COMMENTARY
PRISONERS OF HOPE is a title alluding to what is communicated in Scripture, Zechariah 9:11-12, where God in His filial love proclaims freedom and deliverance of “prisoners of hope” from a dungeon. We see that everyman is a prisoner hoping for good, seeking to be disentangled from undesirable circumstances of life. More important is the attitude that a man displays during the period of his optimism. Trials and troubles of life can disorganize man and blur his vision. He can either survive such odds or die in perilous circumstances, but his hope to do no wrong should be a center for all consolation.
This heart-rending story of Levi depicts him as a man afflicted by his love for smoking, snorting of snuff, and drinking of hard gin. He, in fact, suffers from drug addiction which has drastically depleted his strength. He is then diagnosed to be a lung cancer patient and is later discovered to be suffering a memory loss as well. Despite that medical experts have predicted a specific day Levi would die, it is his hope of seeing his Maker face-to-face that keeps him living. Though the journey may bear him to a very far distance, he expects no sad farewell from his relatives. This idea seems to allude to Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, "Crossing the Bar, where the poet-persona expresses his profound hope and willingness to embrace death, believing that there is existence of life after death.
One may feel sad for Levi's life when he was asked to go back home from the hospital to die due to his poor health, and one may sympathize with other patients in the hospital who see themselves prejudiced and muted in a segregated room of the medical center as “soon-to-be-dying” patients. These patients suffer along with Levi, and they hope to be healed along with him as well. They're portrayed as people with only a thematic function, causing the tragic coarseness in the story. The author seems to include them in the story to stimulate grief and make his readers have intense sorrows. The author, Fortune E.C. Nwaiwu, uses multiple sensory reporting techniques in writing, telling and description. He allows his characters to express their feelings, telling each other how they feel about an issue through dialogues, and then he describes what each of the characters feels through the voice of Venerable Peterson. For instance:
"Sir, is there no other thing to do to save his life?" Fabian cried.
"What I told you is the best thing your father can do to regain his life in heaven.... He who fails to repent in his sick bed has failed to secure a place in heaven," Dr. Smart advised.
Though the entire work is reported by a first-person narrator, there seems to be an intrusion of an omniscient narrator's voice in some parts of the text. This supports the thesis that the author uses multiple voices in narrating his story, a fine stylistic technique judiciously utilised to report that pain affects virtually all in this literary heart-wrenching piece.
Having a limited time to live on Earth, Levi then surrenders to God. He is seen as a realistic man, seizing what little opportunity he has to reconcile with God; he does not want to miss heaven.
The author emphasizes that every patient, technically termed "prisoners," should ponder their lives, making conscious efforts to repent and be ready to meet their God. This idea of man reconciling with his Maker before breathing his last is conveyed by Venerable Peterson, who has played a prime role in encouraging and praying for Levi during his dire heath challenges. Even when members of his church estranged themselves from Levi, Peterson does not abandon Levi.
Peterson helps in discovering the root cause of Levi's problem, fraud. As a banker, Levi has defrauded CODERABIA Bank, and run away. He was then cursed by his boss, a curse that has devastated his life and his family. Levi’s ill-gotten money was used to build his house, buy a car, and add to his property. He then developed the habits of drinking and smoking. But now his life has retrogressed, and most of his valuable properties, including his car, are sold to pay off the hospital bills. And yet his heath is deteriorating. Immediately, Levi is discharged from the hospital, and it then becomes apparent to him that he would soon die.
A story can change at the last, dying minute, either for good or for bad. In all, Levi's story could be told in either way. At a dying minute, he receives a divine healing after delivering a powerfully touching homily, and at his latter days, as fate may have it, he is abducted and killed during the period of gun-shot-exchange between police and the kidnappers.
The latter days of Levi’s life are full of pain and grief, transmitted even to the nerves of the readers. He had died twice before receiving the final fatal gunshot that claims his life. This mode of Levi’s dying and resurrection does not depict him as a coward, but a man God's favor is upon. The only thing he gains out of his excruciating pain in his last hours is making himself ready to cross to the other realm of life, where he anticipates seeing his Creator face-to-face. With such faith, Levi hopes, although like a prisoner in a dungeon, that there is life after death.
Levi is a tragic hero, one portrayed to fit in classical and modern characterization with his tragic flaws such as drug abuse and inordinate passion – such a refusing to grant Cornell's desire of marrying his daughter, Mildred.
This powerful heart-rending story has been read by over 5000 people all over the world. Enjoy!
