Comparing the Narrative Structure of Matigari, and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Essay Example

A comparison in the narrative structure of the two books 'Matigari' and 'One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich' The narrative structure determines the overall development of the plot and story conflict. 'Matigari' and 'One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich' depict problems of racial relations and force readers to rethink the primary impression at the end of the work. The problem that arises in most assessments of political change in Africa is that they focus on the formal aspects of the political order, the structures of governance; the set of legal rules, political norms, and established institutions that together constitute the regime. The narrative structure of a novel helps authors to provide a structural framework that underlines the manner in which the novel is presented to readers. Both books seem to contain restricted timeframes, which allows Ngugi and Solzhenitsyn to focus on every detail and to add emphasis on the inner meaning of the novels. Thesis Both authors address questions of political pressure in a broad context portraying racial differences as a core of social and political relations in modern society. In both works, a restricted timeframe helps the authors to place the main character in specific environments and portray difficulties and oppression faced by the characters in everyday life. The authors show that political structure determines a class location and privileges of people. The story "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" depicts life grievances and hardship caused by Soviet system and Bolshevism to ordinary citizens like Ivan Denisovich Shukhov. In this story, Solzhenitsyn unveils drawbacks and limitations of the Lenin's views and their consequences for an ordinary man. Repressions and spying was a result of Soviet ideology and the suppression of local initiative. Thus, it is possible to find the roots of these problems in Lenin's April Theses promulgated dominance of the working class and struggle against dissidents. The main thesis which influenced the course of Russian history was a strong leadership role of the Party. Solzhenitsyn unveils that the party ruled lives of people and determined their destiny. In both works, characters oppose the society trying to prove their rights on the land and political power in the country. On the other hand, rights are particularly difficult to operationally in legal politics if the object of these rights is to protect indigenous identity. Since rights language is usually attached to the idea that individuals should be protected, it tends not to work well when applied to collectives. Racism also gives rise to conflict when a collective asserts its rights over individuals who also make rights-based claims. The use of "cellule" for the smallest party units, and "rayon" for the next level of regional organization were typical for camps. The horrors of the Soviet system were a result of ideology stipulated by Lenin. Communist party organization became a corollary of colonial classification. Conscientious objection, while courageous, was individualist and unsuitable for mass emulation. The author describes: He did that every day, but today was different, Shukhov remembered. This Sotsgorodok was a bare field knee-deep in snow, and for a start you'd be digging holes, knocking in fence posts, and stringing barbed wire around them to stop yourself running away. After that - get building (Solzhenitsyn) Desertion was cowardice and sabotage treason. Lenin taught that the duty of a Communist was to depart for any war into which he had been conscripted and carry on the (party) struggle where circumstances placed him. In order to fulfill this thesis, Stalin introduced concentration camps as the main tool of oppression and civil control. The Party was not against nationalization. But it was fearful of the electoral consequences of too radical an image and stressed that only the largest industries were ripe for takeover. Nothing was sacred except the strong ideology protected with state control. This thesis reflects life and ideology of the camp where the Bolshevists reserved the highest category of associated state, denoting equal and independent status. In sum, Solzhenitsyn reveals that life experiences and hardship faced by his character were inevitable. Solzhenitsyn unveils that concentration camps and strict control were the main tools used by Stalin and the ideology and dominance of workers as a social class. In "Matigari" Ngugi portrays that political structure reflects ideology of society and limits freedom of Matigari. This perspective pushes the political significance of the structure further so that it becomes a process of symbolic exchange without any privileged audience. This significance is reinforced by the content of the novel, which, rather than reproduce contemporary experience in the realist mode, aims at a level of allegorical abstraction that lends itself to translation into other languages and cultures without, however, succumbing to the European tendency toward abstract universalization. In both works, the cyclical structure reflects historical development of the society and adds emotional tension as readers change their mind when reread and reinterpret events describes earlier. The author makes the function of Matigari clear in the prologue: The story is imaginary. / The actions are imaginary. / The characters are imaginary. / The country is imaginary - it has no name even. / Reader/listener, may the story take place in the country of your choice (Ngugi ix). The reader is asked to situate the story in his or her own social-historical context, to make it serve her or his own political needs. Nevertheless, the book is never ambiguous in its critique of multinational capitalism, its agents, and the comprador classes that support it in third-world countries. The central figure, Matigari ma Njirngi, is endowed with ambivalence not to signify the mystique of personality but to translate the desires of a broadly conceived human collective into an emblem of hope: They all shared the same hope: that a miracle should take place. But at the same time all wondered: who really was Matigari ma Njirngi A patriot Angel Gabriel Jesus Christ Was he a human being or a spirit