I actually really like this book. It is easy to read and at parts quite interesting.
My first reactions: I really do NOT like Okonkwo. He needs to get over the fact that his father was a failure and shamed him. Grow up! I really enjoyed when he got in trouble for hitting his third wife during the Week of Peace. Yet, the fact that he killed Ikemefuna was truly egregious. Okonkwo may have loved Ikemefuna even more so than his own son but because he was told that Ikemefuna needed to be killed he killed him. I feel like Okonkwo is always trying to prove himself to his community rather than actually doing what he wants. He is afraid of being characterized as a failure like his father.
Some traditions of the Igbo culture: The Igbo culture is a patriarchal society. It is acceptable to hit the women and women are referred to as agbala. This term also refers to men without titles. This shows the reader that women are worthless except for their housework. Also, after killing Ikemefuna, Okonknwo is distressed and concerned that he has become “a shivering old woman.” Again this shows the weakness of women.
Wow, this book is so much easier to get through than Heart of Darkness. I know that it is supposed to be Achebe's response to HOD, but because of that I was expecting it to be much more similar, and related. But I realized it was a response in that he was striving to portray the true culture of the people, not just a different interpretation of the same story, like with Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane Eyre.
This book is very interesting because of the wealth of cultural intricacies that the reader is privy to. We can see the importance of music, tradition, respecting the Gods, and the rules by which the village is goverened. I love the proverbs that are interspersed throughout the novel, and the different celebrations they have such as the Week of Peace, and New Yam (which I am totally celebrating rather than New Years from now on).
I'm not sure how I feel about Okonkwo. On the one hand he's kind of gotten on my nerves, since he is so violent, and strikes fear into the hearts of his family members, and doesn't show signs of his affection. But on the other hand, in the context of his culture and community, I can understand the overwhelming affect that his father had on his life. He has a bit of a complex over the whole thing, and thus strives to prove him self, but even more than that to ensure he never becomes his father. It is interesting in how common a sentiment it can be.
Well, while reading Things Fall Apart, I’ve been trying to think of it in terms to it being a response to Heart of Darkness. I guess the most important aspect of this is its portrayal of African culture. Heart of Darkness painted Africa as some maddened, chaotic place where savagery was the norm and there was no discernible form of culture. However, this book has invested a great deal of time in showing the different aspects of Okonkwo’s culture and all of its complexity. The emphasis on word play and parables also shows his tribe’s cultural complexity. My guess is, by the end, imperialism is going to rear its artistically ugly head, the complex society will “fall apart” at the seams, and Okonkwo’s world will fall into Darkness.
As for the story itself, not a ton I found blog worthy. Okonkwo is a brute who’s just driven and crazy enough to be interesting. I once heard someone say that most tyrants are helplessly self-pitying cry babies on the inside, but that doesn’t make them any less scary or dangerous. I think Big O (no, actually I take that back, I don’t think this dude has earned that nickname) fits that mold quite well. He obsesses over how he had to work so hard to get where he is because his father was weak, and he is allergic to the thought of being for a moment associated with him.
So far, I'm pretty on the fence with "Things Fall Apart". The problem lies with the HOD compare and contrast essay; I read Achebe's essay on racism in the novel. Because of that, I feel that I'm simply reading a response piece, trying to demonstarte how Africans aren't savage, but are complex, rational people. I feel that he's trying to prove this to the world. I feel that this message is being stuffed down my throat.
In terms of thematical structure, the book is interesting and entertaining. I do enjoy reading about Big O and his struggles, including when he killed Ike. It presented an ethical quandry, which had strong impact with basic diction. I felt that the message was not hokey; it's a legitimate moral dilemma that will most likely permeate throughout the rest of the text.
My initial reaction was that of great appreciation for blunt descriptions and an easy-to-understand plot. Compared to the past few overly descriptive, confusing, highly interpretive books we have read, this was a dream come true. I agree with zoe in that i liked the fact that Okonkwo had to make a sacrifice for beating his wife, and although I realize that it is tradition to kill goats, i hate hearing about that kind of stuff. It was interesting reading about how happy he was with Nwoye's new found masculinity. I like the random description of the characters, though, throughout the book. For example, Okonkwo's dad is brought up a bunch of times in the first few chapters randomly, like an afterthought. It feels like a stream-of-consciousness narrative, and that makes it more interesting. On another random note, the text is huge!
