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Nushana Huq

Ms. Lee

8th Grade English - R3

10/20/17

How Colonialism Impacts Peoples Perception of Beauty

Where do our ideas of beauty come from? Ngugi wa Thiongo in her short story,

Minutes of Glory, explores how the perception of beauty can be so varied and the pursuit can

be so painful. The story portrays the hardships of the narrator, Beatrice, as she goes from city to

city as a barmaid in colonial Limuru. In the story, Beatrice, in her pursuit of beauty, struggles to

understand what beauty is to people and how she can become the special one to someone only to

be deceived and disheartened by reality and disbelief at every turn.

In Minutes of Glory by Ngugi wa Thiongo, the author conveys how colonialism has

impacted the idea of beauty for women using the literary elements of characterization, character

development, and irony.

Through the use of setting and characterization, Ngugi wa Thiongo builds the picture of

the main character, Beatrice - how she is confused yet determined to find the true meaning of

beauty. She has her own perceptions but fails to understand what attracts men to other women

that do not fit her definition of beauty or character for that matter. What puzzles her even more is

why she is not in that list of women that men are naturally attracted to.

Beatrice, the narrator of the story, wants to be noticed and ideally liked by the men that

surrounds her at the bar. But to her dismay, it is just the opposite in every place she works. In the

beginning of the short story, Minutes of Glory, the author states She worked in beer-halls
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where sons of women came down to drown their inner lives in beer cans and forth. Nobody

seemed to notice her (Thiongo 71). This depicts the setting of the story where Beatrice is a bar

waitress and expresses her frustration about men not even noticing her presence for a glimpse -

everyone seems to be immersed into their own world oblivious of Beatrices presence.

The author also uses point of view literary element in a very strong and meticulous

manner showing the contrast between the main characters perspective of beauty and what she is

observing in the real world. The book states, But sometimes she was simply tired of nesting in

one place, a daily witness of familiar scenes; girls even more decidedly ugly than she were

fought over by numerous claimants at closing hours. What do they have that I dont have? she

would ask herself, depressed(Thiongo 71). She not only was frustrated but she took action to

find a better place, hoping to land somewhere where she was valued like all the other girls - only

to her frustration of repeated reality everywhere. She tries to explore the rationale, tries to

portray herself as one of them, the beautiful girls, but nothing seems to work for her, only to

create more frustration in the irony of life.

The book is narrated through the eyes of the main character, Beatrice, explaining her

agony and confusion at how beauty is evaluated by men. The observation turned into disbelief of

how men are defining beauty and being attracted to a definition of Beauty that she has a hard

time relating to. She wonders where this definition of beauty is coming from and why, despite

moving from cities to cities, she has not been able to escape it.

Through the use of character development, the author, Ngugi wa Thiongo, described

how men were unpredictable and sometimes hypocritical in what they say vs. what they do. The

other key aspect of the story is about the vicious circle of trying to impress the clients - being the
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one with least attention also meant the least money and hardest work. But at the same time she

needed to spend the most money to beautify her appearance with beauty enhancing products.

This seemed unsustainable and stressful for Beatrice.

The book is narrated by Beatrice in the setting on bars where various types of men come

in everyday and she remains hopeful that someone will eventually like her or at least notice and

try to impress her. The book states that Men were strange creatures, Beatrice thought in

moments of searching analysis. They talked heatedly against Ambi, Butone, Firesnow,

Moonsnow, wigs, straightened hair; but they always went for a girl with an Ambi-lightened skin

and head covered with a wig made in imitation of European or Indian hair. (Thiongo 73). This

characterization of men through the eyes of Beatrice is very telling of the dilemma she was

facing everyday - should she go for those beauty products or not? How will she get the money to

spend on those products? This dilemma and frustration are key irony that revolves around the

whole story.

There is also the irony of fate in that Beatrice wanted to look beautiful but because she

was not, she had to work the hardest to stay on the job. She perceived that at least the bar owner,

a regular family man, would understand her beauty but only to be proven wrong again. On

another key statement in the book, The owner was a good christian soul who regularly went to

church and paid all his dues to Harambe project. Pot belly. Grey hairs. Soft spoken. A respected

family man, well known in Ilmorog. Hardworking even, for he would not leave the bar until the

closing hours, or more precisely, until Nyaguthii left. He had no eyes for any other girl;

(Thiongo 73). This shows her surprise that even the most normal family man would be so

infatuated with the girl that Beatrice did not even consider pretty and moreover the girl does not
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show any kindness in attitude that would entice or even deserve such attraction. The perpetual

question remains in her mind - What is men really looking for?

