Again, here, we see the motif we see all throughout the book; him laughing in serious situations. However, the adverb "uneasily" leads me to think that the narrator in one way or another recognises that he is using laughter as a coping mechanism, and with that adverb he is "excusing" himself from his poor social skills, while criticising his own reaction, as the sentence implies that his laugh created an awkward and unusual setting.

Apparently, South Africa's health care system has two type of hospitals. "Black" , where black people are treated, not to mention the standards in these hospitals, as you can imagine, we horrible, but at least black people had some place, where they could be treated. The other alternative for them were clinics in segregated townships. The "white- only" hospitals were for the colonisers, and if a black person was in a death threatening situation, where he/she needs immediate medical attention, they would let him/her in. However, the black person can not stay long in the hospital, like nowadays, we stay in the hospital for a few days, just so the doctors make sure we are safe. Once the operation/ initial stabilisation of the black person is done, they are quickly transferred to the "black" hospitals. This was a huge issue for the South Africans, and in 1989 there even were protests against the health care system. This again demonstrates how the colonisers discriminated black people. However, this made me especially alert and disgusted by their methods because technically people can not be treated/ kept healthy/ taken care of in their own land. If we take a look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs, we will see that in the bottom we have physiological needs, one of which is health. Maslow's pyramid talks about motivation behind an individual's behaviour. The British can't even give the Africans the first step of Maslow's pyramid, because by their rules, they imply that black people's health isn't as urgent, and doesn't deserve to be kept at high standards. Colonialists know that the best way to keep a nation under their rule would be to make them weaker on a mental, behavioural and even the perspective of themselves and self- worth, and the most basic, yet sneaky way to do that is to imply that their lives and standard of living is not that important. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1989/08/03/s-africans-challenge-whites-only-hospitals/b9e15fd1-d54c-45a3-8e91-db49b28b71fd/

Solomon was a wise and wealthy king, who is famous for his good deeds, good heart, and stories with instructive endings. Here, the author's diction does a great job of portraying how Marechera feels after smoking. Good example of kinetic, visual imagery; I even get tactile and auditory imagery from this sentence.

First, I love the image created here. At first, we see this "typical African bully", who fights people, but then, we see that his character has a lot more depth to it, as he reads a lot, and even has formed a strong opinion about who should criticise the writing he likes. Here, we not only see an educated bully, but we see a man, who has developed an attachment to the literature he reads, and wants to protect it from people, who may defame it; we see a caring side in his character. Then, the topic, discussed in the second sentence reminds me on a topic we talked about last semester. Whether or not a person should write about a culture, whom he is not a part of. During the time of the discussion, I was on the side that people should write about the different cultures. However, here I stand with Stephen, because during that time people from outside of Africa couldn't really see or get an understanding of the traditions, mentality and state of being of the African community, since Britian controlled the information, which was lead out to the world. Critisizing an African poem, with European standards, which the Africans don't know, neither do they try to appeal to, would be unfair, and just a disrespect to the writing. Which again, displays that Stephen doesn't want people to voice their opinions on communities they only view from the top, and don't know the story of. Lastly, his name comes from the Bible. And Stephen there was the person, who helped poorer people out. So, here, again, Marechera uses Bible allusions to hint the characters of the people in his writing.

The statue of Venus is one of the most ancient statues in the history of humanity. The first statue of Venus ever created was the Venus of Willendorf, which was created in prehistoric times. It was created by men, for men to observe the beauty of the female body. As humanity evolves, Venus has become a symbol of the natural female beauty, which radiates such a radiant energy, that men stay away from it and just observe. Here, after the part, where the woman talks about how white men just look at her, we see this allusion, which is brought into the present. We have the timeless statue of Venus next to a TV, creating a contrast on how the times of appreciation of female beauty and value have changed, especially after the grotesque story of the girl.

Julia, by the description of her outer appearance, gives the impression of woman that does nothing with life, because she only cares about her appearance. However, as I keep reading more of the dialog between them, I start to like her sharp, short, spot on answers. She is an intelligent woman, who cares about the way she looks, she seems emotionally intelligent, from her short, kind of cold, answers. She is able to see through Marechera's allusions, which he uses to mask his weak though. I believe that Marechera likes her so much, because she has the strict tone of a mother figure, and the beauty and youth of Immaculate (both of which he said he didn't want to think about, a few lines above). But her cold tone is what intrigues him more, because that is exactly why he is angry at Immaculate (Immaculate is too pure and too childish for him).<br> Then, he continuously uses the simile for her manicure as claws, which reference, usually points to an eagle. Maybe Julia reminds him of an eagle, who sees through his allusions, and is precise with her words.

Here, Marechera starts with the classic Bible allusion to Judas, meaning, someone, who was really close to Philip and his operations, betrayed him. Then, we have an allusion from the Greek mythology, which refers to the same thing, as the Judas allusion- the thing, which you least expected, turns out to be your downfall. And like in the case with Judas, here the Trojan horse is a part of the operation (they may be referring to a spy). Then, he mentions Greek vases, which are either black on red, or red on black, with which he could have alluded to the two sided people, who failed the operation. However, Greek vases also represent the everyday life, which tied in with the next allusion "Ode to a Grecian Urn", which means "Art, Beauty and Truth", the both of them could refer to the the complexity of everyday conflicts. Also, more on the analytical part, the fact that he used so many allusions in such a short period of time, shows that he is trying to "show off" his knowledge to Julia, since he makes him nervous, because he likes her.

