The Epigraph In Mia Couto's The Last Flight Of The Flamingo

1089 Words5 Pages
In Mia Couto 's novel, The Last Flight of the Flamingo, epigraphs are used as an introduction to each of the 21 chapters. Additionally, there is one before the prologue. Epigraphs are one of the key tools a writer could use to communicate directly to the reader, apart from the main content. As a method of foreshadowing, they enhance what is important, so that the reader knows what to pay attention to in the following chapter. Usually they require some sort of contextual understanding, such as through maintained literary analysis. More commonly one can see that many authors include the epigraphs for second-time readers (or third, etc.), because when you already know the story it would be easier to appreciate the references. In The Last Flight of the Flamingo, the epigraphs are predominantly made up of sayings. Some of them are credited as being specific to Tizangara, in other words established to be fictional, while others are presented as real-world proverbs. While one cannot trust the author with this information, it would familiarize the novel Furthermore, there are also some excerpts…show more content…
In the epigraph Godwilling claims that women are the home, meaning that woman are the constant in a mans life, something he relies on to always come back to, to get cooked food and a clean house to come back to. Later in the book we are presented more of the recording, where she compares women in the society to birds on the back of hippos – living in a symbiotic relationship even though it seems like one part is stronger (p. 143). This shows not only the power of impact the prostitute (who is the first person to be called as an expert when they find the severed penis) possesses, but also of women like Ermelinda Jonas, the translators mother, and
Open Document