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Paper 2 Outline: TATD + TFA

Prompt --> Pride can lead to failure and self-destruction or to accomplishment and self-fulfilment. Discuss the presentation of pride and its consequences in at least two of the works you have studied. 

Thesis statement: In the Thief and the Dogs, Naguib Mahfouz allegorically represents the marxist ideology through the protagonist, Said Mahran who’s hubris leads him to self-destruction. Similarly, in TFA, Chinua Achebe utilises the tragic hero archetype to represent the danger of being rigid and inflexible, in a dynamic world, which reveal Achebe’s assertion of the need for duality to successfully navigate an ever-changing world.

Topic sentence 1: In both novels, the protagonist’s overwhelming pride leads them to inevitable destruction at their own hands, seen with Okonkwo’s fatalistic suicide, and Said got assassinated.

Topic sentence 2: In TATD and TFA, their pride catalyses their conflict, as their moral values aren’t heavily influenced by opposition, such as the hegemonic influence in Umofia, and Rauf in the TATD. Okonkwo’ internal and external conflicts against his community and the colonisers serve as a tool for Achebe to celebrate Igbo values whilst simultaneously warning the reader to not romanticise pre-colonial Nigeria.

Topic sentence 3: Said’s conquest of seeking vengeance, due to his overwhelming pride unravels the theme of betrayal, whereas in TFA, change is inevitable and although it should be adopted with flexibility, that adoption shouldn’t come without its limitations and questioning. Achebe utilises the theme of change to analyse the role of revolutionary in the struggle for Nigerian independence.

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