackle essays on short stories

A Silent Song and Other Stories is an anthology of 14 short stories edited by Godwin Shiundu. It is one of the three optional set texts tested at KCSE. This article seeks to lay bare the best approach to use when teaching or reading the short stories with the view of scoring the highest marks in the questions. The essay question on short stories is a prudent option since it is always well performed at KCSE.

A Silent Song: How to read and understand the short stories

1.       Read the story as a whole to understand the gist of the plot.

2.        Identify the main issues in the stories.

·        Most of the stories contain one or two main issues in line with the author’s intended message.

·        What do you learn from the story?

For example:

 A Man of Awesome Power

·        Rewards for good deeds, punishment for misdeeds

·        Good and bad use of opportunities

Ninema

·        Outstanding traits attract respect and admiration

Boyi

·        War destroys families and communities

 

3.       Divide the story into episodes. Study and internalize the details in each episode.

4.       Clustering: merge related or interlinked episodes and read them at the same time.

 

How to identify and study episodes in A Silent Song and Other Stories

Identify parts of the stories that contain notable events or situations.

Use the following guidelines when identifying or studying episodes:

·        What is the event?

·        Identify the characters involved

·        What actions or activities are they involved in?

·        How do other characters react to these actions?

·        What moral lesson do you learn from this episode?

 

o   Each episode represent a notable event or situation

 

Episodes in Incident in the Park

·        The sorry state of the city park

·        The idlers

·        Hungry office workers

·        Meet the fruits seller

·        Watchers and rowers

·        The ugly pond

·        Feeding the fish

·        Fruit seller accosted by constables

·        Tyrannical judge

·        Mob justice

·        The calm after the storm

 

o   Understand the background information – events directly related to the situation

·        Study the events leading to the key situation in the episode

·        What happens just before the situation

o   Identify the characters involved

·        Name of the character

·        The character’s words/actions/thoughts/feelings

·        How do these actions affect other characters?

·        How do other characters react?

·        What is the negative or positive outcome of these actions?

Think of the episodes as possible answers to the essay questions

 

Responding to essay questions on A  Silent Song and Other Stories

o   Cite specific illustrations from the text

o   Every minute detail counts

 

Sample Essay Question #1

An uncaring society is a breeding ground for immoral acts. Citing illustrations from Meja Mwangi's An Incident in the Park, write an essay to validate this statement.

Identify immoral acts that result from a society that displays lack of sympathy or concern for others or general apathy and indifference.

 

Developing the body paragraph

o   Who commits the acts of apathy?

o   Demonstrate the lack of care.   

o   What immoral acts result from such unconcern?

Guidelines:

·        Answer the question on the first line of your paragraph

o   Demonstrate the correct interpretation of the question

o   Show the relationship between the key words

·        Give specific textual details of the immoral acts

·         Give specific textual details of an uncaring society

·        Give the background information

·         In the last line of your paragraph, sum up your point in one pithy statement that captures the moral.

 

Points of interpretation

·        The relevant government authorities have neglected the City Park

·        Apathetic city dwellers waste time lounging in the park

·        The pond in the park is neglected

·        The hairy loafer nonchalantly  feeds rubbish to the fish

·        The constables show the fruit seller no sympathy

.        The tyrannical judge gives the fruit seller a harsh penalty. He doesn't care about him. 

·        The mob harshly judges and cruelly kills the fruit seller

·        The city crowd shows lack of sensitivity towards the dead man when they refuse to testify or recount events leading to his death

A Silent Song: Incident in the Park sample paragraph 

Sample paragraph #1

The police constables are callous. They harass innocent people heartlessly, displaying no shred of sympathy. The two city constables accost the old fruit seller and demand for his license and identification. As fate would have it, he has neither. He cannot afford a license. The old man nods uncomprehendingly and shakes his head sadly when the police demand for a license. He desperately tries to bribe the constables by offering five shillings; all he had made that day. The policeman grabs him by his old coat and remarks that he would explain it to the judge. The old man swears by his mother. He is devastated because he has another case with the cruel judge. A tyrant who would hang him this time round. The fruit seller cries that the judge is crazy and would castrate him but his pleas fall on deaf ears. He offers the constables a 10- shilling bribe and even his fruit baskets. The constables remain indifferent even when he cries that he has a wife and children. They do not care. They march him right ahead. When he realizes that he is talking to a brick wall, he decides to leap and run for it but not before cursing the cops, their wives and their children.

Sample Essay Question #2

Write a composition to demonstrate how war destroys families and communities basing your illustration on Gloria Mwaniga's Boyi.

Demonstrate the effects of war on the family and community. Each paragraph should capture how Boyi's family members and members of his community are affected by the conflict and resultant atrocities. Both aggressors and civilians suffer in the war. Armed conflicts result in not only bloodshed and death but also widespread trauma, emotional and psychological stress.

 

Developing the body paragraph

·        Identify the conflict and the perpetrators

·         Show how their actions cause devastation

·         Give specific details of how Boyi's family is affected or ruined

 

Points of interpretation

·        Mama’s madness when Boyi is separated from the family

·         Fear, anxiety and desperation while anticipating the militia’s visit

·         Mama’s insanity or disconnection from reality

·         Baba’s strange ritual with his cousin Kimutai

·        Mama’s agony – no food

·         Narrator's helpless wishes that the rituals would protect Boyi

·         Recounting horrific tales of the militia’s cruelty

·         The chilling tales that bring fear

·        Devastation when they hear the news of how Boyi goes from a pious boy to a marked man

·         Overwhelmed by grief following Boyi's death

A Silent Song: Boyi Sample paragraph

Sample paragraph #2

Mama is adversely affected when her son is separated from the rest of the family.  Baba gives Boyi away to the militia leader as collateral until he finds 40,000 land protection tax. As if fire ants had invaded her body, Mama stands up abruptly. She tears off her kitenge headscarf and start shouting. Mama says that Baba must be sick in the head to think Boyi would return. He must be deaf if he has not heard tales of neighbours whose sons had been recruited by the militia. A child was not a mat that could be folded and returned to the owner or a dress that one can borrow from a neighbour. Baba is enraged but he just sits there. In a metallic whisper, he asks Mama what she wanted him to do. He justifies his action by saying he did it to protect his family from the militia’s cruel actions of chopping off heads of whole families, carrying off fresh heads like trophies and hanging them on trees or eating them like Idi Amin. They also chopped off victim’s ears and fed them worm-filled earth. Mama does not buy this explanation. Hives break out on her skin. Her eyes are deathly white like the eyes of one who did not know her own mind. The narrator feels queasy as if someone had pulled her insides out through her nostrils. War indeed has a devastating effect on loved ones.

Demonstrate how families and communities are devastated, using the specific actions of different characters. Show how:

·        Mama is affected

·        Baba is affected

·        Boyi's sister is affected

    .         Boyi is affected 

·        The community is affected

Study the effect of war on each of the character's because the question may limit you to a specific character.

 

In summary:

1.       Identify the main issues in the book

2.       What is the author's intended message?

3.       Study the story and internalize the specific details in each episode

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