Question

comment of the use of folk material in acbebe's things fall apart and Gopinath mohanty's paraja

Answer 1

Achebe uses many folk tales in his novel to illustrate the culture of the characters in the novel. There is one principal instance where folk tales are used to give depth to certain character's inner working and psyche. In chapter seven, Okonkwo is described as telling stories to his sons. He told them the stories of the land, masculine stories of violence and bloodshed. Nwoye still preferred the stories his mother used to tell, and which she no doubt still told to her younger children-stories of the tortoise and his wily ways, and of the bird eneke-nti-oba who challenged the whole world to a wrestling contest and was finally thrown by a cat. This story sets Nwoye and Okonkwo up for the rest of the story and even supports their differences that resurge later on in the novel. Achebe's use of such stories in his novel serve as coloring and texturing the novel as a vivid display of African oral cuture.
Gopinath Mohanty's Paraja also highlights the plight of a tribal family who doesn't know how to exercise his rights. In his novel, Mohanty describes at length the customs and rituals of Paraja, their celebrations, music and dance and brings in the vividness of folklore.