The significant meaning of "the swamp" in "the swamp dwellers”

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       This is my assignment as part of forth semester in M.A. As a student of Literature there are many questions regarding this play “The swamp Dwellers ". Here I want to clear these many questions as under,

·       What is the meaning of Swamp?

·       What is significant meaning of the swamp in the swamp dwellers?

·       What is different between traditional and modern life style?

·       Which is the real swamp? City or Village?

Introduction:      

            Wole Soyinka is a great writer, "The Swamp Dwellers" play written by him. He wrote about African people and their culture. He is internationally celebrated as a playwright, poet, novelist and literary critic. The play is about African people and their suffering. So, let's know about the play "The Swamp Dwellers" in detail.

            

     We can see the distance between rural and urban society, we can aslo see the conflict between two generations as well as culture. There are some main characters in the play like Makuri, Alu, Kadiye, Awuchike, Igwezu, etc. We can see various contrasts in the play like contrast between two brothers, two cultures, two generations, village and city, etc. One brother (Igwezu) is good who always care for his parents while his brother Auchike is self centered, not cared for anyone. So, both are completely different. Both are going to the city and one is lost in it. His parents waiting for him but he never came. And they think that they lost their child because of the new life style. Younger wants to live in new way of living life while parents want to live as they are living. So, there are many conflicts in the play.

Meaning of "swamp"

   It means uncultivated ground where water collects, a bog or marsh. In hindi we can say "dal-dal". It means soils which are useless; we can't get anything from it. So, this is the basic meaning of the swamp. Now let's know that how it related with the play.

The significant meaning of "the swamp" in "the swamp dwellers”:

             

    Swamp means that kind of soils which are useless as same in the play the culture of those people who are living in city is like that. They become useless; even they lost his/her self in that culture. If once they are trapped in that swamp of city then they never come back and he/her lost their life in the city culture. Parents have to suffer because of that new way of living life. They lost their children in this new culture which is established by white people.

        In their old culture they are happy with their life, but on the name of civilization white people established new way of living life or city life. But that new way of living life is harmful for them. And in that context we can say that new way of living life is like swamp.

         They are unable to understand each other. They both are thinking differently one is believe in living together while other wants to live in the new tradition like West people. Those two generations are like completely opposite like sun and moon, sky and earth, old and new, hot and cold, etc. As same their thinking process is like that. They can't understand the ideas of each other. And because of this problem their parents are worried about their child and city life or culture is like swamp and they lost their child in that kind of swamp. They think that new way of living life is destroying their culture as well as people and specifically new generation. And this is a big issue or we can say problem for them. They know everything but they have no solutions. So, in this point it is like swamp and it is impossible to remove it. Indirectly it is the mixture of two cultures or way of living life. White people think that they are helpers of the black people.

The characters in The Swamp:

    Dwellers fell into three groups: The parents Makuri and Alo-conservative, the corrupt priest Kadiye, who beguiles his superstitious followers; and the two positive individuals Igwezu and the Beggar, moving, wondering, seeking and then uncertain what they have found. It is a play of mood and atmosphere, constructed so as to provide the audience with ample opportunity to make comparisons and reach judgment.


             The most obvious contrast is that between the twins brothers, who look alike but behave differently Awuchike has left home for ten years and lives in town. There he deals in timbers and thrives fast. But he never thinks of his poor old parents. Besides, he does not even communicate with his parents, as a result his mother thinks that, he died in swamp drowning, though his father knows that he is still alive in town and earning money there. He is dead to his parents and family responsibility/ whereas, Igwezu is quite opposite to him. He also goes to town with his wife to seek his fortune. He promised that, with first earned money, he will send a swivel chair for his father and he fulfills his promise.

    There is absence of god but we find that kadiye is priest of serpent cult. And Alu and Makuri both have faith in that serpant cult. In village people are good but blindly follow the religion and believe in Serpant cult. But Kadiye gets benefit from them being the priest.but people are innocent and gives everything to him. Igwazu wants to know actual motiefs of him and asking some questions that reflects the awareness of Egwazu.  All character go into their individual life like beggar wants to work with his hand. And alu and Makuri both thought about river bed is flower bad even Egwazu also going in to his personal life and thought about his wife. How she left him. Why he left village for work in city. And after that he came back in the village and shows the condition of the swamp dwellers. He knows …

    Where actually swamp is!

       In village people are happy with their old way of living life because at least their family is living together. They are happy together and can get peace but city life the new way of living life ruins everything and established the immorality, corruption and unfaithful people who are living there. In the play “The Swamp Dwellers” we find that all character suffering but no one able to change his or her condition. So we can say that they are living in the swamp come out from that condition is impossible.

   Conclusion:    

          So, after all everything is in contrast whether it is about relationship or about those two brothers, or generation gap, etc. So, it is about complexity or contrast thinking. We find that there are many differences between two brother Awuchike and Igwazu and Alu and Desala and also beggar and kadiye. So we can say that this play is tradition and Modern play.

Works Cited

Sejal Vaghela . (n.d.). blog . Retrieved from blog: http://vaghelasejal1315.blogspot.in/2015/03/theme-of-swamp-dwellers-1958-wole.html

Wole soyinka. (1958). The Swamp Dwellers. Africa.

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