The Voter summary for class 12. Summary of the lesson The Voter for second PUC. The Voter lesson summary in Kannada.
In this post we are going to discuss The Voter lesson summary in English. Short summary of The Voter for class 12.
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English summary of the lesson The Voter
About the author:
Chinua Achebe is a renowned Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. His works highlight the clash of Western and traditional African values. His style reflects Igbo oral tradition. The narration is showered with folk stories, proverbs and oratory. Among his many works, ‘Things Fall Apart’, ‘Arrow of God’ are very popular.
Summary of the lesson The Voter in English:
Roof returns to his village to help the illiterate people
Roof (Rufus Okeke) is an educated person who returns to his village in order to help the illiterate people in his own way. He had worked as a bicycle repairer’s apprentice in Port Harcourt but out of a free will, he gave up his brighter future and returned to the village to help his people. However, their village Umuofia had already produced a minister of Culture Chief the honourable Marcus Ibe in the outgoing government and was now running for another election with his party ‘People’s Alliance Party’ (PAP). It was at the time of the elections that he involved himself completely both to meet his selfish needs and a bit of social concern. Roof was the perfect adviser for Hon. Marcus during the elections as he required a person of Roof’s nature to act as the Campaign manager. We are further told that;
Short summary of The Voter for class 12
The villagers had had five years in which to see how quickly and plentifully politics brought wealth, chieftaincy titles, doctorate degrees, and other honours. They kept wondering how politics makes people very rich in a short time because Marcus had been a mission school teacher before he joined the politics that came to their village. In a short time, he had become Chief the Honourable with two big cars, and had built himself the biggest house ever in that area and christened it “Umuofia Mansion” in honour of his village. However, he is credited that despite his success he was still devoted to his people. At times he left the good things of the city and returned to his village which had neither running water nor electricity. He had just installed a private plant to supply the electricity in his new house.
Marcus throws a dinner for the villagers
On the day it was opened by the archbishop, he had slaughtered five bulls and countless goats to entertain the village people. They all praise him but after the feasting, they become aware of how they had underrated the power of the ballot paper. Marcus was prepared for satisfying his voters this time around. He had drawn five months’ worth of salary in advance and changed a few hundred pounds into shillings and gave the money to his campaign boys so that he could meet the expenditures. Roof we are told was the most trusted of these campaigners.
The Voter summary by Chinua Achebe
The excited day right before the voting day was when Roof met five elders from the village in the house of Ogbuefi Ezenwa and gave them 2 shillings each hoping that it would make them support Marcus. He reminds them that Marcus is a son from their own village and his part that is in power has promised them pipe-borne water. They inform him that it is true what he tells them but it would be shameful to take two shillings from Marcus because he is no longer poor. He is now rich and does his things like a great man. They give him a proverb that “But today is our day; we have climbed the iroko tree today and would be foolish not to take down all the firewood we need.”
Roof bribe the villagers to support Marcus
He understood what they meant by “firewood” because he too has been benefiting from the firewood from Marcus. So, he added one shilling for each but they still objected and finally, he gave each man another shilling. He said if they don’t like then they may go and vote for the enemy, referring to the Progressive Organisation Party (POP). This was formed by the tribes down the coast to save themselves from total political, cultural, social, and religious annihilation. It was said that the party had let loose so much money in Umuofia just for buying votes.
On that same night, Marcus received a strange visit. A few of the POP campaign boys entered Roof’s house and tempted him with five ponds and ask him to vote for Maduka. He takes the money then they ask him to swear by the local deity “Iyi” from Mbata. He was left with no other alternative but to obey.
The Voter for class 12
Roof split his vote into two
On the day of the election, Roof watched the reaction of Marcus quite often because he did not want Marcus to suspect him. Marcus sat in his car shaking hands of the people who came to congratulate him in advance. Roof and other organizers gave the last-minute instructions to the voters. He tells them that if they vote for the car they will one day ride in it. Although he was expected to win Marcus never wanted to lose any vote after all had cast their votes, he asked his campaign boys to go for voting starting with Roof. When Roof was asked to cast his vote, he did not know what to do. He did not want to betray Marcus even in secret. He thought of returning the five pounds but it was too much money to turn down just like that.
All of a sudden, a grand idea struck him. Without a second thought, he tore the ballot paper into two halves and put the first half into Maduka’s box, and verbally proclaimed that he has first voted for Maduka and put another half in Marcus’s box and moved out.
Conclusion:
Chinua Achebe has captured magnificently how indigenous people are affected by the sweeping changes that politics brings about in a village in Africa which was unheard of until some point of time. He lays more emphasis on the degenerating native culture, language ethics and lifestyle before the alien western system. The evil hand of money in corrupting the innocent minds is apparent in the story.
Watch this video for the explanation of The Voter summary for class 12.