THE AWFUL DENTIST
Jwani Mwaikusa
He read medicine
Specializing in the tooth,
And graduated with honours
With new thesis
To cure the aching malady.
“Our teeth shall be alright!”
People chanted, welcoming his services.
And he started work, prompt and immediate.
They brought him all the teeth they had –
Decaying teeth, aching teeth, strong teeth.
And he started working on their jaws
Diligently pulling out every tooth
From the jaws of every mouth,
And they paid him with meat
Which now they could not eat.
And so went on the dentist
Making heaps and heaps of teeth
Useless! Laying them waste
Without fear that soon,
Very soon indeed
He would have no teeth to attend to,
No tooth for which to call himself a dentist.
INTRODUCTION
The word awful means something terrible, dreadful, horrendous or
extremely unpleasant. So “The Awful dentist” is a poem by
Professor Mwaikusa that depicts a terrible and incompetent dentist who studies
medicine specialising in dentistry. People raise their hopes welcoming his
service believing that at last their teeth will be taken care of because they
now have a specialist in dentistry. As he begins his job they bring to him all
the dental problems they have. Some have severe cases, some have mild cases and
others just need dental services. Finally they get disappointed because the
supposed saviour has turned out to be a disaster. Regardless of the status of
the teeth he pulls all of them out.
THEMATIC ANALYSIS
DISAPPOINTMENT
The poem is generally about hopes raised and disappointed. The poet
shows a society that is suffering from dental maladies. Finally they get a
dentist who has graduated fresh from college hoping that their dental problems
will no longer be a problem. They chant
welcoming him in great joy hoping for a better future. As he begins working
they get disappointed because his mind is focused on pulling out every tooth
brought to him. Even those with teeth that needed only some cure were pulled
out. Many people remained toothless. This is the greatest disappointment. The
poet says:
They
brought him all the teeth they had –
Decaying
teeth, aching teeth, strong teeth.
And
he started working on their jaws
Diligently
pulling out every tooth
From
the jaws of every mouth
In
a way the dentist represents those leaders who ask for votes and create greats
hopes to the citizens but when they get into the offices, the common people get
disappointed.
EXPLOITATION/SELFISHNESS.
The dentist is selfish and uses his education to exploit the common
people, instead of using his education to bring about a better life for them.
As he started working he began pulling out their teeth and made them incapable
of eating meat. As a result they had to bring him all the meat which they now
could not eat.
Diligently
pulling out every tooth
From
the jaws of every mouth,
And
they paid him with meat
Which
now they could not eat
This
represents leaders who create worse conditions to the citizens so that they may
exploit them in one way or another. The citizens keep on paying taxes, fees and
fines but the services offered to them remain poor.
BETRAYAL
The dentist has betrayed the people. Instead of using his education to
help them cure their illness he uses his education to exploit his clients. Many
professionals and educated elites have betrayed the common people who had
waited for their services for so long. Nonetheless, the poet shows that one day
they will suffer from their own actions. This is also a wakeup call for the
leaders who exploit the national resources not knowing that the natural
resources are extinct. They can be used up and they will no longer have
anything to exploit anymore. The poet says.
Without
fear that soon,
Very
soon indeed
He
would have no teeth to attend to,
No
tooth for which to call himself a dentist
REPERCUSSION OF FORMAL
EDUCATION
One of the main characteristics of African indigenous education is that
it was community oriented, geared to solving the problems of the community. The
instructional activities were therefore directed towards the social life of the
community so as to prepare the learners to fit in their community. Western
Formal education on the other hand has been preparing graduates with paper
qualifications, high grades and exceptional performance but they fail to
transfer their knowledge to solve societal problems. The dentist in the poem
falls under this class of professionals. He has good college grades but he
cannot use his education pragmatically to solve people’s problems in his
community.
He
read medicine
Specializing
in the tooth,
And
graduated with honours
The
society is disappointed because they don’t see the relationship between his
college performance and the service he offers.
GUIDING QUESTIONS
a) What
is the poem about?
The poem is about an awful dentist who studies medicine specialising in
dentistry and the society raises hopes that at last their teeth will be taken
care of by this dentist. The clients are finally disappointed because instead
of helping them cure the malady he began pulling out their teeth and laying
them useless.
b) What
type of a poem is this?
