2019 JUPEB Literature

SECTION B: ESSAY QUESTIONS

LIT 001: INTRODUCTION TO DRAMA

1. Discuss the theme of appearance versus reality in Shakespeare’s King Lear.

2. Henry IV is a battle of allegiance between two Harrys. Discuss.

3. Highlight the dramatic techniques used to express the discontent of the robbers with society in Once upon Four Robbers.

4. Focusing on the relationship between the Kingundas and the Kiois, justify the theme of class struggles in I Will Marry When I Want.

LIT 002: INTRODUCTION TO PROSE FICTION

1. Discuss the concept of class in Hard Times.

2. Examine the interplay between love and sacrifice in The Mill on the Floss.

3. Analyze the images of Post-colonialism in Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah.

4. Explicate how Amma Darko uses Mara to reinforce patriarchy in Beyond the Horizon.

LIT 003: INTRODUCTION TO POETRY

1. Examine images of disgust in Adeoti’s Hardlines.

2. Illustrate Osundare’s focus on the resilience of the earth in “Our Earth will not Die”.

3. The gods and fate are central to the understanding of Virgil’s Aeneid. Discuss.

LIT 004: LITERARY APPRECIATION AND PRACTICAL CRITICISM

1. Using the passage from Guy de Maupassant’s The Necklace:

· (a) What type(s) of images are presented in the passage?

· (b) Bring out the conflict(s) discernible in the passage.

· © Give a character sketch of the woman described in the passage.

2. Using A. E. Housman’s poem “Loveliest of Trees”:

· Explain the use of the words “only” and “little” in relation to the age of the persona.

· Describe his/her perception of time and life.

CORRECT ANSWERS (Model Answers)

Note: These are brief, correct answers based on standard literary criticism.

LIT 001

1. Appearance vs. Reality in King Lear:

· Goneril and Regan’s false declarations of love (appearance) vs. Cordelia’s honest “nothing” (reality).

· Edgar disguised as Poor Tom (appearance) vs. his true nobility (reality).

· Gloucester’s blindness to Edmund’s betrayal (appearance of loyalty).

· The Fool’s wisdom disguised as foolishness.

· Lear’s realization of true human nature only after losing power.

2. Battle of allegiance between two Harrys:

· Prince Hal (future Henry V) vs. Hotspur (Harry Percy).

· Hal appears irresponsible but is honorable; Hotspur appears glorious but is reckless.

· The battle at Shrewsbury symbolizes the contest for true kingly virtue.

· Hal matures and defeats Hotspur, showing that allegiance is earned by character, not just reputation.

3. Dramatic techniques in Once upon Four Robbers (Femi Osofisan):

· Use of play-within-a-play (meta-theatre).

· Songs and chants to express social discontent.

· Direct address to the audience (breaking the fourth wall).

· Satirical characterization of robbers as symbols of oppressed masses.

· Symbolism (e.g., wealth representing corruption).

4. Class struggles in I Will Marry When I Want (Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o & Ngũgĩ wa Mĩriĩ):

· Kioi family (wealthy, comprador class) vs. Kĩgũũnda family (poor peasants).

· Exploitation through religion, land ownership, and false consciousness.

· Marriage as a metaphor for economic subjugation.

· Class struggle revealed through dialogue, proverbs, and songs.

LIT 002

1. Concept of class in Hard Times (Charles Dickens):

· Gradgrind’s utilitarianism serves the ruling class.

· Stephen Blackpool (worker) vs. Bounderby (capitalist).

· Sleary’s circus as a counter-culture of compassion.

· Louisa as a victim of class-based marriage.

· Dickens critiques industrial capitalism’s dehumanization.

2. Love and sacrifice in The Mill on the Floss (George Eliot):

· Maggie’s love for Philip Wakem vs. her sacrifice due to family feud.

· Love for Stephen Guest sacrificed for moral integrity.

· Tom’s rigid love conditioned on loyalty.

· Final flood scene mutual sacrifice (though ambiguous).

· Love often requires renunciation of personal happiness.

3. Images of Post-colonialism in Anthills of the Savannah (Chinua Achebe):

· The “anthill” as symbol of fragile power.

· Beatrice’s role as new woman – postcolonial transformation.

· Use of newspaper (The Gazette) to show neocolonial control of information.

· Ikem’s poetry as resistance.

· The ending with naming of child (Aina) – hope for renewal.

4. Mara reinforcing patriarchy in Beyond the Horizon (Amma Darko):

· Mara initially seems victim but colludes with male characters.

· She pressures others to accept male domination.

· Internalized patriarchy – women enforcing their own subordination.

· Contrast with Benia’s resistance.

· Darko shows patriarchy is maintained by both sexes.

LIT 003

1. Images of disgust in Adeoti’s Hardlines:

· Urban decay, pollution, crowded spaces.

· Corruption and moral filth in bureaucracy.

· Bodily imagery (sweat, waste, disease).

· Rotting infrastructure as metaphor for failed governance.

· Disgust as political critique.

2. Resilience of the earth in Osundare’s “Our Earth will not Die”:

· Cyclical imagery (seasons, regeneration).

· Contrast between human destruction and nature’s persistence.

· Metaphors of rising, blooming, recovering.

· Collective “we” – communal survival.

· Optimistic tone despite environmental threats.

3. Gods and fate in Virgil’s Aeneid:

· Jupiter’s prophecy of Rome’s destiny.

· Juno’s opposition (fate vs. divine spite).

· Aeneas’s pietas – submitting to fate.

· Dido’s tragedy as conflict with fate.

· The underworld revelation of Rome’s future.

· Fate as unstoppable and providential.

LIT 004

1. (a) Types of images – tactile (drab walls, threadbare furniture), visual (oriental tapestries, bronze lamps), olfactory (perfume).

(b) Conflicts – internal (desire vs. reality), social (poverty vs. luxury), psychological (despair vs. fantasy).

© Character sketch – discontented, ambitious, imaginative, prideful, passive, self-pitying, materialistic.

2. “Only” and “little” in Housman’s poem:

· “Only leaves me fifty more” – fifty years seems insufficient, reveals youthful impatience.

· “Little room” – fifty springs compressed in time, shows intensity of life’s brevity.

· Perception of time – fleeting, urgent, measured by natural cycles (cherry blooms).

· Perception of life – precious, short, to be seized immediately (going to see the cherry hung with snow).

· The persona is young (20) but already aware of mortality – carpe diem theme.