Thursday, May 2, 2013

Obstacles, Barriers or Boundaries: “Looking for a Rain God” – Bessie Head


Looking for a rain God is a short story about an African family that is desperate because of a drought that has been going on for seven years in their village. People in the village were struggling because they were dependent on farming, and with no water no crops could be grown. The rain finally comes and many families rush out to resume farming. Mokgobja and his family are one of the first to clear and plough their land. Their hopes soon vanished after two weeks because rain goes away. The family becomes desperate like never before. They fear starvation and all the problems they would have to face the upcoming year. Mokgobja then remembers a ritual that people used to do back when he was a kid. They used to sacrifice children to please a Rain God, and after the ritual the rain would come. Mokgobja spread that to other family members, and then they decided to sacrifice the only children in the family. The two little girls were innocent about what was happening and spent their day playing pretend. After sacrificing the two little girls the rain never came. They decided to go back to their village filled with guilt, and soon people asked what had happened to the girls. They told people that they had died for an unknown reason while they were away. When the police went to their house, the mother of the two little girls confessed. After that Mokgobja and his son were sentenced with the death penalty. This story shows that when people are desperate, there is no measure in what they would do to overcome their problems. Many people are like that. When they have a problem they do crazy things without thinking of how it could harm others or itself. Many times that is why people commit suicide. They want to end with all their problems the easy way without thinking on the consequences that will have in others.

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