Summary Of Plato's The Republic And Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apart

Final Story

Every culture in this world has a somewhat different meaning for the idea of superiority. In capitalistic America, some people consider those who have established businesses and acquired wealth to be superior. Meanwhile in some cultures in Africa, the superior being is the person who has acquired the most land. This idea of a varying superiority is also a resounding theme in Plato’s The Republic (TR) and Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apart (TFA). In TR, superiority is simply being knowledgeable; however, in TFA, superiority goes to the individuals who fit their definition of being the manliest. There is a loud theme of morality in TR; however, there is also an extreme emphasis on knowledge. Knowledge is given such an emphasis that

Manliness in the TFA has many aspects to it. To be considered manly in the societies in TFA one had to be physically and mentally strong, rich, and wise. The individuals in TFA had an extreme disdain for those who they considered to be inferior and often compared weak men to women referring to them as efulefu or agbala. The efulefu and agbala had no titles in the society and were often shunned whenever they were around. One of the repeating themes in TFA is the possession of yams. All through the book there is repeated mention of the size of someone’s barn full of yams or of how many yams someone had planted and reaped. This idea that the size of a man’s barn is considered respectable is noted when Achebe states, “He was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams” (8). These yams represented an individual’s ability to farm and to provide their family with food. Along with this idea, yams were also considered the manly food to cultivate which Achebe points out when he states, “Yam, the king of crops, was a man’s crop” (Achebe 23). Therefore, it was considered manly to have as many yams as one could harbor. Not only was it noteworthy to have great wealth, but it was also noteworthy to have many wives and children. It was considered manly to have many wives and children primarily because it carried a man’s name on longer and further; however, it was noteworthy because it showed that a man was rich enough to provide for many people and not just himself. In order for a man to claim a title in their village they had to have achievement by having many crops, they had to have wives, and they had to have made a name for themselves. The primary method of making a name for oneself was through battle. The revered people in the society of TFA were those who readily went into battle for their village. Even more so revered were those individuals who were