Ordinarily, us as humans face many situations where we have to make a tough decision. As an example, politics and culture affect a lot of what we do, say, and feel. Sometimes, changes or continuities based on a decision, can change ourselves. How do we cope with these feelings though? Yes, there are many ways to deal with these emotions, some are bad and some are good. Even in books like “Siddhartha”, “How To Kill a Mockingbird”, and “Things Fall Apart” do characters need help in dealing with situations. The individuals distracted themselves by setting goals, actually looking for a change, trying to understand something new, making a change in themselves for the greater good, and the best thing, staying calm. In a way or manner, how you transact…
What characteristics describe heroes? How can one tell a hero apart from an ordinary person? My definition of a hero is a person who will achieve their goals, no matter how difficult their situations are. A hero also needs to be motivational, kind, courageous, and strong at heart. A hero will do everything possible to live up to their beliefs and do the moral thing. Now, a new question arises: Is Okonkwo, the main character in Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, a hero? Some might say that he’s a hero – after all, he is a powerful, prosperous, and well-respected man. Nevertheless, I believe that Okonkwo is not a hero; he doesn’t show the characteristics of being kind nor motivational. He doesn’t try his best to do the moral thing, and…
Things Fall Apart illustrates the beauty and fragile nature of the Igbo clan, and the tragic downfall of their entire culture. The title, Things Fall Apart, has a deep meaning that brings the unfortunate situation of Umuofia to light. The Second Coming, and Things Fall Apart, have striking similarities in their themes, and the ideas present in both of the pieces, making them seem as if they are written by the same person, or are somehow connected. In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe chose the title of his book to illustrate the tragedy of losing a culture to the destruction of evil.…
In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the Ibo culture is depicted as a civilized society…
It’s human nature to expect things in life to go the way one wants. Disappointments occur as this nature is never fulfilled, and maybe is on rare occasion. Candy for all three meals in a day is a desire of every child. That will never happen, and then they cry in frustration. Men and women around the world think promotions are always on the way, and are utterly upset when they learn it’s not true. Everyone is different, everyone has their own mindsets, and everyone wants to live their own way. This fact is not accepted by anyone, especially the main character of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Okoknwo. Okonkwo’s life was deeply affected by his own extremism, and his choice of living and dying on his own terms.…
But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was the fear of himself (Achebe 13). Okonkwo feared more of what he was then what was around…
| The juxtaposition of these two contrasting ideas draws more attention to them. The author states that if a society cannot assist the impoverished; it has no chance of saving the affluent. This creates a subtle emotional impact as well as leaving the reader empathetic.…
Chinua Achebe’s main character, Okonkwo, struggles with change within in himself and his surroundings throughout the book, Things Fall Apart. Even though Okonkwo resists change, we notice as the audience the natural human feelings within him: love, happiness, and care. As the story progresses the conflicts within the story does too affect our feelings for Okonkwo when he acts rashly towards these conflicts. We always seem to be brought back to sanity with Okonkwo because we have an insight of the human Okonkwo is. In a way, we as the audience understand Okonkwo and are able to notice the true human being we know he can be, loving, and caring.…
Nwoye found refuge in this society of love; however, he is not the only Igbo who prefers the gentleness of Christianity to the brutality of the Igbo religion. The scorned and rejected find solace and refuge in Christianity. Nneka had had four pregnancies and each one of them had been twins. Consequently, her children were thrown into the woods to die. Nneka is pregnant again, and she flees to the Christians in order to save her children. The missionaries attempt to right the wrongs of the Igbo society. The missionaries rescue twins from the bush. The osu saw that “the new religion welcomed twins and such abominations” (Achebe 155). They therefore join the church. The other Igbo converts learn to accept them. They have to learn that there is…
Trying to understand what vulnerability is and what it does to people has been the core of many research studies and investigations. Thereafter, they’ve found that vulnerability is to live without any emotional safeguards and is manifested habitually and subconsciously. People often associate vulnerability with fear, the fear of not having a wall to block intense emotions. When people block intimidating emotions they equally block beneficial emotions that help them mentally mature and fully develop. Each emotion fits into smaller portions of each other to help divide and understand what that emotion represents. Feeling vulnerable causes people to suppress real emotion and leads them to create and follow through their own self fulfilling prophecy.…
In the book Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe eminently achieves to show the different approaches Okonkwo reacts to people. Okonkwo taught himself to be tough and show no emotions. As the book says, “Despite all of Okonkwo’s showy manliness, he is ruled by fear – a profound fear of being deemed weak and feminine, like his father. Essentially, Okonkwo fears nothing but himself.” He usually reacts rough and unsympathetic to most people, yet sympathetic to others. You are able to see these peculiar approaches with the other characters in the book.…
The use of metaphors is the second literary device that Achebe uses to show that Okonkwo is a tragic hero. “He brought honor to his village by throwing Amalinze the cat.”…
For instance, ” with a father like Unoka, Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men had” (Achebe 13). As we see the misfortune he has been shown in his through his father results in the attitude towards his son. So now that we see them we see the misfortune of Nwoye. As Achebe guides us through the novel the reader is shown Nwoyes adversity in life. As he grows as a young man he is shown difference in religion. For example,“ It was the poetry of the new religion, something felt in the marrow” (Achebe 113). Down in his bones adversity forwards the new religion is shown. As the Igbo people go through adversity of learning the new religion and of the traditions of…
In “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe a story of how hardships changed Umuofia the most feared village and its people is told. The story starts off by introducing Okonkwo a man who is well known and respected in his village. Okonkwo was proud of how well his life turned out. He was recognized for his strength and work ethic and had sons who would maintain his good name. However, he wasn’t proud of all his sons, Nwoye, his oldest son had yet to meet his expectations. In the eyes of Okonkwo his son still needed to grow and become the man which he so desperately wanted him to become. Okonkwo saw that Nwoye had too much of his grandfather in him. Okonkwo feared that his son would never meet his expectations. However, as time went on and Nwoye…
In this paper, I will explore the notion of irony in Achebe's "Girls at War and Other Stories". My choice of Achebe’s collection of short stories is due to the scarcity of the critics written about it. All the focus and attention went to Achebe’s novels leaving out his short stories which are interesting to study especially that they represent different points of time in Achebe’s life as a writer. I will be specifically studying three of his short stories dealing with the Biafran war and their relationship to my main topic war and identity production. These stories are “Girls at War”, “Civil Peace”, and “Sugar Baby”. As far as the rest of the collection goes, I will be studying the use of irony as an important tool that Achebe utilizes to pass on his critical views of the Biafran society. Irony is indeed prevalent in the whole collection which makes it difficult not to touch upon it while studying Achebe’s Girls at War and Other Stories.…