human throats of these human goats,
Thats the conclusion from the narrators monologue: everyone has a meaningful life, and many people aren't considering the life of animals. But in a sense this conclusion can be directed towards the Rhodesian culture. Natives are slowly cutting its troath by promoting white culture and embracing in Christian rituals.
negro
The first time the word is used. A word that from the narrator's perspective should be a great insult, and yet he uses it freely like any other word. This shows that the narrator has lost any hope of change and accepted his status in the colony. It also shows the settlement of the inner conflict between the two languages - Shona and English. (106)
We could hear, in the distance, the brass and strings of a distant military band.
Reading the first two short stories a subtle change of style made me realise what confused me so much about House of Hinger. Even though they are by the same author I often needed two or tree reads to get some things, while with the short stories I get them the first time. In my opinion this is due Marichera's excessive use of retrospection. It often confused the flow of time and made it very difficult to follow. With the short stories he follows on single time without constantly going back and forth making it much easier to understand.
Afro-American mode
The Afro-American model is not only another harsh reality hit, to show that all black women are there only to satisfy the male population, but it also gives a grand scheme of the problem. Up until now everything was connected only to Rhodesia, but know we see the situation in different places isn't that too much different, which gives another new way of interpreting things and characters, especially Harry, the symbol of the west. (103)
real world.
Those two words represent the narrator's reality and views perfectly. `The real world being portrayed after his fall off a tree, showing that the only real thing is suffering. In the real world there are no smiles and fun experiences, only sad, anger, pain and death. (91)
She had dropped out of the university and without a word disappeared from view.
The narrator is talking about a social gathering, which is the only thing we can qualify as "fun" in the context of House of Hunger, and yet his description is filled with grim details. He shares the tragic backstories of each guest, or their shortcoming doom. Neither he is able to relax nor the reader, which can be foreshadowing a tragic event for which the whole suspense is being build up, or showing their reality - even though they have gathered for fun and good time the only visible emotion left afterwards is sadness towards all people who had gathered. (88)
And songs of a golden age of black heroes;
With this we see another change of the narrators perception of these heroes. From his saviours, and people he awaits anxiously every second of his life, to people left forever in the songs, who can't return back to save them. It shows the narrators tiredness of it, and his dedication to stop waiting and act. (74)
t made me think of the white down on a white dove's breast. Swan-white.
We slowly start to see our narrator shifting towards better perception of white people and culture. His native roots are loosing him to the new flashy, full of opportunities, but racist culture (72)
Nestar gathered in her legs
Even though Nestar knows her son is about to be beaten up horrendously, she doesn't do anything about it and then even smile at her attacker. This shows the inability of a woman to do anything in these situations, and also acts as another harsh reality hit on the audience.
A true hero of our time.
A contrast with the narrator's previous mention of heroes. This time the word hero is nothing more than a side character in a large narrative, while the narrator's "black heroes" are the people who revolutionise society and order. (55)
: 'Fugard'.
An instant after the narrator describes his mind as the prisoner of the House of Hunger it pictures a successful African dramatist and director, who escaped the harsh reality.(51)
House of Hunger.
We finally see this term in a more descriptive way. The wall part is quite literally telling the reader that the House of Hunger is an enclose area that has no escape, a bit like imaginary prison you can't see but now you are trapped there forever. (51)
They had gone!
Intertextuality with Morokami and Ogawa where again storms often acted as a depiction of rough times and change. The difference here is that the storm is not only an outside setting, but it escalates to a mental storm in our narrator's mind. (44-47)
muzzled
Muzzle (verb) - Prevent someone from expressing themselves freely. (43)
my mother's morals;
The voices - the narrators subconscious trying relentlessly to fight the language of the slaves and war, turning the narrator west to the developed country. This may be beneficial for the narrator, but leaving behind his native language meaning leaving everything he has both physically and emotionally behind. (42)
that they were in the room,
The four men represent the sad nature of the narrator's reality and make the audience experience the constant uneasiness of his everyday life.(41)