Bias Influences the Audience in Chinua Achebe and Ridley Scott's Writing

1968 Words4 Pages

Bias Influences the Audience in Chinua Achebe and Ridley Scott's Writing

Chinua Achebe and Ridley Scott reflect different cultural eras and use bias to influence their audience onto their side. Chinua Achebe uses bias towards the Ibo culture that loses in history and that we never saw as being important using biographical and historical stylistic devices. Ridley Scott shows bias towards the American soldiers using historical stylistic devices leaving out how the Somalia's felt during this time. Authors and directors have big influences on people's lives. What they show us and tell us can influence us to like the characters that they portray in their work. This can change the way we think about certain people, cultures, and races. They can make a bad guy in history seem good and a good guy in history seems bad just by telling certain things about them.

The Ibo tribes are interesting and have had a good history outside the fact that they were taken over by the British. The Ibo people were very religious and believed in many gods. They also believed in a thing called chi. "At the most one could say that his chi or personal god was good."(29). The Ibo people believe your chi was like your spirit and could determine whether you had good or bad fortune. Some people may see chi as luck or karma. The Ibo people also viewed masculinity very highly. The men would wrestle each other for respect within the tribe and the males were considered superior to the females in the fact that the males were stronger and tougher. Males in the tribes may also take more than one wife. This is known as bigamy. "There is no civil ordinance law against anyone who takes more than one wife (bigamy) as long as the person can maintain them." This was looked down upon once Christianity came into their culture from the British missionaries. The Ibo have good hospitality and manners. When visitors arrive they present them with a Kola nut to eat and palm wine to drink. An overall view of these people would say that they are good natured people. They had their own language, religion, and ideas on how things worked in life.

Chinua Achebe had a relation to these people in the fact that he had been brought up according to some of the Ibo traditions. His upbringing was multicultural.

Show More
Related

  • Nwoye Quotes From Things Fall Apart

    999 Words  | 2 Pages

    ( ) we see a couple of things. We see that the missionaries are winning people over with this religion of acceptance. This is winning over regular Ibo people but especially the outcast, the men who live on the outskirts of town were told they could could be part of their church. They were even told “cut your hair” witch was a big No go for the Ibo people but with this new acceptance movement form Christianity they were eventually accepted. Nwoye will eventually stray from the path of the clan and go forth into the light of god and be accepted

    Read More

  • The Evolution of African-Americans in Film: Essay Test #5

    1176 Words  | 3 Pages

    The views of African-Americans have changed drastically from the 1930s to 1980s and the film industry has been able to captures some of the more dramatic changes on film. Dating back to the 1930s, there has been films produced that depicted African-Americans as docile individuals who live to serve white families. As times changed and America made progress in integration of cultures, African-American rose to a new role on the big screen. Initially, African-Americans were introduced on the screen as closer equals to their white counter parts. However, these films did not accurately depict African-Americans as whites wrote the roles. America made greater strides towards equality in all areas, including the film industry that allowed for the development of new roles for African-Americans. This grittier and more intense approach was only achieved through African-Americans taking on the major behind the scenes. African-Americans were only to achieve a more accurate depiction onscreen as American’s perceptions of race were challenged over a 50-year period and African-Americans took on roles behind the scenes.

    Read More

  • Life in the Ottawa Tribe

    1218 Words  | 3 Pages

    This paper addresses the results of interviews, observations, and research of life in the Ottawa tribe, how they see themselves and others in society and in the tribe. I mainly focused on The Little River Band of Ottawa Indian tribe. I researched their languages, pecking order, and interviewed to discover the rituals, and traditions that they believe in. In this essay I revealed how they see themselves in society. How they see other people, how they see each other, what their values were, what a typical day was etc. I initially suspected that I would have got different responses from these questions but in reality the results in the questions were almost completely the same. I studied this topic because mostly all the people that are close to me are associated in the Ottawa tribe. I additionally love the Native American culture, I feel it is beautiful and has a free concept.

    Read More

  • The Importance of Roger Spottiswoode’s Screen Adaptation of And The Band Played On

    4172 Words  | 9 Pages

    [2] Regardless of how careful the director, producer, and actors are at being loyal to the subject matter, then, the question still remains whether or not Hollywood is a legitimate resource for historical matter. Is it possible for a dramatic, high priced and glitzy medium to be honest and true to its subject matter in such a way that viewers are not confused but more educated walking out than they were walking in? Is the Movie Theater any place for history to be learned? Directors fight and argue that indeed Hollywood is equally as reliable and legitimate a source as other "texts." The movies provide a more immediate resource, allowing history to change from the dreaded school subject to an appea...

    Read More

  • Warriors of the Amazon

    423 Words  | 1 Pages

    They are a culture of hunting and gathering. The men are warriors that help to defend the tribe from other tribes, hunt for meat, and attack opposing tribes. The women stay home and cook, raise the children. Many people stay in the shibono, or community complex. The children are raised for a rough life, to be warriors. They learn that every injury suffered must be repaid. Men are the powerful gender, with all the rights. The relationships created by having in-laws are the basis for their power. If a favor is granted, it must be returned. A person is always supposed to be loyal to their family connections.

