User:Bvincent1/sandbox

Title, attempting to get used to this
I really don't like this

Italics please work

Italic bold?

I have no idea how to do a subheading.

And then subheadings are automatically put in it too
stolen from professor

Now to direct you to another page, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

Modern Figures
The novel mentions many well-known African and African-American figures. The individuals mentioned are either literary or political figures who have a connection to Africa. Some of the individuals include, Robert Mugabe, Octavia Butler, Amos Tutuola, Fay Chung, and Wangari Maathai. A few others include Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Oprah. However, they are not present as characters; rather, Vimbai and Maya name landmarks after them in their new dream-world inside the house.

Mugabe was the first real world individual to be mentioned in this novel. However, unlike the others mentioned, he is not represented as a natural landmark. Robert was first brought up in Chapter 3 during a conversation between Vimabi's parents. They speak of how they highly dislike him and what he has done to their home country of Zimbabwe. Vimabi's mother quotes the head of the Africana Studies who said "Mugabe is the worst thing that ever happened to Zimbabwe." which leads to finding out about how Mugabe is involved in corruption. . At the end of chapter 5, Mugabe is brought up again. We then learn that a favorites flower shop in Zimbabwe had been destroyed under the orders of Mugabe.

The rest of the figures in the novel were not included as much as Mugabe was. Unfortunately only 4 of the 10 total figures included in this novel were actually given named landmarks, and the other 6 were just briefly named. The landmarks given include, Malcolm X Mountains, Martin Luther King Forest, Achebe River, and the lake with the catfish in it was named after Marechera. As for the other 6 figures, their landmarks were not given, but it was stated that they would be included in the dream-world. Maya spoke of how she wanted more literary figures, therefore including Octavia Butler, who is an African-American science fiction writer. . Sticking with their occurring theme of literary figures,  Vimbai says that Amos Tutuola, a Nigerian fantasy writer would be included in their dream-world next. Not only are literary figures included in their dream-world but Vimabi insisted that they included Wangari Maathai, who is a Nobel Peace Prize winner.

add the place each person was named after Bvincent1 (talk) 15:06, 24 October 2013 (UTC)JoryBvincent1 (talk) 15:06, 24 October 2013 (UTC)

Reference