Notesale: Turn your study into money

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The Lion and the Jewel by Wole Soyinka
Sidi
Lakunle
Baroka
Sadiku
The favourite
Village girls
A wrestler
A surveyor
Schoolboys
Attendants on the ‘Bale’
Musicians, dancers, mummers
Prisoners, traders, the village
MORNING
NOON
NIGHT
Morning
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“‘odan tree’” → roots in the ground, eternal connection to culture
“chant of the ‘Arithmetic Times’” → symbolic of education and progress of
Africa, imposing of Western education systems
“threadbare but not ragged, clean but not ironed” → Lakunle’s
Westernisation, attempt to be English thwarted by inability to let go of original
culture, direct contrast to Sidi (traditional, stereotypical), costume represents
differing views
“A grown-up girl must cover up her
...
shoulders?” → reserved, English,
trying to impose Western values of modesty on Sidi, differing yet clear gender
roles
“good-for-nothing shameless men” → jealousy, foreshadowing
“as a woman, you have a smaller brain” → gender and cultural conflict
“You will have machines which will do your pounding” → industrialisation,
progess at expense of culture
written in verse, lots of internal rhyme → imitation of Yoruba language
“Sidi, my love will open your mind like the chaste leaf in the morning” →
poetic, lyrical, Romanticism = Western literature
“You did what!” → Sidi’s lack of understanding of biblical allusion highlights
difficulty in communication
“I must have the full bride-price” → placing worth on a woman is a Western
idea that contradicts everything Sidi believes in, yet it is her motivation –
confidence in her worth
“Rejected, denounced, accursed
...
” → beauty becomes her identity
“Sadiku of the honey tongue” → epithets for flattery, sweet-talk
Sidi’s verse vs
...
I warned you” → dramatic irony, seduced not killed
“The wrestler passes” → highly symbolic, no communication, Bale is no
longer with him so Bale is alone with Sidi
“Somebody must have told them the news” → Sidi = new wife of Bale,
Sadiku’s sly nature
“It is my cross” → crucifixion connotations, idea of sacrificing his honour for
Sidi
“it is only fair that we forget the bride-price totally” → two interpretations:
highlights Sidi’s lack of worth or attempt to save her honour
“rises to the bait”, “he gives chase” → chasing another girl, idea of chasing
Africa, male dominance over females in traditional society



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