Narrative structure is often one of the most crucial and strategic rhetorical elements of a literary work. This is especially true when the narrator is essential to understanding the themes and purposes of the text itself, such as the personal story of a specific character or group. Tsitsi Dangarembga's gripping novel, Nervous Conditions, perfectly represents this strategy. The narrative structure of Dangarembga focuses on the personal journey of the narrator, Tambudzai, while allowing her to reveal crucial information about the socio-political situations in which the journey takes place. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay An understanding of narrative structure begins with inspection of the role and character of the narrator herself, as well as the setting in which the narration takes place. place. The novel is set in Rhodesia, a pre-colonial African environment that was home to a tumultuous mix of English and Shona cultures and suffered from a host of problems related to colonization. Tambudzai was subject to opposition from all directions: the two cultures clashed both externally, as the English attempted to assimilate Shona societies into Western thought, and internally, as women struggled to maintain their identity in rigid patriarchal societies. The narrator states at the beginning of the text that she feels "many things [during the last days], much more than [she] was capable of feeling at the time [her] brother died, and there is this is for reasons more than the simple consequence of age” (Dangarembga 1). From this statement, the reader infers that the speaker is Tambudzai, the older and more mature, telling her story in hindsight. She has “reached maturity after being socialized by two divergent social systems, the Shona community and the missionary school propagating Western norms,” and is therefore able to comment on her past more wisely (Berndt 45). The reflective and analytical tone of the narrative also characterizes Tambu as mature and educated, thus adding to the validity of her story and implying that it contains ideas worthy of consideration. The narrative of Tambudzai's development is primarily formatted to serve the classic Bildungsroman style that traces his growth from child to adult. As literary commentator Walter P. Collins, III, puts it: "More precisely, Nervous Conditions functions as a modern African Bildungsroman because it depicts the conflicted path, ultimate enlightenment, and escape of young Tambu" (Collins 73). Dangarembga cleverly combines the setting of the Bildungsroman with the adult narrator in order to "[transfer] his authorial prerogatives to Tambu, allowing him to 'write' or tell his story, thereby giving him his own voice" (Collins 74). The result is a text that beautifully allows the reader to experience the protagonist's social and psychological growth from the perspective of the protagonist herself. Narrator Tambudzai's retrospection, integrated into the storyline as passages from the third-person omniscient point of view, elucidates the significance of events as they unfold. This allows Dangarembga, through the mature voice of the narrator, to comment on the situations and characters described, because "the reader considers it a privilege to have the advantage of a mature narrator in Tambu who is capable of putting the pieces together of the puzzle together again as she recounts the events of her development since childhood” (Collins 74). At the conclusion of the novel, the readerrealizes that "Tambu's ideas, acquired through personal development and Bildung, prove essential to Dangarembga's message regarding colonialism, patriarchy, and the possibilities of expansion" (Collins 75). In keeping with her classic Bildungsroman journey, Tambu begins to describe her development in an environment from which she will eventually move away. This environment is her rural home, where she was surrounded by her immediate family and the deep roots of traditional Shona culture. The Bildungsroman structure also “offers its protagonist various directions and models of development…these future prospects are incorporated by the major characters who accompany Tambudzai's growth” (Berndt 86). In the family environment, these are Tambu's mother and his aunt, Lucia. Tambu's mother teaches her "from a very young age" that "being a woman is a heavy burden...and [at that] time, it was worse, with the poverty of blackness on one side and the weight of the femininity of the other” (Dangarembga 16). Lucia, however, is fiercely independent: she "had been raised in abject poverty [but had not] been married there at fifteen." His mind, unfettered in this regard, had experienced life and drawn its own conclusions” (Dangarembga 127). According to literary critic M. Keith Booker, "Dangarembga carefully situates these characters in relation to each other so that they evoke the kinds of relationships between opposing forces that were typical of Zimbabwean colonial society as a whole" (Booker 190). Therefore, the narrator deliberately acknowledges the relationships she had with these women, both in an effort to track young Tambu's development and also to identify strengths within her culture. Tambu's mother thus represents voluntary self-submission to the traditional feminine role, while Lucia represents total adherence to individualistic principles and liberation from gender roles. These