TFA CH 1-4: I thought that the explanation of Okonkwo’s fear on page 13 was very interesting because I think many of us can relate to what he fears and the way he handles it. It says that Okonkwo is not afraid of something material like snakes or spiders, but rather has “the fear of failure and of weakness,” and in many ways this fear is more intense than the fear of something tangible. Okonkwo fears becoming a failure (like his father Unoka) and so he “was ruled by one passion—to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved,” namely kindness and laziness. I think many of us act in ways similar to Okonkwo. We fear being one thing, so in turn we act in an exactly opposite manner. We force ourselves to behave in ways that are entirely different from what we feel, for we would feel vulnerable if people knew how we truly felt. If a person we love hurts us, we isolate ourselves from everyone else. If we are sad, we put up a front and act happy all the time. Many of us are too insecure to portray our true feelings, and so like Okonkwo, we instead choose to act in a completely different way so as not to feel vulnerable.
TFA CH 5-7 This section is teeming with testosterone and is such a nice change from the feminism found in The Bell Jar. Ikemefuna and Nwoye sit around in Okonkwo’s hut listening to his manly and violent stories while eating and drinking and enjoying themselves. The three men also go around doing a bunch of masculine chores around the compound for the women and children. The wrestling matches are a captivating scene; with the whole town gathered at the matches cheering and clapping, I got the feeling that these wrestling matches are much like present-day sporting events. It’s nice to be reading a book with a lot of action in it for a change. I did find the murdering of Ikemefuna to be very sad, yet again it’s action-packed and engaging. I actually thought the coming of the locusts foreshadowed something big like Ikemefuna’s murder. This is because when I think of locusts I think of John the Baptist, who was said to have eaten locusts while living in the desert. Since his ministry prepared the way for Jesus, I thought the locusts were preparing the way for some cataclysmic event in the novel, because I associate locusts with John the Baptist, who was a prophet.
TFA CH 8-10: I was captivated by the section about Ekwefi’s daughter Ezinma being an “ogbanje” which began on page 77. I was interested in the mystic nature of the whole situation, the idea that by burying an “iyi-uwa” stone, a wicked child could re-enter their mother’s womb to torment her. And the idea that destroying said “iyi-uwa” would free the child from the cycle of death and rebirth was full of mystic undertones. I found it absolutely heart breaking that Ekwefi had to endure burying nine of her ten children; such an ordeal is unimaginable. I found the names Ekwefi gave some of her children to be quite foreboding too: “Death, I implore you,” “May it not happen again,” “Death may please itself” (pretty bleak stuff). I was again intrigued by the mysticism present in the communal trials described in Chapter Ten. The ritual during the trials, when one would repeatedly tell Evil Forest that “My hand is on the ground” and “No man can know you,” was quite eerie and again showed just how vital tradition is to this clan.
TFA CH 11-13: Obierika had an exceptionally rough time in these chapters. First, he and his family hosted an uri for his daughter and her fiancé. I’m sure that while Obierika was happy and excited to see his daughter get married, he was at the same time anxious and worried because she’d be leaving home. Then, after Okonkwo, Obierika’s best friend, accidentally killed a young boy at Ezeudu’s funeral, Obierika took part in ransacking Okonkwo’s compound. I liked the very last paragraph of page 125 because it added a whole new dimension to Obierika’s character. Obierika’s doubt is one of the few times any character in the clan has displayed any dissent from the clan. This passage shows how we must not blindly submit to a larger group. We must not disregard our own personal consciences as Obierika did when he followed the angry mob or killed his twin children. Whenever our personal consciences object to the workings of a larger group, and even though we may be in the minority, we still must voice our concerns. We are obligated as moral, ethical people to always follow our consciences and to voice any and all concerns we may have.
