II BTech II SEM :THE POWER OF THE PLATE OF RICE

The power of the Plate of Rice

1. The opening part of the story has taken place in Mr.Aziza’s office room.
2. The office of the Principal, Mr.Aziza was not well designed. Mr.Aziza was seated behind a medium-sized desk made of cheap wood and thickly coated with varnish. Books, files, letter trays and loose sheets of paper fostled for a place in the desk.
3. Teachers were not paid salaries properly.
4. Mr.Aziza had ingratiated himself with the powerful and highranking officers of the Board. As he was the principal of one of the elite schools in the state, he used his power to oblige the people in high places.
5. Mr.Aziza has a negative opinion on the women teachers. He refuses to take women , especially married ones in his school. It is the opinion of him that they are lazy and find excuses to be away from school.
6. When she reached home, she found her son was suffering from fever. Her mother –in – law was trying hard to bring down the temperature of her grand son.
7. Mrs. Cheta Adu’s life had become miserable without her husband. It was the endless journey into the land of hardship and frustration. She needs strong finance support. In such hard circumstances, she felt that it was a senseless waste to spent all their savings on burial ceremony.
8. They were at the university together. Mrs.Cheta Adu selected mathematics and her husband selected banking. They were posted to the same state for national youth service. They became engaged at the end of their service and married shortly after.
9. To feed her family and to satisfy the basic necessities of her family.
10. Cheta begs Mr.Aziza for the better part month , imploring him for money and food but when proves obdurate she reduced to following him after work. When she is still neglected, she has eaten the dish kept for him.
11. Mr.Aziza strode the table, and snatched spoon from her hand . He barked her to go to the Brusar and take money.
12. The plate of rice has acted as a weapon to make Mr.Aziza agree to pay her salary.

Looking at Language: Writing style.

 

The story reveals the abject condition of an American woman teacher, who has not been paid her salary for four months. Inspite of many requests, Mr.Aziza has not agreed to pay salary. It mounts tension in the readers mind. But a feeling of relief arises when Mrs.Chetu took a drastic decision to persuade him and not to leave him until he pay salary. She ate the rice that was prepared for Mr.Aziza. She irritated him and created tension in his mind that she would get settle in his house with her children if she was not paid salary.

Looking at Language: Vocabulary by Theme

2. Bubbled like a pot of ogbono, bellowed, strode, smouldering.

3. Mottled(para-2), Smouldering- para -3 , bulbous –  para-6, hitched – para-11.

Looking at Language: Vocabulary by Idiom

1. peace is costly but it is worth the expense.
2. Don’t set sail on someone else’s star.

Literary Concept: Theme.

1. He is a man known for his inflexibility. He withholds ChetuAdu’s salary as she has taken a few days off to tend to her sick child at hospital. Matters are desperate. She is in dire need of money but Mr.Aziza proved himself obdurate.
2. He has been suffering from fever since one month.
3. It is not just imagination. It really happens in day-to-day world. The common people are often denied their rights and can do nothing about it. The bureaucracy has undue power, which they abuse without accountability.
4. When man has no other choice to escape from his troubles, he tries to take drastic decisions out of desperation. Same happened in this story. Mrs Cheta Adu’s desperation had given her courage which she never experienced before.
5. It is an unplanned action. Her circumstances made her to follow him home after work .

Culture point: Universal and Local

1 a.She resorted to a tactic when she was refused by Mr. Aziza to take her into his office. She kept on calling to him until he broke his resistance.

b. she had taken  a courageous step in to bring change in Mr. Aziza she followed him to his house and had eaten rice that was kept for him.

2. a pot of ogbono soup- seed of a wild mango, joll of rice, garri- West African dish, egusi soup- melon soup are some of the words used in the narration.

Some other examples are:

Kunu or millet porridge.

Ogi or maize pop.

Akara – also called beans cake

3. Rapula, Dulue.
4. It is not a kind of punishment but it is one of the ways of keeping the child safe.
5. Chetu Adu and her mother-in-law are the two women. They are looking after the baby who is suffering from fever.
6. It is not merely personal activity. It is the voice of a professional woman whose life is hard in a partriarchal society where men openly voice their reluctance to an employee woman.

Literary Concepts: Symbolism.

 

1. The plate of rice acted as a weapon on the principal, Mr. Aziza. It is symbol for her audacity, courage and master stroke.

Literary Concepts: Strife and Victory.

• Cheta, a teacher at a Nigerian secondary school.

• She is a widow with two young children and a mother – in- law to feed.

• Cheta is magnificient – she is brave and no- nonsense and resourceful. She knows how to resort to a tactic if her requests are not accepted.

2. She would not have done the same thing if she had no family. She would have waited for salary for one more month. Her family gave her responsibilities. She had taken drastic step to satisfy her basic necessities.
3. The bias that Mr.Aziza carries against married women is that women try to find excuses to be away from school. But it is not genuine. Women are sincere in their work. They take responsibility to their heart and they strive for it. The traditions and customs cripple women as much as they can and trying to create women as an unjustified person.
4. It is the general fate of the most of the widows. Once the woman loose her husband, she becomes the sole bread winner in her family.In this lesson, Mrs Chetu Adu lost her husband in an accident. It is a big tragic turning point in her life.  She is the bread winner of her family. She is working in Mr.Aziza’s school not for time pass but to meet the basic necessities of her family.

Reading Journal:

 

There is a fundamental wrong in our general mental outlook. Most of the people assumes the superiority of males and consider women as a meek, submissive and sacrificial.  The feeling of superiority which evolved from ourselves is a big evil in our society. A woman is given a subordinate position in her family as well as society. Her parents neglect her. They try to get rid of her by doing marriage.

   In this story, Mr.Aziza has such an attitude towards women. He feels that most of the married women always find excuses from work and they come for work only for time pass. Having this opinion in his mind, he tried to torture Mrs Chetu Adu. Being brave and resourceful, Mrs Chetu Adu resorted to a tactic which made him to give her her salary.