nervous conditions plot summary

7/30/2019 Nervous Conditions Plot Summary.

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Chapter/Plot Review ofNervous Conditions

By GerShun Avilez (for an independent study with Carol West)

Chapter 1:

The narrator (Tambudzai) begins with a matter-of-fact assertion that she was not

sorry when her brother died, and she is not apologetic about this fact. Her brotherNhamo was being educated at the mission that he their uncle (Babamukuru) ran.Tambudzai (Tambu) describes Nhamo as actively seeking to distance himself from his

family and culture. Having experienced a life of prestige and advantage at the mission

school, Nhamo is no longer content with life on his squalid homestead. For example,he insists that he be driven home from school in his uncles private car to avoid riding on

the public bus. He also takes every opportunity that he can to remind Tambu that he is a

male and, being so, deserves respect and power. He also reminds her that he is not

required to take part in domestic activities (minding children is not part of a mansduty).

Here, Tambus father is introduced. He seems obsessed with prestigealthough he

himself is not willing to work for it. His dialogue throughout the work seems to be onelong lamentation for the prestige that he does not have. In this first chapter Tambu

expresses the injustice that women face; it is evident that she will come to dislike the

members of her family (male and female) because they reinforce and perpetuate this

inequity.

Chapter 2:

Tambus uncle Babamukuru is described in more detail. Babamukuru is the patriarchof Tambus family; he uses his success to support his entire family. He was sent to

England by the mission to be educated, and he and his family spent five years there. At

this point in the novel Tambus immediate family/household is running low on money.

Tambus parents reckon that they will not be able to afford to keep both Nhamo andTambu in school. Their mother sells vegetables in order to keep Nhamo in school

(because he is a male and the oldest.) Both his male and female elders place emphasis is

placed on his education. No one attempts to help Tambu. It is also interesting to note

that Tambus father Jeremiah does nothing to help either of his children in their

educational process.

This situation greatly frustrates Tambu, who begins to consider how she might end up

if she is not properly educated. She compares her mother, an uneducated woman, to her

aunt Maiguru (Babamukurus wife), an educated woman; Tambu decides that she would

rather be like her aunt than her mother. She devises a plan to raise money to pay her

school fees, but this plan is thwarted by Nhamos cruelty and his desire to prevent hissister from being educated. It is only through Mr. Matimbas (an African School teacher)

assistance that Tambu is able to get the necessary money to continue her education. This

chapter ends with Babamukurus exultant return from England. His presence allows

Tambu to further explore her fathers character: Jeremiah seems to prefer begging toworking, and he embodies a patriarchal and sexist force in Tambus life.


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Chapter 3:

Tambu comments on her relationship to her cousin Nyasha (Babmukurus daughter),

who has been strongly influenced by Western culture. Tambu recognizes that a change

has occurred in Nyasha, and she says that she misses the bold, ebullient comrade thatNyasha used to be. Babamukuru also announces that Nhamo is to come back with him to

attend the mission school. Tambu finds Nhamo seems to have trouble speaking Shonawhen he returns home from the mission. This inability to speak frustrates Tambusmother greatly. She blames the mission for this transformation in her son, and she began

to worry about his well-being there. Her fears seemed to have been substantiated in

Nhamos mysterious death. Babamukuru decides that Tambu will take Nhamos place asthe member of her family to be educated. She feels completely vindicated.

Chapter 4:

Tambu arrives at her uncles home, and she finds that she cannot help but compare itto her own home. Over and over again she describes her uncles home as very clean.

She seems enamored by the apparent cleanliness of the home. This obsession is

embodied in her own constant desire to take baths. Tambu gladly welcomes many of theEuropean aspects of life (like underwear and dresses), but her cousin Nyasha does not

seem as excited about life at the mission home. Nyasha is very rebellious and

independent. She often talks back to her parents and reads book that they find

unacceptable. Tambu finds that Nyasha is very unhappy at her home, but she (Tambu)cannot understand why she (Nyasha) is so.

Chapter 5:Tambu and Nyasha get to know each other better as they spend more time together; in

fact, they become very close. Tambu says that her relationship with Nyasha is her first

love affair because she has grown fond of her although she doesnt completely approve

of her and her actions. However, Tambu finds that very few students at the school like

Nyasha; they think that she acts white (interestingly enough everyone likes Tambu).

She also begins to notice that Nyasha is obsessed with her image and her weight. Tambu

also becomes officially accepted into the family through a ceremony that emphasizes

etiquette and custom. Tambus great admiration for Maiguru is also expressed, but

Tambu begins to recognize that she (Maiguru) has had to make sacrifices in her life that

have greatly affected her.