Alright so this book feels like a combination of One Hundred Years of Solitue and about a million folk tales. The beginning was very similar to One Hundred Years in that it was simply a compilation of many stories, which eventually begin to flow together, and instead tell the one main story. Nwoye also really reminds me of Aureliano, in that he is gentler and quieter than the other boys and not interested in what he thinks should interest him.
I agree with Zoe--I don't like Okonkwo, at least as of now. He's seriously like a middle-schooler: he constantly feels like he has to prove himself, and can't connect his internal feelings with his actions. Also, Igbu is definitely very concerned with masculinity. Any sign of weakness is considered a quality of a "woman", and if someone is strong they are "truly a man".
Since Achebe is African, and he wrote this response to "Things Fall Apart" to give readers a new perspective on African culture (likely a more positive one), for me, the most important thing so far has been trying to keep an open mind about all of the seemingly misogynistic, weird, etc traditions with which we are unfamiliar. I went to Cambodia two summers ago on a cultural exploration program, and the hardest but most interesting thing to do was try to immerse myself into the completely unfamiliar Khmer world. It would have been so easy to judge their treatment of children, or their eating customs, or some of what they eat! (fried tarantula anyone?!) But instead I attempted to step back, observe, and try to appreciate. So that's what I'm trying to do when Okonkwo judges "agbala" and when Okonkwo resists showing Ikemefuna that he likes him and when all three wives must cook him dinner. However, it is hard not to resent him just a little bit when he beats people for dumb reasons- Nwoye for being lazy, his wife for not having cooked dinner...the only reason he even feels about about it is because he broke the rules for the Peace, not because he hurt his wife for something minor, his other wife for no reason...
I felt almost chocked reading this novel. The people of this village are so chained downed by legends and superstitions. There are so many rules they have to follow in fear of something bad happening to them. The people have to follow everything that the oracle says. When people are called they cannot say yes because the devil may hear them. The only one who is slightly free from those rules is Okonkwo. However, he is tied down by the fear of becoming like his father. He is not so afraid of the punishment from his god for disobeying the rules of the Week of Peace but his fear of being weak takes away his liberty to show his emotions and save Ikemefuna.
The short song on page 51 reminded me of the song in the Bible that women song for David when he wonbattles. Maybe I am stretching this too far but I thought that this was a foreshadowing. Okonkwo may become jealous at Maduka like Saul was at David. Okonkow may be fond of him now but grow hostility towards him later on for replacing his position as "the remarkable young man".
I think Achebe's put things together pretty well in this novel, at least before they all "fall apart." I'm enjoying it, I like the simple diction because it gives me the ability to create my own image of the story instead of forgetting the beginning of a sentence and having to reread the beginning of the sentence and then forgetting the end of the sentence again...as you can see with this sentence.
There's a lot of humor in this book, centered around Okonkwo. I love the part where his second wife is talking to another woman at the wrestling match and the woman's like "Did your husband really try to shoot you with his gun?" and Ediwefi's attitude is basically, "Yeah, whatever, you know him."
It's like Achebe sets us up to be simultaneously for and against Okonkwo. He's risen from nothing, but he's cruel and overly defensive of his masculinity. What I find most interesting is that Okonkwo himself seems to be a symbol of imperialism, like an early sign of a second bout of imperialism, this time by the invading Europeans.
I agree with Anna, in that Things Fall Apart reminds me so much of One Hundred Years of Solitude. The writing is completely different, but it's the stories about people and their huge, connected families that make the two books so similar. Also, the town is really important. In 100 years, Macondo is so isolated and portrayed as magical, and in Things Fall Apart, the characters have such a sense of loyalty to Umuofia. The proverbs also create this sense of magic and mystery that is very similar.
As for the reading, it was pretty straightforward and I don't really know what else to say about it. I just really enjoyed the different stories and proverbs, and liked reading about a culture so different from ours. The writing is so plain and simple, but yet it's so specific, which makes it feel extremely authentic. For example, when describing the wrestling match, Achebe writes "There were seven drums and they were arranged according to their sizes in a long wooden basket. Three men beat them with sticks, working feverishly from one drum to another. They were possessed by the spirit of the drums." This, especially the number of people and description of the tradition, and the many proverbs, make the stories feel authentic.
