English Paper 3 Questions and Answers - Maranda High School Mock Exams 2023

1. Q1  BLOSSOMS OF THE SAVANNAH
   No matter the challenges we face in life, when we focus, we succeed. Support this statement referring to Resian in Blossoms of the Savanna.
2. A SILENT SONG
   People living with disability may face certain limitations. Using illustrations from Leonard Kibera’s A Silent Song, write an essay to validate this statement.

MARKING SCHEME

Q1. BLOSSOMS OF THE SAVANNAH

No matter the challenges we face in life, when we focus, we succeed. Support this statement referring to Resian in Blossoms of the Savanna.

Introduction

People undergo various trials in everyday life, if they are dedicated, they triumph. This is the perfect scenario in the life of Resian in the novel Blossoms of the Savannah by H. R. Ole Kulet.

Resian goes against all odds to pursue her dream of joining Egerton University. She affirms to Taiyo this even before they leave for Nasila. Pg. 4, ‘I don’t want to work at the shop…. I want to come back to Nakuru and join Egerton University. I want to take a course in Veterinary Science
and become a veterinary doctor….’ She constantly reminds Taiyo to tell the father the idea of them joining the campus during their stay in Nasila. ‘You will then persuade father to allow us come back and join the university....’ When they are attacked by the brute, Resian feels bitter
and says that it is imperative for Taiyo to talk to the father to allow them go back… ‘I would never want to be confronted again by a deranged vagabond in this wild and frightening jungle that Papaai has thrown us into.’ When Joseph is sent to coach them, Resian is bitter and is not
comfortable but wants to join university. ‘No, I refuse to be taught, I would either be taught at the university…or be taught nothing.’ Pg. 73. When confronted with the father about Oloisudori, she endures his wrath and is remains focused about the idea. Pg. 183/4….’No, I have never
spoken to anybody about any of you enrolling at the university.’ Resian endures the life with Olarinkoi’s old mother till she is rescued by Nabaru to Emakarerei’s compound. Eventually, she goes against all odds and finally gets entry into the gates of the university. Pg. 284 ‘…they were off to their Nirvana, that was Egerton University.’ Other pages, 121, 144, 147, 153, 181, 183, 196, 210, 220 etc.

Resian in her focus to remain uncontaminated by the Nasilian culture goes against all odds to remain uncircumcised. She succeeds in this and at the end does not face the knife. Resian fails to embrace the ritual and is not ready for it whatever the case. She says on pg. 33 ‘We must beat
them to it. We must convince him to let us go before they prevail upon him to embrace outdated and archaic traditions.’ She declared that those withered claw-like hands of enkamuratani would only touch her over her dead body! Pg. 58. Resian seethes with ire when she heard that their
father was preparing them for a journey that she thought was to lead them back to the stone-age era. She scornfully dismissed the cultural coaching Joseph Parmuat was to undertake as worthless and utter foolishness. Resian questions the mother about the relevance of the ritual
and affirms to her that it has no meaning in the woman of today, pg. 90. This means she denounces the practice completely as barbaric. She rebukes it and considers it a tool of oppression used by men to put women down, pg. 103. Her dream on pg. 20 gives her the hope that she would remain intoiye nemngalana hence making her remain focused. The enkamuratani eventually comes with her olmurunya and fortunately, Resian is rescued by Nabaru and she find her way to Emakerei’s place hence remaining intoiye nemengalana. Others, pg. 235, 244, 246.