    Read More

  • Communication Breakdown: Conflict in 'Things Fall Apart'

    1199 Words  | 3 Pages

    One key way that Achebe illustrates the complexity of the Ibo culture is through their intricate language. He utilizes the interpreter of the missionaries as a way to prove just how unreliable the communication between the tribe and the missionaries truly is. Despite the fact that the interpreter can speak the Ibo language, he still makes simple mistakes, such as saying “my buttocks” rather than “myself” (Achebe 145). Later on in the novel, he stands as a barrier between the two groups when he changes the words of Mr. Smith and the Egwugwu (Achebe 190-191). Because the Ibo’s language is so complex, the

    Read More

  • Religion, Culture, And Conflict In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

    715 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Exile of Okonkwo for killing an innocent boy is one such instance. It shows that backward as they may have appeared to the white man, they valued and treasured the sanctity of human life. The Ibo Culture ensured that bad deeds did not go unpunished. Furthermore, the acceptance of strangers into their culture and living space illustrates that the Igbo cordial and civilized in their own sense. Even though they regarded the strangers with peculiarity, no harm was done to

    Read More

  • Essay On Native American Religion

    851 Words  | 2 Pages

    Native American Indians all lived in tribes, many tribes believed in different things but most of them believed in similar aspects. Almost all Indians believed that everything on Earth was sacred. Everything from Mount Everest to a speck of sand on a beach. They praise honor, love and respect. Indians also believe elders hold the answers, and they keep the culture alive. They worship Mother Earth and their Creator Wakan

    Read More

  • Masculinity vs. Femininity in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

    1274 Words  | 3 Pages

    Chi, as stated, is the will of a man. The Ibo are guided by this and believe that they can only rise to the level to which their personal God will allow. (p.131) This being the case the Ibo themselves are destined to rise only as far as their cumulative Chi will allow. If the Chi of the British is strong, eve...

    Read More

  • Essay on themes in Things Fall Apart and Second Coming

    857 Words  | 2 Pages

    In many ways the changes that the missionaries brought upon the Ibo were unavoidable.  The rituals and cyclic view the Ibo had of time held their culture together.  The Ibo did not hold on to their ideas of interdepenence and community.  Therefore, they were more suspetable to surcoming to the ways of the white man.  The colonial infiltration caused the Ibo to not only loose their cultural identity, but their voice.  The missionaries alterations brought silece among the native dialect of the Ibo.  Achebe states at the end of the novel "even now they have not  found the mouth with which to tell of their suffering." From this quote it is apparent that there is little left of the Ibo culture.  The colonial infliltration caused the Ibo to fall apart, and break the vital cycle that once held their culture together.

    Read More

  • Things Fall Apart, An Examination of the Treatment of Women

    901 Words  | 2 Pages

    middle of paper ... ... Although there are obvious flaws in our society, an Igbo marriage is well-built and the foundation is strong. Women have the choice to leave if they are unhappy and men have the option to marry a second wife if there are problems with the first one or if they can afford to take more wives. This system is undoubtedly unethical, but has proven to be more productive than a monogamous marriage.

    Read More

  • How Does Chinua Achebe Depict Ibo Culture In Things Fall Apart?

    1510 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Ibo culture is also depicted as primitive and unjust by Achebe. This is noted in the primitive aspects of the Ibo people’s system of belief, which appears uncivilised and unjust. These examples of the Ibo culture are then combined with and redisplayed by the other primary method that Achebe uses to depict the dual aspects of Ibo culture, the two missionaries figures. Firstly Mr. Brown is utilised in a way that acknowledges the sophisticated structure and beliefs of the Ibo culture and improvement brought to the Ibo people through the missionaries involvement in the village.

    Read More

  • The Ibo Society In Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe

    1196 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Ibo’s government is administered by the nine egwugwu who are ancestral spirits that represent each village of the clan. As large crowds of the Ibo tribe would gather on the village

    Read More

  • People Fall Apart in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

    1669 Words  | 4 Pages

    ... middle of paper ... ... With Achebe?s words, we?re inclined to appreciate the Igbo culture in spite of it being different from our own. Achebe?s intention is not to justify western dominance over Africa, but to present Africa in such a way that we can respect it for its strengths and despite its weaknesses.

    Read More

  • An Analysis of Language in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

    1464 Words  | 3 Pages

    Albert Chinualumogu Achebe was born on November 16, 1930 to Isaiah Okafo and Janet Achebe in the very unstable country of Ogidi, Nigeria. He was exposed to missionaries early in his childhood because Ogidi was one of the first missionary centers established in Eastern Nigeria and his father was an evangelist. Yet it was not until he began to study at the University of Ibadan that Achebe discovered what he himself wanted to do. He had grown appalled at the "superficial picture" of Nigeria that many non-Nigerian authors were providing. That is when Achebe resolved to write something that viewed his country from "the inside".

    Read More

More about Bias Influences the Audience in Chinua Achebe and Ridley Scott's Writing

Open Document