It is a freeverse/modern poem as it does not follow all the strict rules
for composing poems. It can also be termed as a Lyric poem as it expresses the
feelings of this citizen towards the awful dentist.
c) Describe
the form/structure of this poem.
The poem is made up of three stanzas with considerable variations in the
number and length of verses in every stanza.
Ø
Stanza
one has 5 verses/lines of uneven length.
Ø
Stanza
two has 10 verses of uneven length.
Ø
Stanza
three has 7 verses of unequal length.
d) Comment
on the rhyming scheme.
The poem has irregular rhyming scheme with exception of the 4th
and 5th couplets in the second stanza that have a regular rhyme;
Diligently pulling out every tooth
From the jaws of every mouth,
And they paid him with meat
Which now they could not eat.
e) What
is the tone and mood of the poet?
Both the tone and mood of the poet are sad and disappointed. The poet
shows the disappointment the citizens have when the dentist performs contrary
to their expectations.
f) Who
is the persona? How do you know?
The persona is an observer
who reports about the service rendered by the dentist to the optimistic society
but he ends up disappointing them. “They brought him all the teeth they had”. This line shows that the persona is not one of them
but he observes as a third part.
g) Comment
on the language use.
The
language used is simple and easy to understand. The selection of words is also
carefully done to pass the message across. The words “graduated with honours”
suggest that this dentist is expected to be competent in his area of
specialization. As a result people “chanted welcoming his services” showing
the hopes they have for him. The words “decaying
teeth, aching, teeth and strong teeth” are included to show the diversity
and intensity of their maladies. Some are very severe, some are mild, and yet
some are still strong. The word “useless!”
is postponed until the last stanza not only to show how he turned their teeth
useless but also to show that the people discovered rather later than sooner
that his service was also useless.
Figures of speech and musical devices
The poem has the
following figures of speech and poetic devices.
Ø
Irony- the poem shows a
situational irony since what happens is not what was expected. The irony
appears in the following phrases.
v
“And graduated with honours” - someone
who graduates with honours is expected to be competent in his area not like the
dentist depicted in the poem who makes heaps and heaps of teeth useless.
v
“Diligently pulling out every tooth” in
its strictest sense the word diligence
means showing care and effort in your work or duties.
The poet shows that this dentist was diligently pulling out every tooth. This is
an irony because the dentist was not diligent in his work. Instead of curing
the aching malady he was pulling out the teeth and making them useless
regardless of whether they are severely affected or not.
Ø
Poetic license.
“And so went on
the dentist” for “And so the dentist
went on...”
Ø
Reiteration...
Making
heaps and heaps of teeth
(the word heaps is repeated for emphasis)
Without
fear that soon/Very soon indeed (the word soon is repeated for emphasis)
Ø
There is internal rhyme and end-rhyme in some verses.
v
Internal rhyme is shown in this verse. “Decaying teeth, aching teeth, strong teeth” (the sounds in these
letters “ng” and “th” in this line bring about music in
the poem.
v
End rhyme is shown in the 4th and 5th couplets of the
second stanza in which the words “tooth”
and “mouth” rhyme, but also “meat” and “eat” do rhyme.
Ø
Consonance. There is repetition of the final consonants in the
following line;
Decaying
teeth, aching teeth, strong teeth
h) What
are the messages we get from the poem?
Ø
Don’t
trust someone because of his certificates. Paper qualification may be
irrelevant in solving the immediate problems of the people.
Ø
We
need to check our curriculum content for the purpose of modifying it or else we
will be producing useless graduates.
Ø
Exploitation
and betrayal are not good in our society. This dentist was creating a mechanism
for the people to give him meat (resources) because they could no longer eat it
as they were toothless.
i) Is
the poem relevant to our society?
ü
The
poem is relevant to Tanzania today since we have many graduates who have
graduated with honours from colleges, and universities but fail to apply their
knowledge in their working fields.
ü
Many
professionals have acquired irrelevant education by cramming the theories of
western philosophers but they cannot be implemented in our societies to solve
our problems.
ü
Also
some professionals create mechanisms for poor people to give them money by
setting almost impossible conditions for getting the services unless you have
offered something (corruption). Many people are disappointed by the educated
elites we have since their education is not used to create solutions but they
use their education to create more problems and turn them into opportunities.
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