Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The novelist essay Chinua achebe
Essays on china achebe
Essays on china achebe
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
“Civil Peace”
Chinua Achebe served in the Nigerian Civil War. This short story gives us insight into conditions in the country at that time. After reading this short story, I have learned a little about the war and much about the protagonist. “Civil Peace” is a short story that focuses on humanity and how Jonathan Iwegbu was able to rebuild his life after the war. In the short story, “Civil Peace,” you learn that not everyone was lucky during the post war, Jonathan was a motivated man, and even after the war, civil peace still did not occur.
In the short story “Civil Peace,” I learned that not everyone was lucky during the post war. After a war, one usually has no money, food, or shelter, but not Iwegbu. Iwegbu returned from the war with his family still alive and surprisingly a place to go. “He had came out of the war with five inestimable blessings- his head, his wife Maria’s head, and the heads of three out of their four children.” “This newest miracle was his little house in Ogui over side.” Although he had some reconstruction to do, he was lucky to have a home. Inferring based...
A Separate Peace is a coming-of-age novel about two boys at boarding school and their friendship during World War II. There are three significant scenes of violence that occur in the novel; however, the core of the plot is based upon one. The first and most poignant is the incident where Gene, the narrator, jiggles the tree branch while he and Phineas, his best friend, are preparing to jump, causing Phineas to fall and break his leg. The next scene of violence is when Quackenbush calls Gene a lame and Gene pushes him into the water. Lastly, Gene pushes Leper out of his chair while visiting him after he is accused of causing Phineas’ injury. All of these occurrences contribute to the overall meaning of the work.
Throughout the novel, A Separate Peace, the author John Knowles conveys many messages of symbolism. The symbolism can be found in an array of ways, ranging from internal war, to the theme of human aggression, and a variety of religious principles. The main characters, Gene and Phineas, and their story could be paralleled to the biblical story of Adam and Eve. The similarities can be seen in the way in which in both of the stories, everyone is living in perfect harmony and peace until something comes along to disrupt it. Also in how the main characters do something out of jealousy, greed, and selfishness; and in addition, how Finny's fall out of a tree relates to the “Fall of Mankind.”
“…It seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart.”
In John Knowle’s, A Separate Peace, there is a transformation in all the key elements in the book, from the rivers to the tree to the seasons to the characters. The transformation is specifically seen in Leper, Gene, and Phineas. These three young men experience a change not just because of the transitions through adolescence. These changes also come about because of the war, the school, and an injury.
A Separate Peace is a coming of age novel in which Gene, the main character, revisits his high school and his traumatic teen years. When Gene was a teen-ager his best friend and roommate Phineas (Finny) was the star athlete of the school.
Through out the book A Separate Peace, Gene, his growth and harmony seem to change. His opinions, and outlook on life also seem to change as his relationship with Phineas does likewise. Gene’s self-perception changes from insecurity to imitation to independence as his relationship with Phineas changes.
John Knowles tells the story of a young adolescent approaching adulthood and the war he must fight in. The main character, Gene, has a nonexistent rivalry with his best friend, Finny. Throughout the beginning of the novel, Gene tries to compete with everything Finny does, and then assumes that Finny was jealous of him. However, as the viewers saw Finny get injured and then die, they also saw Gene mature and develop as an adult. In my opinion, this tells the story of two boys growing up, and the struggles that come with it. Finny’s changing outlook, Gene’s loss of innocence, and their friendship symbolizes the transition from childhood to adulthood.
Dealing with enemies has been a problem since the beginning of time. “I never killed anybody,” Gene had commented later in his life, “And I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform, I was on active duty all my time at Devon; I killed my enemy there.” In A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, the value of dealing with enemies is shown by Gene, who was dealing with few human enemies, but his emotions created far greater rivals than any human could ever posses.
Nnoromele, Patrick C.. “The Plight of a Hero in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.” Chinua Achebe's
Many times in the world, differences have lead to hate. Think of Martin Luther King, for example, who stood for fighting against one of the largest differences. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, is one of many examples of differences leading to hate. Gene and Finny, who somehow managed to become friends, have completely different views of each other. Finny wanted to be friends with Gene, but had trouble facing the reality that Gene felt differently. Gene became jealous over Finny’s difference to himself. Difference has led to hate, once more, and pain has again resulted, first mentally and emotionally, then finally physically.
Chinua Achebe?s Things Fall Apart is a narrative story that follows the life of an African man called Okonkwo. The setting of the book is in eastern Nigeria, on the eve of British colonialism in Africa. The novel illustrates Okonkwo?s struggles, triumphs, and his eventual downfall, all of which basically coincide with the Igbo?s society?s struggle with the Christian religion and British government. In this essay I will give a biographical account of Okonwo, which will serve to help understand that social, political, and economic institutions of the Igbos.
Before the arrival of the Europeans, Achebe did a excellent job portraying how the life of Igbo was before they were forced to oppose their own culture. To support this theme, Achebe included detailed descriptions of social rituals within each family, the justice system, religious practices and consequences, preparation and indulgence of food, the marriage process and the distributing of power within the men. Achebe shows how every man has an opportunity to prove himself worthy to achieve a title on the highest level, based merely on his own efforts. One may argue that the novel was written with the main focus on the study of Okonkwo’s character and how he deteriorates, but without the theme that define the Igbo culture itself, we would never know the universe qualities of the society that shaped Okonkwo’s life. The lives of the Igbo people was no different to the actual lives of the Ibos people back in the early days of Africa. Just like in Things Fall Apart, in actual African tribes there was never a ruler. “Very interesting thing about these villages is that there is no single ruler or king that controls the population. Decisions are made by including almost everyone in the village” (AfricaGuide). Using the theme, Achebe educated readers on by mirroring real African life in her
middle of paper ... ... The "An African Voice. " Interview with Chinua Achebe. N.p., 2 Aug. 2000.
Chinua Achebe was born in Igbo town of Ogidi, Nigeria on November 16, 1930. His parents were Isaiah Okafo Achebe and Janet Anaenechi Iloegbunam Achebe. In the Igbo tradition, storytelling is part of the Igbo community and that is how Chinua Achebe starts to show interest in literature. In 1936, Achebe enrolled in St. Philips’ Central School even though he did not want to. This school is for religious classes for young children like Chinua, but he was a special child because he only spent a week in there and he was noticed by teachers and wrote down his progress. So, he was moved to a higher level class because of his knowledge or intelligence. One particular teacher saw him as a scholar student because he has the best handwriting and reading skills in class. When he was twelve years old, Chinua moved away from his village, Ogidi, to another village called Nekede and enrolled at Central School where his older brother name John was teaching. In the village, Nekede, Chinua gained respects to a traditional art form about god’s protection by symbolic sacrifices. For example, sculptures and collage.
Gikandi, Simon. "Chinua Achebe and the Invention of African Literature." Classics in Context: Things Fall Apart. Chinua Achebe. Portsmouth: Heinemann Educational Publishers, 1996