Trusted since 2008
LoginRegister
Study resources on Kenyaplex

Get ready-made curriculum aligned revision materials

Exam papers, notes, holiday assignments and topical questions – all aligned to the Kenyan curriculum.

Browse exam papers
Or go directly to:
Class notes Holiday assignments Topical questions Other resources

With illustrations from Haruki Murakami's short story 'The Mirror', explain the problem of superstition in human life.

With illustrations from Haruki Murakami's short story 'The Mirror', explain the problem of superstition in human life.

Answers

Martin
Superstition is the irrational belief in non-existent things such as ghosts and the power of magic.Superstition does cause all manner of problems in society and in human life as we can see in Haruki Mukami's story 'The Mirror'.

The narrator talks of ghosts and the like as the link between the world of the living and the dead.People who claim they have seen ghosts are superstitious.

When the narrator is in the elevator with two friends,the friends claim there was a woman standing next to him,the narrator.The narrator doesn't see the woman,but he wonders about the friends because he doesn't think the can play tricks on him.

Superstitions probably reflect our wishful thinking and our desires .These friends conveniently see a woman wearing a grey suit (grey being a color of ambiguous significance)

The story seems to imply that superstition is associated with our fears.The narrator is a watchman working at night(a time associated with fear).Before his strange encounter,he wakes up at 5 a.m.feeling (understandably)weird.

Superstitions could also be associated with an aimless and wandering life.The narrator drops out of school,becomes a hippie,and roams the country,doing unstable jobs.And for two months,he works as a watchman in a school in a tiny town.These are ideal conditions for superstitious thinking.

Then there is the climate autumn.It is windy and hot.It is a time like this when your imagination can run away with you.

The gate at the swimming pool keeps opening and closing creating a rhythm that enhances the narrator's superstitious fear.

Superstitions makes us do unreasonable things.The narrator has not talked about this incident for ten years for fear that it might happen again.The narrator has lived without a mirror,he shave without it.

He fears that if he looked in the mirror,he would have to confront something of himself that he doesn't want to confront.

Superstitions can make one hate himself/herself.In this story,it leads to a mild form of the so called split personality.When the narrator is looking at the mirror ,he hates what he sees and the other loathes him.

Ghosts are products of our imagination and conditions in the physical environment. To deal with the problem of ghosts in a particular and superstition in general,we need to understand our inner selves,resolve our internal conflicts,and come to terms with the external environment.
marto answered the question on December 28, 2017 at 08:38

Answer Attachments

Next: Describe the economic organization of the kamba during pre colonial period

Previous: Write an essay highlighting the challenges facing post apartheid South Africa.Draw your illustrations from Rayda Jacob's 'The Guilt'.

View more English Literature Questions and Answers  |  Return to Questions Index

Exams With Marking Schemes

Related Questions