relationships are also present as forces in society, as the Shona patriarchal role that Tambu is imposed into and the command that women maintain over their own bodies, respectively (Berndt 101). Tambu's response to these female examples allows him to begin to question his own identity. For example, Tambu rejected the obedient nature of her mother's traditional role and criticized the system, making statements such as: "The needs and sensitivities of the women in my family were not considered a priority, or even a priority." legitimate... At that time. I felt the injustice of my situation every time I thought about it” (Dangarembga 12). As narrator, Tambu takes advantage of her position by clearly identifying for the reader the characters and forces that have led her to question her identity. She tells enough of young Tambu's story for the reader to understand that "according to Dangarembga, black women must question the 'burden of femininity'" – a burden that later proves "even heavier due to the interaction between colonialism and femininity.” traditional patriarchal society” (Berndt 62). The narrator Tambu, having provided significant early development to the protagonist, then progresses to the stage of the Bildungsroman where Tambu crosses the threshold of his journey towards personal identity. This happens when, upon the death of her older brother Nhamo, she is given the privilege of attending the missionary school and living with her prosperous uncle Babamukuru, aunt Maiguru and cousin Nyasha. She uses powerful rhetoric to describe the situation: "What I experienced that day was a shortcut, a diversion from everything I had always defined as me into fast lanes thatwould lead quickly to my destination. My horizons were saturated with me, with my departure, with my departure. There was no room for what I had left behind... At Babamukuru, I would have the leisure, I would be encouraged to think about questions related to the survival of the spirit, to the creation of consciousness, rather than the simple subsistence of the body. » (Dangarembga 58-59). This powerful passage relies heavily on the narrator's perspective to emphasize the importance of her transition and draw out its implications. It begins to become clear that "the interstice where the different layers of identity are negotiated is the narrative itself", because the critical points described by the narrator contain the most crucial elements.commentary necessary to understand the principles behind the journey of Tambu (Berndt 115). Tambu also offers a unique combination of personal memories and carefully planned narration to convey his transition in a more figurative sense. For example, she symbolically reminds the reader that “although she appreciates the opportunity to lead a modern life according to Western standards, she pays the price of cultural estrangement” (Berndt 45). The presence of dirt and other natural substances is inherent to the traditional Shona way of life; therefore, the cleanliness that welcomes Tambu to his new home constitutes a significant change, as she recalls: “Babamakuru's taste was excellent, so that where he could afford to indulge in it, the results were striking. The opulence of his living room was very strong, overwhelming for someone who had first crawled, then trotted, and finally walked on dung” (Dangarembga 69). Tambu seems to imply that as the transition cleansed her of physical filth, she also attempted to erase the presence of her Shona origin. Once the narrator has implanted this idea in her reader, she is able to present young Tambu's response: "I had to devise a strategy to prevent all this splendor from distracting me... I was very proud of my strategy of reflection. This was intended to place me above the irrational levels of my character and allow me to start from pure, rational premises...I remained as distant and unimpressed as possible” (Dangarembga 69-70). The narrator has begun to formally introduce the constant struggle Tambu goes through to formulate and maintain his identity. Booker reminds readers of the parallel significance of Tambu's personal journey: "the changes that Tambudzai undergoes during his education and maturation clearly parallel the historical changes taking place in colonial Zimbabwe...Thus, the protagonist's personal experiences are linked to public events. events in her society in a way that makes her an emblem of her society and also serves as a reminder that individuals always develop in specific historical contexts” (Booker 190). Without the selective and analytical voice of the narrator to extract the subtle mechanisms behind Tambu's journey, it would be extremely difficult to understand how he represents the historical context. The narrator is therefore able to function as a bridge between the understanding of the fictional story of the protagonist and the analysis of the important historical events to which it relates. The narrator continues to provide representative examples of Tambu's journey toward a Bildungsroman's arrival at a state of stable self-stabilization. identify. The increasing analytical nature of the text seems parallel to the increasing depth and complexity of Tambu's character. The conflict experienced by Tambu “clearly cannot be reduced to a simple opposition between good and evil between traditional African cultures and European colonial cultures”, but, 2004.