2026 WAEC GCE LITERATURE IN-ENGLISH PROSE & OBJECTIVES QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS VERIFIED SOLUTIONS FROM UNITYANSWER.

(1)
A custodian of tradition is a person who guards a community’s customs and beliefs and makes sure they are passed to the next generation. In Pede Hollist’s So the Path Does Not Die, Baramusu, the grandmother of Finaba (Fina) Marah, is that guardian. She is presented as the “Guardian of the Path” in the Fula village of Talaba. She defends the female initiation rite and stands against anything she believes threatens the old ways.

She insists on the initiation and secretly arranges it for Fina.
Baramusu secretly arranges for Fina to undergo the ritual. She believes initiation turns a girl into a woman who is accepted, respected and marriageable. In the village scene where she visits Fina’s compound, she presses Fina’s mother, Nabou, to submit Fina to the rite. Her view is that a girl who skips it will be rejected by the community. One night she secretly takes Fina away. This shows she will go to any length to keep the custom alive.

She resists Western education and new ideas, which she sees as threats to culture.
Baramusu views Western education as a direct threat to cultural preservation. When she sees Fina’s Bible and hears of schooling, she reacts with scorn. She argues against Nabou’s wish to do things differently and learn new ways. For her, the old path must be followed so that it does not die out. Her stand puts her in direct conflict with Fina’s parents, Amadu and Nabou.

She passes on tradition through oral storytelling and refuses to blame the ritual for its failures.
She uses the myth of Musudugu to teach Fina. She sits Fina by the path and asks if she knows the story of Musudugu. This shows the oral tradition at work, because she hands down the values of her people through story. Amadu and Nabou doubt the rite because their first daughter, Dimusu, died after her circumcision. Baramusu dismisses that death as destiny and not as a fault in the ritual. She defends the tradition even when it costs a life.

Her loyalty to custom is shown most clearly when the ritual is broken.
When Amadu storms the Fafei and stops the ceremony, Baramusu and the villagers treat it as an unforgivable offence against the custom. The family is shunned and leaves Talaba. This is the result of her uncompromising commitment to tradition, and it sets the course of Fina’s life.
In other words
Baramusu is the strongest defender of tradition in the novel. She arranges the initiation, rejects Western education, passes on culture through story and defends the custom even after a death. Hollist uses her to show how deeply tradition is held. Through Fina’s later search for belonging, he also shows that a tradition must be reshaped into something life-affirming if the path is not to die.

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(2)
Finaba’s experience in the Heddle family is an important part of her development in So the Path Does Not Die. Her stay with the family exposes her to a different environment and contributes to her growth.

Firstly, the Heddle family provides Finaba with care and protection. After the difficulties she encounters in her early life, the family gives her an environment in which she can continue her development.

Secondly, Finaba receives educational opportunities. Her association with the Heddles exposes her to opportunities that help her pursue her ambitions. Education becomes an important means through which she can improve her circumstances.

Thirdly, she is exposed to a different culture and way of life. Living with the Heddles allows Finaba to encounter people whose background and lifestyle differ from hers. This broadens her understanding of society.

Also, her experiences help to shape her personality. The challenges and opportunities she encounters make her more determined and conscious of her identity and future.

In conclusion, Finaba’s experience in the Heddle household is significant because it provides her with care, education and exposure while contributing greatly to her personal development.

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(3)
Trauma is one of the major issues explored in Elma Shaw’s Redemption Road. The effects of the Liberian civil war continue to affect individuals even after the physical conflict has ended. Through the experiences of the characters, Shaw shows that the wounds of war can be psychological as well as physical.

Firstly, trauma causes psychological suffering. Characters who have experienced the violence of the war continue to live with painful memories of their past. Their experiences affect their thoughts and emotions long after the war.

Secondly, trauma affects relationships. Survivors may find it difficult to discuss what happened to them. Consequently, their painful experiences can create emotional barriers between them and other people.

Thirdly, trauma destroys a person’s sense of security. Having experienced violence and fear, survivors may find it difficult to feel completely safe even after the conflict is over.
Another effect of trauma is that it creates a need for healing. The characters must confront their past experiences in order to move forward. The novel therefore emphasizes the importance of truth, reconciliation and recovery.

Finally, trauma affects the wider society. The consequences of war are not limited to the individuals who directly experienced violence. Families and communities also suffer from the consequences of conflict.

In conclusion, trauma in Redemption Road causes psychological suffering, affects relationships, destroys feelings of security and creates the need for healing. Shaw uses the experiences of her characters to demonstrate the lasting consequences of war.

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(5)
The trial of Tom Robinson is the climax of To Kill a Mockingbird. Tom, a black field hand, is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a young white woman. He is defended by Atticus Finch in the Maycomb courthouse before an all-white jury. The trial exposes racial prejudice in the town and shows the moral courage of Atticus. It also changes how Scout and Jem see their community.

It exposes racial prejudice and injustice in Maycomb.
The evidence clears Tom. Mayella’s injuries were mostly on the right side of her face, but Tom’s left arm was crippled in a cotton-gin accident, so he could not have inflicted them. Bob Ewell is left-handed. Tom testifies that Mayella invited him into the yard to help with a chore and then tried to kiss him, and that he ran away in fear. Despite this, the jury finds him guilty after a long deliberation. The verdict shows that a black man’s word counts for less than a white man’s lie. Tom is later shot seventeen times while trying to escape from the prison farm. His death confirms the injustice, and the newspaper editor, Mr. Underwood, compares it to the senseless killing of songbirds.

It reveals the courage, integrity and legal skill of Atticus Finch.
The town despises Atticus for defending a black man, but he takes the case because it is right. He tells Scout that he could not hold up his head in town if he refused. He cross-examines Mayella and Bob Ewell with care and reveals their lies. In his closing speech he appeals to the jury to treat Tom as an equal before the law and to judge the evidence without prejudice. He loses the case, but his conduct earns the respect of the black community. When he leaves the courtroom, they stand to honour him, and Reverend Sykes tells Scout to stand because her father is passing.

It exposes the social and moral failings of the Ewells and of Maycomb.
Mayella is lonely, poor and abused, and she accuses Tom to hide her shame at having made advances to a black man. Bob Ewell is violent, lazy and dishonest, yet the town believes him over Tom. The trial shows that race and class decide who is believed in Maycomb. It also shows the town’s hypocrisy, since people who call themselves Christians condemn an innocent man. Bob Ewell’s humiliation by Atticus leads to his later attack on Scout and Jem.

It brings loss of innocence and moral growth to the children.
Jem is sure Atticus will win, so the guilty verdict destroys his faith in justice and he weeps. Scout begins to see the cruelty beneath her town’s politeness. Both children learn Atticus’s lesson that one must understand people by standing in their shoes. The trial thus marks their passage from innocence to experience.
In other words
The trial of Tom Robinson is the moral centre of the novel. It exposes racial prejudice, displays the integrity of Atticus and unmasks the Ewells and Maycomb society. Tom is the mockingbird destroyed by prejudice, and the trial leaves the children with a new understanding of justice and human dignity.

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