Resian succeeds in escaping the challenge of rape by Olarinkoi due to her focus. Olarinkoi tricks Resian and attempts to rape her which makes Resian bite him rendering him docile and as such succeeds in preventing the ordeal. ‘…from today on you are my wife. …. she tried to get away
from him, but he held her effortlessly as he brutally continued fumbling with her dress, trying to loosen it. She screamed as loudly as she could while she pushed him away and thrashed frantically about. But that did not deter him and he totally ignored her screams holding her more firmly with his strong arms. Against her loud protest, he tore her garments and began to push her towards the bed. …. she took the las chance of self-preservation. Mastering all her strength, she thrust his thumb into her mouth; sunk her teeth into the flesh like a ferocious animal and tenaciously held onto it, tugging at it fiercely like a lioness. She could feel the flesh tearing and tasted the salt of his blood as it filled her mouth but she clung unto the thumb as Olarinkoi howled with pain. …. he cried out loudly…. he hit her on her ribcage and he passed out, pg. 221-222. This shows that Resian was focused and had to prevent the rape against all odds which eventually is successful. Also read Pg. 241, confirms that the rape was not successful.

Due to he focused nature, Resian goes against all odds to prevent the forced marriage to Oloisudori and eventually achieves his ambition of going to Egerton University. She tells the father and even Oloisudori himself that they can only take her to Nakuru in the said palatial home after they kill her. ‘I can only be your wife over my dead body. Yes, you and mother can kill me and carry my dead body to your palatial home.’ It takes a focused mind to say what she said and eventually she escapes the marriage. Though she undergoes suffering when Olarinkoi abducts her, she endures and to her luck is helped by Nabaru to Emakererei and eventually to the gates of Egerton University. She tells the father that it is better he kills her than hand her over to the monster friend. ‘Yes, kill me now!’ She says Oloisudori is a monster, gangster, bank robber, and an extortionist. She dares his father and walks to watch Nasila River where she is tactfully abducted by the crude Olarinkoi. When Oloisudori pursues her at the Ranch, she is saved and
Oloisudori’s vehicles set ablaze. This portrays Resian’s focus not to marry the monster and succeeds in this. Pages, 204, 207, 208, 209, 210 and 211.

In conclusion, Resian is focused in her life, remains so and endures all odds to become successful as has been discussed in the above points.

Q2. A SILENT SONG

People living with disability may face certain limitations. Using illustrations from Leonard Kibera’s A Silent Song, write an essay to validate this statement.

Introduction

People living with disability find it more difficult to do certain activities or to interact with the world around them. In the short story A Silent Song, Mbane is visually impaired and disabled, and he finds it difficult to move and to conduct other activities because of his disability.
(Any other relevant introduction, 2 marks)

Mbane’s movement is inhibited because of his disability. He gropes slowly towards the door of his hut. He can only crawl weakly on his knees and elbows. He cannot go further since the pain in his spine and stomach gather violence rapidly. The pain pangs paralyze him for a short tormenting moment. The pain soon disappears but with the same savage fury of its onslaught, leaving Mbane cold with sweat. He anticipates another imminent attack. Giving up the fight, he lets go his chin and hits his forehead on the dirty flea-ridden floor. Mbane’s freedom of movement is curtailed by his visual impairment, disability and pain. He is restricted to the lonely hut.

Mbane’s perception of time, day or beauty is limited by his inability to see. Although he is hungry, he does not know what time it is. He wallows in the gloom of his eternal night. Time, day and beauty lie beyond the bitter limits of darkness. He is restricted to feeling, hearing and running away from danger. He is also limited to a world of retreat. Due to his lameness, he can only crawl away. He has no power to hit back. Surely, people living with disability suffer certain restrictions.

When his brother brings him from the streets to his home, Mbane is restricted to his new confinement, the hut. His brother says that he rescued him from the barbaric city so that he could see the light of God. The hut is serene but so suspicious. This is Mbane’s new life away from the streets of the city. His new confinement is devoid of the urban ruggedness and noise. It lacks the quick prancing footsteps of the busy city people. In his limitation, Mbane can never fathom their business. Also, he is restricted to pleading with the people to help him stay alive by offering him some coins.

