Please choose ONE of the topics below and address the prompt. (Please label your response with the number of the prompt chosen. Reply thoughtfully to the initial prompt and also to a fellow student.
1.) Address the poem "The Second Coming" and why you think that Achebe may have chosen it as a prologue, as well as pulling his title from its text.
2.) There is an issue here of fate versus personal control over destiny. For example, Okonkwo's father is sometimes held responsible for his own actions, while at other times he is referred to as ill-fated and a victim of evil-fortune. Which do you think Okonkwo believes is true? What do you think Achebe believes is true? What do you believe?
3.) The sacrifice of Ikemefuma could be seen as being a parallel to the crucifixion of Jesus. The event also raises a series of questions. Ikemefuma and the villagers that are left behind are told that he is "going home" (p. 58). Does this euphemism for dying contain truth for them? Do they believe they are doing him a favor? Why do they wait three years to do this? Finally, Okonkwo, "the father," allows the sacrifice to occur as God presumably allowed Christ's sacrifice, with no resistance. How can one accept this behavior and maintain love for the father or God?
4.) The villagers believe-- or pretend to believe-- that the "Supreme Court" of the nine egwugwu are ancestral spirits. In fact, they are men of the village in disguise. What does this say about the nature of justice in general, and in this village in particular?
Answer to question #2:
ReplyDeleteI think that Okonkwo believes that his father's fate was of his own choice. In the book, we are told of how Okonkwo's father handled money, or rather, how he failed to handle money. Okonkwo saw this as he grew up, and ended up thinking that his father's laziness and humbleness were not positive qualities, and that it was because of those characteristics that his father was poor.
As for Achebe, I do not know. The whole point of his book was to set straight the misconceptions painted of Africa in books like the "Heart of Darkness", which portrayed Africa as a uncultured, primitive foil for Europe. He might have thought it was fate, and he may have figured it was just choice.
As for me, I think we all have the power to choose our fate. You might get nudged in one direction or another, but it is ultimately the choice that people make for themselves that decides our fate.
I agree with your comment. The example of how his father dealt with money is a great example of how his actions control his fate. Okonkwo was greatly influenced in his father's actions and traits, and now feels that these traits are intolerant. I like your personal response, and agree, that we all have the power to choose our own fate.
DeleteI agree with your sentiments as well. Okonkwo definitely learned from his father's mistake and pushed to be better. I also agree that we choose our fate, but believe that some things are out of our control.
DeleteChristopher~
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your interpretations regarding this question. Okonkwo led a poor example and left behind a lousy legacy. His attitude caused him to be poor and left a generational sin throughout the tribe.
In regard to Achebe, I believe that his purpose in writing this novella was, as you said, to "set straight the misconceptions painted of Africa." He took it upon himself to illustrate the true image of African culture, possibly to change the 'fate' of this culture itself.
I too agree that we are given the opportunity to choice freely. Although I know that God holds the plans for each of our lives, He does give us the opportunity to choose this day who we will follow.
1.) Address the poem "The Second Coming" and why you think that Achebe may have chosen it as a prologue, as well as pulling his title from its text.
ReplyDeleteThe poem, "the Second Coming" written by W.B. Yeats, was first published in 1920, a year after the end of World War I, “the Great War,” in which millions of Europeans died. Yeats thought that the European society had fallen greatly and the poem is a terrifying prediction of future violence. Unfortunately, Yeats' predictions were very accurate causing some to see this poem as a prophetic message. One commentary reads, "By using lines from “The Second Coming” as the introduction to his book, Achebe points out parallels between a time of chaos in European history and the upheaval caused by the European colonization of Africa. In a way, Achebe uses the language of the colonizer (literally and figuratively) to enlighten them on the point of view of the colonized.
The specifics of the poem are also incredibly relevant to Things Fall Apart as a whole." Both Yates and Achebe also had a similar religious outlook portrayed throughout their writings. This religious outlook, is revealed through symbolism in both "The Second Coming" and "Things Fall Apart". The commentary continues, "Yeats’ poem continues on to give the impression that the second coming of Christ is actually the coming of anarchy and a fearful anti-Christ. The second coming brings destruction and chaos to a world corrupted by its own greed. This was the end of Western civilization as Yeats imagined it. What better way to illustrate that decline of Western morals than for Achebe to show white men coercing and brutalizing a civilized people into destroying themselves. The “anarchy loosed upon the world” is, to Achebe, the horrors of imperialism."
Both Yeats and Achebe seemed to be describing similar downfalls of their differing positions in the world.
Response to question #2:
ReplyDeleteI think Okonkwo feels that his father's fate resulted from the choices he made. As we see the flashback of how Okonkwo grew up with his father, we see that he was lazy and failed at things such as handling money. Now, Okonkwo thinks these qualities that his father had are terrible qualities to have in life. His father's decisions made a huge impact on him and his beliefs.
I think Achebe had different thoughts as Okonkwo. I think he felt Okonkwo's father made some bad decisions, but it was really destiny that lead him to his future.
