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Uniqueness of Nigerian culture
The role of woman in things fall apart
Symbolism in things falling apart
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Recommended: Uniqueness of Nigerian culture
Chapter five provides important information on Ekwefi’s past and a tradition (the yam festival) that has been going on for decades. The chapter begins with it being three days before the Feast of the New Yam in which basically means everyone is excited. Okonkwo and his family are preparing for the holiday feast, and Okonkwo is going to invite the families of his three wives. He doesn’t feel excited, he wants to be working on his farm, this is saying he is a workaholic. Okonkwo’s three wives prepare for the festival and feast by cleaning, repainting, and spend time making minor adjustments to themselves and the children with paint and hairdos. Okonkwo can not deal his bad mood and takes it out on his second wife, Ekwefi, he accuses her of killing a banana tree, although the tree is not dead. Okonkwo beats her then tries to shoot her after she makes a comment about his shooting skills. No one else says anything since they are all scared. Although Okonkwo scares everyone the feast for the first day they have goes okay. On the second day is the wrestling match, readers also learn a bit about Ekwefi’s past. Ekwefi enjoys wrestling, she fell in love with Okonkwo during the opening match of the book, when he threw the …show more content…
Cat. Ekwefi couldn’t marry Okonkwo because at the time, he was too poor to pay her bride price. So she ran away from home, disobeying her husband, and went to live with Okonkwo. Ekwefi has one daughter, a ten-year-old girl named Ezinma. Ezinma is someone who speaks her mind and asks many questions, she is strange because she calls her mother by her first name. Ekwefi and her daughter prepare food on the day of the wrestling match, then Okonkwo’s first wife comes to ask for Ezinma to bring her a few live coals, she makes Okonkwo’s first wife a fire using the coals and some sticks that she got. As she heads back to Ekwefi’s hut, she hears the drums sounding in the town plaza. The drums mean that the wrestling will start soon, so basically like a build up to the big event. As Ekwefi and Okonkwo’s first wife prepare yams, Ezinma and the women hear Obiageli(the daughter of Okonkwo’s first wife) crying.
Ikemefuna and the first wife’s other children come marching in with dinner pots, but Obiageli has no pot and is crying, she broke her pot while showing off to the other children. She did this while trying to pretend she was a grown woman and carry the pot on her head. Although, the young girl creates a fib that turns out to be a sad story to tell Okonkwo’s first wife. Ezinma brings Okonkwo the dinner dish that Ekwefi made. Obiageli brings food that her mother prepared, and finally Nkechi (a daughter of Okonkwo’s third wife) brings another dish. Chapter 5 is important since it provides deeper information on the village’s
values.
Okonkwo was a man that was held high in his village, he was a wrestler that, in his early days had taken down one of the toughest opponents. On page one, "Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and beyond." Like Kurtz, Okonkwo had flaws that affected him greatly in the end. Okonkwo lived in fear of being like his father, of being weak. One consequence that Okonkwo's fear led him to, was the killing of someone which he cared deeply for, whom he loved like his own son. On page sixty-one, "Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak." Okonkwo's fear of being weak, was a flaw that people reading the story can relate to. Okonkwo is a highly respected man, a man with multiple wives, good crops, and children. To the reader, these parts of Okonkwo's life may not make sense. A lot of Okonkwo's life and culture might not make sense to the reader, but looking at Okonkwo's fears and flaws, gives you something to relate
“No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man.” (53) This quote demonstrates one of the traits of masculinity that Okonkwo values, which is the ability to control his family. Okonkwo is the man of the household. He provides them food from his crops and a roof over their heads, and by his beliefs of masculinity he therefore holds all the power in his family. He wants to maintain the role of the man or authority figure of the household and whenever any of his wives try to talk back to him or argue, he would beat them. There was an example of this control in the novel with Okonkwo’s wives, Ekwefi and Ojiugo. Ekwefi was Okonkwo’s second wife, and in the novel, he beaten her in a fit of anger because he thought she had killed a banana tree.
Unlike his father, Okonkwo is a hard worker with little debt and a driven personality. His internal fear leads to his decision to beat his wife during the week of peace and to take part in the mandatory action of killing his beloved son, Ikemefuna.
