We Need New Names Book Analysis
Nowadays, the humankind has a unique chance to witness how superior and advanced the modern world has become due to its high technological and scientific progress that give value to various inventions essential for everyday life as well as for usage in future. The mankind has invented cellphones, smart cars, electronic books and many other devices that people could not even imagine a hundred years ago. Apparently, the mankind is heading to an absolutely digital and progressive future. Considering all these facts, it is hard to believe that there are places in the world where people reside without even basic amenities such as running water, electricity and sanitation. Despite the fact that people live in such a highly-developed world, there are still citizens dying from primitive diseases due to poor medical care, remaining illiterate due to inappropriate educational system and in general living in sheer poverty with few perspectives for bright future. Poverty still remains a sharp problem for many third-world countries. To make matters worse, poverty often results in numerous illegal immigrations that yearly occur in different parts of the world. "We Need New Names" by NoViolet Bulawayo is a successful attempt to place Zimbabwe, one of the third-world countries, on the world map. This essay intends to describe and analyze the problem of indigence and illegal immigration using the aforementioned book as an example.
Bulawayo introduces unusual names for her personages. There are Chipo, Bastard, Bornfree and Moterlove. Although these names sound quite symbolic and meaningful, they do not carry any secondary meaning, irony or subtext. Bulawayo deliberately cuts off all metaphorical and symbolic undertones in the novel. Her writing style is rather gaunt and the text itself reminds mere skin and bones, like a starving African child. This book is more like a pamphlet, a certain reproach to all modern writers, stuck in post-modernism. While other writers measure their hyper-texts, NoViolet Bulawayo conveys the direct message, elaborately telling the reader about everyday life in Zimbabwe, and the horrible problems people have to face in order to survive.
The main character of the book is a ten-year old Darling who lives with her mother in shantytown of Zimbabwe in a horrible poorness. Their house was bulldozed by the government in accordance with Operation Murambatsvina set in 2005 in order to free space for diamond mining, thus, leaving more than 300 thousand people homeless. "We Need New Names" is more like a picture story from the place of the tragedy: each chapter reminds a lively fuzzy picture taken by a little girl and retrieved from her memory. First, the yellow bulldozers demolish her house to create an area for diamond mining, then people like her are brutally beaten by police for despairingly trying to preserve their houses. Another picture demonstrates how Darling is playing with her friends and then they bury a boy from her neighborhood. It is obvious that such memories are not likely to positively impact …