I personally think his father's fate was made by the choices he made in life and how he dealt with different situations. I think if he had a more optimistic personality and tried harder to achieve certain goals, his fate would have been changed into something else.
I agree with you, but I'd like to add that sometimes, depending on the person, sheer laziness and lack of effort can result in a poor lifestyle so not all the blame can be put on his cynicism, but I liked your response all the same.
DeleteI agree with all of these statements. I especially find the difference in Achebe's and Okonkwo's perspectives interesting. I like that the difference is able to be seen, even though most authors would focus solely on the characters views.
Delete4.) The villagers believe-- or pretend to believe-- that the "Supreme Court" of the nine egwugwu are ancestral spirits. In fact, they are men of the village in disguise. What does this say about the nature of justice in general, and in this village in particular?
ReplyDeleteThis fact says that the nature of justice is corrupt and flawed and human nature tends to take control rather than justice. People's opinions and biases can cloud judgement and hinder the effects of fair justice. As for this particular village, it's obvious that the reason the egwugwu were fake was because the men of the village didn't want the citizens to be afraid, seeing as they had been surrounded by the egwugwu their entire lives. This affected the way they "ruled" and soon affected the way the people thought of them, which was colored with distrust and anger.
Very true, in the end I think that although the people were more secure when they were deceived, in the long run truth is always better and more secure. The deception only left them feeling betrayed and the foundation of their culture and belief was then shaken.
DeleteI would have to respectfully disagree that the nature of justice is corrupt and flawed, I think justice in an abstract concept, it's what yo make of it.
Delete4.) The villagers believe-- or pretend to believe-- that the "Supreme Court" of the nine egwugwu are ancestral spirits. In fact, they are men of the village in disguise. What does this say about the nature of justice in general, and in this village in particular?
ReplyDeleteThe villager's blind belief in an all mighty justice system is parallel to our justice system today. In America, the majority of citizens (minus the informed and highly educated) see the justice system as infallible and the final say when there are issues with it that can be visibly seen. This is the nature of justice, while it appears to be right and irrefutable, justice is a human creation and therefore is as flawed as human nature itself. Biases are ever present in all aspects of justice no matter how diverse a jury.
In this village in particular, the jury is biased, but more on a cultural and religious level. The egwugwu men are making decisions based on what they believe would please the gods and their traditions and culture. The justice system in place could not change and therefore was not able to get rid of corruption.
Very insightful about how justice is always biased no matter how diverse the jury is. I agree with you that the jury f the village is biased in a different, and in my opinion, more harmful way.
Delete3.) This is a very interesting question to me, although I am a Christian I had not initially seen the parallelism in the story, and I am in some ways not altogether sure it is an accurate reflection of Christ's crucifixion. I think the reference of Ikemefuma's "going home" is nothing more than a way that the villagers cloaked his death for the people who had grown attached to him in the 3 years that he was with them, at most a sort of denial. Sense the tribe does have deep spiritual beliefs that involve an afterlife, I am sure they did not think he would suffer after death, but he was still a sacrifice - death is never "a favor" to one who is paying a debt. I don't understand the tribe's reasoning for letting Ikemefuma live for 3 years, besides indecision. Jesus was crucified when he was 33 and was raised on the third day, I guess that could be a comparison to "new life", perhaps hinting that Ikemefuma's death after 3 years was a sort of "coming to life". Okonkwo as the "father" in this story is not very applicable to Christ's death in my opinion. Firstly because he does not just passively allow Ikemefuma's death, but takes an active hand in the murder where God on the other hand did not kill his son - humans did. And it was allowed for a much greater good that did not end in the lose of his son but the chance restoration for every human on earth. Because of this Okonkwo deserves neither respect or love, for it was a grievous sin that he committed even according to his tribe and friend. God on the other hand is a different story because he was willing to suffer pain on himself to achieve a greater good; which is therefore very deserving of love :).
ReplyDelete#4)
ReplyDeleteThe judgements of justice are based off the opinions of few, and supported by blind followers. The Justice System is as powerful as they are making it, and relies on how much belief they have in the men. Putting all of the power into their hands however can be dangerous as there is easily large bias and unfairness. Judgements can be inconsistent and in our society, controversial.
In America the justice system is similar, though larger. There is controversy in our system when a large amount of people do not agree.
The system starts to fall apart when trust is lost and disagreeable decisions are consistently made.
You bring a good argument here. Only a few hold the judgment power. However, because people have different beliefs, it is virtually impossible to always make agreeable decisions. One decision might be agreeable to one group, but disagreeable to another. That's why it is good that there are multiple levels of judges, at least in the American system. These levels allow bad decisions to be overruled.
DeleteIt's too bad that there is only a single court in the book, and that the individuals portray themselves to be ancestral spirits. Both allow corruption to easily take place.
