Family conflict seems to be the “yacht” in which the authors of the three literary works sail their stories. Across the three works, the characters are involved in a row of some kind. In “The honor of a woman,” Dipita Kwa illustrates how rebellion in the family brings forth serious conflicts. Muto is painted as an errant child whose moral fabrics appear to be getting loose daily. The demise of her father has set her on a sloppy gradient towards moral oblivion. Despite her mother’s attempt to correct her, she seems undeterred. Muto seems to know the dark past of her mother; this is the motivating factor behind her moral decadence. The writer is outlining family conflict and rebellion through Muto.
Coincidentally, “The kettle on the boat” seems to communicate the same theme that Dipita illustrates in the “honor of a woman.” She describes how family tensions may escalate to a “boiling point.” She has symbolically outlined family conflict through the eyes of the narrator; a young child named Qissunguaq. The narrator, despite her innocence, notes that there is tension between the two parents. The conflict in the family remains nebulous, as the writer does not mention it to the readers. From the actions of the parents, the simmering tension has spilled over, and the children have been taken away. Gebbie’s works are quite rich in illustrating family values; she is an ardent proponent of the value of unity in a family. A study of this book is quite concordant with her style.
Unigwe’s disapproval of abusive relationships has been made manifest in “Growing my hair again.” The writer illustrates how an abused woman rejoices when the abusive husband passes on. Nneka is the embodiment of change. The author uses her to denounce “primitive loyalty” in marriage. She describes submission in marriage as no less than slavery if it is used to suppress the personality of women. Conventionally, the death of a loved one is an experience that nobody wishes to celebrate. The irony of Nneka’s “sorrow” is that she seems quite gay despite her husband’s demise. A sense of freedom breeze has blown off the chains of servitude that she once felt when the husband was alive. It is discernible through the incident, that the relationship between her and the husband was quite feeble due to a family conflict. A study of these three works is self-revealing in terms of consistency in highlighting the theme of family conflicts.
The application of literary style in the three works has drawn a very thick demarcation between them. Despite their desire to address the same theme, these three works have taken different trajectories in terms of the approach given to outline the themes. The settings of the three works are also very much different. Though the resultant end of these works can be argued to be similar, the means to the end are quite different. Gebbie’s work has employed a rather interesting approach in highlighting the issue of family conflict in her work. She uses a child as the voice of the story. The little girl is the window through which the readers can access the theme of the work. She is the illustrator of the issues that the parents face. The writer inherently evokes emotions when she assigns a small child to be the mouthpiece of the story. This is however in contrast with Kwa and Unigwe’s story.
Kwa balances the responsibility of narration between her characters. The responsibility of driving the theme of the story is “split” between Muto’s younger sister, the mother, and Muto herself. The “drive” towards the theme is the responsibility of the three main characters, unlike Gebbie’s work. This approach is very effective in the literature world. It is an intelligible way of relating themes to style to evoke emotions. It is admissible that the beauty of a story in literature is dependent on the ability of the work to connect to the pathos of the reader.
By assigning the vulnerable character the role of narrating the story, the reader’s emotional reserves are pierced, and pity leaks out of it. This is the effect of Gebbie’s approach in the work “The Kettle on the Boat.” In Unigwe’s “growing my hair again,” the writer assigns a third person as the “eye of the story.” There is a very clear contrast in the styles used by these three writers. Unigwe has used the third-person narrator to advance the plot of the story. The storyline takes a different approach from the two stories discussed earlier in this work.
Narration techniques in literature are very significant in propping the theme. The manner in which the reader “receives” the theme is entirely dependent on the mode of delivery, which is influenced by the “pedestal” onto which the narrator stands as the story is developed. These three works have similar themes, but the approaches used in the narration of the theme of conflict tremendously vary.