Due to his disability. Mane had little comprehension or knowledge of the city, though he lived in it. He earns his living on one street only, retreating to the back lane when it was deserted. His condition inhibits him from telling the length, width, beauty or the size of the street. He is just used to the talk of bright weather, lovely morning or beautiful sunset but he cannot take part in the small talk. He feels challenged when pedestrians sing to the blue sky and whistle to the gay morning. In his impediment, he cannot perceive these senses. During the day, Mbane has to endure the overly generous heat of the sun and obstinate flies mobbing the edges of his lips. At night, he cannot escape the hostile biting cold when he retreats to the back lane unsheltered, to surrender to his vulnerability to sleep and is occasionally by some ignoble thieves.

Mbane is constrained in his ability to eke out a living since he is disabled. He is forced to beg on that lonely street of the city. Mbane has come to understand that money is the essence of urban life. He is therefore happy with gay people since they mostly answer his plea. Dull people with
heavy tired footsteps and voices have empty pockets. Unlike him, the good men and women of the city have the ability to work in the buildings next to him and more up the street. He has no option but to endure the scorching sun and stubborn flies. At night, he is tempted by the strange rhythms but cannot indulge because of his condition. He is limited to hearing voices cursing and singing and bottles cracking. Mbane is restricted from joining the good men’s women’s merry making after a hard day’s work. Only pimps and whores enjoyed the proceeds of the good men’s sweat.

Mbane’s condition has restricted him from getting married. His brother Ezekiel is married to Sarah. He must have been around Mbane’s age. Mbane would never be able to reach out his hand in fullfilement of his life in the same way. He can only yearn impotently, sadly constrained because of his darkness and lameness. He is overcome by bitter self-pity and can only console himself about his own light and thus he would only smile broadly and bravely. His brother’s wife occasionally brings him some bitter medicine. His condition impedes him from getting a wife of his own and settling down. Mbane has become accustomed to limited conversation or communication. His brother enters his hut and sits on his bed but for a long time no one speaks. Mbane cannot be expected to start a conversation. All his life, he has been speaking to himself in his thoughts while living on the
streets. He had no one to address apart from himself. Occasionally, he would blurt out a mechanical plea of “Yes?”. Now, if anyone speaks to him, he carries the subject on a line of uncommunicative thought in his own mind. When his brother asks if he believes in God, Mbane replies that he does not know, since to him he does not matter.

Mbane’s condition makes him feel alienated and thus he holds a different religious view from his mother’s and his brother’s his mother views men as one stream flowing through the rocks of life. They would twist and turn the pebbles and get dirty in the muddy earth. They cry in the falls and whirlpools of life and laugh and sing when the flow is smooth and undisturbed. Some cry in the potholes of life’s valley, while others laugh triumph elsewhere. Mbane’s condition inhibits him to not only ceaselessly crying but also feeling that he is not even part of the stream. He feels like
the bitter fluid in his own throat. His pain gives him no reason to believe in God. No one understands his darkness. God is white cleanliness of eternal light but his life only contains darkness and blackness. He is forgotten and unnoticed. Sometimes, he is cursed and called able-
bodied, only crippled by idleness of leisurely begging.

Mbane feels trapped in his unwashed body which reeks of sweat. He craves freedom that he cannot achieve. He dreams of a glorious future away from his pangs of darkness where light lies. Right now he is restricted since his eyes are denied the light. He dreams of a future where someone would understand him and raise the innocence of his cripple life along with the chosen. It gives him hope and he sings his own happy song, silently to himself. He cannot seek refuge in the brothels like other men, so he can only find it in his silent song. His soul has a destination, or so he thinks. But for now, he has to make do with it being incarcerated in his sweaty smelly body, which is unwashed except when in the rain. Surely, disability can be limiting.

(Any 4 well developed points, 4x3 marks= 12 marks. Mark 3:3:3:3)

Conclusion

In conclusion, people living with disability undergo many impediments and limitations that deny them some pleasures or opportunities in life/ unlike those who are not disabled, the disabled people face a lot of limitations and challenges, which deny them the opportunity to enjoy life.