TFA CH 14-18: The introduction of the missionaries into the story in this section is quite appropriate. It allows the reader to once again see how intensely Okonkwo hates (perceived) weakness. Okonkwo wants to, as the author puts it, “take up his machete, go to the church and wipe out the entire vile and miscreant gang” (152) of missionaries, and not because he feels threatened by the power they wield. Rather, Okonkwo is enraged that his son, Nwoye, could be attracted to what Okonkwo feels is an embarrassing display of weakness. The author notes his utter despair, saying “How then could he [Okonkwo] have begotten a son like Nwoye, degenerate and effeminate?” (153). Okonkwo also feels that it is an enormous display of weakness for the clan to only ostracize and not persecute the Christians. While the rest of the clan views the Christians as a misguided bunch of foreigners who have only converted the outcasts of their clan, Okonkwo feels threatened by them, hates them, and thus wants to violently thrash out against them. Okonkwo is much more threatened by emotional and therefore (in his mind) weak establishments, such as the Christian missionaries, than he is by any other violent, aggressive adversary. Okonkwo knows how to battle aggressive opponents, but it’s the more abstract, and in his mind, weak opponents that he doesn’t know how to combat, and this begets his fear. And as we’ve learned from Yoda in Star Wars: “Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering.” From murdering Ikemefuna to being ostracized from his fatherland, Okonkwo has had his share of suffering, and I’m sure with the amount of fear, anger, and hate he still possesses, his suffering is not yet at an end.
TFA CH 19-21: I was very surprised that Mr. Brown and Akunna could rationally and peacefully debate their religious differences at the beginning of Chapter 21. They both did a fine job of calmly and coolly explaining their religious beliefs in an excellent example of how inter-religious dialogue should work. The friendly debate that these two theologians had made me at first think that a similar dialogue between a Catholic and a Protestant could occur. Mr. Brown scolds Akunna for making wooden carvings, just as some Protestants feel that Catholics worship false gods by adorning their churches with statues of saints. Just as Akunna in turn tells Mr. Brown that these statues merely remind the people of the power of their gods would a Catholic tell a Protestant that their statues are not to be worshipped but rather serve as a reminder of the saints. Now to turn it around, as Mr. Brown says that the head of his church on earth is in England would a Catholic say that the head of the Church on earth be the Pope in Rome. Both a Catholic and Mr. Brown would further point out that God is really in charge of the Church. Maybe the dialogue between Akunna and Mr. Brown and a hypothetical dialogue between a Catholic and a Protestant are only vaguely similar upon further scrutiny, but that’s just what I first thought of when I read it.
TFA CH 22-25: What an exciting ending to a fine book; I thoroughly enjoyed it. Action-packed and suspenseful, the conflicts arising after the installation of Mr. Smith definitely kept my attention at all times. It was a very bold move for the clansmen to destroy the Christian church, and I was rather surprised that soldiers weren’t deployed to annihilate the clan’s village. However, it must have been humiliating for Okonkwo and the other clansmen to be imprisoned and treated so harshly. I think this imprisonment was the breaking point for Okonkwo; it was at this stage that he absolutely lost control. He first acted very quite and meek, which was only a prelude to his infuriated rage. It was only a matter of time before he snapped, and he did when he killed that court messenger. When he realized at that point that his clan wouldn’t go to war, he felt that he, a warrior my nature, no longer had a place in the clan; thus he committed suicide. I don’t agree with Obierika’s statement to the District Commissioner though: “That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog” (208) he said. However, it’s my opinion that if anyone is to blame, it’s the clan. They were the ones who decided not to go to war, and that’s why Okonkwo killed himself. He didn’t kill himself because he felt the settlers were going to overrun his clan’s culture, but because his clan refused to go to war. I don’t think it would have been any different if his clan had refused to go to war against some other enemy; the refusal to go to war against anyone would have caused Okonkwo to loose hope and kill himself in my opinion. He would have thought that any refusal of action would be a sign of weakness and effeminacy. That is why it is my opinion that if anyone is to blame for Okonkwo’s suicide besides him, it’s Okonkwo’s fellow clansmen and not the settlers.
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.
