Chapters 1-4 Okonkwo’s mission to be an opposite of his father was admirable and, in many ways, heroic. This all changed when Okonkwo turned his desire to be productive into a crusade to eliminate all that was not manly in his eyes. He began to pour all of his energies into being masculine. He became a great wrestler, warrior, and worker. He began to take this all too far, however, when he avoided even entertainment such as conversation and music just because his father had enjoyed these things. Okonkwo considered them agbala, or womanly. He became excessively stoic and suppressed all emotion. While this could be considered heroic for some, it was simply unnecessary for Okonkwo and caused more harm than good. The build-up of emotions resulted in angry outbursts such as those seen in Chapter 4. He even threatened to break his children’s jaws for not splitting yams correctly, although, “inwardly Okonkwo knew that the boys were still too young to understand fully the difficult art of preparing seed yams…Yam stood for manliness…He would stamp out the disquieting signs of laziness which he thought he already saw…” (pg. 33) This extreme approach to manliness caused Okonkwo to be successful, but also provided a critical fault that resulted in rash action and decisions that caused him to lose the respect which he had worked so hard to earn. He tried so hard to be different from his father that he ended up missing the pleasures of life that hard work can bring and that he deserved. He also made a mistake in holding these expectations for his sons when it was nearly impossible to force his standards upon them or anyone else.
Chapters 5-7 In Chapter 7, the swarm of locusts descended upon the village. Before the large mass, “a fairly small swarm came. They were the harbingers sent to survey the land.” (pg. 56) By true definition, a harbinger is somebody or something that foreshadows or anticipates a future event. The people of Umuofia seemed joyous at the sight of these creatures because they were good to eat. Along with the good things, however, there were also descriptions of the locust as a, “boundless sheet of black” (pg. 56) and it was also said that they snapped mighty tree branches. These details bring a more ominous tone to the arrival of these creatures. Rather than a cataclysmic event near their arrival, I believe that the locusts suggest a deceptively destructive force that mirrors the arrival of the locusts. The quote immediately preceding the beginning of Part One says, “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” (Yeats, no pg. #) I believe that this suggests the center of Umuofia, or some other center of the culture, will collapse and fall apart as the climactic event of the novel. The presence of the locusts and the amount of clues in the text bring me to believe that this fall from stability is unavoidable in the way of fate.
Chapters 8-10 In Chapter 8, the unequal status of women was again showed in the discussions of the men. They thought it humorous that, in some places, children belonged to the women. When the old man died and it was said that he was close to his wife, Okonkwo seemed to question the strength of the man in his youth just because of this relationship with his spouse. It was interesting, then, that Chapter 9 included a lot of content focused on women and it showed Okonkwo’s affection for his daughter. Enzinma’s history as a sickly baby to the present provided the most focus on females thus far in the novel. When told that Enzinma was ill, Okonkwo, “sprang from his bed, pushed back on the bolt on his door and ran into Ekwefi’s hut.” (pg. 76) The urgency of his actions suggested that his daughter was very important to him. Okonkwo gathered the medicine for his daughter himself and administered it with care. This brief, personal glance into his feminine side allowed for a more complete characterization of Okonkwo. Enzinma’s story also brought many cultural beliefs, such the obanje children, to light. The purpose of this section of the book was to reveal culture and this continued in Chapter 10 with the ceremony with ancestral spirits. Although the sensitivity towards females was lowered, Achebe showed the surprisingly advanced and fair form of justice in the village. In the end, the spirits ruled that the abused woman should return, but they said that, “it is not bravery when a man fights with a woman,” (pg. 93) so the cruel treatment of the woman was discouraged. This section showed a focus on a complete view of society and allowed the reader to see Okonkwo beyond his outer shell of stoicism.
