Reader Response Essay - On The Strong Breed -- Reader Response Essays

Reader Response Essay - On The Strong Breed Reading Wole Soyinka’s Strong Breed, I get to wondering about disclosure and ritual, disclosure between characters and to audiences, rituals of drama and religion. As I read the play, I see ample signs that both Sunma and Eman know about the curse-binding ritual that is to take place before midnight. I see signs of Sunma’s more specific knowledge in her shunning of Ifada from the start of the play. She declares, â€Å"Get away, idiot† (853). From the start Sunma is agitated and hopes that she and Eman might get away for â€Å"only two days† (857), as long as the two of them might â€Å"watch the new year together--in some other place† (856). Once Eman decides he doesn’t want to go away, Sunma wants to avoid the festival completely, saying that she â€Å"must not go out until all this is over† (859). Certainly, my rereading contributes to the sense of the foreshadowing I find in Sunma’s declarations. I have read the play half a dozen times by now, and though I forget many details, I do remember the outcome well enough to seek signs of its co...