Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Part 2 of Questions

1) Okonkwo has fled his father land of Umuofia and took his family to his mother land of Mbanta because after he committed the crime of killing a clansman and the punishment for that would be exile since his type of crime was a woman crime; it was accidental. So he traveled to Mbanta to stay for seven years as was the punishment for such a crime. Okonkwo is in despair because he was a very successful farmer and wealthy man who was held in high esteem in his native land of Umuofia and he was on his way to becoming one of the lords of the clan-which was his life goal but was then cast away because of a crime that he did not intentionally commit. Okonkwo's mother's brother Uchendu responds to his feeling of despair by calling him and telling him that if he keeps up his moping and grieving attitude, his whole family will die in exile. And he also told him that he is definitely not the greatest sufferer in the world so he needs to deal with his problems and get his family as a whole back to his native land of Umuofia.

2) The Abame clan had been completely cleaned of all of it's inhabitants so to speak. The white men had come in to Abame into the market place and killed everyone except the sick and old, and those who were still at home. Uchendu says that the people of Abame are fools because they killed a white man who did not even speak to them; which is why the other white men came back and killed them all. Okonkwo says that the people of Abame are fools because they were warned and they did not arm themselves with their guns and machetes to fight back when the white men came. Uchendu's response seems much wiser because instead of creating another enemy, they could just have let them alone, and the extermination of Abame would never have happened. What Uchendu means when he says that "There is no story that is not true" is that in every story, there is some truth in it, even if it has been twisted to portray something else.

3) Okonkwo's friend Obierika visits Okonkwo in exile the first time to tell him about the extermination of Abame and how the white men destroyed that village. His second visit to Okonkwo in exile was because the missionaries had come to Umuofia and Obierika had seen Nwoye, Okonkwo's son there with them, so he went to Mbanta to tell Okonkwo about it. Nwoye's motives for converting to Christianity are that even though he was greatly puzzled about how the God was created and the idea of Him having a son, he was captivated by the thought of this new religion and decided to explore it thoroughly. The sources of misunderstanding between the Igbo people and the Christian missionaries are for one, their different languages. The words in the Igbo language and the words in the English language translate differently into each other, so it can be hard to understand. The kinds of Africans that are attracted to the new religion are the social outcasts; the people who have been ostracized by the Igbo people and can no longer find refuge in their own religion and society. Okonkwo reacts to Nwoye's conversion in a very unfatherlike manner. He was not understanding at all. What he does is something that only a man with a lot of hate and anger built up inside him could possibly do. He actually threatens to kill his son if he does not answer to him where he has been and truthfully tells him that he has converted to the new religion. Fortunately for Nwoye, Uchendu stopped Okonkwo from hurting him any more than he already had done.

4) The few crisis' that the Christian church had early on were that the church had started admitting the outcasts of the clan, and the clansmen who were a part of the Christian church did not agree so some left. This was just the beginning of their problems. The church also had some problems when one of the outcasts who had joined the church killed the sacred python from the clan. Because of this, the clan ostracized the church members and would not allow them to take water from the stream, red earth from the ground, or chalk from the chalk quarry. The people of Mbanta are largely content to allow the Christians to stay because they have not bothered the people of Mbanta lately with their rantings and ravings of this new religion and have settled down peacefully and quietly into their church. The differences between religions with the Mbanta people and the Christian people are that the Mbanta people believe in one major god, and that many other gods came from him. They worship the symbols of these gods, and believe they can come back to Earth and decide on whether or not a man is guilty or innocent of a crime he has been accused of committing. The Christian God however, is just one God with a son and the Holy Spirit, called the Holy Trinity. The Christians believe that He does not punish you as you commit crimes; that you wait until judgment day when you die to be judged by Him.

5) The changes of this younger generation that the elders fear are that they do not realize how strong the bond of kinship is, and that now a man can curse the gods and customs of his fathers and leave them all to go to a new religion which the rest of the clan considers ludicrous. What is most frightening however, is that the younger generation actually has the courage to go through with leaving their father's religion behind. This is causing fear in the clan because it is splitting it in two, and very soon it will be torn apart by this new religion and it's converts. These changes prepare the way for the white man's success on imposing his new religion and new rule on Africa because the clans have been torn apart by this religion and they are in disarray. The white men are gaining the power they need to take over and rule Africa so to speak because of their new ways.

Posted by ChelseaTaylor_Delgado @ 3:19 PM