Summer Work- Things Fall Apart

Part I-
I'm not entirely sure of where to start. I guess I'd like to respond to Marrisa's question of who I feel sympathetic towards. My first answer would be neither Okonkwo or Unoka. I mean, I like Unoka more, because in our culture he'd be seen as an average, easy going guy. But in their culture, Unoka was detestable. I don't feel like he deserves to be sympathized with really. He did what he wanted to even though it was going against the norm for their culture, which is being a hard worker, where laziness is one of the worst things to be. Plus it wasn't like his life was really that bad. In fact, he seemed generally content, especially "when the village musicians brought down their instruments..." (4) He would play with them then, and that is when he was the happiest. It was said that "he loved ...the good fellowship,"(5). So, what I'm trying to say, is I don't feel sympathy towards him because he doesn't need it. Also,off the top of my head, I want to hate Okonkwo. As everyone has been saying, he's sexist, he's mean to his family, he breaks the clan rules, so on and so fourth. But if you look in one of the first chapters of the book, (the part that you begin to forget as you read the other chapters) Achebe had said that Okonkwo lived his life in fear. He was constantly afraid of looking like a woman, or ending up like his father. So really, I can sympathize with him. People do strange things out of fear, some of which translate into anger. I've noticed that the men in Okonkwo's clan aren't as harsh as he is. Okonkwo takes things and blows them out of proportion. For example, he talks about how he's worried about his twelve year old son who seems lazy. He doesn't sound lazy, that's for sure. Nwoye seems like any other twelve year old boy. He still secretly likes to hear his mother's stories, he longs to impress his father, and will help with any task he can, and he looks up to Ikemefuna as an older brother. He's not lazy, he's just still little. Men like Obierika, who is Maduka's father, seem much more laid back, but still manage to get work done. Obierika even tells Okonkwo "'You worry yourself for nothing',"(66). He's also much less violent, choosing to skip out on the killing of Ikemefuna. It makes him no less of a man, it just makes him a happier one. Moving on to my questions. What is the significance of a kola nut in their culture? It's mentioned a lot, and it could be nothing important, but I'm guessing that the fact that it's mentioned so much means it's significant.

Part II-
First of all, when I was reading, there was one line that just stopped me in my tracks. While Obierika, Uchendu, and Okonkwo were talking about how many thought the stories of white men were made up, Uchendu said "'There is no story that is not true... The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others.'"(141).That quote stuck out to me because of how true it is. Reading the posts from the first section of this book, so many people were outraged at how the women are treated. Here, women being treated like they were lower than men or even lower than dirt just isn’t stood for. We're all about equal treatment. But in other places in the world, showing the women that the men are "above them" is just what's normal and accepted. Also, the fact that he was saying there is no story that isn't true struck me because stories seem to be such an important part of their culture. In both Okonkwo's fatherland and motherland, stories were used to teach lessons. Males tell their sons stories of war and of the past, and women spin tales that have probably been passed onto them from their mothers. I also agree with Marrisa about it being ironic that Okonkwo is punished for an accidental death. I thought it was really interesting that Obierika was pondering the fairness of this later, thinking "Why should a man suffer so grievously for an offense he had committed inadvertently,"(125). Most of the characters seem to do what the law is without question. To have Obierika question the rule, although it was only in his own thoughts, added a definite depth to his character.The church development surprised me. Katie was right in saying there was foreshadowing with the locusts, but I didn’t make that connection. I liked how Achebe really went into detail with the thoughts of the tribe members and how they felt torn yet amazed. In chapter sixteen, the crowd starts off with listening to the missionaries, deeply wrapped up with what they were saying. When the white man began to talk about settling with them, they became excited, but when he began to tell them their gods were false, some became angered, yet at the same time, it seems as if they thought him to be no sort of a threat, if not a little crazy. The missionary had said “’Your gods are not alive, and cannot do you any harm… They are pieces of wood and stone.’”(146) which sent the clan into fits of mocking laughter. I liked that Achebe documented all these feelings, because it helped me relate. If someone came to me and basically told me what I had believed all along was nothing but lies, I’d probably be amazed at first, but it would soon turn to an attitude of anger and disbelief. My question for this section would be: Is what we are learning about the development of the church what Obierika is hearing from Nwoye’s mother, or is it written as if we were reading it as it happened. I don’t know if I articulated that question correctly, but it said that Obierika went to see Okonkwo a few years after their first visit because he saw that Nwoye was a missionary and wanted to know what happened. When Okonkwo wouldn’t tell him the story, Achebe writes “It was only from Nwoye’s mother that he heard scraps of the story,”(144). Then the story of how the missionaries came begins to unravel. Oh, and also, when they were talking about the metal horse, I couldn’t understand what they meant. Now I know that they were referring to a bike. But how about when they say that the interpreter referred to himself as “my buttocks,”(144) instead of “myself”? Was it a misinterpretation from language to language, or what? I was trying to figure out what word could get confused with “my buttocks” but really couldn’t come up with anything.

Part III-
I, like everyone else it seems, was greatly surprised by Okonkwo's suicide. When Obierika said "‘we can take you where he is, and perhaps your men will help us.'"(206), my first thought was that Okonkwo was in hiding and Obierika was showing the men his hiding place. I was confused as to why Obierika would turn against him like that, but it was the only thing in my mind that made sense. Even when Achebe wrote "Then they came to a tree from which Okonkwo's body was dangling..."(207), I still couldn't wrap my mind around what happened. Normally it doesn't take me very long to understand something, but I believe since it was such a change from what one expected, my brain refused to wrap around it.Moving on. I feel like the title of the book, "Things Fall Apart," was something that can't be tacked down to one particular moment. I think Achebe was trying to show you can't live your life fearfully and angry like Okonkwo did, but more like his father, if anything. Things will slip from your control, and if you've got something, make use of it while you can, because eventually it's going to get messed up or taken away. When the missionaries first settled, things fell apart. When Okonkwo was exiled, things fell apart. When he came back but people were too absorbed to be excited by his return, things for him fell apart. The list goes on, ending with his entire life falling apart. I, in a way, liked the negative reaction to the missionaries from some people. Coming from a Christian church you only hear about the wonderful things missionaries do and how everyone is so happy they are there and blah blah. You do hear about the struggles they go through as well, but it always seems as if they are in the right and the people they are teaching and preaching to are in the wrong. But this showed the opposite side of things. The missionaries were unfair, and stepped over their limits. I do agree that Okonkwo’s death was partly his fault because of keeping in his bottled feelings, but at the same time, if they hadn’t pushed the clan so much, events may not have unfolded in those ways. Finally, I love the way Obierika spoke to the D.C. when he told him Okonkwo was one of the greatest men in Umuofia and he was driven by the missionaries to kill himself which means he will be buried like a dog. It was like Obierika was finally realizing that their clan’s customs were wrong. At the same time, he was very against the Christians, so he disliked them as well. Obierika was angry and confused, but knew how to safely handle his anger. So, technically Okonkwo was to be buried as a dog. But would he be remembered thusly, or as a great man?