Agreed. The lack of balances and checks allows greed to worm through the system as the men at the top of the food chain are becoming more taken with abusing this free, authoritative power. While in America and other modern systems, the people have a say in these important decisions and the placing of people in authoritative positions, the Supreme Court in the book holds themselves in a "Father-knows-best" sort of role. No human is supposed to have such unadulterated authority over others.
Delete4.)
ReplyDeleteWith the men pretending to be the ancestral spirits, the people respect what they say. They respect the authority that the ancestors hold, no matter who has that authority. This shows that people respect and hold to what the justices say, even if they do not agree with them. In this village in particular, it also shows that people respect their ancestors and believe in their wisdom. The idea is that the ancestors have come before and learned, so they should know better than those presently living. Though, there is irony in that the court is not comprised of wise ancestors, but of those presently living. Even though their system of respecting and listening to the wisdom of those who came before makes sense, it cannot be properly executed without actually being made up ancestors.
You make a good point about them only being presently living people instead of ancestors, but I think that the men that comprise the council are trying to portray what their ancestors would do. As stories of morals and people are passed down by word of mouth, they could probably know what their fathers and fore-fathers would do in this situation, and therefore attempt to act in their names.
DeleteI agree with you point of view. It is really interesting how no one dares to change the beliefs from a long time. Even when they know times have changed, they still want to stick to what they believe is right. Especially that village who followed their ancestors beliefs to the smallest point and no one contradicted what was being taught no matter how much they disliked it.
Delete4.) The villagers believe-- or pretend to believe-- that the "Supreme Court" of the nine egwugwu are ancestral spirits. In fact, they are men of the village in disguise. What does this say about the nature of justice in general, and in this village in particular?
ReplyDeleteWhat is justice? The answer is never truly definite amongst humans. It is a sort of moral rightness, and in some ways, it supposedly can filter the world into two distinct colors of black and white. Because of differing morals amongst mankind, this ideal world of black-and-white is turned into a muddled gray. In the end, what is right, and what is wrong? Some people find relying on the human conscience just isn't enough to find a definitive answer, and it's easier to believe in an absolute power. Like sheep to a shepherd, the villagers flock to the decisions imposed by their absolute power with thinking twice. The Supreme Court of the nine egwugwu present themselves as such an absolute power, or close enough in which these ancestral spirits seem to hold a depth beyond human comprehension. While it is harder to garner a unanimous agreement through democracy or other sorts of discussion, these seemingly-imposing figures can invoke obedience to authority. Psychological experiments, such as ones made by Stanley, show that this sort of pedestaled authority is rarely questioned.
Ex. the Nazi soldiers under the morally-debatable rule of Hitler.
Whether they believe or they pretend to believe, these villagers simply obey. They don't think.
If the justice system holds the decision to execute men, is any human being allowed to make that decision? Justice is a perfect idea that can never be perfectly understood nor executed by humans. It needs an absolute authority that holds none of the fickleness the human mind possesses from outward influence and cognitive change. That is why, like many things in the corporeal world, it is far from perfect.
4.) The villagers believe-- or pretend to believe-- that the "Supreme Court" of the nine egwugwu are ancestral spirits. In fact, they are men of the village in disguise. What does this say about the nature of justice in general, and in this village in particular?
ReplyDeleteI believe this says that the nature of justice is as just as people allow it to be. Anyone can do anything and deem it "justice". Justice is a subjective concept, because morals are (shouldn't be, but are) a subjective concept. The men in disguised believed what they were doing is justice, the people in the town believed their decisions were justice. So Justice in general is biased, it has no specific rules, just an end result.
4.) The villagers believe-- or pretend to believe-- that the "Supreme Court" of the nine egwugwu are ancestral spirits. In fact, they are men of the village in disguise. What does this say about the nature of justice in general, and in this village in particular?
ReplyDeleteThe people were able to respect the ancestral spirits. They don't judge, or criticizes who is in charge, they just follow the teachings blindly. This demonstrates that people trust even if they do not agree, they have no opinion in their ancestral's beliefs. In this village shows that people respect their ancestors and believe in their intelligence and their enlightenment. Though, there is irony in that the court is not comprised of wise ancestors, but of those presently living. Their system makes a lot of sense. They would obviously believe those who have came before them and have been more experienced and keep of their experiences, they cannot be accomplished without actually being made up ancestors.
I agree with your response. I like how you point out the irony of the court. People often believe in the past because it has already happened and it has already had outcomes and some better than others so they use it as a reference for their decisions but sometimes they might take it to to heart.
Delete4.) The villagers believe-- or pretend to believe-- that the "Supreme Court" of the nine egwugwu are ancestral spirits. In fact, they are men of the village in disguise. What does this say about the nature of justice in general, and in this village in particular?
ReplyDeleteThis says that the nature of justice in the village is not questioned. Everyone agrees to the same form of justice because it is what they have been taught to believe since as far back as they can remember. They have always been taught to follow the traditions of their ancestors so when people come in saying that they are the ancestors they do not question it. They are a bit naive in this way because they do not question anything that is related to their ancestors because they are believed to be wise and that can lead to them being easily manipulated.