7 comments:
TFA CH 1-4:
I thought that the explanation of Okonkwo’s fear on page 13 was very interesting because I think many of us can relate to what he fears and the way he handles it. It says that Okonkwo is not afraid of something material like snakes or spiders, but rather has “the fear of failure and of weakness,” and in many ways this fear is more intense than the fear of something tangible. Okonkwo fears becoming a failure (like his father Unoka) and so he “was ruled by one passion—to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved,” namely kindness and laziness. I think many of us act in ways similar to Okonkwo. We fear being one thing, so in turn we act in an exactly opposite manner. We force ourselves to behave in ways that are entirely different from what we feel, for we would feel vulnerable if people knew how we truly felt. If a person we love hurts us, we isolate ourselves from everyone else. If we are sad, we put up a front and act happy all the time. Many of us are too insecure to portray our true feelings, and so like Okonkwo, we instead choose to act in a completely different way so as not to feel vulnerable.
TFA CH 5-7
This section is teeming with testosterone and is such a nice change from the feminism found in The Bell Jar. Ikemefuna and Nwoye sit around in Okonkwo’s hut listening to his manly and violent stories while eating and drinking and enjoying themselves. The three men also go around doing a bunch of masculine chores around the compound for the women and children. The wrestling matches are a captivating scene; with the whole town gathered at the matches cheering and clapping, I got the feeling that these wrestling matches are much like present-day sporting events. It’s nice to be reading a book with a lot of action in it for a change. I did find the murdering of Ikemefuna to be very sad, yet again it’s action-packed and engaging. I actually thought the coming of the locusts foreshadowed something big like Ikemefuna’s murder. This is because when I think of locusts I think of John the Baptist, who was said to have eaten locusts while living in the desert. Since his ministry prepared the way for Jesus, I thought the locusts were preparing the way for some cataclysmic event in the novel, because I associate locusts with John the Baptist, who was a prophet.
TFA CH 8-10:
I was captivated by the section about Ekwefi’s daughter Ezinma being an “ogbanje” which began on page 77. I was interested in the mystic nature of the whole situation, the idea that by burying an “iyi-uwa” stone, a wicked child could re-enter their mother’s womb to torment her. And the idea that destroying said “iyi-uwa” would free the child from the cycle of death and rebirth was full of mystic undertones. I found it absolutely heart breaking that Ekwefi had to endure burying nine of her ten children; such an ordeal is unimaginable. I found the names Ekwefi gave some of her children to be quite foreboding too: “Death, I implore you,” “May it not happen again,” “Death may please itself” (pretty bleak stuff). I was again intrigued by the mysticism present in the communal trials described in Chapter Ten. The ritual during the trials, when one would repeatedly tell Evil Forest that “My hand is on the ground” and “No man can know you,” was quite eerie and again showed just how vital tradition is to this clan.
TFA CH 11-13:
Obierika had an exceptionally rough time in these chapters. First, he and his family hosted an uri for his daughter and her fiancé. I’m sure that while Obierika was happy and excited to see his daughter get married, he was at the same time anxious and worried because she’d be leaving home. Then, after Okonkwo, Obierika’s best friend, accidentally killed a young boy at Ezeudu’s funeral, Obierika took part in ransacking Okonkwo’s compound. I liked the very last paragraph of page 125 because it added a whole new dimension to Obierika’s character. Obierika’s doubt is one of the few times any character in the clan has displayed any dissent from the clan. This passage shows how we must not blindly submit to a larger group. We must not disregard our own personal consciences as Obierika did when he followed the angry mob or killed his twin children. Whenever our personal consciences object to the workings of a larger group, and even though we may be in the minority, we still must voice our concerns. We are obligated as moral, ethical people to always follow our consciences and to voice any and all concerns we may have.
