p101; The text ends so abruptly - it doesn't answer any of our questions. Throughout the novella the narrator has given us his story and left so many questions behind that we are supposed to try and answer for ourselves. The reader however expects some sort of explanation to the story, which however is not given to us. The story ends leaving all of the questions unanswered and kind of in the middle of the line. I feel like this is something like life - life is not always going to give the answers to your questions, life is unexpected, uncertain and most importantly very different for different people. The author has decided to end the novella with such an ending, probably because this is somewhat how his life has been. I think that after having gone through so much pain and violence the narrator doesn't want to simply give you the answers. He wants us to think, to get involved with the story and try to answer them for ourselves.

p80; African Writers Series (AWS) is a series of books by African writers that has been published by Heinemann since 1962. The series has ensured an international voice to major African writers—including Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Steve Biko, Ama Ata Aidoo, Nadine Gordimer, Buchi Emecheta, and Okot p'Bitek; there are more than 200 authors and books in these series; the series were a forum for many post-independence African writers, and provided texts that African universities could use to address the colonial bias then prominent in the teaching of literature; they were made for classroom use.

p79; here the story about Edmund ends, we are back at Philiip's office.

p79; the totem is like a spirit being, an object or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people; Nguruwe means pig.

p75; in this exact passage, Philip's kind of monologue, I felt a certain type of reconciliation. It is like the characters have gone through life, they have seen it all, they have seen how unfairly they are treated based on their race, based on their actions, they realize that there is no possible way for them to win. Philip explains to the narrator about the way things are, what is the cycle of life in these exact times. They know that whatever they do, whatever they say, they will never be equal to the whites. We notice their reconciliation and it is almost like their will is broken and now they are simply the next pawns in other people's game.

p74; E R Brathwaite was a Guyanese-born British-American novelist, writer, teacher and diplomat; he is best known for his stories of social conditions and racial discrimination against back people; he was in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War and later on described his experience in his most famous book "To Sir, With Love";

p 55 - Throughout the novel the author uses a lot of comparison to animals, and here the specific usage of claws is to indicate a certain nature. The claws symbolize the means of survival of the women during that time. The caws are kind of like what they were supposed to do to survive during a certain period in their life. Julia isn't well situated in her life right now, she has a long way to go - her claws are long, showing she is not done. Nestar has short claws - she has lived her life, she has gone through the worst parts, she has a child, she has used her claws and they have got her so far in life.

The narrator here chooses to reveal the true story behind Nestar's life, because he wants to clearly depict the brutality of life itself. Brutality is indeed one of the central themes in the novel - by showing us such scenes he makes us feel the pain and cruelty that was around at that time. Engaging us in their life story, little by little revealing the true characters.

the Maxim gun was a recoil-operated machine gun invented by American-British inventor Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim in 1884. It was the first automatic firearm in production.It was also used a lot in colonial warfare.

RTV is a satellite television channel broadcast from Bangladesh. It was launched on 26 December 2005. It mainly broadcasts programs in Bengali. Their motto was: "Today's and Tomorrow's".

When doing this(bringing back time in a way) the narrator shows the times when he wasn't so untroubled by the traumas that come with time. As he's growing old he is learning to face life's obstacles, which was something unknown to him in his childhood.

This sentence is in contrast with the ideas that we have got so far - the people are hungry for both food and prosperity and here we see that a certain trauma has caused the narrator to not want food and to tear up his English books. He is hungry and yet he chooses not to eat to show obedience in a way.

used in the treatment of headaches and migraine; belongs to the drug class antimigraine agents

to become progressively worse

the voices?

British poet - wrote poems, translations and analysis of Greek mythology

type of mucus; more noticeable when a person is sick

First we have the reference to Jesus and Judas and then again biblical song

18th century rhyme, associated with acts of opportunism, particularly in politics; further on it was rewritten and expanded so as to counter its celebration of greediness;

public shame, disgrace

cannabis

msasa tree - zebrawood, medium-sized African tree having compound leaves and racemes of small fragrant green flowers; broad and has a distinctive amber and wine red colour when the young leaves sprout during spring