INCIDENT IN THE PARK ANALYSIS

INCIDENT IN THE PARK ANALYSIS PDF – MEJA MWANGI

A silent song and other stories

Focus

Idleness of city dwellers

Summary of Incident in the Park

In Incident in the Park, Kenyan author Meja Mwangi paints a grim picture of a loafer-infested park, with portentous air hanging forlornly over it. The story ends when an innocent fruit-seller is stoned to death by a mob, in a case of mistaken identity.

The short story opens with a gloomy description of the park. We meet some park loungers who waste hours on end sleeping in the park. Most of the idlers do not pay heed to the parliament and City Hall clocks, and would rather loll all day doing nothing.

At 1:00 , office workers come out of their offices in swarms. They are then swallowed by the sad city as they disperse in search of lunch. The idlers in the park nonchalantly watch the workers emerge from their offices, disappear into the city and even anticipate the wave of workers to return from various eateries and flood past the park back to their various offices.

“The patched park was almost dead, alive only with a few idlers.”

Among the idle men sitting or lying under trees and shrubs is a fruit-seller. He sits under a shrub taking stock of his sales. He mumbles and curses and lays on his back, covering his face with his bony hands. He lounges during lunch break. Maybe he is too poor to afford a meal.

More idle men sit by a small lake watching a couple of men paddling hired boats. These loafers while away doing this every day.

The park is poorly maintained. A pond in the park is choking with ugly weeds. An idle man defies the order not to feed the hungry fish and defiantly throws rubbish into the water.

Soon he starts conversing with a fellow idler. They chat about how fish are like people. The largest fish in the pond bullies the smaller fish as they compete for food in their feeding ground. The man feeding the fish avers that there is a great big fish that could drink all water in the ocean and cause a great drought making the world to come to an end. The huge monster supposedly eats other fish.

In the park, we also meet two ice cream men who desperately try to sell their ice cream to no avail.

Later, city constables confront the fruit-seller about his license and identity card. He claims that he left them at home and tries to bribe them with five shillings and later ten shillings but they would hear nothing of it. He desperately pleads with the men to let him go. He has a case with a judge he calls a tyrant. He sells fruits to raise a fine for the case. He further offers the constables one basket of fruits and 10 shillings. He even offers them both his fruit baskets desperately trying to buy his freedom.

When they remain steadfast, decides to run for it but sadly he is accosted by a mob who mistake him for a thief and they stone him to death. They judge him based on his dirty torn clothes and a mean hungry face – the uniform of his trade.

The police come to collect the body but no one is willing to appear as a witness to recount the events leading to the poor man’s untimely demise in the hands of a callous erratic mob.

The two loungers who were talking about fish witnessed the whole spectacle before drifting guiltily back to the park to continue loafing.

The park is once again tranquil, just like a pond moments after someone splashes something into the water.

New words

Taken a heavy toll

Forlornly

Gaunt

Shimmer

Growling

Clogged up

Insistent

Gushed

Ravenous

Tide

Patched

Gnarled

Unceremoniously

Unshod

Muttering

Frothing

Confounded

Unnoticing

With a start

Slouching

Trudged along

Tyrant

Sanctuary

Nabbed

Hit out

Lunged

Furtively

Haunches

Ebbed

Subdued