Chapters 11-13 This section introduced a questioning of traditional beliefs. In Chapter 11, Chielo, the priestess, came to take Enzinma to see the Oracle and ordered no one to follow her. Despite this warning, Enzinma’s mother, Ekwefi, followed the priestess in the blackness of night and ignored the tradition of the divine. Later, she found that Okonkwo had been not only nervous, but, “gravely worried.” (pg. 112) Both Okonkwo and his wife had risked divine punishment and broken tradition to protect their daughter. The setting is brought back to traditionalism with the uri, or wedding ceremony, of Obierika’s daughter. The funeral of the old man of the village was also ceremonial until Okonkwo’s gun exploded and he accidentally killed someone. Traditional law stated that Okonkwo must be in exile for seven years just because of a completely accidental death. This raised questions about the practicality and reasonability of the rules. It seemed harsh to punish a man so severely for something that was not premeditated. Even Obierika, a respected member of the village, questioned the tradition, but, “although he thought for a long time he found no answer.” (pg. 125) Obierika’s questioning led him to think about why they had to throw away twins when they had done no wrong. All of the questioning in this section, however, led to no epiphanies or learnings. The people of the tribe still feared completely breaking from tradition and chose not to question any further, although many of the practices made little sense. This resistance to change has been seen in many situations in history and usually leads to a forced change or destruction. This same fate is most likely in store for Umuofia because they refused to adapt to the times and were not in position to handle anything, or anyone, different from them.
Chapters 14-18 The foreshadowing brought about by the locusts came in the missionaries. The first white man came to Abame to scout out the territory and, soon after, a larger amount of men came and destroyed the village. The presence of the missionaries spread to other villages and they appeared harmless and peaceful in their advances towards the villages. The reader, however, realizes that the missionaries teaching’s came in conflict with the villages and that the tribal culture will be destroyed by force or compliance with the white culture. Along with the fulfillment of the foreshadowing, the feminine roles were shown prominently with Okonkwo’s return to his motherland. Okonkwo was, not surprisingly, sad to return to the peaceful land of his mother. He lost his purpose in life because he could not gain the titles of the clan in exile. He felt that everything was against him and thought that he was slipping away from his manly side. Despite attempts by his uncle, Uchendu, to console him, Okonkwo withdrew until a visit from Obierika, when Okonkwo heard that Abame had been destroyed. He was glad for this violent story that helped him feel manly again. His need for violence seems to be a flaw that could result in destructive behavior and his downfall. Okonkwo found an object to hate in the new church and he hated its message of peace and acceptance. This resistance to change was also seen in Abame and it was eventually destroyed. Okonkwo inability to accept the new beliefs caused him to see his motherland as, “a womanly clan.” (pg. 159) He felt that Umuofia would always be war-like and manly, so he refused to conform in the hope of returning to his old life after exile. He did not realize that everything around him was changing and that his ways were becoming extinct. He ended up becoming even more opposed to womanly things in his motherland and failed to gain any new understandings. His stubbornness and violence were incompatible with the new way of life, and so he was doomed for destruction.
Chapters 19-21 Okonkwo made the return to Umuofia that he had envisioned that, “he would return with a flourish,” (pg. 171) and that everything would be as he had left it. The missionaries denied him this fantasy and he returned to a village controlled by the white people and losing tradition. The white people administered justice which did not match the customs of the land and the church split the clan from the unified body it once was. Okonkwo was surprised that his clan had not driven out the white people. This showed his steadfast belief that Umuofia would always be manly and that he could return to masculinity in his fatherland. Although the missionaries bring prosperity and they are peaceful, they inevitably affect the unity and tradition of the clan. As I had previously stated, the tribe was not suited to accepting or adapting to new ideas. The presence of the missionaries made a major difference, not only in religion, but in all aspects of life. Okonkwo was like a fish out of water in his motherland, but now, his idealized home had also become peaceful and “soft like women” (pg. 183). Okonkwo continued violent behavior when he attacked Mr. Brown when informed that Nwoye was at a white school. His continued clinging to the past was out of place in the new culture and it seemed almost impossible that Okonkwo could survive in such conditions. Okonkwo’s entire life had been about gaining titles and becoming one of the greatest men of the clan. With the new regime, all of the things into which he had poured himself were non-existent and he had no purpose in life. His downfall rests in his inability to shed the past and the violence it held to comply with the unavoidable change in his world.
