Friday, March 20, 2020

Matagari and Decolonization Essays

Matagari and Decolonization Essays Matagari and Decolonization Paper Matagari and Decolonization Paper â€Å"There are two worlds. There is the world of those who accept things as they are, and there is that of those who want to change things. Which world do you belong to? † (p. 76) Throughout Ngugi wa Thiong’o†s novel, Matigari, the main character proves himself to be a strong, intelligent, peaceful man who appears to have his head on straight and sees the state of the world in the precisely right shade. From page one he allows the reader to gain his trust and from then on you find yourself cringing at the â€Å"upside-down† world Matigari is trying to navigate his way through. The main purpose of this paper is to show that decolonization does not only mean the transfer of power to an independent homeland, as it will not be successful. But rather, it must also encompass the freedom of the nation’s spirit and the personal culture of all its citizens. Matigari ma Njiruungi is a radicalist. The two-day journey that takes place during the course of the novel is an adventure that Matigari embarks upon to try to regain what is rightfully his. This can be a metaphor of sorts in saying that Matigari is really trying to turn the corrupted world of imperialism back on it’s feet, back into something that makes sense. By definition, imperialism is the â€Å"policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the power and dominion of a nation by direct territorial acquisitions or by gaining indirect control over the political or economic life of other areas. † Matigari had spent his life, or at least all that he can remember about it, under somebody else’s rule. First being Settler Williams and then the entire opposing government. His story is not unlike that of Kenyan citizens during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The colonial period of Kenya was exhibited by social pressures and intense oppression. The English rulers restricted the voice of the Kenyans and took away their rights of political participation and alike. These imperialistic policies of England triggered a mounting resentment amongst the Kenyans and created many rebellions and protests, just as Matigari had. It’s a known fact that Matigari, the novel, was actually banned from circulation in Kenya soon after its publication. The Kenyan government believed that the story’s character was a real-life revolutionary plotting to overthrow the government. This was obviously not the case, however it just goes to show how unstable the dictatorial government of Kenya was at the time and how this insecure method of rule could actually be the cause of all the backwards, unfair happenings in the world at this time. The underlying motive of this novel involves Matigari gaining his land back. The land and the property that he created with his own bare hands. This metaphor is comparable to the messy decolonization of Kenya in multiple aspects. When under colonial rule the land of Kenya was owned and operated by the white settlers, and native Africans only occupied minimal measures of desolate land, while majority had no land at all. Therefore, land was a huge economical problem during the colonial history of Kenya. After World War II, as the decolonization movement swept across the world, Kenya started its journey toward independence. The political struggle among white settlers, African natives and the colonial government worsened but eventually, division of agricultural land and ownership was settled through bargain. Matigari spends much of the narrative on a quest to find â€Å"truth and justice† but everywhere he goes, and everyone he runs into gives him some piece of advice that leads him back to himself. I believe that this is Ngugi’s way of explaining that native citizens under colonial rule, or under any type of oppression for that matter, have the power to change things themselves. Matigari didn’t know it at the time, but it was his mission, his struggle, that will lead his fictional community to freedom. It was his personal belief and willpower that will lead Muriuki to victory in a life free of imposed and forced practices. Remember that a country’s welfare and stability are dependent on three kinds of people: the wealthy, the soldiers, and the leaders that’s all we need. † (p. 97) This quote, from the minister, farther proves my point that colonial ruled countries tended to not see the big picture as far as their citizens were concerned. A succe ssful, peaceful place would not exist under these types of biases, which is exactly why decolonization took place all around the world. Precisely like Matigari, citizens would no longer stand quietly under unfair conditions. It dawned on him that one could not defeat the enemy with arms alone, but one could also not defeat the enemy with words alone. One had to have the right words; but these words had to be strengthened by the force of arms† (pg. 111). Matigari, although fictional, does a great job of taking its readers through the struggle of an oppressed citizen under colonial rule. It’s an uplifting story that allows the reader to feel capable and able to do our own part to help rid the world of all its upside-down harshness.

