The short story Godwin siundu, A Silent Song and Other Stories

 The Optional Set Texts Essay Questions

The short story Godwin siundu, A Silent Song and Other Stories 

Life for people living with disabilities may be made better if they are accorded all the support they may need. Referring to the short story “A Silent Song” by Leonard Kibera, write an essay to show how the lives of people living with disabilities can be made worthwhile.

Life for the people living with disabilities can be traumatising to them. However, it is the duty of everyone in the society to try and make their life better by availing them with all the support and assistance they may require. The short story a silent song tries to show the support we may offer the people living with disabilities in the following way

Points of interpretation

S (i) shelter

Mbane had been living in the streets all his life begging in the city where there was a lot of ruggedness and noise, with quick footsteps of people who would keep him alive with a drop of copper in his hat. His brother rescues him from the streets and brings him to his hut which felt so serene. Mbane no longer had to endure hostile cold nights and the basest of thieves he encountered in the streets.

S (ii) company

After being ‘rescued’ from the streets where he spent his nights on the hard pavement, he recounts how no one spoke to him for a long time. He was accustomed to speaking to himself in his thoughts.

Ezekiel and his wife however speaks to him despite the fact that he could not start a conversation after getting so much used to being all alone in streets.

S (iii) comfort

At his brother Ezekiel’s home, Mbane is offered a bed on which he had tried to accustom himself to since being rescued from the hard pavement he was used to in the streets.

S (iv)-spiritual / hope

Mbane was convinced that it was a glorious thing to believe, to cling to a dream of a future life. It was glorious this feeling that far far away beyond the pangs of darkness lay light, bigger and more meaningful than that which his eyes were denied. There, someone would understand and raise the innocence of his crippled life along with the chosen. It gave him hope and sang his own happy song silently to himself, secretly. His soul had a destination.

S (vi)medical care/ medical support

Mbane’s brother’s wife Sarah takes care of Mbane and tries to alleviate his pain by giving him medicine. She breaks into his hut, slowly and tenderly raises his head and puts the cup to his mouth. The bitter fluid explodes down Mbane’s throat and another attack of pain tears through his stomach. Sarah then assures him that he would be alright soon and god would be with him.

Conclusion

We, as the members of society should try to alleviate the pain and suffering that the people living with disabilities might be going through by availing them the necessary need they may require. (Accept any other valid conclusion).