Language and Style of Let me die alone
Language Kargbo makes superb use of the English Language in Let Me Die Alone.
The play is particularly well crafted and the language is embedded with cultural
nuances that adequately contextualize the play, especially the rich use of
proverbs.
Songs and dance
Kargbo carefully intersperses the different acts with song and dance and pays
particular attention to sound effects. The Sande dancers are of particular
interest here. As they have the wherewithal to entertain, so they also have the
power to check and balance the authorities.
Comic relief
Moments of comic relief also heighten the overall tragic nature of the play. The
way Gbanya drag Yoko to bed stimulates some pleasurable interest. The encounter
between the guards and Messenge also underscores some comic relief. The
Messenger has been manhandled before the guards realize thatbhe is a member of
the very powerful Poro Society (pp. 131-134).
Symbols
In the play thunder rumbles. Jeneba, poison are key symbols deployed to advance
its plot structure At some significant points in the play, thunder rumbles to
arrest our attention to consciousness Jeneba in the play represents shattered
hope and a new order denied from sprouting. Poison becomes a potent tool of
ending the reign of each leader in the play. Gbanya died from poison by his
trusted aids while Yoko's death is by self-consumed poison. For Gbanya, poison
took him out in a disgraceful manner but Yoko used poison to leave the scene
with her royal esteem and integrity intact. Poison in this instance has a dual
image of negative and positive ends. But why does Kargbo make the two chiefs to
die by poison? Probably for dramatic convenience.
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which a writer gives an advance hint of
what is to come later in the story. Foreshadowing often appears at the beginning
of a story, or a chapter, and helps the reader develop expectations about the
coming events in a story. We have some instances of this literary device in Let
Me Die Alone. When Jeneba is sent to call Lamboi and Musa for a meeting in the
palace, Lamboi admires her and remarks that "Girls of her type stand to dje in
the hands of the enemies of Senehun" (p. 94). This statement foreshadows
Jeneba's abduction and gruesome death in the hands of Lamboi and Musa who are
indeed the enemies of Senehun. Similarly, Yoko has a premonition that "a great
ill will befall this household today" (p. 96); the Governor later comes to flog
her husband, Gbanya, and he is eventually poisoned to death. As royalty, Gbanya
does not want a humiliating death but he ironically foreshadows an unpleasant
end - "why should who sent so many to enemies non their quest for such peace be
afraid to die? No, I am not. My fear rests in the manner of dying" (p. 87).
Gbanya dies of poison with his skin turned black as charcoal.