Also, I really like how Achebe repeats many of the words from the Igbo language. After a while, i began to catch on and now I understand what many of the words mean. I think this is really important ot the story, because the use of these words shows that the culture is so unique that its story cannot be told only in English--these words are necessary. I think this shows the importance of tradition and it shows Africa in a different light (compared to HOD).
And then about Okonkwo... I don't like him, but at the same time I'm impressed by him. Like Kimia said, i think we're supposed to be for and against him. Obviously I don't like most of the things he's done so far, but as a character, I think he's interesting. I like how Achebe sort of tells us his inner thoughts and emotions, but then describes him how the people around him see him--as a heartless, violent, angry man.
The first thing I noticed when beginning my reading this weekend was that the female characters were not named, and awkwardly so. For example, on page 14, we learn about Okonkwo’s wives. It’s not odd that they’re unnamed until the narrator says, “Nwoye’s mother,” as if looking for a new way to say Okonkwo’s first wife without saying a name. Also, the girl who is killed is always referred to as the “daughter of Umuofia.” The only character that was named in the beginning of the reading was the priestess, Chika. She is the only female more powerful than the men, and is thus given the honor of a mentioned name. Also, after pages of talking about Unoka, the narrator says “his father, Unoka” again. I actually wrote in my book ‘like we don’t know!’ Maybe this is just left over from the feminist essay I wrote with Alicia last week, but it seems like the men are given a lot of attention while the women are only mentioned because they happen to affect the lives of the men. Maybe that’s the culture. Maybe I’m just crazy.
Also, how funny is the image of Unoka left to die in the forest, holding onto his flute? Hahahah. There are little twinges of humor here and there, like the “he pounced on people often” in the part we read together and “evil fortune followed him to the grave, or rather to his death, for he had no grave.” Kind of seems like a similar narration, addressing what was said previously. It makes the voice very much like that of a storyteller.
I’m enjoying the imagery in this book a lot. Since the style is so simple, the imagery is given really clear, honest delivery. As well as the humorous imagery that I mentioned, there is also really gorgeous imagery that really gives the reader a sense of the setting and culture of the characters.
11 comments:
I actually really like this book. It is easy to read and at parts quite interesting.
My first reactions:
I really do NOT like Okonkwo. He needs to get over the fact that his father was a failure and shamed him. Grow up! I really enjoyed when he got in trouble for hitting his third wife during the Week of Peace. Yet, the fact that he killed Ikemefuna was truly egregious. Okonkwo may have loved Ikemefuna even more so than his own son but because he was told that Ikemefuna needed to be killed he killed him. I feel like Okonkwo is always trying to prove himself to his community rather than actually doing what he wants. He is afraid of being characterized as a failure like his father.
Some traditions of the Igbo culture:
The Igbo culture is a patriarchal society. It is acceptable to hit the women and women are referred to as agbala. This term also refers to men without titles. This shows the reader that women are worthless except for their housework. Also, after killing Ikemefuna, Okonknwo is distressed and concerned that he has become “a shivering old woman.” Again this shows the weakness of women.
Wow, this book is so much easier to get through than Heart of Darkness. I know that it is supposed to be Achebe's response to HOD, but because of that I was expecting it to be much more similar, and related. But I realized it was a response in that he was striving to portray the true culture of the people, not just a different interpretation of the same story, like with Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane Eyre.
This book is very interesting because of the wealth of cultural intricacies that the reader is privy to. We can see the importance of music, tradition, respecting the Gods, and the rules by which the village is goverened. I love the proverbs that are interspersed throughout the novel, and the different celebrations they have such as the Week of Peace, and New Yam (which I am totally celebrating rather than New Years from now on).
I'm not sure how I feel about Okonkwo. On the one hand he's kind of gotten on my nerves, since he is so violent, and strikes fear into the hearts of his family members, and doesn't show signs of his affection. But on the other hand, in the context of his culture and community, I can understand the overwhelming affect that his father had on his life. He has a bit of a complex over the whole thing, and thus strives to prove him self, but even more than that to ensure he never becomes his father. It is interesting in how common a sentiment it can be.
