May 2021 Paper 1 Sample Response 2 (Yoruba Twins)

            The context of an author inevitably influences, whether unconsciously or subconsciously, the stylistic elements of a text.  In the case of this web article written in the style of a memoir, author Tomi Obaro’s experience as an immigrant from Nigeria to the UK and the United States shapes this text’s message about the loss of cultural identity due to Westernization in the twenty-first century.  Directed at an audience of primarily young, millennial readers from English speaking countries such as the US, this text, published under BuzzFeed News uses allusive imagery, repetition, and a circular structure to create a memoir that speaks not just on the difficulties connecting with a twin sibling, but also reflects on themes of growing up and struggling to find identity in the twenty-first century in a world that is undergoing rapid “Americanization.”

            Obaro uses a circular and chronological narrative structure to create a highly reflective memoir that also allows an unfamiliar reader to gain insight into the key events that have affected Obaro’s identity.  The article is written in the “historical tense,” which enables that author to detail her own perception of her identity at the different stages of her life.  In this memoir’s “Freytag’s Pyramid,” the first few paragraphs detailing the Yoruba culture serve as the exposition of Obaro’s life story.  The use of Yoruba words such as “Oluwadamilola,” alongside the introductory words of the article “My father prayed for twins” suggests to the readers that Obaro’s identity was initially connected to religion and tightly bound to her family; Obaro highlights to the millennial American reader how her twin and family defined her identity, and that this connection was believed to be irreplaceable.  The author uses this vivid description of tradition as the foundation for her story to magnify the contrast between the traditional idea of being a twin and her contemporary experience as one. 

            Furthermore, Obaro separates major life events into succinct and organized paragraphs that use repetition to highlight the idea that identity loss is a slow and almost insidious process.  The repetition of “First to go,” “Second to go,” and “Third to go” highlight the way in which Obaro and her sister slowly distanced themselves from their Nigerian culture, and how the loss of culture due to moving to the United States caused their own relationship to deteriorate.  This reminds the American reader of the exposition of this text, where the bond of the sisters was said to be inextricably linked to Yoruba culture.  This effect is amplified by Obaro’s variation of pronouns throughout the narrative structure: she originally writes with the pronoun “we,” but as the two sisters fall apart, she begins to write with the pronoun “I” when describing her career living as an adult in America.  Quite literally, Obaro writes as if she is a different person without her sister and her culture, which gives the American reader insight into how an immigrant or migrant face difficulties in holding an intersectional identity and often end up conforming to the identity held by those that surround them.

            The web-based article also features a distinct shift in tone which serves to highlight the change in personality that Obaro has undergone due to her detachment from her original Nigerian heritage.  Obaro starts writing in a personal, joyful tone describing her and her sister’s “cuteness” and comparing their physical features in an innocent and playful manner.  When Obaro reaches adulthood, focused on her career more than her family – as is the norm in an individualist, capitalist society such as America – she begins writing in a more removed, reserved tone highlighting to Western readers how the emphasis on individuality has, ironically, deprived her of her own cultural identity.  The atmosphere is further affected by the dialogue in the text, which is not present inside quotation marks but rather as if they are thoughts running through the mind of Obaro as she is reflecting on her past.  The geographical separation between the author and her sister serves as a metaphor for the emotional separation between them: Obaro allows the reader to understand how the author’s cultural identity slowly fell apart through a series of small changes while adjusting to American life.

            As a multi-modal web-based article, Obaro also makes use of powerful imagery, within the narrative structure, to highlight how identity, once thought of as irreplaceable, is incredibly fragile.  At the start of the memoir, the author presents an image of two historical sculptures representing the similarities and bond between twin sisters; this image is seen in a new perspective once the text is fully read – the image illustrates to the audience the contrast between the historical Yoruba connection between twins and the contemporary experience of having a twin in the twenty-first century’s Westernized and postcolonial world.  Although not explicitly criticized, the American reader gains insight into how Western culture has potentially erased and is perhaps even currently erasing cultures and therefore, the identity of people around the world, like Obaro and her twin sister.  The title of the memoir initially seems paradoxical, but its true meaning in unveiled clearly once the reader finishes this text’s circular structure and understands the theme of the problems with the erasing of one’s culture.

            In this article that reads like a memoir, immigrant-author Tomi Obaro writes about far more than the relationship between two siblings.  Aimed at Western readers of BuzzFeed News, the author describes the difficulty in maintaining cultural identity in the twenty-first century, varying her tone and using powerful imagery, to highlight how an intersectional identity is almost impossible to maintain.  Obaro uses repetition and metaphor to subtly convey to the reader how conforming can lead to the loss of one’s identity and culture, and therefore, the bond that ties people (and sisters) together.  The metaphor of a twin is a powerful symbol in describing how even those that are genetically identical have a relationship that is fragile and not inextricably linked to culture and heritage.