Compare/Contrast Ake And Dark Child

6 Pages 1396 Words

Autobiographies deal with many things in an individual’s life. One of the things that is very important to this type of book is the way the author’s culture has influenced his life. The way that they were raised during their childhood is also an important influence. In the autobiographies Dark Child and Ake, the authors talk about many things regarding their childhood. They both deal with topics including religion, family and education.
Style is also something that is important to an autobiography. The two authors being discussed here have very different styles of writing. In Dark Child, the author, Camara Laye, speaks to the reader in a childlike sense. The book is easy to read and seems to be more about telling stories than anything else. In Ake, it is quite the contrary. The author, Wole Soyinka, is also telling stories, however, he is obviously showing off his writing abilities. He makes references to things not many people know, and very often does not explain what he is talking about. The two books both go in depth regarding their religion, traditions and beliefs. Both authors belonged to different religions and speak about it in different ways.
In Dark Child, Laye comes right out and begins talking about his family’s belief. Within the first four pages of the book, he is already letting us know about one of the most important things he learned about his family when he was a young boy in French New Guinea: about his father’s snake. One time, Laye was playing with a snake, and his mother scolded him, telling him that he could be badly hurt. From then on, he told his mother every time he saw a snake. One day, he saw a snake going towards his father’s workshop. He immediately told his mother about the danger. This is when he learned about this special snake. His mother told him, “ This snake, is your father’s guiding spirit.”
Laye had no idea what to make of this snake. He was young and was not aware of the speci...