Why Things Fell Apart

When I think about how my town crumbled, all I can think of is one word. Okonkwo. My best friend, my brother, he was the reason why Umuofia crumbled. I still love Okonkwo but I feel that he always looked at the negative side of things. I always tried to give him advice about what to do or try to help him think in deeper context but he didn't listen to me very much. I know I am not always right but I knew some of the advice that I gave Okonkwo could have worked out in his favour and I really wish he listened but at the same time one cannot change another person's actions and behaviour. I couldn't control Okonkwo nor anyone.

Our place was colonized by the British missionaries but it doesn't mean all was bad. Mr Brown was a very helpful person, a figure of whom I appreciated.  They built a church for us and they built a school but sure there were the downsides, our religion was lost in the fog as we had to move into Christianity. Okonkwo I feel overreacted, killing himself was way too far. It is a move that is regarded by our culture as a disgrace, killing your own body and soul is a huge sign of weakness and disgrace in our native Igbo culture. Okonkwo should have just realized that we were not the richest nation nor one of the most powerful places in the world and that we would easily been beaten by a Western nation that came to colonize us and rule us. I knew that there was nothing we could do about it, our culture is strong internally, we have formed a great bond and foundation but on the outside we are nothing in power compared to Britain so it was no surprise they took us by storm.

Okonkwo was a great human being, he was the complete man of Umuofia but he never really looked at many things in a positive way. Okonkwo could have seen all the actions in a more positive light but he took things too seriously, he had a pessimistic attitude. Sadly ever since he left us, our inner bond among his fellow people, among my fellow people has just fallen. His death has caused our culture to break into pieces, it is all shattered just like glass. I don't know if our culture can ever be the same again, our pieces are still there but they are broken, they have fallen apart and right now.....I cannot find a solution on how we can attach them and bring it all together.

Social Status in Things Fall Apart

Paper 2 Style Response, Things Fall Apart

The social status is an important theme in the book Things Fall Apart. From the opening of the book, Okonkwo and his father Unoka are both introduced. Okonkwo is shown to be the top of the social class as he is the most famous person in his town, the best wrestler and the strongest. His father Unoka on the other hand is shown to be on the bottom of the social class. Unoka represents a person of negative qualities throughout the book constantly, he was in debt, his life was heading downwards as he was constantly producing failures with his farming and he never seemed to have been able to settle somewhere properly. Unoka was a man who had no titles while Okonkwo was the one who did have titles as he overthrew the undefeated Amalinze the Cat to become the top wrestler of his town.

Unoka’s failures and laziness were the big reasons why he was on the bottom of the social class in the town of Umuofia. The Igbo believed that a person had to work hard, persevere and not be lazy if they wanted to reach the top of the social class. Okonkwo did just that as he worked hard since day 1 and persevered throughout his life as he went through the peaks and troughs of his life but always came out strong in the end. Okonkwo was a very successful warrior throughout the story. A very successful person in the story, one who is on top of the social order was represented to be someone who had won titles, had several wives, was able to farm successfully and be able to have enough money to afford things their wives and children wanted to have. Okonkwo clearly had all of these traits covered which already proves that he was able to be a person who was of very high social class. Social class clearly played a big theme as Unoka’s failures and his presence at the bottom of the social class were clear reasons why Okonkwo wanted to better him and become successful.

Looking at Okonkwo’s relationship with his children, it can be seen that his relationship with Nwyoe is rather negative. This is because he sees Nwoye as very feminine like and he sees him just as a younger version of his own father so therefore he feels that Nwoye is someone who in the future will be on the bottom of the social class. When we see Okonkwo’s relationship with Ezinma, he sees Ezinma having all the qualities of what the Igbo tribe perceives to be of a rather successful person. This plays a part in what makes Ezinma Okonkwo’s favourite as we sees him as someone who will be a top class person in the future.

Another example is Okonkwo’s wife. When his 3^rd wife goes away to get her hair done thus leaving Okonwkwo’s children all alone, this enrages Okonkwo which thus leads him into beating his wife. Okonkwo’s wife gets beaten by Okonkwo himself which overall lowers her social status as she is inferior to her own husband Okonkwo and cannot be seen on the same social platform as Okonkwo. Social status also applies to Obguefi Ezeudu as with his powerful role in the book, he is already viewed as someone very powerful in the society thus he is seen as a person of higher class. Okonkwo views Ezeudu as a powerful person and treats him with a lot of respect showing that Ezeudu is in the same class as him.

