Nervous Conditions- Chapter 5

This is where tension really begins to mount and we find out a little bit more about Nyasha. She is described as "loose" by the kids at her school, and oftentimes goes to parties dressed inappropriately, not to mention the inappropriate things she does at said parties. She and Tambu become closer, and she talks about how she hates her mom, and how their is no love in their family. Nyasha then reveals she is a smoker and offers a cigarette to Tambu, further showing her level of rebellion against morals and her family.

Babamakuru relates to Tambu that he hopes she is aware of her situation and how lucky she is, and she continues to succeed in school, making many new friends and even becoming friends with teachers. Nyasha continues to argue with her parents about her reading of an adult romance novel and tension mounts. We learn Maiguru actually also has a Master's Degree, although she is bitter for not going onwards and beyond and for no one really knowing or caring about her achievements and current status. And, for some strange reason, there are several pages about Tambu's menstrual cycle and how she deals with it. How and why this relates to the story still eludes me, and I'm not even sure I want to know.

Nervous Condtions- Chapter 4

The chapter begins with Tambu's wonder-filled car ride to Babamakuru's house and the mission itself. We get a sense of awe emanating from Tambu, who I imagine to be staring, agape, at the mansion presented before her. We see this also from her reaction to the fine china, the dining room and kitchen, and especially from the living room, where she said she would've been overwhelmed if she hadn't been prepared for it. Her ideas on modesty are also shown when she declines a very fancy biscuit in favor for a much plainer, regular one, although she really wants a fancy one herself.

On the flip side of this, the author goes back to her own perspective at the time of writing and gives us a more depressing view of a much more derelict home than her younger self was described as seeing. There was a pane of glass missing from the kitchen, the house got red dust in it frequently, the colors did not match and contrasted badly. Meanwhile, Nyasha seems to get even worse, and back talks harshly to her mother when she catches her daughter reading an adult romance novel. (we find that detail out later). Tension mounts as Nyasha and Tambu begin to become friends within a household of dissent and disunity.

Nervous Conditons- Chapter 3

Nhamo and the rest of the family come on home, including Babamakuru, and a huge party goes into full swing. Tambu sees her cousin Nyasha again, but she seems...different, somehow. Apparently all that time in England really changed Nyasha, as she now seems to have forgotten Shona almost entirely. Tambu heartily disapproves of her new attitude towards her "lower" family and this becomes a basis for Tambu's feelings towards Nyasha later. Apart from them, everyone has a great time, with singing and dancing and also very complicated family rituals. Near the end of this swaray, however, Babamakuru sits down and has a talk with his brothers and tells Jeremiah, Tambu's dad, that he especially is doing poorly and is making the family look bad. Babamakuru has to fufill his duties as head of the family and support his brother, probably not of his own volition.

And then the bombshell drops. Nhamo's death is solomnly announced and Tambu's mother goes ballistic, blaming white people, education, and Babamakuru in particular. Tambu is then invited to come to the mission in place of Nhamo, and she feels very pleased for this. Tambu's mother says that she will die if Tambu leaves, and Tambu's heartlessness shows when she immediately sets off and leaves her mother in a pile of tears and dirt.

Reading Details (Whoops, Forgot em)

This week I read-

1hr- Last Tuesday, read and annotated chapters 1+2 of Nervous Conditions
30 mins- Last Thursday, read and annotated chapter 3 of Nervous Conditions
30 mins-Sunday, read and annotated chapter 4 of Nervous Conditions
1 hr- Read manga, "Pandora Hearts"

Total Pages Read~ about 150 or so

Reflection

1. In my paper, I think next time I'll need to learn to learn how to deal with the schedule better. I like to be very on top of things and to have a defined schedule, usually, but I think I got too carried away with the procrastination on this paper, the schedule was just too broad for me. (I think ill probably have the same problem with my science paper). And this falls into what Dr D could improve- scheduling time in class better, I felt we did FAR too much grammatical review and spent way too much class time on much smaller details of our paper then we should have.

2. Feedback on this project wasn't very much- many comments and remarks I had to throw out entirely, for lack of a nicer way to say it. I will say that grammatical mistakes were definitely caught, but next time I'm hoping for more substantial review from my peers.

3. The strongest part of my paper are definitely the flow and writing style- I like to think I have my own "style" that adds a little bit to the topic. The weakest points would have to be my thesis and overall message of my paper- I'm not very good at having an overall moral/point and weaving it into the paper, and I personally think my thesis was a bit drab.

4. I really do enjoy writing and reading, history especially is intreresting to me. However, I'd like to see some further steps towards using Fiction and Fantasy in our English class, I'm sure everyone would enjoy the overall process and indeed, the overall product morel, and it could still be accurate and all that, those requirements just need to be filled in by Dr D.

Reading Times

This week, I read quite a bit, an hour a day for several days (thanks, mom) and of course Nervous Conditions.

Thursday- Dead Space: Martyr- 1 hr
Friday-Nervous Conditions- 1 hr
Saturday- Dead Space: Martyr- 1 hr
Sunday- Game of Thrones- 30 mins.

Reading/Work Details

This week I....

Wednsday- 1hr on Rough Draft, started and revised thesis and wrote first page and a half.
Thursday- Was recommended to finish my paper early paper by mother, and did. I worked for 3 hrs on paper, wrote pages 1.5-5. Added in many quotations, including primary source.

Total Work Done- Finished Rough Draft in 2 days and with over 4 hours of work done.

Reading/Work Details

This past week I...

Work on Outline- Writing paragraphs 1-3 summary, half an hour, wednesday. Thursday, writing summary of paragraphs 4-7, 1 hr or so.

Additional Research- Thursday, 45 mins re-finding a replacement primary source or two

Reading- 1-2 hrs of Cage of Eden manga, about 15 chapters (20 pgs. to a chapter) which is about 300 pgs or so (Read an hour on sunday, about 45-60 mins on saturday)