Was Matigari a man or was he a woman A child or an adult Or was he only an idea, an image, in people's minds Who Was He" (Ngugi 158). Yet Matigari is so heavily centered on Kenya's concrete experiences since about 1980, that its national boundaries are unmistakable. If the story appears somewhat grotesque, it is partly because the Kenyan political reality was sometimes more fantastic than fiction. The cyclical structure adds emphasis on the important details of the book thus making the moral of the book much clear. Ngugi achieves this by a technique known as foreshadowing. The choice of focusing on a single day allows him to point out that the day does not belong to Shukhov, however his day belongs to the Soviet Government. In contrast to this, the life of a free citizen is constituted of a number of days that flow into one another; hence a day is just a constituent of time. But this is not the case in Shukhov's day. His day is part of his sentence, therefore it is not planned to his own desires but instead it is strictly planned and is repeated on a daily basis. By adding focus and detail to a single regimented day Solzhenitsyn is able to emphasize the monotony and ennui faced by an inmate in a Soviet Labor camp. Shukhov has been in the camp for nearly a decade following the same regiment that he has begun to accept the camp to be his home. No point in telling the family which gang you worked in and what your foreman, Andrei ProkofyevichTyurin, was like. Nowadays you had more to say to Kildigs, the Latvian, than to the folks at home (Solzhenitsyn) Shukhov has begun to forget of his real home as his home. This is because he has been in the camp for such a long period of time that home has drawn back to a very secluded part of his mind. He very rarely even thinks about his family. His family has just vanished from his mind. The society goes to great extremes to negate any differences in material circumstances that might lead to rivalries, jealousies, or competition for material gain. In Solzhenitsyn's story, oppression is emphasized above all else, even to the point of suppression of individual liberty and imposition of a potentially oppressive conformity, enforced by a constant surveillance in which all prisoners watch all others, with those who deviate from accepted behavior subject to harsh punishments. As much as the letters, his family has "sunk without a trace" into the "bottomless pool" of Shukhov's life. Throughout the novel no names are given to his family members, whilst 'Kildigs' and 'Tyurin' are both easily acknowledged by their names. Shukhov's thoughts and interests seem to have shifted andnow lie in the camp after such a long period of time. Just one of the three thousand six hundred and fifty three days of his sentence, from bell to bell. The extra three were for leap years (Solzhenitsyn). This quote implies that the day that has just past is a very small part of Shukhov's entire sentence. The fact that he makes use of the term "from bell to bell" implies that he is going to repeat every single painstaking action he has performed in the past 150 pages, every single day for the rest of his "three thousand six hundred and fifty three days of his sentence" (Solzhenitsyn). The book's outcome indicates that, within the oppressive context of the Soviet Union, transgressive behavior generally leads not to emancipation but to swift and brutal retribution. Moreover, there is a suggestion that the material wealth and carefree life style lead to a political simplicity and complacency that makes it an easy prey for Soviet conquest. In a sort of reversal of the warnings that excessive steps to combat the Soviet menace could lead to a society that was indistinguishable from the Soviet one, Solzhenitsyn thus warns that insufficient attention to the Soviet threat could lead to worldwide Soviet domination. At the end of the book the cycle returns and the theme of weapons appears again. Ngugi portrays that when the main character kills Muriyuki goes he digs up the weapons. This cycle of returning to the weapons is extremely important since the hidden message behind it is that Africa will go on living and go on trying whatever may come. Similarly the Mugumo tree has a similar message behind it. Matigari exclaims: It's good that now I have laid down my arms.Instead I have girded myself with a belt of peace (Ngugi 115). Matigari returns to the mugumo tree many times in the novel. This shows that even though many things around the tree are disappearing the tree is always going to be there until the very end. This symbolizes Africa and that Africa too will go on existing whatever happens. It is clear that if the protagonist had not returned to the tree or the weapons had not been dug up, the actual moral of Africa's existence would not be as clear. In Matigari, the restricted timescale is used to emphasize Matigari's character as a holy figure. Since the novel is based over the period of three days, a normal person would generally move between a small number of places but Matigari moves throughout his entire country. Therefore this distinguishes him from the rest of the people in general. Also, at the end of each day the same question is asked, "Who is Matigari ma Nurungi" These words imply that the day has finished but the people are still interested in knowing who is Matigari. In sum, both books have a similar narrative structure since they both are based on events that occur over very short periods of time. "One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich" is a story based over the period of just a single day and 'Matigari' is based on events that altogether last three days. The similarity of a cyclical development helps me to argue that both books contain a very similar structure. In many cases, these counterfeit artifacts are in every way identical to the originals, the only difference being that they are not in fact old, that they do not possess genuine "historicity." This powerful condemnation of the ideology extends the critique beyond the arena of science to include political rule as well, suggesting that the book's ultimate target is any discourse that would pronounce itself as an unquestioned authority for human conduct. Works Cited Ngugi, wa Thiongo. Matigari, Africa World Press; 1st edition, 1998. Solzhenitsyn A., One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. Web. Read More