Okonkwo’s social power does decline as the missionaries come into Umuofia and overtake the entire village. Okonkwo then starts to experience an emotional decline as he starts to lose control over himself and he accidentally kills Ezeudu’s son. When Okonkwo was once considered to be on top of the social order, he held himself with great pride and was had control over his emotions and was the epitome of “masculinity”. Once he started to lose control over himself and started to lose some of his “masculinity”, Okonkwo started to experience a downfall as his own Igbo values started to desert him more and thus his social status value started to plummet in the end.

The overall social status in the book plays a big part towards the characterization as majority of the characters personality traits and relationship with Okonkwo is defined by their place in the social order. 

Okonkwo Analysis

Okonkwo is introduced in the story as a very powerful and strong willed character. We can see in the story that he is a brave person, he values a lot of important things in his life and he represents the kind of maturity that one would expect from a leader and a top figure of his town. Okonkwo does have a solid personality and he is a brave person but his fear of failing and weak gets the better of him as the story continues, he experiences misfortune as he accidentally shoots his wife, kills Ezeudu's son at his own funeral by mistake and is forced to kill Ikemefuna. Okonkwo is portrayed as a tragic hero as at the beginning of the story, he was portrayed as the person who had everything and then by the end of the story Okonkwo took away his life. The story encapsulates Okonkwo's rise and fall with his own bad luck and doubts which therefore cast him as a tragic hero.

Achebe chose to have a tragic hero in the play as a way to portray the struggles in an African environment and city. Achebe used him as a tragic hero in a way to show that no matter how privileged Okonkwo was in an African place, his status and his life will never be safe in an African place especially in one set in a colonization period.

I think Okonkwo is portrayed as an example of an African person, whose life turned for the worse due to the invasion of Western nations that came to colonize African places. Okonkwo is used to show how colonization really impacted Africans in such a horrible way and the fact that he hung himself in the end really showed that the colonization impact took Africans to highly drastic measures. Okonkwo's fall also sets a function to show how the rest of the characters in the story have fallen victim to the colonization but Okonkwo's decline standing out the most in the story. 

Chinua Achebe Discussion

Last week, we had an in class discussion about an interview with author of Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe. In the interview, Achebe spoke about his book and most notably his African culture. A key moment from our in class discussion was discussing about the Western world's perception of Africa, how they are biased and how one must look at the situation in Africa from 2 different perspectives.

When looking at the situation from the British perspective, the British can sense a lot of superiority and power over them and it brings them a good feeling in their hearts. Their goals of colonizing more countries around the world is getting fulfilled. Looking at it from an African perspective, we can see the misery they must feel as they are forced to change their entire culture and go through a brutal change in their lifestyle. This discussion made it more clear to be able to look at colonization from 2 different sides and see a clear difference on the impacts of colonization. I could also takeaway how when we perceive luxurious things in Africa, we still picture the poverty and the abandoned land as opposed to the Western countries, where we envision actual luxury and wealth.

Paper 1 - Speech Analysis

The given extract here is a speech by Winston Churchill called "We shall fight on the beaches". The speech was delivered to the House of Commons to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. This text analysis will explore how Winston Churchill uses literary techniques/rhetoric devices to warn the parliament of Great Britain of a possible attack from Nazi Germany and how they must be prepared for it if the worst case scenario comes true. This speech was delivered in 1940 during world war 2.

