IBDP English A Literature: Analysing Setting, Symbolism, and Silence in Alani Apio's Ka Ho‘i ‘Ana (The Returning) – Nov 2024 Paper 1
Essay
In "Ka Ho'i 'Ana," a young Hawaiian man's return home after nearly killing a sacred shark reveals his separation from his cultural heritage. Through setting, symbolism, and silence, the author shows how familiar spaces become sites of judgment. The passage demonstrates how breaking cultural laws can make home feel foreign. This transformation of home into a space of judgment begins with the way ordinary objects take on accusatory life.
The home's transformation into a space of judgment is achieved first through personification. The author transforms everyday objects into sources of judgment. The prosopopoeia, attributing of human voice to the "bare bulb... yelling, 'You did wrong!'" shows how even simple items accuse Alan of his cultural offense. Through hyperbole, when "Everything around him screamed with accusations," the home itself becomes hostile. Using simile, the sun sits "like a familiar guest," highlighting how it belongs while Alan does not. Through metaphor, the mosquitoes that "bit indiscriminately" become agents of punishment, showing how the entire environment rejects him. The personification of these ordinary objects as judges reveals Alan's guilt-ridden consciousness, where his awareness of cultural transgression transforms even the simplest domestic items into reminders of his shame.
Beyond the animated environment, household objects take on deeper symbolic significance in measuring Alan's cultural transgression. Through symbolic representation, household items become measures of cultural authenticity and belonging. Common items carry deeper meanings about cultural belonging through symbolism. Using metaphor, the "bowl of chicken lūʻau" becomes "the bowl of guilt," showing how traditional food highlights Alan's shame. Through metonymy, his grandmother's "driftwood lamp" represents a proper connection to heritage—one Alan has lost. Employing zeugma, when she serves "poi, eggs, Portuguese sausage, and silence," the meal becomes both physical and spiritual judgment. The transformation of these everyday objects into symbols of cultural judgment reveals how Alan's guilty conscience turns even simple acts of domestic life into painful reminders of his lost connection to heritage.
While objects condemn through their symbolic weight, Alan's physical movements and positioning reinforce his cultural exile. The protagonist's physical positioning within spaces mirrors his cultural marginalization. Alan's physical positioning reflects his cultural displacement through spatial imagery. Through metaphorical positioning, sitting "at the small table" and "on the steps," he occupies marginal spaces that mirror his cultural status. Using kinetic imagery, his movements show shame: he "slipped quietly" and through simile might "steal out like a dog," revealing his discomfort in what should be familiar territory. These patterns of hesitant movement and marginal positioning reveal Alan's internalized belief that he no longer deserves a place in his cultural home.
Perhaps most powerfully, the absence of speech underscores Alan's separation from his culture. The strategic use of silence serves as a powerful tool for communicating cultural judgment and shame. The absence of speech carries significant weight through auditory imagery. Using litotes, "Nothing was said all evening," the passage shows how silence can communicate judgment more effectively than words. Through the motif of silence, the grandmother's minimal speech emphasizes her disapproval, while Alan's silence shows his acceptance of punishment. The oppressive silence reveals Alan's belief that he has lost the right to speak in this cultural space, showing how deeply he has internalized his own unworthiness.
Through these literary devices, the passage reveals how breaking cultural laws can transform familiar spaces into sources of judgment. Each technical element—from household objects to natural elements—shows how cultural displacement affects every part of daily life, making even simple actions like eating or moving through space remind Alan of his separation from his heritage.