Well, while reading Things Fall Apart, I’ve been trying to think of it in terms to it being a response to Heart of Darkness. I guess the most important aspect of this is its portrayal of African culture. Heart of Darkness painted Africa as some maddened, chaotic place where savagery was the norm and there was no discernible form of culture. However, this book has invested a great deal of time in showing the different aspects of Okonkwo’s culture and all of its complexity. The emphasis on word play and parables also shows his tribe’s cultural complexity. My guess is, by the end, imperialism is going to rear its artistically ugly head, the complex society will “fall apart” at the seams, and Okonkwo’s world will fall into Darkness.
As for the story itself, not a ton I found blog worthy. Okonkwo is a brute who’s just driven and crazy enough to be interesting. I once heard someone say that most tyrants are helplessly self-pitying cry babies on the inside, but that doesn’t make them any less scary or dangerous. I think Big O (no, actually I take that back, I don’t think this dude has earned that nickname) fits that mold quite well. He obsesses over how he had to work so hard to get where he is because his father was weak, and he is allergic to the thought of being for a moment associated with him.
So far, I'm pretty on the fence with "Things Fall Apart". The problem lies with the HOD compare and contrast essay; I read Achebe's essay on racism in the novel. Because of that, I feel that I'm simply reading a response piece, trying to demonstarte how Africans aren't savage, but are complex, rational people. I feel that he's trying to prove this to the world. I feel that this message is being stuffed down my throat.
In terms of thematical structure, the book is interesting and entertaining. I do enjoy reading about Big O and his struggles, including when he killed Ike. It presented an ethical quandry, which had strong impact with basic diction. I felt that the message was not hokey; it's a legitimate moral dilemma that will most likely permeate throughout the rest of the text.
My initial reaction was that of great appreciation for blunt descriptions and an easy-to-understand plot. Compared to the past few overly descriptive, confusing, highly interpretive books we have read, this was a dream come true. I agree with zoe in that i liked the fact that Okonkwo had to make a sacrifice for beating his wife, and although I realize that it is tradition to kill goats, i hate hearing about that kind of stuff. It was interesting reading about how happy he was with Nwoye's new found masculinity. I like the random description of the characters, though, throughout the book. For example, Okonkwo's dad is brought up a bunch of times in the first few chapters randomly, like an afterthought. It feels like a stream-of-consciousness narrative, and that makes it more interesting. On another random note, the text is huge!
Alright so this book feels like a combination of One Hundred Years of Solitue and about a million folk tales. The beginning was very similar to One Hundred Years in that it was simply a compilation of many stories, which eventually begin to flow together, and instead tell the one main story. Nwoye also really reminds me of Aureliano, in that he is gentler and quieter than the other boys and not interested in what he thinks should interest him.
I agree with Zoe--I don't like Okonkwo, at least as of now. He's seriously like a middle-schooler: he constantly feels like he has to prove himself, and can't connect his internal feelings with his actions. Also, Igbu is definitely very concerned with masculinity. Any sign of weakness is considered a quality of a "woman", and if someone is strong they are "truly a man".
Since Achebe is African, and he wrote this response to "Things Fall Apart" to give readers a new perspective on African culture (likely a more positive one), for me, the most important thing so far has been trying to keep an open mind about all of the seemingly misogynistic, weird, etc traditions with which we are unfamiliar. I went to Cambodia two summers ago on a cultural exploration program, and the hardest but most interesting thing to do was try to immerse myself into the completely unfamiliar Khmer world. It would have been so easy to judge their treatment of children, or their eating customs, or some of what they eat! (fried tarantula anyone?!) But instead I attempted to step back, observe, and try to appreciate. So that's what I'm trying to do when Okonkwo judges "agbala" and when Okonkwo resists showing Ikemefuna that he likes him and when all three wives must cook him dinner. However, it is hard not to resent him just a little bit when he beats people for dumb reasons- Nwoye for being lazy, his wife for not having cooked dinner...the only reason he even feels about about it is because he broke the rules for the Peace, not because he hurt his wife for something minor, his other wife for no reason...
I felt almost chocked reading this novel. The people of this village are so chained downed by legends and superstitions. There are so many rules they have to follow in fear of something bad happening to them. The people have to follow everything that the oracle says. When people are called they cannot say yes because the devil may hear them. The only one who is slightly free from those rules is Okonkwo. However, he is tied down by the fear of becoming like his father. He is not so afraid of the punishment from his god for disobeying the rules of the Week of Peace but his fear of being weak takes away his liberty to show his emotions and save Ikemefuna.
