IDU Analysis by Ichiro Asahina

Beginning

17jperry — 2024-04-26 04:04:37 UTC

Furo, the main protagonist of the story was very beautiful but did not want to marry anyone, just like her mom didn't. During the days, she would start running into the same snake, but it would not attack her. The snake would keep appearing and saves her from dangerous situations, such as trees collapsing and more. Another villager named Firi saw Furo and the snake, and spread rumors that she had dark powers and can communicate with the snake.

Middle

17jperry — 2024-04-26 04:13:04 UTC

People were not very bothered by it, and she met a guy named Tamuno and got engaged. On the day of the marriage, the snake appeared again scaring everyone then everyone started avoiding her including Tamuno whom never talked to her again. She ran away to her godmother's house aka her mom's bestie and told her everything. She suggested to kill the snake. They went to kill the snake but then she slit her hand with her knife then the snake turned into a girl that looked just like Furo.

Beninging

ichiroa — 2024-04-26 04:13:48 UTC

Akpan, the protagonist of the story, was a very lazy, good-for-nothing man who was pampered throughout his childhood by his parents because he was the only son out of his three siblings. Because of their pampering, Akpan grew up to not only be lazy but also started arguments and fights with passersby and gossiped with his friends who visited him after their work periods. People saw him as good-for-nothing and useless and called him that after his fights. Akpan hated those two terms and hated the fact more than those who said those two terms were more successful than he was.

Ending

17jperry — 2024-04-26 04:15:37 UTC

She went to her mom then her mom revealed that she gave birth to a snake the day she gave birth to Furo. They went back to the cave and realized the godmother was going mad and she revealed that she was in love with the man that was in love Furo's mom. She grew jealous and told a juju man to put a spell to turn her kid into a snake but she was actually pregnant to twins. So the snake was her twin and they reunited and lived happily ever after

17jperry — 2024-04-26 04:17:41 UTC

17jperry — 2024-04-26 04:19:42 UTC

His Interest in a Girl

ichiroa — 2024-04-26 04:19:59 UTC

Akpan was interested in a particular girl from his village who was very beautiful and well-behaved, liked by everyone in the village. One day, Akpan saw this girl come back from the river stream and offered to help out the girl. The girl told him to fetch water from the stream but Akpan ignored what she said and continued with what he wanted to say. He told her that he wanted to marry her but she refused, stating the dilemmas that he would not support a family and how people view him as good-for-nothing and useless and walked away, stating that she would marry him if he changed.

Visiting the Witch Doctor

ichiroa — 2024-04-26 04:24:06 UTC

In desperation to marry this girl, Akpan traveled to a powerful witch doctor to ask to fix his problems. The witch doctor then gave him a clay pot with a black cover, telling Akpan to take the pot home, keep it very safe, and not open it until tomorrow. After getting the pot, his curiosity got the best of him and opened the pot. A great flash happened and Akpan began to transform into a palm tree, the witch doctor witnessing it from his spiritual eyes. The story ends there.

ichiroa — 2024-04-26 04:24:43 UTC

ichiroa — 2024-04-26 04:25:29 UTC

Character Challenges

ichiroa — 2024-04-26 04:28:34 UTC

In both the stories of Furo and Akpan, there is a recurring challenge of restraint/hindrance either on an internal or external scale. In Akpan, there is the internal dilemma of restraint as a result of his overwhelming laziness due to the way Akpan’s childhood circumstances, resulting in a personal hindrance of progress that would have benefitted Akpan in the long run.” In Furo, there is always an external issue with the hindrance stemming from the repeated appearance of the giant snake. However, the circumstances behind the challenges are different in the two tales since in Akpan’s tale, it was the upbringing of Akpan that inevitably brought the challenges faced by him and ultimately led to his downfall while in Furo, the snake, despite being a hindrance, was both a metaphorical and literal protector that inhibited Furo from doing the things she wished like the circumstance with the man because of the negative results that may stem from pushing through those conditions.

Themes

17jperry — 2024-04-26 04:29:34 UTC

In the story in the Furo and the Snake, it explores the themes of jealousy and to not allow it to lead into actions that may ruin other people's lives as you may live the rest of your life in regret. This can be seen as in the story as the godmother ruined her best friend's life just because the main she loved was in love with her. Due to this jealousy, she made a juju man cast a spell on her so that she gives birth to a snake. After the revelation towards the end, it is evident that her best friend aka Furo's mother felt a sense of betrayal, and although it was not very much explained in the end of the story, the godmother would probably live in regret after everyone finds out what has happened.

In the story Akpan and the Palm Tree, it explores the themes that the outcomes on what you get comes from your actions. The main character Akpan spent his days not doing anything and just gossiping, and therefore, people called him useless and good-for-nothing, and also got rejected by some girl. When he tried to fix himself, he didn't try to improve himself, and was told to open the box the next day. However, instead, he was impatient and opened it that day, and tuned into the palm tree.

These two themes are similar to each other as they are both based off of the actions of the people, and the consequences that they will have to live with after. In the first story, the feelings of jealousy led to the consequences on committing hurtful actions towards other people. In the second story, the act of laziness and impatience led to the consequences of turning into a palm tree. These two themes are different to each other as they are very distinctly different type of actions, and types of consequences. However they're still quite similar.