PRISONERS OF HOPE is a title alluding to what is communicated in Scripture, Zechariah 9:11-12, where God in His filial love proclaims freedom and deliverance of “prisoners of hope” from a dungeon. We see that everyman is a prisoner hoping for good, seeking to be disentangled from undesirable circumstances of life. More important is the attitude that a man displays during the period of his optimism. Trials and troubles of life can disorganize man and blur his vision. He can either survive such odds or die in perilous circumstances, but his hope to do no wrong should be a center for all consolation.
This heart-rending story of Levi depicts him as a man afflicted by his love for smoking, snorting of snuff, and drinking of hard gin. He, in fact, suffers from drug addiction which has drastically depleted his strength. He is then diagnosed to be a lung cancer patient and is later discovered to be suffering a memory loss as well. Despite that medical experts have predicted a specific day Levi would die, it is his hope of seeing his Maker face-to-face that keeps him living. Though the journey may bear him to a very far distance, he expects no sad farewell from his relatives. This idea seems to allude to Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, "Crossing the Bar, where the poet-persona expresses his profound hope and willingness to embrace death, believing that there is existence of life after death.
One may feel sad for Levi's life when he was asked to go back home from the hospital to die due to his poor health, and one may sympathize with other patients in the hospital who see themselves prejudiced and muted in a segregated room of the medical center as “soon-to-be-dying” patients. These patients suffer along with Levi, and they hope to be healed along with him as well. They're portrayed as people with only a thematic function, causing the tragic coarseness in the story. The author seems to include them in the story to stimulate grief and make his readers have intense sorrows. The author, Fortune E.C. Nwaiwu, uses multiple sensory reporting techniques in writing, telling and description. He allows his characters to express their feelings, telling each other how they feel about an issue through dialogues, and then he describes what each of the characters feels through the voice of Venerable Peterson. For instance:
"Sir, is there no other thing to do to save his life?" Fabian cried.
"What I told you is the best thing your father can do to regain his life in heaven.... He who fails to repent in his sick bed has failed to secure a place in heaven," Dr. Smart advised.
Though the entire work is reported by a first-person narrator, there seems to be an intrusion of an omniscient narrator's voice in some parts of the text. This supports the thesis that the author uses multiple voices in narrating his story, a fine stylistic technique judiciously utilised to report that pain affects virtually all in this literary heart-wrenching piece.
Having a limited time to live on Earth, Levi then surrenders to God. He is seen as a realistic man, seizing what little opportunity he has to reconcile with God; he does not want to miss heaven.
The author emphasizes that every patient, technically termed "prisoners," should ponder their lives, making conscious efforts to repent and be ready to meet their God. This idea of man reconciling with his Maker before breathing his last is conveyed by Venerable Peterson, who has played a prime role in encouraging and praying for Levi during his dire heath challenges. Even when members of his church estranged themselves from Levi, Peterson does not abandon Levi.
Peterson helps in discovering the root cause of Levi's problem, fraud. As a banker, Levi has defrauded CODERABIA Bank, and run away. He was then cursed by his boss, a curse that has devastated his life and his family. Levi’s ill-gotten money was used to build his house, buy a car, and add to his property. He then developed the habits of drinking and smoking. But now his life has retrogressed, and most of his valuable properties, including his car, are sold to pay off the hospital bills. And yet his heath is deteriorating. Immediately, Levi is discharged from the hospital, and it then becomes apparent to him that he would soon die.
A story can change at the last, dying minute, either for good or for bad. In all, Levi's story could be told in either way. At a dying minute, he receives a divine healing after delivering a powerfully touching homily, and at his latter days, as fate may have it, he is abducted and killed during the period of gun-shot-exchange between police and the kidnappers.
The latter days of Levi’s life are full of pain and grief, transmitted even to the nerves of the readers. He had died twice before receiving the final fatal gunshot that claims his life. This mode of Levi’s dying and resurrection does not depict him as a coward, but a man God's favor is upon. The only thing he gains out of his excruciating pain in his last hours is making himself ready to cross to the other realm of life, where he anticipates seeing his Creator face-to-face. With such faith, Levi hopes, although like a prisoner in a dungeon, that there is life after death.
Levi is a tragic hero, one portrayed to fit in classical and modern characterization with his tragic flaws such as drug abuse and inordinate passion – such a refusing to grant Cornell's desire of marrying his daughter, Mildred.
This powerful heart-rending story has been read by over 5000 people all over the world. Enjoy!
Comments