Nervous Conditions

This passage details the confrontation between nyasha returned after a dance and has been accused of inappropriate behavior. The passage shows how tyrannical babamukuru can be as well as the difficulty nyasha endure in a patriarchal society and the face of gender inequality. Dangarembga makes this a climactic moment through vivid characterization, intense dialogue and detailed structure.
Characterization was used to show the emotions between the characters and to show their behavior during this climatic moment. In the passage a lot of emotions took place with plenty of physical and verbal actions, especially between babamukuru and nyasha. Babamukuru’s anger was greatly shown because of nyasha’s activities with a boy. There was this one moment threatening to kill his own daughter. For example, there was threatening moments in the line “She will not live.” That statement is very striking to us because it’s hard to believe the harsh consequences have to be paid for such little thing like dancing with some boy. Its shows that babamukuru was so furious that he would kill his daughter which makes this really an exciting moment. Nyasha now in this paragraph she becomes too defensive with her parents not knowing what will happen to her. She had so much resistance that when babamukuru hit her she responds back and strikes back. I think that is what leads to a very climatic situation when they start going to the ground and actually throwing punches back and forth. Nyasha being too proud was the problem. In one line babamukuru says “she is proud. That is her problem.” If she had not behaved this way she wouldn’t have been struck by her father. Throughout the whole paragraph chido really tried not to challenge his father by speaking out or else he would also be on the ground with them. Although he was trying not to participate in anything he knew he had to separate the fight and stop it from escalating. In some ways I consider him being wise not to say a word to them