Chapters 22-25 This section continued the interference of white men with the harsher Reverend Smith and the unmasking of the egwugwu. In these instances, however, Umuofia took violent action by burning the church. Okonkwo, “had a feeling that was akin to happiness.” (pg. 192) He felt that he could finally return to the glory of being a warrior and fighting. Soon after, he and other leaders of the clan were humiliated in prison by the white men. The abuse in prison brought about justified anger from Okonkwo and he wanted to fight. He decided to violently respond to the mistreatment no matter what the village thought. During the meeting to decide action, he killed the court messenger who tried to stop the meeting. He expected the clan to be behind him and kill the other messengers to begin a war. The rest of the people, resigned to the fact that they had no hope, asked why Okonkwo killed the messenger and offered no further retaliation. By this lack of response, Okonkwo finally saw that the times had changed and that there was no way to go back. His life and dreams had been crushed at that moment and the white men had triumphed over his tribal spirit. This symbolized that the heart of tribal culture had fallen apart. Okonkwo hung himself in his misery and the white commissioner felt no responsibility or sorrow at the death. In fact, he took it as a mere event that showed him a nuance of tribal culture. He said that Okonkwo’s story could make a few paragraphs in his book. I find this ironic because Achebe wrote a detailed book about Okonkwo, yet the white man failed to see him as a complete person and only took one small part of the tradition of the tribe from his death. The commissioner would use nothing about the life of Okonkwo, the warrior, successful man, and tribal center. This great injustice to the life of a great man reflected the lack of general concern for destroying a rich culture by the white people. The book by the commissioner was to be titled The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger. The commissioner failed to see that the tribes needed no pacification and that they were not primitive. Achebe displayed an advanced justice system, social hierarchy, ceremonies, religion, a solid economy, and governance in Umuofia. That seemed civilized and structured without any “help” from the white people. An already rich culture was the thing that fell apart in an attempt by white people to fix something that was not broken.
Didn't the passage of background information say that Antigone was a victim of Creon's hubris? Some of you are suggesting that Antigone is the tragic hero. Thoughts on that.
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Chapters 1-4
Okonkwo’s mission to be an opposite of his father was admirable and, in many ways, heroic. This all changed when Okonkwo turned his desire to be productive into a crusade to eliminate all that was not manly in his eyes. He began to pour all of his energies into being masculine. He became a great wrestler, warrior, and worker. He began to take this all too far, however, when he avoided even entertainment such as conversation and music just because his father had enjoyed these things. Okonkwo considered them agbala, or womanly. He became excessively stoic and suppressed all emotion. While this could be considered heroic for some, it was simply unnecessary for Okonkwo and caused more harm than good. The build-up of emotions resulted in angry outbursts such as those seen in Chapter 4. He even threatened to break his children’s jaws for not splitting yams correctly, although, “inwardly Okonkwo knew that the boys were still too young to understand fully the difficult art of preparing seed yams…Yam stood for manliness…He would stamp out the disquieting signs of laziness which he thought he already saw…” (pg. 33) This extreme approach to manliness caused Okonkwo to be successful, but also provided a critical fault that resulted in rash action and decisions that caused him to lose the respect which he had worked so hard to earn. He tried so hard to be different from his father that he ended up missing the pleasures of life that hard work can bring and that he deserved. He also made a mistake in holding these expectations for his sons when it was nearly impossible to force his standards upon them or anyone else.
Chapters 5-7
In Chapter 7, the swarm of locusts descended upon the village. Before the large mass, “a fairly small swarm came. They were the harbingers sent to survey the land.” (pg. 56) By true definition, a harbinger is somebody or something that foreshadows or anticipates a future event. The people of Umuofia seemed joyous at the sight of these creatures because they were good to eat. Along with the good things, however, there were also descriptions of the locust as a, “boundless sheet of black” (pg. 56) and it was also said that they snapped mighty tree branches. These details bring a more ominous tone to the arrival of these creatures. Rather than a cataclysmic event near their arrival, I believe that the locusts suggest a deceptively destructive force that mirrors the arrival of the locusts. The quote immediately preceding the beginning of Part One says, “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” (Yeats, no pg. #) I believe that this suggests the center of Umuofia, or some other center of the culture, will collapse and fall apart as the climactic event of the novel. The presence of the locusts and the amount of clues in the text bring me to believe that this fall from stability is unavoidable in the way of fate.