The short song on page 51 reminded me of the song in the Bible that women song for David when he wonbattles. Maybe I am stretching this too far but I thought that this was a foreshadowing. Okonkwo may become jealous at Maduka like Saul was at David. Okonkow may be fond of him now but grow hostility towards him later on for replacing his position as "the remarkable young man".
I think Achebe's put things together pretty well in this novel, at least before they all "fall apart." I'm enjoying it, I like the simple diction because it gives me the ability to create my own image of the story instead of forgetting the beginning of a sentence and having to reread the beginning of the sentence and then forgetting the end of the sentence again...as you can see with this sentence.
There's a lot of humor in this book, centered around Okonkwo. I love the part where his second wife is talking to another woman at the wrestling match and the woman's like "Did your husband really try to shoot you with his gun?" and Ediwefi's attitude is basically, "Yeah, whatever, you know him."
It's like Achebe sets us up to be simultaneously for and against Okonkwo. He's risen from nothing, but he's cruel and overly defensive of his masculinity. What I find most interesting is that Okonkwo himself seems to be a symbol of imperialism, like an early sign of a second bout of imperialism, this time by the invading Europeans.
I agree with Anna, in that Things Fall Apart reminds me so much of One Hundred Years of Solitude. The writing is completely different, but it's the stories about people and their huge, connected families that make the two books so similar. Also, the town is really important. In 100 years, Macondo is so isolated and portrayed as magical, and in Things Fall Apart, the characters have such a sense of loyalty to Umuofia. The proverbs also create this sense of magic and mystery that is very similar.
As for the reading, it was pretty straightforward and I don't really know what else to say about it. I just really enjoyed the different stories and proverbs, and liked reading about a culture so different from ours. The writing is so plain and simple, but yet it's so specific, which makes it feel extremely authentic. For example, when describing the wrestling match, Achebe writes "There were seven drums and they were arranged according to their sizes in a long wooden basket. Three men beat them with sticks, working feverishly from one drum to another. They were possessed by the spirit of the drums." This, especially the number of people and description of the tradition, and the many proverbs, make the stories feel authentic.
Also, I really like how Achebe repeats many of the words from the Igbo language. After a while, i began to catch on and now I understand what many of the words mean. I think this is really important ot the story, because the use of these words shows that the culture is so unique that its story cannot be told only in English--these words are necessary. I think this shows the importance of tradition and it shows Africa in a different light (compared to HOD).
And then about Okonkwo... I don't like him, but at the same time I'm impressed by him. Like Kimia said, i think we're supposed to be for and against him. Obviously I don't like most of the things he's done so far, but as a character, I think he's interesting. I like how Achebe sort of tells us his inner thoughts and emotions, but then describes him how the people around him see him--as a heartless, violent, angry man.
The first thing I noticed when beginning my reading this weekend was that the female characters were not named, and awkwardly so. For example, on page 14, we learn about Okonkwo’s wives. It’s not odd that they’re unnamed until the narrator says, “Nwoye’s mother,” as if looking for a new way to say Okonkwo’s first wife without saying a name. Also, the girl who is killed is always referred to as the “daughter of Umuofia.” The only character that was named in the beginning of the reading was the priestess, Chika. She is the only female more powerful than the men, and is thus given the honor of a mentioned name. Also, after pages of talking about Unoka, the narrator says “his father, Unoka” again. I actually wrote in my book ‘like we don’t know!’ Maybe this is just left over from the feminist essay I wrote with Alicia last week, but it seems like the men are given a lot of attention while the women are only mentioned because they happen to affect the lives of the men. Maybe that’s the culture. Maybe I’m just crazy.
Also, how funny is the image of Unoka left to die in the forest, holding onto his flute? Hahahah. There are little twinges of humor here and there, like the “he pounced on people often” in the part we read together and “evil fortune followed him to the grave, or rather to his death, for he had no grave.” Kind of seems like a similar narration, addressing what was said previously. It makes the voice very much like that of a storyteller.
I’m enjoying the imagery in this book a lot. Since the style is so simple, the imagery is given really clear, honest delivery. As well as the humorous imagery that I mentioned, there is also really gorgeous imagery that really gives the reader a sense of the setting and culture of the characters.
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