ENG2603 Assignment 1 2023 Answers, guidelines, workings and references .............................................................. Question 1: Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga Nyasha grew weaker by the day. She weaved when she walked and every night was the same. Although we were on vaca...
Question 1:
Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga Nyasha grew weaker by the day.
She weaved when she walked and every night was the same. Although we
were on vacation she studied fourteen hours a day to make sure that she
passed her “O” levels. She worked late into the night to wake me up regularly
and punctually at three o’clock with a problem—a chemical equation to
balance, the number of amperes in a circuit to be calculated or an irregular
Latin verb to be conjugated, although I was only in Form One and could not
often help her. “I have to get it right,” she would whisper with an apologetic
smile. It was truly alarming, but nobody commented, nobody acted; we were
all very frightened. One evening, at supper, she passed out into her plate…”
(pp. 200-201).
1. Using the above quotation as a point of departure, in two paragraphs,
discuss how Nyasha’s anorexic condition, resulting from the extremism
of both her self-induced vomiting and perfectionism, is symbolic of the
various attempts by some women in Nervous Condition to fight off
patriarchal and colonial oppression. (20 marks)
In Tsitsi Dangarembga's novel, Nervous Conditions, Nyasha's anorexic
condition serves as a potent symbol of the ways in which some women struggle
against patriarchal and colonial oppression. Nyasha's excessive focus on
academic excellence and her self-imposed regimen of self-induced vomiting are
indicative of the pressure placed on women to conform to narrow expectations
of beauty and success. The fact that Nyasha worked fourteen hours a day to
pass her "O" levels, despite being on vacation, illustrates the high stakes of
academic achievement for young women in a patriarchal society where
intelligence and education are not always valued or encouraged. Furthermore,
Nyasha's insistence on getting every problem right, even when it meant
sacrificing her health, points to the immense pressure women face to be perfect
in all areas of their lives.
Nyasha's anorexic condition can also be read as a metaphor for the ways in
which some women in the novel attempt to resist colonial oppression. Like
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