UNIVERSIDAD SIMÓN BOLÍVAR

DEPARTAMENTO DE IDIOMAS
IDE 143 EL MUNDO DE LA LITERATURA EN INGLES

Nombre: Oriana Morán Carnet:15-10978 Fecha: 24/02/2023

Questions on GIRLS AT WAR (1973) Chinua Achebe

1. How did the ordinary people feel about the war?

The political situation has deteriorated considerably. There is death, hunger,

resignation, in others a stony challenge, even suicide. Having long scared off the
headlines of the early days, they are now left blank in places.

In history ordinary people are victims of various nutritional disorders. In Nkwerri,

where Nkwanko had gone to get relief food for his family, he was deeply
embarrassed "not by the jeers of this mob of scarecrows of rags and floating ribs, but
by the independent accusation of their wasted bodies and sunken eyes. Garri in the
market rose to a pound for cigarette cup

2. How did Nwanko feel when he was searched? Why?

Nwankwo is in a hurry driving from Onitsha to Enugu but he has to cross many
roadblocks on the way. He gets annoyed as he has to submit to these searches as if
he is not one of the big people though intellectually he approves what they are doing.
In some roadblocks he passed without a search when he just introduced himself as
“Reginald Nwankwo, Ministry of justice”

When he reaches Awka, two constables carrying heavy Mark 4 riffles watches as a
girl searched his car ignoring his title as he named it. As she was searching inside
his car he looked at her closely and found out that she looked familiar.

After the search she asked him whether he recognised her and reminded him that he
gave her a lift one day on her way to Enugu when she left school and went to join the
militia. Although she was rejected to join the militia she still joined the civil Defense.
Nwankwo on that day saw that women and girls were so committed to making a
revolution. They were accompanied by little kids with sticks and bowls on their heads
for helmets plus girls from a local secondary school who marched behind a banner
“WE ARE IMPREGNABLE”.

So on this day at Awka he saw not a talk of revolution but revolution itself in action.
He was so impressed by the way Gladys searched his car with determination without
making an exception for a man who once gave her a lift. She wasn’t going to make
an exception even for one who once did her a favor. He was sure she would have
searched her own father just as rigorously.

3. Had he taken women´s participation seriously before?

No, it was taken seriously, in other words, you stop seeing a woman in a man's job;
rather, she sees a human being taking seriously her role in the revolution. She
surprises him, and the result is that he stops making fun of the other women in the
militia and develops a sense of hope for the future. This understanding is a
consequence of individuals not meeting the expectations imposed on them through
gender roles. Whatever Reginald's reason for believing women had no place in the
military, he evaporates when he actually sees a woman doing her duty.

His eyes show her a dedicated soldier who turns out to be a woman, rather than the
other way around. He's pleasantly surprised, and it completely alters his view of
female soldiers, at least for a while. As the story progresses, the reader sees even
more examples of gender roles and expectations.

4. How long passed before he met her again?

Eighteen months later when they met for the third time, things had changed
dramatically.

5. Had things changed?

Things had changed dramatically. Many girls had abandoned their duties due to
deaths and starvation and many nervous checkpoints had disappeared. Some
people were to be sheltered at the refugee camps.

6. Where did he say most heroic acts occur?

It was a tight, blockaded and desperate world but nonetheless a world with some
goodness and some badness and plenty of heroism which, however, happened most
times far, far below the eye-level of the people in this story in out-of-the-way refugee
camps, in the damp tatters, in the hungry and bare-handed courage of the first line of
fire.
 7. In the next 3 paragraphs (Pages104-105) what do you realize about the
relief efforts ?

In this moment Reginald represents the patriarchy that is both responsible for the
roles women take on, and that judges them when they either do or don’t fit those
roles. Gladys represents the women of Nigeria (and, indeed, women everywhere)
and how they are judged whether they operate within or outside of these roles.
Whether she does or doesn’t conform to the expectations placed on her, Gladys
inevitably loses. When she steps outside of the typical gender role expected of her
and joins the militia, Reginald is offended and mocks her and only sees the good
she’s doing when she isn’t affected by his attitude. When she leaves the militia and
steps into a role seen as more typically feminine, Reginald loses all respect for her.
Instead of questioning the social collective responsible for creating these roles and
pushing women into and out of them, Reginald acts as if it is Gladys who is at fault.

8. When he meets Gladys again how has she changed?

Gladys has changed, just like the war has: “ You ’ ve changed, Gladys. You were
always beau Ɵ ful, of course, but now you are a beauty queen. What do you do
these days? ”. We are seeing the depiction of a war through the figure of a woman:
Gladys is in a crowd, he sees and takes her but she is not the same anymore, she is
wearing a wig, make up and even expensive clothes. She is now the wife of a
corrupt bureaucrat.

