Gadha Anil

Roll no : 12
New Literatures in English
Topic : Major themes and An Analysis of the Poem " Once Upon a Time " by Gabriel Okara

Themes of the poem: Once Upon a Time

Loss of dignity and pride :

The poem centers entirely on the loss of the dignity and the pride that Africans had before the
coming of Europeans. Africans were sincere in what they did. They had true love, cooperation,
and showed honesty. Things began to fall apart after the introduction of European culture in
which case both dignity and the pride of Africans were lost altogether.

Compromise / Cultural alienation

Through the poem, the poet shows that Africans have compromised their culture in favor of the
new Western Culture. They have compromised the good values that held Africans together and
gave them a sense of identity and togetherness such as kindness and sincerity. Today they
wear many faces depending on the context (occasion) but without feelings in the heart. The
poet shows that even their smiles are fake ones because they keep smiling even when they
don’t mean it. They look like a smiling picture fixed on the wall that keeps smiling. As he has
now come to his senses and discovered the compromise he has made, he wants to unlearn
these things and go back to the basics.

Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy can simply be defined as pretending to be what you are not. Moreover through the
poem the poet shows the highest level of hypocrisy that Africans have inherited from
Europeans. The current situation shows that there are people who show you a happy face while
deep in their hearts they are filled with hatred towards you. They outwardly say goodbye
(wishing you a nice departure) but deep in their hearts they mean Good-riddance (they are
happy for getting rid of you). They say they are glad to meet you while in fact there is no
gladness in them, and they will say it’s been nice talking to you while they mean that you have
actually bored them. This is hypocrisy of the highest order. The speaker tells us that he has
learnt to deal with this fake, insincere world by changing himself to one of those people. Like
others, he too hides his real feelings. He says that he has learnt “to wear many faces like
dresses” just like people keep changing dresses to suit different occasions, the poet has learnt
to behave differently in different situations.

Effects of European Culture

Awareness and Identity

The persona is aware of his African identity and he is aware of the potential changes that have
occurred to him and in fact to his fellow Africans. Africans have adopted the culture that is not in
line with their core African values. As he becomes aware of the loss of his African identity he
wants to sharply take a u-turn and go back to correct the mistake he has done. He is
determined to regain the honesty he had in everything he used to do.

Struggle for Change

The persona is struggling for change. He calls upon the Africans to be aware of where they
came from, what they are, and how they were supposed to be. The persona shows a sense of
regret due to the fact that Africans are gradually losing their good values and identity. This is a
wakeup call that will invite all the willing Africans to go back to embrace their good values. Here
the poet has learnt to behave in such a way that it ‘mutes’ or ‘silences’ his real feelings. He tells
his son that he wants to get rid of this false laugh showing only the teeth. The comparison of his
laugh in the mirror to a snake’s bare fangs brings out the fact that the smile is artificial and might
be dangerous. The persona regrets his fake behavior and he expresses his desire to unlearn all
those bad things and learn how to laugh sincerely.

The Innocence of Children

The innocence of children is also a major theme in this poem as it is this state that the persona
wants to go back to. It is his childhood that he remembers throughout the poem, the time when
things seemed so much more real and sincere. Or maybe it is only that the persona is
remembering his childhood through the eyes of a child, when he was too young to understand
how people behave. The poet asks his son to show him how to laugh sincerely. Children do not
fake things. They show what they feel inside. Again, the phrase ‘once upon a time’ reiterates the
fact that he wants to be what he used to be once in the past.

Degradation of Social and Ethical Values in Modern Society

Another theme of the poem is the degradation of social and ethical values in modern society.
The poet satirizes the moral bankruptcy of modern man and lampoons his hypocrisy, greed and
[Link] poem, however, operates on another level as well. It is written against the
backdrop of postcolonial Nigerian society. Nigeria was freed from British colonial rule in 1960
after more than a century of subjugation. The poet actually targets the legacy of colonial rule by
calling it a bane for Nigeria. He wants his son (or the youth of Nigeria) to know how good and
virtuous Nigerian people used to be before the onslaught of British imperialism. The colonizers
stripped the indigenous culture of its humane values and traditions substituting them with doubt
and distrust of the whole human race. He wants his son to return to the old ways which were
rich and pure. This makes the poem an allegory of the moral and social devastation brought on
indigenous cultures by British imperialism. Regret for what has been culturally lost to
imperialism and may not be retrieved is a significant theme of the poem.

Parent-child relationship

The poem also discusses the parent-child relationship as significant for the propagation and
protection of social and moral values. The poet wants his son not to fall prey to current
hypocrisies and also seeks through him refuge for himself.

Hope

Hope is also a theme in the poem. The poet warns the son of the horrors of aping the dominant
foreign culture and pins his hopes on him. The poet hopes that the young generation of Nigeria
will break free of the oppressors‘ invasion of their culture and return to what they actually were.

An Analysis of the Poem: Once Upon a Time

Gabriel Okara (1921–2019) is considered to be one of the first modern African poets. Born in
Nigeria, he uses folklore, religion, myth and social issues to explore tradition and transition. His
work first appeared in the magazine Black Orpheus from 1957. This poem is included in his
book The Fisherman's Invocation, published in 1978.

The tone of the poem is advisory, nostalgic and bitter. Towards the end, it turns [Link]
poem satirizes modern man for his sophistry and duplicity. On a deeper or allegorical level, it
bitterly censures the wily, sly and atrocious ways of the colonizers.

The mood of the poem is nostalgic. The personality is remembering how things used to be when
he was young and innocent, like his son. The poem highlights the guilt and resentment an
African man feels for himself to accept the culture of the westerners. He notices a marked
change in the attitudes of his people-those who were once so genuine, warm and sincere have
now suddenly turned cold and hostile towards him.

The poets’ use of a child-like lexical field contradicts the poem's morals about growing up. The
poem has mixed feelings of childhood, regret, and innocence. The child in the poem is a symbol
of innocence, purity, enthusiasm, happiness, and genuineness lacking in society. The child
represents the group of people who have not been affected by Western Culture. The poet,
struck by a sense of self-loathing and regret, turns to his son and asks him to help him unlearn
whatever he has learned and help him regain his child-like innocence.

One of the poetic devices used is metaphor. The poet says that people’s eyes are as cold as
ice. This means that there is no warmth or real feeling in the words that they say, or how they
behave. The use of Simile is reflected in several areas. The poet compares people’s faces to
smiles in a portrait. They are conforming or trying to fit, to a preconceived mold that is set up by
societal expectations. The poet compares the persona’s laugh to snakes.

The speaker in this poem realizes that the early values, which always existed in African society
like sincerity,simplicity, wholeheartedness, hospitality, friendliness, originality, identity,
uniqueness and overall satisfaction, have now faced a drastic, dramatic change. He finds
himself behaving in the same way as those around him. He feels a great sense of guilt and
self-loathing and thinks about how fake he has become losing his identity and donning different,
the fixed expression for different occasions, an unnatural smile plastered across his face.

He confesses to his son that he does not like the person he has become and wants to change,
and go back to the way he was before, in his childhood. He asks his son to help him go back to
who he was, and get back his lost identity. He expresses a desire to unlearn whatever he has
forced himself to learn, in order for him to gain his sense of self back.
The aim of this poem is to express Okara’s concern for the influence of the Western world on
age-old African custom. The poem is also meant to outline the fake personalities of numerous
people, and encourage them to return to a natural and innocent state, after reading the poem.