Throughout the story, Beatrice keeps providing examples of how she was thinking of

definition of beauty in her mind and in real world, how she was constantly proven wrong while

the other girls with no apparent beauty or attraction according to Beatrices definition kept

getting all the attention. She was frustrated and appalled in her search for the definition of beauty

- she ponders what attributes to such behavior from men. What even frustrates her more is the

apparent hypocrisy of men bad-mouthing the beauty products and then falling for it.

Thiongo shows Beatrice getting her Minutes of Glory, but at what cost? In the end,

she gets arrested for stealing the mans money, but it seems like she thinks it was quite worth it.

Before she gets arrested, Beatrice is shown as a lot more confident than she is in the rest

of the story because she was wearing new makeup, new clothes, new jewelry, etc. The quote A

certain big shot wanted to know if she would join their table (Thiongo 83) shows that now that

she looks nice and confident, people want to be around her. However, all this only lasts for a

little while, because she gets arrested. This portrays irony - right when she got what shes always

wanted, she gets arrested.

When she gets arrested, it shows how people react when it says People melted back into

their seats (Thiongo 83). This shows how people only liked her for her looks and not her as a

person. This portrays irony because Beatrice thought that if she was beautiful, people would

love and care about her. But that is not the case. People only liked her from the outside. This also
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shows how misconceptions can really backfire, because if she didnt have this misconception of

beauty caused by colonialism, she wouldnt have stolen and subsequently arrested.

This proves my thesis by showing how impacts of colonialism can seem subtle, but can

cause a huge chain reaction. Throughout the story, Beatrice tries to be beautiful in the colonial

sense, but right when she has achieved this goal, she gets it taken away from her, which is where

you can find the irony.

Throughout the story, Thiongo conveys the effects of colonialism on womens ideas of

beauty by using characterization, character development, and irony. Thiongo portrays her story

with these literary elements by showing how characterization is used when showing Beatrice

struggling to understand what beauty is to people, character development when Beatrice is

slowly adapting to the meaning of beauty, and irony when she finally becomes beautiful, but

then gets arrested just a little while after.

Thiongos message represents a real world conflict by showing how people have

perpetual pursuit of beauty in others eyes when the individuals do not even know how Beauty

is defined. People go to great lengths to be what people call beautiful. People who are thought of

as higher up determine what beauty is, like celebrities, presidents, models, etc. As in Limuru,

beauty is determined by the colonizers, the Europeans. When the irony an dismay caused by

this conflicting situation around pursuit of beauty reaches a high level of frustration, people will

rebel, they will oppose the status quo and may be then the real definition of Beauty will be

discovered, it will become universal and be valued.

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THE ESSAY ABOVE WOULD LOOK SOMETHING LIKE THIS:

[Insert INTRODUCTION here.]

Through the use of the external conflict the character faces with nature, Orwell implies
that one should be decisive in his or her actions. In the beginning of the Shooting an Elephant,
the narrator indicates that he had no intention to kill the elephant, and brings a gun incapable of
bringing harm to such a large animal. He recognizes the value of the elephant alive. However, at
the end, he succumbs to the pressures of the colonial society and shoots the elephant despite his
misgivings. Furthermore, the narrator reveals that his reasons for killing the elephant were petty-
he only killed the elephant to maintain an illusion of his authority over the natives. Unable to act
decisively and according to his instincts, the narrator killed the elephant only to keep up
appearances, demonstrating the authors views that one should be decisive in his or her actions.

The author conveys that one should be decisive in their actions through the paradox
presented in the story. The narrator states that he believes imperialism is an evil thing, but does
not act decisively on his beliefs to change it. The narrator states that when a white man turns
tyrant, it is his own freedom he destroys. This paradox conveys that the narrator was paralyzed
from acting decisively upon his beliefs by the imperialist governments need to maintain
authority. Additionally, through the paradox, the author demonstrates that the narrator was a
mere puppet of colonial society and was unable to be decisive and follow through with his
instincts to keep the elephant alive. Thus, the author emphasizes that one should act decisively
through the paradox of how even authority figures lose their free will in an oppressive society.

Orwell uses the symbolism of the elephant representing the imperialist government that
one should be decisive in their actions. The narrator indicates that he disagreed with the
imperialist government, but his inability to make a decision results in the slow and painful death
of the elephant. Like the elephant, the British empire was slowly dying, but unable to be ousted
because of the indecisiveness of the characters in the story. The narrators indecisiveness allowed
the elephant to trample a native Burmese to death and to destroy the villages crops and homes.
This symbolizes the destruction of the natives lives and homes by the imperialist government.
Through using the symbolism of the elephant, the author demonstrates that the failure of decisive
action to fight against imperialism led to widespread destruction.

[Insert CONCLUSION here.]