Chapter 6:

Tambus education at her new school is beginning to have an affect upon her: she

thinks that the white students are more beautiful than African students (the light and dark

imagery and the diction of the passage greatly support this idea). Babamukuru and

Nyasha get into a physical fight. He believes that she behaved inappropriately by talking

to a boy alone in the dark outside. He condemns her to whoredom (making her a victim

of her gender), and beats her. She refuses to accept the beating and punches him. Tambu

watches all of this and makes an important realization: the victimization of women is

universal; it is not simply an aspect of the life that she left behind in her homestead. She

also must reconfigure the image that she had of her uncle, a man whom she greatly

admired. Tambu later muses over Nyashas life because she has been exposed to all


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aspects of it: her mother, her father, and her school experience. This consideration of

Nyasha causes Tambu to realize the difficulties that Nyasha must deal with in her life,

and she decides to try and help her cope with these problems.

Chapter 7:

Tambu goes home to visit her family after having spent time at Babmukurus home.Maiguru did not want to return home to the familys homestead because there she mustfully acknowledge that although she has been more successful than most other

Zimbabwean women, she is treated no differently than any other woman. She and the

children must do most of all of the work (particularly cooking) for the entire family. By

this point one also sees that Tambu demonstrates particular preferences to the mission life

vis--vis the life of the homestead (preferring eggs and bacon to bread and margarine).

Tambus mother resents Maiguru because she associates her sons death with this

woman. She also blames Maiguru for the loss of her daughter Tambu. She refers toher as a witch.

Tambusaunt Lucia (her mothers sister) also plays a strong role on this return home.

Lucia is considered a wild woman because she refuses to be controlled by any man andshe is defiant and strong-willed even in her interactions with men. She finds that she has

become pregnant by a young man named Takesure, whose presence on the homestead

seems to have been caused by his desire to hide from his other two wives. Lucia

recognizes this weakness in Takesure and accredits her child to Jeremiah (Tambusfather)Jeremiah had slept with Lucia, but apparently not until after she was pregnant.

Upon returning home, Babamukuru see the homestead in much disarray. He attributes all

of the problems that are occurring to the fact that Jeremiah and his wife never having had

a church wedding, and he decides that they are to have one.

Chapter 8:

Tambu feels terribly conflicted about her parents wedding. It seems wrong and

unnecessary to her, but she feels as if she must obey the proclamation of Babamukuru (as

they all must). She wants to spend more time with Nyasha because she (Tambu) feels

that she (Nyasha) can understand such anguish. Although she does not agree with it,

Tambus mother simply accepts the reality of her impending wedding. She believes that

all women must suffer, and she has suffered for all of her married life; this wedding is

simply a small aspect of her continual struggle in a mans world. She tells her sisterLucia that what women want never has and never will matter.

Babamukuru gets Lucia a job working at a hostel. Although Lucia had been

characterized as being wild and independent, she becomes dependent upon Babamukuru,

which is symbolically rendered through her obeisance. In fact, all the women kneel to

him and speak his praise, except Nyasha and Tambu. Tambu attempts to join in the

praise, but she is quickly halted by Nyasha, who sought to prevent unnecessary hero

worship of her father. After beginning her job, Lucia also begins school. Tambu finds

that she is unable to attend the wedding, and she runs away after school instead of going

to the wedding (defying her uncle). Maiguru finds the confidence to express her

unhappiness to her husband and leaves him to go live with her brother. Nyasha finds that

she misses her mother, but she also wants her to stay away from their home for her


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(Maigurus) own happiness. Babamukuru, however, collects his wife from her brothers

home, and they return together.

Chapter 9:

Tambu becomes obsessed with her education and loses track of Nyasha as it were.

Leaving Nyasha behind, Tambu goes to a new school (Sacred Heart) at a convent.Tambus mother is against this new school; she believes that her daughter will benegatively affected by the insidious white ways of the convent. Tambu is warned by

many not to forget anyone; however, she cannot understand how she could ever forget

her family or friends. Nyashas earlier obsession with her image has transformed into aneating disorder: bulimia. She seems very sad about Tambus leaving because in many

ways Tambu was the only emotional outlet that she had.

Chapter 10:Two years have passed since Tambu left for the convent, and she describes her

experiences at the convent. She often feels segregated by the racism of the

administration. Very little has changed at Babmukurus home: he is still in completecontrol and Nyasha has no one to whom she can relate. Nyasha often stays up very late

at night studying, and she does not appear healthy. She has been taken to a psychiatrist,

but he claims that Africans were unable to be ill in that way that Nyasha is ill. This

worries Tambu very much. She cannot help but wonder how she will be able to make it

in the world when Nyasha who had everything is unable to survive. She says that

something began to grow inside her that made her begin to question the world around

her (and its assumptions) and herself. She says that it was a painful process, but in telling

her story she has been able to make realizations about herself and the world. Tambu says

that her story has not only been about her, but rather about herself and four women that

she loved very much: Nyasha, Maiguru, Lucia and her mother (MaShingayi).

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