ENG 214 Assignment - The play, Look Back In Gratitude is an African drama by Bosede Afolayan that PDF

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The play, Look Back In Gratitude is an African drama by Bosede Afolayan that treats the core function of literary piece which are, to entertain, to enlighten and also to showcase the mirror of the society, which mostly turns out to be the vices in the society....

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NAME: OCHAYI EMMANUEL SAVIOUR MATRIC NUMBER: 180102105 DEPARTMENT: ENGLISH AND LITERARY STUDIES FACULTY: ARTS ASSIGNMENT: NARRATE THE PLOT OF BOSEDE AFOLAYAN’S LOOK BACK IN GRATITUDE

The play, Look Back In Gratitude is an African drama by Bosede Afolayan that treats the core function of literary piece which are, to entertain, to enlighten and also to showcase the mirror of the society, which mostly turns out to be the vices in the society. The play responds to John Osborne’s Look Back In Anger. Look Back In Gratitude is a play that revolves round the frustration and the unhappily marriage of a couple, Jagunlabi Fijabi who belongs to the lower class of the society and his wife Tokunbo who belongs to the upper class but married him due to the genuie love she has for him despite all odd. The play also treats various themes like that of poverty, unemployment, love, divorce, betrayal, friendship, adultery etc. The plot of the play Look Back In Gratitude starts with a prologue, The landlady gives an advice to a younger woman. The younger woman pouring out her pains of how she loves her husband dearly. The landlady uses the opportunity to narrate how she got married to her husband in the UK and they later move to Nigeria but he ends up divorcing her and moving in with another lady. She uses her story to encourage the younger woman telling her that everything will be fine. Light fades in the house of the Fijabis, in their one room furnished apartment. Tokunbo, the wife of Jagunlabi is off to work. She already prepares his breakfast and drop some money for him. Jagun wakes up on hearing the sound of his wife car and starts complaining calling his wife a “ Foolish woman” he blames himself for being jobless and sitting at home doing nothing. He narrates how he uses his first two years after school to coach after school students and how he receives stipends. He visits offices, mainly the national theatre, banks, corporate organizations, but he was turned down. He even went as far as settling for a teaching appointment with the ‘Teaching Service Commission’ he was also disappointed because they were only interested for indigenes and English Language students. He later moves to the kitchen to see what is wife left for him and he finds a note by his wife Tokunbo. After reading the letter he feels happy but he claims that no one would ever tell a woman that she is good, claiming that it will get to her head and will make her pompous and arrogant.

His friend Femi who is also as unemployed as he is comes to visit him. Femi finds Jagun complaining and admonishes him that he should be grateful and stop complaining. He from there admonishes Jagun of the ill treatment he has been giving to her that she wife deserves better treatment than what he is giving to her. Out of anger he cuts Femi, claiming that she has not seen anything yet. After so much talks they end up going to play snooker with the money left behind by his wife. Light also fades again in their one room apartment with Jagun, Toks and Femi in the room. Tokunbo is ironing clothes while Jagun and Femi busy reading the newspapers when out of a sudden Jagun calls the attention of Femi of a woman leader in the House of Assembly who renovates a building for 60 million naira. Jagun later injured his wife mistakenly and Femi tries to treat her. He goes back to his newspaper and after a while he asks his wife to boil rice for him that he is hungry. Femi claims he had just eaten, he asks Femi to face his business that it is not his concern. Tokunbo begs him to hold on that she will do that after ironing the last shirt, telling him how erratic the power supply is. He angrily gathers all the clothe Tokunbo has been ironing and put them inside a bucket of water claiming she is disrespecting him because he is not the one responsible for the food. Then, Femi moves to Tokunbo pleading on behalf of Jagun. The next scene fades at around 8 O’clock in the evening as Tokunbo was outside in front of the room knocking on the door. She just comes back from the church. After consistent knocking on the door and also begging Jagun, he refuses to open the door asking her to “ Go back to where you are coming from”. the Landlady passes by and saw her on the floor. She still tries to hide the whole scenario from the landlady when she asked her of her husband. She helps in banging the door for her but Jagun still refuses to say a word. He opens the door a little thinking the landlady might have taken her to her own apartment but still finds his wife at the door, on trying to close the door, the landlady sees him and comes back to question Jagun. Which results to she and Jagun exchanging words. On looking at the time and it already 10 O’clock she sleeps off outside.

The next scene is on a Sunday. Seeing her still outside asked her to go inside which she did after a long night outside after last night tussle. He goes under the bed to bring out a cane he bought for flogging her. She begs him but he refuses. Two weeks later, there is a call between Tokunbo and her longtime friend Labisi a Nollywood movie star, who is coming to shoot a movie and wants to stay at their house for the main time. She tries to persuade her not to come but she insists on coming. An argument comes up between Labisi and Jagun after he hears them discussing and finds out that Labisi and his wife are gossiping about him. They argued so radically that it resorts into both of them slapping each other. The next scene also opens in Jagun and Tokunbo’s apartment with Labisi and Femi with them. They discussed about the environment and Labisi narrating her experience at the toilet recently. As they were discussing Tokunbo decides to serve them food and as they were eating Jagun receives a call from his father of how his cough have resurfaced again and needs him to come. He sets out for Makoko immediately and ask Tokunbo to join but she reminds him about her having a church service but he took offence with that and angrily left the house saying she takes church activities more serious that even her in-law that loves her so much, with Femi running after him to join him. Tokunbo recounts how she meets her husband and how they end up getting married. Labisi advises her to go back home while she already sends a message to her parent to come pick her up.

In the next scene, Jagun narrates about her life right from the beginning, how he has to go into the street after the neglects by his family and ends up seeing himself throughout school through various means. Light fades from there and shines when Mr and Mrs Jones comes visiting to come carry their daughter. The fathers through the help of flashback reveals how he gives them a house at Victoria Island but Jagun rejects it. And later Tokunbo follows her parent to leave with them for some time. Right in her parent’s house she finds out she is pregnant after a test by Doctor Teju, the family’s doctor. She angrily goes back to the house with Jagun, Femi and Labisi in the house exchanges words

with Jagun leaving everyone surprise. She breaks the news of her pregnancy to him leaving him dumbfounded. She challenges the need for him to rise up and not put faults on people instead he should try to face his fears. They both settles all and looked forward for a better future....