TFA CH 14-18:
The introduction of the missionaries into the story in this section is quite appropriate. It allows the reader to once again see how intensely Okonkwo hates (perceived) weakness. Okonkwo wants to, as the author puts it, “take up his machete, go to the church and wipe out the entire vile and miscreant gang” (152) of missionaries, and not because he feels threatened by the power they wield. Rather, Okonkwo is enraged that his son, Nwoye, could be attracted to what Okonkwo feels is an embarrassing display of weakness. The author notes his utter despair, saying “How then could he [Okonkwo] have begotten a son like Nwoye, degenerate and effeminate?” (153). Okonkwo also feels that it is an enormous display of weakness for the clan to only ostracize and not persecute the Christians. While the rest of the clan views the Christians as a misguided bunch of foreigners who have only converted the outcasts of their clan, Okonkwo feels threatened by them, hates them, and thus wants to violently thrash out against them. Okonkwo is much more threatened by emotional and therefore (in his mind) weak establishments, such as the Christian missionaries, than he is by any other violent, aggressive adversary. Okonkwo knows how to battle aggressive opponents, but it’s the more abstract, and in his mind, weak opponents that he doesn’t know how to combat, and this begets his fear. And as we’ve learned from Yoda in Star Wars: “Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering.” From murdering Ikemefuna to being ostracized from his fatherland, Okonkwo has had his share of suffering, and I’m sure with the amount of fear, anger, and hate he still possesses, his suffering is not yet at an end.
TFA CH 19-21:
I was very surprised that Mr. Brown and Akunna could rationally and peacefully debate their religious differences at the beginning of Chapter 21. They both did a fine job of calmly and coolly explaining their religious beliefs in an excellent example of how inter-religious dialogue should work. The friendly debate that these two theologians had made me at first think that a similar dialogue between a Catholic and a Protestant could occur. Mr. Brown scolds Akunna for making wooden carvings, just as some Protestants feel that Catholics worship false gods by adorning their churches with statues of saints. Just as Akunna in turn tells Mr. Brown that these statues merely remind the people of the power of their gods would a Catholic tell a Protestant that their statues are not to be worshipped but rather serve as a reminder of the saints. Now to turn it around, as Mr. Brown says that the head of his church on earth is in England would a Catholic say that the head of the Church on earth be the Pope in Rome. Both a Catholic and Mr. Brown would further point out that God is really in charge of the Church. Maybe the dialogue between Akunna and Mr. Brown and a hypothetical dialogue between a Catholic and a Protestant are only vaguely similar upon further scrutiny, but that’s just what I first thought of when I read it.
TFA CH 22-25:
What an exciting ending to a fine book; I thoroughly enjoyed it. Action-packed and suspenseful, the conflicts arising after the installation of Mr. Smith definitely kept my attention at all times. It was a very bold move for the clansmen to destroy the Christian church, and I was rather surprised that soldiers weren’t deployed to annihilate the clan’s village. However, it must have been humiliating for Okonkwo and the other clansmen to be imprisoned and treated so harshly. I think this imprisonment was the breaking point for Okonkwo; it was at this stage that he absolutely lost control. He first acted very quite and meek, which was only a prelude to his infuriated rage. It was only a matter of time before he snapped, and he did when he killed that court messenger. When he realized at that point that his clan wouldn’t go to war, he felt that he, a warrior my nature, no longer had a place in the clan; thus he committed suicide. I don’t agree with Obierika’s statement to the District Commissioner though: “That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog” (208) he said. However, it’s my opinion that if anyone is to blame, it’s the clan. They were the ones who decided not to go to war, and that’s why Okonkwo killed himself. He didn’t kill himself because he felt the settlers were going to overrun his clan’s culture, but because his clan refused to go to war. I don’t think it would have been any different if his clan had refused to go to war against some other enemy; the refusal to go to war against anyone would have caused Okonkwo to loose hope and kill himself in my opinion. He would have thought that any refusal of action would be a sign of weakness and effeminacy. That is why it is my opinion that if anyone is to blame for Okonkwo’s suicide besides him, it’s Okonkwo’s fellow clansmen and not the settlers.
Post a Comment