Chapters 8-10
In Chapter 8, the unequal status of women was again showed in the discussions of the men. They thought it humorous that, in some places, children belonged to the women. When the old man died and it was said that he was close to his wife, Okonkwo seemed to question the strength of the man in his youth just because of this relationship with his spouse. It was interesting, then, that Chapter 9 included a lot of content focused on women and it showed Okonkwo’s affection for his daughter. Enzinma’s history as a sickly baby to the present provided the most focus on females thus far in the novel. When told that Enzinma was ill, Okonkwo, “sprang from his bed, pushed back on the bolt on his door and ran into Ekwefi’s hut.” (pg. 76) The urgency of his actions suggested that his daughter was very important to him. Okonkwo gathered the medicine for his daughter himself and administered it with care. This brief, personal glance into his feminine side allowed for a more complete characterization of Okonkwo. Enzinma’s story also brought many cultural beliefs, such the obanje children, to light. The purpose of this section of the book was to reveal culture and this continued in Chapter 10 with the ceremony with ancestral spirits. Although the sensitivity towards females was lowered, Achebe showed the surprisingly advanced and fair form of justice in the village. In the end, the spirits ruled that the abused woman should return, but they said that, “it is not bravery when a man fights with a woman,” (pg. 93) so the cruel treatment of the woman was discouraged. This section showed a focus on a complete view of society and allowed the reader to see Okonkwo beyond his outer shell of stoicism.
Chapters 11-13
This section introduced a questioning of traditional beliefs. In Chapter 11, Chielo, the priestess, came to take Enzinma to see the Oracle and ordered no one to follow her. Despite this warning, Enzinma’s mother, Ekwefi, followed the priestess in the blackness of night and ignored the tradition of the divine. Later, she found that Okonkwo had been not only nervous, but, “gravely worried.” (pg. 112) Both Okonkwo and his wife had risked divine punishment and broken tradition to protect their daughter. The setting is brought back to traditionalism with the uri, or wedding ceremony, of Obierika’s daughter. The funeral of the old man of the village was also ceremonial until Okonkwo’s gun exploded and he accidentally killed someone. Traditional law stated that Okonkwo must be in exile for seven years just because of a completely accidental death. This raised questions about the practicality and reasonability of the rules. It seemed harsh to punish a man so severely for something that was not premeditated. Even Obierika, a respected member of the village, questioned the tradition, but, “although he thought for a long time he found no answer.” (pg. 125) Obierika’s questioning led him to think about why they had to throw away twins when they had done no wrong. All of the questioning in this section, however, led to no epiphanies or learnings. The people of the tribe still feared completely breaking from tradition and chose not to question any further, although many of the practices made little sense. This resistance to change has been seen in many situations in history and usually leads to a forced change or destruction. This same fate is most likely in store for Umuofia because they refused to adapt to the times and were not in position to handle anything, or anyone, different from them.
Chapters 14-18
The foreshadowing brought about by the locusts came in the missionaries. The first white man came to Abame to scout out the territory and, soon after, a larger amount of men came and destroyed the village. The presence of the missionaries spread to other villages and they appeared harmless and peaceful in their advances towards the villages. The reader, however, realizes that the missionaries teaching’s came in conflict with the villages and that the tribal culture will be destroyed by force or compliance with the white culture. Along with the fulfillment of the foreshadowing, the feminine roles were shown prominently with Okonkwo’s return to his motherland. Okonkwo was, not surprisingly, sad to return to the peaceful land of his mother. He lost his purpose in life because he could not gain the titles of the clan in exile. He felt that everything was against him and thought that he was slipping away from his manly side. Despite attempts by his uncle, Uchendu, to console him, Okonkwo withdrew until a visit from Obierika, when Okonkwo heard that Abame had been destroyed. He was glad for this violent story that helped him feel manly again. His need for violence seems to be a flaw that could result in destructive behavior and his downfall. Okonkwo found an object to hate in the new church and he hated its message of peace and acceptance. This resistance to change was also seen in Abame and it was eventually destroyed. Okonkwo inability to accept the new beliefs caused him to see his motherland as, “a womanly clan.” (pg. 159) He felt that Umuofia would always be war-like and manly, so he refused to conform in the hope of returning to his old life after exile. He did not realize that everything around him was changing and that his ways were becoming extinct. He ended up becoming even more opposed to womanly things in his motherland and failed to gain any new understandings. His stubbornness and violence were incompatible with the new way of life, and so he was doomed for destruction.