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Verbal

Best Books for SAT Critical Reading / Verbal SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips What are the best books for the SAT critical reading section (which used to be called the verbal section)? Here we review a few of the top books that we feel helps students the most. We discuss which skills you should be learning from books, and which you should instead be learning from flashcards or practice. You can get these books online, or better yet from the library. What is the Critical Reading? Start with Sentence Completion. By now you understand what the Critical Reading is about. About a third of it is sentence completion, which is a vocabulary test by any other name. As background, the SAT Critical Reading section used to be called the Verbal section, which many years ago used to be almost all based on vocabulary. Vocabulary has fallen in importance on the SAT from around 50% of the entire test (in the 1990s) to just about 10% today, and will even be lower with the new SAT in 2016. Thus, sentence completion represents a vestigial portion of the SAT. Since it's all about vocabulary, the best books for sentence completion, in our opinion, are books that directly target this. Bonus: Money-Saving Tip: Most of these books can be reused by many students. It's better to get more of these books and see what works for you, and instead of shelling out money for new, latest-edition copies of every single of these books consider 1) Borrowing these books from the library many well stocked town libraries have these books 2) Buying used or older editionsof the books: the SAT test has been relatively stable from 2006-2015, used or old versions can real tough or 3) Finding free analogues online, many sites online offer the all the major ideas and tips in the books for free, oftentimes summarized. Best Books for SAT Sentence Completion: #1 Book in Sentence Completion: Direct Hits, Vol #1 and Vol #2 This book is seen as one of the best books for SAT vocabulary studying for one simple reason: it has an incredibly high hit rate compared to others. The words in this book consistently show up more on future SATs than other lists online. It uses real vocabulary tested in past SATs most often, therefore explaining its high predictive power for future SATs. Another reason this book is great is that it's so concise: there are only 200 words in each volume. This makes it easier to memorize than the thousand-word lists, and ensure that the authors can concentrate on only the most important vocab words. My professional advice is this: if you can only remember 200 words for the SAT, make it Direct Hits Volume 1. If you can only remember 400 words, for the SAT, make it Direct Hits Volume 2. You'll get more mileage out of these than any other books. If you can't get your hands on the direct hits book, then base the first 200-400 of your vocab studying off of a list that is constructed based on past SAT tests as well, such as our free vocab cards of 400 most frequent SAT words. The old saying is true: the past predicts the future well. #2 Book in Sentence Completion: Barron's SAT Vocab Flash Cards This is the new edition of the word list I personally used to study for the SAT and get a perfect on it back in the day when it was much more vocab, which is high praise for this word list. Barron's consistently manages to be the best book studying for high achieving SAT students, and this book (actually a flashcard pack) is no different. With word count at 500, it's bigger than Direct Hits. All independent word lists likely have some overlap, but this is definitely the list to go onto after the Direct Hits, and together with Direct Hits this forms about a thousand words that will take about 20 hours to memorize. If you have an SAT study plan that spans in the hundreds of hours, this set of flashcards is certainly worth it. SAT Critical Reading: Passages Passages constitute the rest of the Critical Reading SAT section. Much of passages is about understanding the meaning of a story what the author's feeling are, the main idea the author is trying to convey, how the author communicates. Thus, understanding this is very important. I want to dispel what I believe is a myth about Critical Reading Books at this point. Myth: the best way to improve on SAT Passages for Critical Reading is by reading more English Literature books. The myth goes: read Dickens, Austen, Fitzgerald, and Shakespeare to improve your reading skills fastest. Hogwash! First, reading is NOT the same thing as English literature (analogous to the reason here). Likewise, literature passages only form a small portion of the SAT Critical Reading passages. Second, reading English literature is incredibly inefficient. Pride and Prejudiceby Austen may take a dozen hours to read. In that same time, you could have practiced a hundred short passages. Moreover, you'll be caught up in the story, and you'll rarely be practicing effective SAT relevant skills: quicklydissecting separate, small passages. Once you figure out Austen's intent once, you never have to figure it out again. In 12 hours, you get one practice swing and figuring out author intent, whereas you could be practicing 100 times instead. This motivates our choice of books: The Best SAT Critical Reading Passage Books #1 Book in Passages:Real SATs from the Past: I don't just mean the latest College Board Official SAT prep guide, but also the 1997, 2000,2003, and2005, editions, and more versions that you can find if you're resourceful. Why would I recommend such outdated material? Because passages themselves haven't changed that much through time. The SAT has changed up analogies, writing, and a lot of other things, but the format of short, self-contained passages has been maintained for decades. Like I mentioned before in 24 hours, you can read either two novels, or do 40 passage sections from the past tests. It is important while reading, whether passages like suggested above, or longer format text like short stories or essays, to focus on SAT type questions. The most common are: 1) what is the author's opinion about the subject? 2) what's the author's emotion? 3) does the author have any motivations that might skew his opinion? Keep these in mind no matter what you read! #2 Book in Passages:Barron's Critical Reading Again, this book is best for high scorers, but it explicitly points out the types of tricks and strategies often used on the SAT. The great thing about this book is that it dissects the passages out for you, and doesn't patronize you at all. The authors are perfect-scoring level professionals who clearly know the material cold, and they're targeting students aiming for a perfect 800 as well. I wouldn't recommend this for students starting below a 550, as it can be intimidating and the techniques may not be optimal for students starting out. #3 Book in Passages:Kaplan's Critical Reading At this point, we're getting into pretty standard run-of-the-mill explanations for critical reading. However, Kaplan's book is stellar at being a general introduction to Critical Reading, especially if your starting score is 350-550 region. It won't cover strategies for perfectionists well, and the writer often seems to lack full understanding of the toughest concepts, but it's a very gentle introduction for students starting in this range. You might also say at this point what if I'm starting out below a 350? In this case, there might be some basic English language deficiencies at play perhaps English was your second language. We'll have another article out for this range soon! What's Next? The college admissions process has become so competitive that it's helpful to plan well in advance for SAT/ACT prep during high school. Here are a few guides to help your thinking: Want to improve your SAT score by 240 points, or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: