Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Sociologist Summary:
In the African society, women held complementary work positions to the men. Much of the legislation concerning women attempted to control them, their sexuality, and fertility. Societies expected women to work at home and outside as part of their daily chores. Women usually married young and to an older, predetermined man. When hitting puberty, women stayed in a "fat house" not allowed to come out or work until they were physically mature enough.
When a woman would marry, first the potential groom would have to pay a dowry for his wife. The father of the wife chooses the groom, and if his daughter disobeyed him or went against his wishes for whom she would marry he could punish her however he pleased.
After marriage, the wife chosen to sleep with the husband the night before rises to fetch wood to warm up the water she fetched as well so the husband can bathe. Then she goes and pays her duties to the weekly gods, and then goes about cleaning, cooking, and preparing for morning.
The main objects of traditional belief are for the African's God(s), divinities, spirits, and ancestors. Each African culture differed somewhat according to the God or Gods they worshipped.
Questions:
12) In the resolution of the novel, Okonkwo commits suicide. He does this not only to show his culture and his people that they are making a big mistake by allowing the white men to invade their land and culture, but also that he felt he had to do something drastic to get his point across, and since he was such an authoritative figure with much to say, he decided drastic measures were in order.
13) The similarities between Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness are that both novels depict a scene in which the white men come into the African's homeland. Another similarity is that the white men believe that they are better than the Africans. However, differences there are many. For one, in Heart of Darkness, Africans are depicted as irrationally violent. In Things Fall Apart however, Africans are depicted as kind, gentle, and although at times violent, for the most part are peaceful creatures.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Essay 2
Chelsea Taylor
Mrs. Bosch
Honors English 10
11 August 2006
“Pride in My Family”
Cicero once said, “To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.” What occurred before I was born has shaped and will continue shaping who I am today. Because of my family’s past and the hardships my predecessors experienced, I have learned from them and have become a better person. My family traveled from Mexico and worked extremely hard here in America to be a part of this country, and therefore, their hard work and pure struggle has molded me into a person with a strong work ethic and is independent, and a person who is constantly striving to better herself so that my family after me can have a better life.
My family members who came to the United States worked very hard to gain citizenship and establish their homes and work. Their hard work, struggle, and perseverance have instilled in me the strong work ethic that I have today. This work ethic helps me to stay on task with my schoolwork, manage my time well, and grow athletically as both an experienced dancer and a volleyball player. Without this work ethic, undoubtedly I would never have accomplished the simple task of completing all of my summer homework, continue to gain A’s on all of my report cards, or to continue to participate in sports that I am passionate about.
My mother came to the United States when she was just 21 years old. She worked very hard to get a job for herself and find a home for herself and her family. As a single mother of two, she is the most inspirational person in my life today, because she has taught me so many life lessons, and at the same time, she has taken such good care of my younger brother, (who requires more care than other normal nine year-olds because of a gastro-intestinal disability,) and myself. This fact helps to further my point that you can be independent, and still care for the one’s you love. All the while supporting me in whatever I choose to do. She has continued to drive me to ballet, Pointe, tap, and jazz dance classes and competitions since I was just three years old and still attends all of my volleyball games. She has taught me that you do not have to depend on someone; that you can be independent, and have the life that you have always wanted. Because of her, I am the person I want to be today, and I hope that her loving guidance will continue to help me become a better person in the future as well.
Another thing that my mother and the rest of my family have taught me is that you should always strive to better yourself. I have taken this into account and I am also constantly striving to better myself, whether it is in the academic field, sports, or in any other field of activity I participate in. And with this state of mind-always trying to better myself, it can only get better from here. As my personal volleyball coach always says, “Always compare yourself to yourself.” This statement rings true today, as it always will for me in the future.
With whatever I am doing, I always use my strong work ethic, my independence, and my ability to always better myself to help me get through. And the only reason why I have these desirable qualities is because of what my family, and in particular, my mother, have experienced, and what they have taught me. Their wise guidance and hard work have not only helped shape me into who I am today, but will also continue shaping me in the future. I can only hope that what I have learned from them and the person that I am today will help me to be successful later on in life.
Essay 1
Chelsea Taylor
Mrs. Bosch
Honors English 10
11 August 2006
“Pride in One’s Self”
Chinua Achebe, the amazingly gifted author of “Things Fall Apart,” demonstrated exceptionally well how it is possible to insert a captious and inviting plot complete with individual and strikingly unique characters, and at the same time ingeniously informing the audience of his riveting personal views. It is quite evident throughout the novel the fact that the author took a great amount of pride in his family, heritage, memory, language, and life. This novel was filled to the brim with evidence of how much he values his beliefs and therefore, it can only be concluded that Mr. Achebe was a very insightful and intriguing character, and consequently, morals and family are very important to him.
Walt Whitman once said, “An individual is as superb as a nation when he has the qualities which make a superb nation.” Chinua Achebe must have thought the same thing because in his main character Okonkwo, he has instilled these qualities. One of them being that he takes pride in his family and being together, and believes that “it is good for kinsmen to meet” (Achebe 166). Mr. Achebe created the character Okonkwo differently from the rest, and this shows that Okonkwo is much like Mr. Achebe, not literally, but figuratively. This fact helps to prove that Mr. Achebe does in fact take pride in his family.
Another idea that is illustrated nicely from the author’s perspective is a person’s heritage. It is stated in the novel by Okonkwo “a man was judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of his father” (Achebe 8). Although this statement may sound as though Mr. Achebe does not respect heritage, it truly means that heritage is very important, and that people should take pride in their heritage as Mr. Achebe does. What helps to prove this point is that when Okonkwo was banished after committing a female crime, he returned back to “his mother land for a few years” (Achebe 134). This shows that he does in fact take pride in his mother’s heritage, and in turn, Mr. Achebe takes pride in his own heritage as well.
The third idea that is quite evident throughout the whole novel that Mr. Achebe takes pride in is his memory of the past. It is mentioned during the novel that there is “fear for you young people because you do not understand how strong is the bond of kinship” (Achebe 167). The elders of the clan in the novel respect their memory of the past and understand that because the youngsters of the clan do not have those past memories, they do not respect how important the customs and “the gods of his fathers and his ancestors” are to the clan (Achebe 167). This idea of memory being vital to the survival of the clan in turn helps prove that Mr. Achebe also believes memory of past wrongs is also very vital in the survival of the modern day society.
The one thing that is vital to human beings and helps them to communicate is their language. Mr. Achebe most likely believes this same idea. The nine villages in which the villagers lives spoke relatively the same language so they are able to communicate with each other. However, when the white men came, he spoke a different language that “they did not understand” (Achebe 139). These two races of people could not communicate with each other, and therefore, what started with a tragedy for the incoming white men ultimately led to the destruction of the Igbo culture and society. All of these tragedies in the novel that stemmed from the lack of communication or miscommunication are what lead the reader to believe that Mr. Achebe must believe the same thing, and that he takes pride in the languages he speaks.
The latter and final idea that Mr. Achebe takes pride in and is clearly represented throughout the novel is life. It is quite evident throughout the story that life, i.e. living and dieing, plays an important part of everyday life and the customs and traditions he Igbo people have. Because of the diminishing culture of the Igbo people, Okonkwo wanted to make a last and final statement and decided, partly because he had no more fight left in him, and partly because he needed to do something that would show his people that “they lost the power to fight” and needed to get it back (Achebe 175). This action that Okonkwo took is the deciding factor that helps prove that Mr. Achebe does in fact take a great amount of pride in his and other peoples’ lives. What better way to let your audience know that you care about their lives than to have the protagonist take his own life to show that we need to care?
Throughout the novel, Mr. Chinua Achebe makes it abundantly clear the fact that he takes pride in his family, heritage, memory, language, and life. Whether he was pulling from oral traditions, past experiences, or the past experiences of his family, it truly does not matter because he wrote an ingenious novel about strength and having your own voice, all the while letting the audience find out what he is proud of and what he believes matters most.
Work Cited
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor Books, 1959.
Chelsea Taylor
Mrs. Bosch
Honors English 10
11 August 2006
“Pride in One’s Self”
Chinua Achebe, the amazingly gifted author of “Things Fall Apart,” demonstrated exceptionally well how it is possible to insert a captious and inviting plot complete with individual and strikingly unique characters, and at the same time ingeniously informing the audience of his riveting personal views. It is quite evident throughout the novel the fact that the author took a great amount of pride in his family, heritage, memory, language, and life. This novel was filled to the brim with evidence of how much he values his beliefs and therefore, it can only be concluded that Mr. Achebe was a very insightful and intriguing character, and consequently, morals and family are very important to him.
Walt Whitman once said, “An individual is as superb as a nation when he has the qualities which make a superb nation.” Chinua Achebe must have thought the same thing because in his main character Okonkwo, he has instilled these qualities. One of them being that he takes pride in his family and being together, and believes that “it is good for kinsmen to meet” (Achebe 166). Mr. Achebe created the character Okonkwo differently from the rest, and this shows that Okonkwo is much like Mr. Achebe, not literally, but figuratively. This fact helps to prove that Mr. Achebe does in fact take pride in his family.
Another idea that is illustrated nicely from the author’s perspective is a person’s heritage. It is stated in the novel by Okonkwo “a man was judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of his father” (Achebe 8). Although this statement may sound as though Mr. Achebe does not respect heritage, it truly means that heritage is very important, and that people should take pride in their heritage as Mr. Achebe does. What helps to prove this point is that when Okonkwo was banished after committing a female crime, he returned back to “his mother land for a few years” (Achebe 134). This shows that he does in fact take pride in his mother’s heritage, and in turn, Mr. Achebe takes pride in his own heritage as well.
The third idea that is quite evident throughout the whole novel that Mr. Achebe takes pride in is his memory of the past. It is mentioned during the novel that there is “fear for you young people because you do not understand how strong is the bond of kinship” (Achebe 167). The elders of the clan in the novel respect their memory of the past and understand that because the youngsters of the clan do not have those past memories, they do not respect how important the customs and “the gods of his fathers and his ancestors” are to the clan (Achebe 167). This idea of memory being vital to the survival of the clan in turn helps prove that Mr. Achebe also believes memory of past wrongs is also very vital in the survival of the modern day society.
The one thing that is vital to human beings and helps them to communicate is their language. Mr. Achebe most likely believes this same idea. The nine villages in which the villagers lives spoke relatively the same language so they are able to communicate with each other. However, when the white men came, he spoke a different language that “they did not understand” (Achebe 139). These two races of people could not communicate with each other, and therefore, what started with a tragedy for the incoming white men ultimately led to the destruction of the Igbo culture and society. All of these tragedies in the novel that stemmed from the lack of communication or miscommunication are what lead the reader to believe that Mr. Achebe must believe the same thing, and that he takes pride in the languages he speaks.
The latter and final idea that Mr. Achebe takes pride in and is clearly represented throughout the novel is life. It is quite evident throughout the story that life, i.e. living and dieing, plays an important part of everyday life and the customs and traditions he Igbo people have. Because of the diminishing culture of the Igbo people, Okonkwo wanted to make a last and final statement and decided, partly because he had no more fight left in him, and partly because he needed to do something that would show his people that “they lost the power to fight” and needed to get it back (Achebe 175). This action that Okonkwo took is the deciding factor that helps prove that Mr. Achebe does in fact take a great amount of pride in his and other peoples’ lives. What better way to let your audience know that you care about their lives than to have the protagonist take his own life to show that we need to care?
Throughout the novel, Mr. Chinua Achebe makes it abundantly clear the fact that he takes pride in his family, heritage, memory, language, and life. Whether he was pulling from oral traditions, past experiences, or the past experiences of his family, it truly does not matter because he wrote an ingenious novel about strength and having your own voice, all the while letting the audience find out what he is proud of and what he believes matters most.
Work Cited
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor Books, 1959.