Chapters 19-21
Okonkwo made the return to Umuofia that he had envisioned that, “he would return with a flourish,” (pg. 171) and that everything would be as he had left it. The missionaries denied him this fantasy and he returned to a village controlled by the white people and losing tradition. The white people administered justice which did not match the customs of the land and the church split the clan from the unified body it once was. Okonkwo was surprised that his clan had not driven out the white people. This showed his steadfast belief that Umuofia would always be manly and that he could return to masculinity in his fatherland. Although the missionaries bring prosperity and they are peaceful, they inevitably affect the unity and tradition of the clan. As I had previously stated, the tribe was not suited to accepting or adapting to new ideas. The presence of the missionaries made a major difference, not only in religion, but in all aspects of life. Okonkwo was like a fish out of water in his motherland, but now, his idealized home had also become peaceful and “soft like women” (pg. 183). Okonkwo continued violent behavior when he attacked Mr. Brown when informed that Nwoye was at a white school. His continued clinging to the past was out of place in the new culture and it seemed almost impossible that Okonkwo could survive in such conditions. Okonkwo’s entire life had been about gaining titles and becoming one of the greatest men of the clan. With the new regime, all of the things into which he had poured himself were non-existent and he had no purpose in life. His downfall rests in his inability to shed the past and the violence it held to comply with the unavoidable change in his world.
Chapters 22-25
This section continued the interference of white men with the harsher Reverend Smith and the unmasking of the egwugwu. In these instances, however, Umuofia took violent action by burning the church. Okonkwo, “had a feeling that was akin to happiness.” (pg. 192) He felt that he could finally return to the glory of being a warrior and fighting. Soon after, he and other leaders of the clan were humiliated in prison by the white men. The abuse in prison brought about justified anger from Okonkwo and he wanted to fight. He decided to violently respond to the mistreatment no matter what the village thought. During the meeting to decide action, he killed the court messenger who tried to stop the meeting. He expected the clan to be behind him and kill the other messengers to begin a war. The rest of the people, resigned to the fact that they had no hope, asked why Okonkwo killed the messenger and offered no further retaliation. By this lack of response, Okonkwo finally saw that the times had changed and that there was no way to go back. His life and dreams had been crushed at that moment and the white men had triumphed over his tribal spirit. This symbolized that the heart of tribal culture had fallen apart. Okonkwo hung himself in his misery and the white commissioner felt no responsibility or sorrow at the death. In fact, he took it as a mere event that showed him a nuance of tribal culture. He said that Okonkwo’s story could make a few paragraphs in his book. I find this ironic because Achebe wrote a detailed book about Okonkwo, yet the white man failed to see him as a complete person and only took one small part of the tradition of the tribe from his death. The commissioner would use nothing about the life of Okonkwo, the warrior, successful man, and tribal center. This great injustice to the life of a great man reflected the lack of general concern for destroying a rich culture by the white people. The book by the commissioner was to be titled The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger. The commissioner failed to see that the tribes needed no pacification and that they were not primitive. Achebe displayed an advanced justice system, social hierarchy, ceremonies, religion, a solid economy, and governance in Umuofia. That seemed civilized and structured without any “help” from the white people. An already rich culture was the thing that fell apart in an attempt by white people to fix something that was not broken.
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