The description of their plans, and the downfall of them illustrates how Rhodesian people have clear intentions and want to elevate the people of their country by uniting them under the common sublime idea of literature. However, their plans get doomed by their reality, old habits, and the intention to better their own lives.

Here, Harry is making a poor alliteration to T S Eliot's "The Cocktail Party". It's a poor alliteration, because Harry is just trying to sound smart, but doesn't really know what he is talking about. "The Cocktail Party" tells the story of a married couple that is separated, but holds cocktail parties. The play deals with theme of pressure of the social appearances, and social norms. The fact that Harry uses this, supposedly, without knowing what the play is about, but just using the title of a famous play to sound smart, creates situational irony. He is bad-mouthing his own race, in order to get into the higher society of his colonisers, by trying to keep up with the social norms that T S Elliot's play is making fun of.

Harry is being racist towards his own race. A bit above Marechera makes the comparison between the way Harry, and his sister Immaculate ask the same question: "What else is there?". With Harry's character we can see the division between the races, happening in colonised Rhodesia. The person, who is a traitor, not a particularly good person, and even arrogant, gets to live a life of a higher standard, all because he chose to "serve" the colonisers. While, when we look at his sister, we see a helpless woman, getting beat up because she is pregnant. To me, the persona of Immaculate's brother even explains why she stays in the situation she is in, and she is hopeful, and acting a bit childish. She was neglected by her brother when they were younger, because Harry was busy trying to appeal to the "chicks" and the whites, and didn't show any affection/ love/ attention to Immaculate. He probably transfered that mentality to Immaculate, that she is "just meat", so she accepts the way she is treated because nobody has treated her with the respect she deserves, since Harry only values white women. So, now that Immaculate is all grown up, and getting treated wrong, she still stays in that situation because now at least she is getting attention (or she can even view the violence as an expression of love).

Connect w/ Elliot.

These lines show the narrator's view of women, while also showing that he does not take full responsibility for putting himself in danger. He caught a venereal disease, because he participated in a sexual act, voluntarily, and now he is disgusted by women, because he, himself did not make the right choice. He did it because he wanted to forget Julia, and had sexual intercourse, just to do it. He didn't have any feelings for the person, and from what I understood, he didn't even know that person before the night of doing it. Meaning, he allows himself to be free, experimental, and rely on his animal nature, but when he sees the consequences from that, he blames the other part. This shows that the narrator doesn't like to take the blame and deal with his problems straight away, but would much rather discriminate a whole community, and lay out his own mistakes on different representatives of this community (him not trusting women ever again, second sentence). His ego got hurt by Julia, who didn't want him, and then, he got physical pain/ health issues by another woman.

Flog means to beat someone (with a stick/whip). The term originated around the 17th century, as Latin slang. Nowadays, it is mostly used informally in Britain as a slang, which means "struggle"/"sell or offer to sell". The fact that this word is now used in the British informal language shows that it was widely used by British people in the past (for a word to develop a "second" meaning, it has to have been in the language for quite some time, and it has to be used frequently by its speakers, in order for people to come up with its more informal meaning). The narrator uses this "strictly" British word, which shows me two things: he has a very deep knowledge about the English language; second, this shows how deep the British colonisation has influenced these people's mentality, even down to their diction.

Rabbit rabbit I finished basal! Rabbit rabbit and Nkomo!

Characterisation of their relationship.

Underestimating people in his community.

Line of profundity. Reference to war.

Disrespectful to women of his own race. I don't like Harry.

Again, him showing that he is emotionally unavailable. He also doesn't have a lot of friends. Erudite people are often the loneliest

Line of profundity

Educated about Greek mythology.

"House of hunger"- metaphor. Is the hunger here connected to the experienced the author just had with his mother and his English books?

Does the mother feel stupid/ stuck in the past/ is her reaction based on her hurt ego for her not being educated? Is this the arising of the author's dilemma of writing in English?

Not enabling himself to express his love/ be freed (feel happy) from the feeling of love and happiness

The difference between the two perspectives. One is disappointed in society, and in the fact that she doesn't have the advantages of the other race; like the other is joking because he is able to take advantage of the situation and situate himself in that community.

Why did he develop that? Characterisation

Immaculate is the name of the sister. I like that name, although I was confused about it at first .

Coping mechanism; as her son uses dagga.

This man laughs at the weirdest, most inappropriate things.

Especially said from his own brother' this line speaks volumes of how cautious the narrator is of false information and dishonest people around him.

I love this line. I has a "double" metaphor, its profound, extra points for the medical reference.

Again, comparing to children (babies)

Making an argument.

Comparing himself to a baby- He either views himself like a baby' others view him like a baby, or that was a metaphor for the national state of being

A line of profundity, showing the ideas and values that these people had.

Does the narrator allow himself to love? Is he given up on that idea and just focusing on freeing his people?

Is this a metaphor for the people's spirit during the war?

What exactly does this refer to? The whole movement? An organisation?

Metaphor used throughout the book, even in the title.

The ruthless acts of the war; scaring the younger generation like that, so they give up on fighting.

to do something that helps someone else but that is often difficult to do

I like his friend because he is giving him though love, and wants him to be better. Shows that drugs were not "respected" or OK within their society, but using dagga was a personal decision of the narrator.

weed

Shows the ruthless and inhumane conditions of the War

Foreshadows that he will be talking about one specific house of hunger; dramatic effects.