THE IGUANA by Isak Dinesen

In the reserve I have sometimes come upon the iguanas, the big lizards, as they were sunning themselves upon a flat stone in a river-bed. They are not pretty in shape, but nothing can be imagined more beautiful than their colouring. They shine like a heap of precious stones or like a pane cut out of an old church window. When, as you approach, they swish away, there is a flash of azure, green, and purple over the stones, the colour seems to be standing behind them in the air, like a comet's luminous tail.

Once I shot an iguana. I thought that I should be able to make some pretty things from his skin. A strange thing happened then, that I have never afterwards forgotten. As I went up to him, where he was lying dead upon his stone, and actually while I was walking the few steps, he faded and grew pale; all colour died out of him as in one long sigh, and by the time that I touched him he was grey and dull like a lump of concrete. It was the live impetuous blood pulsating within the animal which had radiated out all that glow and splendour. Now that the flame was put out, and the soul had flown, the iguana was as dead as a sandbag.

Often since I have, in some sort, shot an iguana, and I have remembered the one in the Reserve. Up at Meru I saw a young Native girl with a bracelet on, a leather strap two inches wide, and embroidered all over with very small turquoise-coloured beads which varied a little in colour and played in green, light blue, and ultramarine. It was an extraordinarily live thing; it seemed to draw breath on her arm, so that I wanted it for myself, and made Farah buy it from her. No sooner had it come upon my own arm than it gave up the ghost. It was nothing now, a small, cheap, purchased article of finery. It had been the play of colours, the duet between the turquoise and the 'nègre' -- that quick, sweet, brownish black, like peat and black pottery, of the Native's skin that had created the life of the bracelet.

In the Zoological Museum of Pietermaritzburg, I have seen, in a stuffed deep-water fish in a showcase, the same combination of colouring, which there had survived death; it made me wonder what life can well be like, on the bottom of the sea, to send up something so live and airy. I stood in Meru and looked at my pale hand and at the dead bracelet. It was as if an injustice had been done to a noble thing, as if truth had been suppressed. So sad did it seem that I remembered the saying of the hero in a book that I had read as a child: "I have conquered them all, but I am standing among graves."

In a foreign country and with foreign species of life one should take measures to find out whether things will be keeping their value when dead. To the settlers of East Africa I give the advice: 'For the sake of your own eyes and heart, shoot not the Iguana.'

In this story, the author describes one of her experiences in Africa, where she lived for several years. It is an extract from her book, Out of Africa which was published in 1937.  The book was written after she returned to Denmark.

The story begins with the author’s description of the iguana, an animal she is extremely fascinated by.  Her admiration for this creature is brought out by the way she describes it, comparing it to a heap of precious stones, and a pane cut out of an old church window.  They glitter in the sun like a mass of colour and as they hurriedly swish away on the approach of an intruder, their radiant colours seem to linger on like the afterglow of a comet. 

The author then narrates an incident that she has never forgotten since. She is tempted to shoot an iguana, thinking that she will be able to make some pretty things from its skin. However, as the iguana dies, its brilliant colours recede as the life ebbs out of its body. To her utter disappointment, the author finds that the dead iguana is drab and grey as a lump of concrete.

She goes on describe another incident where in attempting to remove an object from its rightful place, she feels she destroyed it.  However this time it is an inanimate bracelet that the author spots on the arm of a young Native girl.  The bead bracelet looks alive as its colours mingle in a complex play of blues and greens. It draws the author’s attention and she wants it for herself.  As soon as she wears it, she realises that its beauty lay in the exciting interaction of bright turquoise on the girl’s ebony skin.  As she sees it on her own arm she feels that the bracelet has lost its value and turned into a lifeless, cheap trinket.

The stuffed deep-water fish she sees at a zoo has not lost its colour after death.  It leads the author to marvel and wonder what life must be like at the bottom of the sea and that if a single, dead fish looks so beautiful, a whole shoal of living fish would be even more breath-taking and vibrant.

The author concludes with the thought that man should not interfere with nature because there is so much we do not understand about it.  In our greed and desire to acquire things we may destroy what is most pure and beautiful.

The author draws the reader’s attention by creating mental imagery with her descriptions.  She does so by using metaphors and similes that help us picture what she is describing.  Through the description, she also conveys the theme and message of her story.  As she describes the iguana’s brilliant beauty and the way its colours wane as it dies, the author subtly convinces the reader of the tragic waste of the animal’s life.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee

‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is set in the 1930s in the sleepy town of Maycomb, Alabama.  It is set in a time when racial discrimination was extremely prevalent in the United States.  The story is about courage and innocence as a lawyer named Atticus Finch fights in court to save a black man who is falsely accused of raping a white girl.

            The story is told by Atticus’ daughter Scout as she looks back on her childhood.  Thus it is told through the eyes of a child.  Scout (Jean Louis) lives with her elder brother Jem and their father Atticus who has had to raise them himself with the help of their African-American housekeeper, Calphurnia.  She tells us the story that covers three years of her childhood.  We see the children grow from innocence to understanding as the novel progresses.

            The main plot highlights Atticus’ fight against racism as he defends Tom Robinson who is unjustly accused of raping Mayella Ewell.  A rigid social structure exists in Maycomb and African-Americans are at the very bottom of it.  They are segregated from the white people and we see this when Aunt Alexandra does not allow Scout to visit Calphurnia’s home.  The town’s racist attitude comes from blind prejudice.  The children had a superstitious fear of Boo Radley which did not come from any logical cause.  In fact he watched over them and when “Boo’s children needed him,” he came to save them.  Similarly, the town and the jury hold Tom guilty without any logical reason even though he helped Mayella out of kindness.

            As Atticus fights for justice, he also tries to teach his children the true meaning of courage.  Their childish concept of courage is touching the wall of the Radley Place because “in all his life, Jem had never declined a dare.”  Then they see their father kill a mad dog with a single shot.  However Atticus tells his children that real courage is more than a man with a gun.  He gives them the example of Mrs. Dubose who fought her morphine addiction.  Atticus says real courage is “when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.”  Thus when Atticus is facing a mob outside the jail house, Jem holds his ground and refuses to go home.  The children learn not to fight back when they are taunted about their father’s decision to defend Tom.

            By promising Atticus that they will not respond to taunts, the children also learn to understand people.  Their father tells them, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”  He teaches them to accept good and evil and to understand that they both may co-exist, even in the same person.

            As the children grow from innocence to understanding, Tom’s innocence is destroyed as he is killed.  Miss Maudie explains that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird as mockingbirds do no harm and only make sweet music.  Similarly, the jury and all of Maycomb committed the sin of sentencing Tom to death when all he did was help a girl whom he pitied.  Boo then saves the children from the revengeful Bob Ewell.  After having witnessed Tom’s trial, Scout is mature enough to understand that exposing a shy man like Boo to the public would be “sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird.”  She finally sees Boo as a man, not a monster and learns to look at the world through his eyes.  At the end of the novel she realizes the truth of what Atticus tells her, that most people are really nice when you finally see them.

THE ONE RING - J.R.R. Tolkien

Three Rings for the Elven Kings under the sky,

Seven for the Dwarf lords in their halls of stone,

Nine for the Mortal men doomed to die,

One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

In the land of Mordor where there shadows lie.

One ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie.