”The Dark Child” by Camara Laye Essay Sample free essay sample

It has been a long while since I read an autobiography and this 1. contrary to most everything else professors have assigned to read. was reasonably nice. Camara Laye’s The Dark Child is at first glimpse your tally of the factory coming of age narrative. with a few different odds and ends thrown in. After the first few pages though. you begin to recognize that it isn’t rather as normal and bland as some of the other needed readings you may hold been assigned. Whether you are a fan of autobiographies or non. The Dark Child is without a uncertainty worth your clip. This is something that I thought he did wondrous ; as the book continues and he grows older. his perceptual experience and apprehension of the universe alteration along with his authorship. So while he is composing approximately when he was a little kid. he writes as if he believes what he sees and as the book nears its terminal. he remarks more on the natural and logical as opposed to the supernatural and the impossible. Laye begins his life narrative at the age of 5 or 6. neither he nor the reader are truly certain which it is. He opens with a fabricated facet to catch the reader ; the facet being a charming serpent. His male parent is a well-known blacksmith by those both close and far. He is held in great regard. So much so that he is chosen by â€Å"the steering spirit of [ his ] race. † ( 24 ) . To be its representative. This enthralls Laye and he grows even more respect and esteem of his male parent. His female parent is besides good known for a particular ability: she was known for her ability to â€Å"see what immorality was being hatched and could denounce the writer of it. yet her power went no farther. † ( 73 ) . This means that she could feel evil and wrongdoing. name it out. but had no powers to really project a harmful enchantment. This is why the people neer feared her. and grea tly respected her. She besides had abilities such as walking following to alligators without being harmed. due to her totem. and commanding animate beings to make as she said. i. e. when so Equus caballus refused to acquire up and travel until she had told it to. These are the narratives Laye relays to us from when he was a little kid. As he grows older he writes about his ventures to his grandmother’s land with his uncles and his school yearss. The school he attends when he is a small older is a school by any agencies. but there is great convulsion. Often the older male childs pick on the younger 1s and while this may be brought to the attending of the manager ( the rule. schoolmaster etc. ) the older male childs would be punished but it would be so unmarked that every bit shortly as they were finished being punished. they would return from their whippings and give them back tenfold to the immature male childs who told on them. This subdivision is really one of my favourite parts. As he grows older. his manner alterations and he sees the existent universe as it truly is as opposed to his phantasies he had when he was younger. A major development in the narrative is the existent act of going a adult male. Boys his age have a festival for many yearss that lead up to their Circumcision. after which they become work forces. After this achievement. he still writes about his frights and his ideas but he is much more wary to maintain them to himself. And as he grows even older he moves off from place to go to Technical College for four old ages. These old ages change him really much and when he returns place he is much more of an grownup and conducts himself in such a mode. The stoping of the book was really dissatisfactory to me. I truly enjoyed reading about how his female parent was in pure denial and wanted to maintain her boy near her forever and how his male parent knew how difficult it would be but he besides knew that there would neer be another chance like this for his boy. After a household bash. which was spookily similar to one that I had with my ain parents. he is allowed to travel to Argenteuil. an outlying metropolis of Paris. France. to complete his surveies. This is all good and all right. the portion that irritated me was the stoping: there wasn’t one! It ended with him sitting on the coach experiencing the map in his pocket. Now don’t acquire me incorrect. I understand and appreciate how impactful and important of a image this pigments. but for me personally. I wanted to see what would go on to him and what he did with himself. For me. that was the greatest. and one of the really few. disappointments of the book. As I stated antecedently. I exhaustively enjoyed this book. There were several chapters which I enjoyed even more than the others ; one of those chapters was chapter 2. my favourite portion of the book. This chapter was all about his male parent and his workmanship with metals. but above all. gold. He is a really immature male child when he recalls his father’s glare and accomplishment as a blacksmith. He sits in his father’s store and wonders at his accomplishment and preciseness. The manner it is described it is about as though there is a charming quality to the manner his male parent works. The manner he work stoppage is so precise and destined to set down. the manner the go-between would sing of his congratulations ; it was a close godly act. Of class they would neer state this in the book ; that would be blasphemy. It besides is really characteristic of his age. Most kids that age look up to their male parents with awe and see them above other work forces and as the true definition of a adult male. Laye clearly felt this towards his male parent. Never earlier have I read anything from Guinea. Truth be told. and every bit nescient as it genuinely sounds. I believed Guinea to be in South America. I had neer truly given it much though. I had neer truly given much thought to the life and beliefs of the different African small towns. The lone acquaintance I have with that subject is the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Similarly. Thingss Fall Apart has a coming of age narrative ; something that I am get downing to believe is really of import to different African small towns. In the U. S. there isn’t a set age where we become a adult male. We grow facial hair. finish school. acquire a occupation. but I would reason that a â€Å"man† in the U. S. does non truly go a adult male to the extent and adulthood of Camara Laye until he is in his 30’s. I’m non stating this is everybody. but I would state on norm we in the U. S. garbage to turn up. We want to be treated as grownups and we want freedom and to make things. but we still want to be able to run back place if we need assist. something. I don’t believe. that Laye would see making.