Raven Culver Essays (668 words) - Film, , Term Papers

Raven Culver EN-229 Dr. Laoye 23 February 2017 Call Me By My Rightful Name Isidore Okpewho's novel, "Call Me By My Rightful Na me", deals with a twenty-one year old African American , Otis Tiger Hampton . Otis lives in Boston, Massachusetts with his parents . Though his parents are both African American, they do not want to t alk to him about their past; li ke some others, they believe that not talking about their past would ultimately be better for African Americans history is viewed as a burden . Upon hearing music, Otis goes into a period of chants and spasms that he cannot seem to control and nobody seems to understand. In his dream at the beginning of the novel , he is told the cure that will make his periodic spasms and chants stopthough he does not seem to remember it. In order to find someone who understands this language, they are forced to journey to Africa and find someone who speaks the language. The chant s are recorded and brought to Baale Osunkunle and the babalowo . They both recognize that the chants come are tied to a kidnapping, of the man who happens to be his great grandfather. He must go to Yoruba of Nigeria, the place hi s great grandfather was kidnapped at and complete the dirge of song and dance that he was performing to lay his father to rest. Otis reconnects with the people who speak the same language as Otis was in his chants. Here, he is convinced to live in the village for two years. During his years here, against the beliefs of his parents, he learns about his African culture. He learns the language and culture of the place and joins in completing the dirge his great grandpa was performing when he was captured by his enslavers. Throughout the novel, Otis is trying to figure out his identity at a time when race relations in America were horrible and many people were questioning who they were and where they came from. In the beginning of the novel, we learn that his full name is Otis Tiger Hampton. At this point in the novel, Otis did not have any knowledge of his African side because his parents did not teach him it, only his Aunt Ella Pearl was open to talking about it. They did not teach him the history because they see the space between history and myth to be a blurry one. He was actually chosen to receive the curse because he was not taught about his history. As the novel goes on, we learned that Otis must complete his great grandfather's dirge for the curse to go away. He lives with people in the village his great grandfather was part of and learns their cult ure as well as language. Here, he meets his great grandfather's two sisters and says, "the history of the village buried deep in their memories" (Okpewho 125). From the sisters, he is taught the oral tradition talked about on the first page of the novel. After being in the village, Otis now has a better sense of his own identity as well as his families. Upon returning, Otis changes his name to Otis Akinbowale Hampton, which accommodates to all of his identities. Otis attends to his African side, while Hampton is more of an American last name. He adopts a new middle name of Akinbowale and this translates to, "the strong one has come back". I think that this new name really takes on his new identity. He is now aware and educated on both his American and African sides and embraces this is his adoption of a new middle name. We are also able to see the changes in Otis through the letters he sends home to his parents and Norma. The letters really zone in on his new identi ty and knowledge he has learned which lead him to the discovery of this new sense of self.