Essays on Nervous Conditions

Nervous Conditions, a buildingsroman by Tsitsi Dangarembga, focuses on the life and education of Tambu, a young girl, living in Rhodesia. After the death of her brother, Tambu moves from her homestead into a mission with her uncle and his affluent, educated family. As colonialism...

In several respects, American writers have use literature as a means to promote equal rights for women; however, these writers are often white females – or even white males. While these writers are certainly able to uncover a variety of aspects that American society needs...

In Nervous Conditions, the main character, Tambudzai, feels restricted within her family and culture because she is female. The people of Rhodesia assert very traditional roles for men and women; the women cook and clean, while the men go to school and earn money. In...

Tstisi Dangarembga, author of Nervous Conditions, depicts Nyasha, Tambu’s first cousin, as a product of the hybridization of British and African culture throughout the entire novel. Certainly, Nyasha’s British customs are very prominent even when she returns to Africa, for she spent the majority of...

Narrative structure is often one of the most crucial and strategic rhetorical elements of a work of literature. This is particularly true when the narrator is essential to understanding the themes and purposes of the text itself, such as the personal story of a specific...

In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee there are many characters who prove themselves to be heroic. This novel is set in the 1930’s, and is all about a family’s life over a few year time period. To Kill A Mockingbird shows how society...

Is the desire to do evil part of human nature, or does this desire stem from somewhere else? In the short story “The Black Cat” (1843), Edgar Allan Poe illustrates the difficulties that the narrator is experiencing through his personal perspective, which portrays him as...

How is it possible to advocate nationalism when for the sake of competition and economic independence, certain concessions to western traditions must be made? A colonised Rhodesia, plagued with a reliance on Anglocentric morals, is where Tsitsi Dangarembga sets her novel “Nervous Conditions.” A close...

Is it not it a big mistake to fear such small things like darkness, silence, and loneliness when the real monsters lie in our heads? Clive Barker once said, “You just have to trust your own madness.” The story written in 1843 ‘The Black Cat’...

In the four epic tales of Beowulf written by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet, Le Morte D’Arthur written by Thomas Malory, and The Wife of Bath and The Pardoner’s Tale written by Geoffrey Chaucer, there are many morals presented. Each tale holds a different moral. In...

In this essay, I intend to discuss Tsitsi Dangarembga’s novel “Nervous conditions”. I will be discussing how Babamakuru and Nyasha represent Tambudzai’s aspirations. Babamakuru represents Tambudzai’s aspirations to become educated and improve her life. Nyasha represents Tambudzai’s aspirations to escape her traditional family. The extract...

What is power? Power it is a magnificent thing but at the same time can be evil. People strive to gain power all of their life, how far will they go, to acquire this so-called power? In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, power is a very...

The world is packed with evil people, but their driving force is often unclear. Usually people have an outside influence that drives them to perform these actions of uncontrolled harm. This is what happened in the short story, “The Black Cat”, as protagonist develops a...