In “Chapter 24” of Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe adopts a spiteful and grevious tone, and utilizes diction, symbolism, and figurative language to capture the pinnacle of the extirpation of the Igbo tribe. Achebe uses intense diction throughout the chapter when construing Okonkwo’s feelings about his fellow clansmen and the Europeans. Since his tone is meant to provoke emotion, he laces his sentences with temerit words like “vengeance,” (Achebe 199) and “tumult,” (Achebe 203). The use of his diction emphasizes the agonizing feelings of the clan, especially those of Okonkwo. Alternatively, Achebe utilizes a surfeit of Igbo words such as “nno,” (Achebe 199) meaning “welcome,”and “Umuofia Kwenu,” (Achebe 202) a phrase used to show the tribe members were paying attention during
1. In the culture of Okwonko's village of Umuofia, greatness is defined by various aspects of courage, endurance, and strength, which Okwonko strives to achieve throughout the novel. He plants yams, that are apparently only for men to plant, and is also a great warrior among the people, two very valued characteristics. Many aspects of this manhood that he strives to attain is evident through his efforts of the shaping of his children to become warriors, especially his sons. "Okwonko ruled his house with a heavy hand. . . Perhaps down in his heart Okwonko was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness" (13). When raising Ikemefuna and Nwoye, it is clear that Okwonko wishes that they become warriors like the Umuofia are. Through discipline, he teaches his children about the what being a person of Umuofia should be like. Okwonko's strengths include his desire of greatness, his motivation to work, and his deeply rooted religious beliefs. "During the planting
The book focuses on Okonkwo and Unoka, his father who dies ten years ago in deep debt. Okonkwo is a respected warrior as he was able to defeat Amalinze the Cat when he was younger. Okonkwo tries to be everything but his father. He fears weakness and associates it with his father. Okonkwo has a barn full of yams though at times he encounters terrible growing seasons. In chapter five, the village is preparing for the New Yam feast, taking place before the harvest. To prepare for the feats, all yams that were left over from the previous year must be thrown away and everything that was used to prepare, cook and dish up yams must be washed thoroughly before they are used for the new crop. Okonkwo think that the feast is a waste of time and would instead prefer to be tending to his crops. Okonkwo beats one of his wives. The second day of the festival,
Both the beatings of his wives and the killing of Ikemefuna helps to manifest Okonkwo’s impulsiveness. During the misunderstanding about the banana tree, Okonkwo “... who had been walking about aimlessly in his compound in suppressed anger, suddenly found an outlet” (Achebe 38). Okonkwo resorts to violence to try to relive many of his frustrations in life. His anger is shown in his incompetence to control himself. Okonkwo states, “ ‘Who killed this tree? Or are you all deaf and dumb?’ ” (Achebe 38). Okonkwo’s frustration and temper starts to build up until he cannot handle it anymore and lashes out on his second wife for “killing” the banana tree. The tree, in fact, was still alive, but since Okonkwo’s impulsiveness controls him he could not understand that his second wife had only taken a few leaves from the tree to wrap up some food. Without listening to his wife’s explanation for why some of the leaves on the tree were missing, “Okonkwo gave her a sound beating and left her and her only daughter weeping...His anger thus satisfied, Okonkwo decided to go hunting.” (Achebe 38). Okonkwo’s actions towards his wives highlight his impulsiveness. All of Okonkwo’s built up anger and emotions are trapped inside of him and are usually released at the expense of others through his actions. Okonkwo’s part in the killing of Ikemefuna
Although the reader feels remorseful for Okonkwo’s tragic childhood life. It is another reason to sympathize with a man who believes he is powerful and respected by many when in reality, he is feared by his own family and that is another reason that leads Okonkwo to his downfall. He started positive, motivated but down the line, Okonkwo treats his wife and children very harshly. When the author mentioned, “Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children” (pg.13).
Okonkwo’s fear of unmanliness is kindled by his father, who was a lazy, unaccomplished man. Okonkwo strives to have a high status from a young age and eventually achieves it. He has a large family, many yams and is well known throughout the village for his valor. He raises his family by his mentality of manliness and is ...
For an abundance of authors, the driving force that aids them in creation of a novel is the theme or number of themes implemented throughout the novel. Often times the author doesn’t consciously identify the theme they’re trying to present. Usually a theme is a concept, principle or belief that is significant to an author. Not only does the theme create the backbone of the story, but it also guides the author by controlling the events that happen in a story, what emotions are dispersed, what are the actions of characters, and what emotions are presented within each environment to engage the readers in many
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a story about personal beliefs,customs, and also a story about an identity confliction. There is struggle between family, culture, and religion of the Ibo tribes. It shows how things fall apart when these beliefs and customs are challenged and how a personal identity changes for a man. The novel concerns the life of Okonkwo, a leader and local wrestling champion throughout the villages of the Ibo ethnic group of Umuofia in Nigeria, Africa, his three wives, and his children. Throughout the novel, Okonkwo is internally challenged and slowly becomes someone that is no longer recognizable by his friends or his family. When Okonkwo faces change, his identity starts to fade.
In Tasneem Raja article,” Dear White Artist Making Music Videos in India: Step Away from The ‘Holi Powder” posted in February 2016, discusses the use of Holi powder in western artist’s music videos. She makes an argument that western musicians do not respect an Indian tradition and instead use the Holi powder as if they were playing games. The context of this article is trying to get western musicians to understand what Holi powder is used for. I personally recommend this article to PopMatters Persuasive Prize. Because she supports her ethos with her own personal experience since she is in fact Indian and knows her own traditions.
a loafer. Unoka was too lazy to go out and plant crops on new, fertile
Have you ever wondered what would happen when two cultures collide? Well in the novel, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, a culture clash takes place, with the main character Okonkwo’s village being overtaken by Christian white men seeking to influence and change his tribe and possibly other tribes.
In the beginning of the story, Okonkwo’s relationship with his son was strained. Toward the end of the story, Nwoye has left is his family and will never see his father again. The elders of the village put much emphasis on family life and helping fellow clansmen. Okonkwo’s family life had increasingly gone downhill as the story progressed. This book can be related to any family, even though it was written in a different time and place. Family problems affect everyone and this story shows the reader how certain problems are dealt with. I don’t believe, however, that Okonkwo’s family took care of their problems in a productive manner. With better communication, Nwoye’s leaving and Okonkwo’s death may have been prevented.