Reginald used to admire her because of her former capacity for revolution and
remaining naïve at the same. But now he knows that he only wants to sleep with her,
as if she was an object. This symbol reminds us both to tradiƟon as modernity: it is
tradition because Achebe is expressing the selfish human nature, the savage one of
covering necessities and at the same me, it may be a wink to modernity: Gladys has
been influenced by the Westernized world.

9. What sad realities do we discover about the war?

In a direct sense there is a military war. There are girls who joined the military to fight
and defend their new nation. Gladys joined the Civil Defence with other girls and
women for the same reason, hoping that the war would end in a short time and they
would enjoy the fruits of their fight. They were wrong.

In a subtle sense there is a war for survival. This is divided into two categories, the
prostitution. When the military war takes longer than expected and their dreams do
not come true, the girls who were once committed to defending their nation change
their priorities. They start another war. Engaging in prostitution in order to get food.
They sell themselves so cheaply to the soldiers who give them the money for
survival. One drunkard comments that even one American dollar is enough to make
them sleep with a man.

Even Gladys herself admits this when she says to Nwankwo “that time has passed.
Now everybody wants to survive. They call it number six. You put your number six; I
put my number six. Everything alright”

Petty business: Also some girls decided to engage in petty businesses as Nwankwo
comments about Gladys friend;“She will come back on an arms plane loaded with
shoes, wigs, pants, bras, cosmetics and what have you, which she will then sell and
make thousands of pounds. You girls are really at war, aren’t you?”

10. What does Gladys mean by ,¨Monkey de work, baboon de chop.?¨

Is a merchant. It is when a man is drunk that he speaks what is on his mind.

11. What does the incident in the bunker tell us about Nwanko?

The Nwanko bunker incident tells us that the boy warned them of a plane and they
all ran to the bunker of palm stems and read soil. The whole sky was bursting with
the roar of jets and the enormous noise of home-made anti-aircraft rockets. Gladys
remained in the bunker clinging to him until they addressed her boy and another
servant saying that there were two of them. She moved closer to him and he started
kissing her and squeezing her breasts.

They wanted to make love in the bunker but they were afraid that there might be
things crawling or that another plane would pass by and someone might crash into
them. He reminded a certain gentleman that he was seen in broad daylight running
naked from his bedroom to the bunker followed by a woman in a similar state. When
Nwankwo took her to her friend's house, she was not there and immediately he was
impressed and walked away from her. He thought they had gone to Libreville to
shop.

He commented “He will return in an armed plane loaded with shoes, wigs, trousers,
bras, cosmetics and whatever, which he will then sell and earn thousands of pounds.
You girls are really at war, aren't you? Nwankwo tells Gladys that he wishes to see
her return to Gladys that she mercilessly searched him at the checkpoint, not the
time he had become. She says that that time has passed and now everyone is
fighting to survive.

12. How does Gladys say times have changed?

Gladys has changed, just like the war, she presents us with the change through her
representation of her transformation in her person. We are seeing the representation
of a war through the figure of a woman: Gladys is in a crowd, she sees and takes her
but she is no longer the same, she wears a wig, makeup and even expensive
clothes. She is now the wife of a corrupt bureaucrat. Reginald used to admire her for
her former capacity for revolution and her ingenuity at the same time. But now he
knows that he just wants to sleep with her, like he's an object. This symbol reminds
us of both tradition and modernity: it is tradition because Achebe is expressing
selfish human nature, the savage one to cover needs and at the same time, it can be
a nod to modernity: Gladys has been influenced by the world westernized. . Even
she has covered herself both metaphorically (she sold her identity to survive) and
literally (wearing this artificial European makeup and wig). Gladys's role in this
context is exactly that, that of an object of desire.

You have to keep in mind that this is also a survival story and she has to take
advantage of her body to stay alive. But this survival is in a certain sense mixed with
love because it seems that there has always been something magical in them, a
series of encounters perhaps arranged by fate. They can't help but meet and every
time they do, major changes have taken place. Their encounters are like hidden
testimonies in the rear. In relation to these constant encounters by fate, there is a
reference to tradition because the Igbo believed that there was a kind of personal
god who was like the lost part of each person. This reminds us of soul mates and
how they would meet through destiny:

"The Igbo also believe in the existence of a personal god, or chi, who is a kind of
spiritual double of each human individual."