Nervous Conditions Summary and Analysis Essay

The narrator, Tambudzai, Tambu for short, begins this story at the end I was not meritless when my fellow died. That happened in the year 1968, and the offset chapter sets the context for that plaint. Nhamo, Tambus comrade, is introduced as proud he is too proud to fling home from school, although Tambu sees the walk as holding endless possibilities for inspiration. Thus, their contrasting outlooks on life be introduced. In anecdotal style, Tambu looks back at the year 1965, when her bugger off dogged that Nhamo would go to the mission school and live with Babamukuru, Tambus uncle.She remembers how her acquire was unceasingly grateful for the munificence of his brother, who had educated himself and thus found financial success. aft(prenominal) living with his uncle for a few years, Nhamo became embarrassed by all this poverty, in a way that it had not d 1 before. Chapter 2 continues Tambus memories of how her brother became educated in place of her he began school when he moody heptad. She also remembers when Babamukuru went to England, when she was only five years old. He and his wife, Maiguru, moved in that respect with their children, Nyasha and Chido for five years.Without Babamukurus generosity, the narrators family struggled and her vex was forced to distribute boil eggs to passengers at the bus terminus. Tambu did not understand why they were only concerned with raising enough m atomic number 53y to send her brother to school, not her as well. When she kick backs to her spawn that her father does not prioritize her education, her mother answers, This business of womanhood is a heavy burden. Tambu remembers her grandmother, with whom she used to work in the fields until the day her grandmother died.The values of her grandmothers genesis are clear life could be lived with a modicum of dignity in any circumstances if you worked wicked enough and obeyed the rules. Tambu l pull in from her grandmother closely how their land was tak en from them and how her grandfather had escaped from slavery. Tambu put those lessons to use and worked hard to cultivate a small plot of land, growing cobs of maize, which she calls mealies, to sell. just one day at school, she discovered that her brother, Nhamo, was stealing her mealies and giving them away to children at Sunday school.She loses all respect for her brother that day, charging at him and attempting to kill him. Their campaign is broken up by the Sunday school teacher, Mr. Matimba. Mr. Matimba advises Tambu to sell the mealies to the Whites, who would believably buy them for as much as sixpence a piece. scorn protests from her father, Mr. Matimba picks Tambu up in his truck and drives her to t take in one Tuesday to sell the maize.The first white couple they approach demonstrates the attitude of whites toward blacks in Rhodesia Come now, Doris, says the conserve to his wife, Its none of our business, when the wife scolds Mr. Matimba for putting a little s pring chicken lady to work marketing mealies. They do not buy any, but Doris custody a wad of money to Mr. Matimba anyway, after he lies to her, telling her that Tambu is an orphan. chthonic Mr. Matimbas advice, Tambu gives the money to the school headmaster to keep safe, so that she dissolve use it to pay her school fees for the next few years. Despite her fathers protests and attempts to get the money for himself, the headmaster keeps the money and uses it to help Tambu in her education.Thus Tambus father is further characterized as short-sighted and unconcerned with the upbeat of his daughter. When Babamukuru and his family returned from England, Nhamo and his father take the trip to meet them at the airport and Tambu and her mother scramble to find the provisions for a feast. Analysis The theme of education as a possibility for lifting oneself and ones family out of poverty, commencement new opportunities, is introduced in the first chapter in the context of Nhamos schooli ng.Tambu remembers her fathers decision to take advantage of Babamukurus kindness and generosity with his money and knowledge. Although Babamukuru seems to have remained humble and helps with the physical labor on the settle whenever he comes to visit, education affects Nhamo differently he resents the poverty he was raised in. In contrast, the narrators mother has little pride, but cool off understands the importance of education she boils eggs and sells them to passengers at the bus terminus in order to keep her son in school.As the narrator describes the shot in 1968 when her brother did not return home from school on the bus as expected, the theme of gender inequality is introduced. Nhamo never carried his own luggage, but expected the women in his family to serve him. He is generally unpleasant as a person, but his expectations and actions reflect the Shona society in which he was raised. As Tambu says, the needs and sensibilities of the women in my family were not consider ed a priority, or even legitimate.In contrast, Englishness saves Maiguru to some extent, at least in Tambus young eyes. She was driven about in a car, looked well-kempt and fresh, clean all the time. But Nhamo tells his sister that she cannot study, that Its the same everywhere. because you are a girl. The theme of racial inequality is introduced subtly in the beginning of Chapter 2, when Tambu narrates that seven is the age at which the Government had declared that African children were sufficiently developed cognitively to be able to understand the abstractions of numbers and letter.The tone of her language is resentful obviously, seven is old enough, but the Government has low expectations for African children. The narrator is weighed down, as her mother puts it, both by the poverty of blackness on one side and the weight of womanhood on the other. When Mr. Matimba takes Tambu into town for the purpose of selling the maize she has grown on her garden plot, they end up mendica ncy for a handout instead. Their interaction with an elderly white couple, Doris and George, demonstrates the inequality they hardihood as kaffers. Black people who gather to watch Doris hand Mr. Matimba a wad of money are of mixed opinions some think that blacks should not accept handouts, since what is good is not given, as one black onlooker puts it, but others claim that whites could afford to be, in fact ought to be, generous. The generational geological fault between Tambu and Nyasha and their parents, let alone their grandparents, is a constant theme that is introduced in the second chapter. Tambus mother and grandmother do not complain about the hard labor they endure her grandmother had been an inexorable agriculturalist of land, sower of seeds adn reaper of rich harvests until, leterally until, her very last moment.Her grandmother tells her history lessons piece of music they work in the fields together, with this message endure and obey, for there is no other way . But it is through her grandmother that Tambu learns about her uncles successfulness Babamukuru became successful because his mother sent him to the mission school. Eventually he earned a scholarship to South Africa because he worked so hard he was diligent, he was industrious, he was respectful. The narrator absorbs those lessons and uses the plot of land that used to be her grandmothers to turn into her own vegetable garden.