Tambudzai, the main character of Nervous Conditions, is considered the "hero" or "possessor" of the story. How do you accomplish this beyond presenting a first-person experience? How else but to make the character better by comparison? Nyasha becomes Tambu's support, empowering Tambu, but not herself. Tambu admits that "Nyasha would not be good for" her (103). Nyasha is portrayed negatively, even to Tambu, in an attempt to further imprint the image of the hero/antihero relationship. The following, to put their relationship in some context, will analyze Nyasha, compared to Tambu, and how they relate through their culture, class and education. One reason why Nyasha and Tambu differ is that they grew up in different cultures and families. environment. While Tambu lived her early years in traditional Shona culture, with women doing the cleaning, men making all the important decisions and navigating a delicate social hierarchy within the family structure, Nyasha grew up in England, knowing only close relatives and knowing nothing. of a familiar order and very little of basic Shona customs. It has been said that Nyasha is "over anglicized" (100), and she was "silent and watchful, watching" them all (72). She knows little about Shona culture, being an Anglo-Saxon child, and is forced to look at it as an outsider, a person who knows little about what she is observing. Tambu, however, knows much of the culture; after all, she grew up there. Even family life, a big part of everyone's culture, was very different between these two. Nyasha only had her brother Chido, her parents, and an occasional guest. Tambu, on the other hand, had several siblings, her parents, and family living close enough that they needed to be taken into consideration when... halfway through the test... she received a high score, but they took a different view of their votes. While Tambu was excited and happy that her hard work had paid off, Nyasha continues to put in minimal effort and has taken on the attitude of knowing more than others. This explains her conflict with Tambu regarding school work, it is not important to her because it does nothing for her. Even though Tambu and Nyasha find themselves at a similar crossroads at this particular moment in history, they had completely different paths that led them to this one. point. Their circumstances may be similar, but their perspectives are different. Nyasha has been adapted to her situation in a way that makes her the opposite of Tambu, or at least as opposite as possible to land in the same situation. Tambu and Nyasha are concordant counterparts, fighting for the title of hero, but Tambu wins, because she has first-person view.