From the line "At any rate, that is what we are trying to do. That is resolve of His Majesty's Government-every man of them. That is the will of the parliament of our nation". This is able to make us understand who the target audience of the speech is more clearly, the target audience is shown here through this line to be the entire nation of Great Britain but more specifically the Parliament as his speech is being delivered to the Parliament and he says that is the will of the parliament of our nation. “Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.The overall purpose is shown through both of the statements already quoted in this paragraph. In the latest statement from Churchill, he states that even though many other nations have fallen badly in Europe and been destroyed (especially to Nazi Germany), his nation of Britain will not succumb to any one in Europe and they will stay strong and stable. The line also discreetly shows that Churchill is empowering his nation that they will stay strong and telling them about the other nations falling in Europe as a warning to his audience that if they don't organize themselves together then they will fall hard just like those nations. “I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.This line is the opening of Churchill's speech and it further more makes the purpose a lot more clear as he says that if the best decisions are made then Britain should be able to defend their nation successfully and outlive the carnage in the war. The overall purpose is to empower his nation of Great Britain to take action against possible attacks that could be targeted towards them in the future by other nations and in the process warn his people about the worst case scenario of being attacked.

In this speech, Churchill continues on to elaborate on how Britain must take action as fast as possible in order to be successful. Churchill brings up on how other nations have fallen too and that Britain doesn't want to be like that and therefore they must take action, in order to stay intact as a powerful nation. He starts by stating if they do take the right action, he believes Britain will be successful. He then installs a little bit of fear into the parliament "Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the"grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail." The fear shown through this quote being that if Britain doesn't make the right decisions or take the incorrect action, then they will falter badly like the large nations of Europe who fell to the superior nations. The very last 11 lines of Churchill's short speech encapsulates what Britain overall needs to do. The last 11 lines show what Britain must do as they must fight in any place at any time in any location no matter the circumstances. Churchill in the last 11 lines installs empowerment into the people as he tells his nation and his country's army to fight extremely hard no matter what and fight till the end as that is what they need to do. A recurring theme of fight is constantly displayed throughout the speech as Churchill is encouraging his country's army in particular to find and he letting the parliament in the House of Commons know about it.

Churchill speaks in a very inspirational tone with a lot of optimism and belief in what he is saying. Churchill's optimistic tone is displayed in the very first passage of the speech as he clearly displays confidence and faith in his country by saying "I have,myself, full of confidence". He has belief that his country will survive everything and stay strong, that is IF they take the right actions and right steps. Churchill continues on with most of the speech, speaking in a very motivating and inspirational tone. His motivational tone is highly illustrated in the last 2 passages as he is motivating them to take the right action, he is telling the entire nation of Great Britain on what exactly they are going to be doing and he believes that what they are going to do will eventually guarantee them success in the war. Churchill's tone creates a rather upbeat mood as the entire speech is to motivated and inspire the parliament, the army and the entire nation of Great Britain. His words are used to help the British people lift their heads up. The last 2 passages are able to represent the mood as well as Churchill's powerful words are used to empower and motivate everyone around him.

Several rhetorical devices are used in this speech as ways to motivate, inspire and empower in this speech.“I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone". This is the first passage of the speech and the underlined portion highlights the use of parallelism, using parallelism helps Churchill describe what Britain's goals are and what Britain needs to do. The bold is the usage of an expletive, the expletive helps the speech be more direct as the expletives helps the clarity of speech and explains more on the situation.  The last passage of the speech uses anaphora as Churchill constantly repeats "We shall". The assonance helps the motivation of Churchill's words greatly as he uses we shall to let Great Britain know what they must do and they will have to do in order to get through the war safely and remain a powerful country. " all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule", "we shall not flag or fail". This is the 2nd last part of the speech before the final large passage, here Churchill uses assonance in the underlined portion of the statement. The assonance is used to insult but at the same time recognize how dominant Nazi Germany has been and how Great Britain should never fall beneath them. The bold is alliteration as Churchill encourages his country that they will not falter and that they will accomplish their goals and it helps add to the motivation component of the speech.

Overall the speech is very well structured and Churchill has been able to use several rhetorical devices in speech in order to make himself easier to understand and have a more clear speech. The rhetorical devices also help add the motivational part of his speech and it helps the inspiration component greatly as many of the inspirational parts of the speech contain a rhetorical device.
http://www.presentationmagazine.com/winston-churchill-speech-we-shall-fight-them-on-the-beaches-8003.htm

Sample IOC

https://soundcloud.com/george-batra/practice-ioc-1

Lines 265-322, Act 2 Scene 1

Takeaways from the discussion on How to Tame a Wild Tongue

How to Tame a Wild Tongue is a chapter from a book called Borderlands. The chapter is about the author Gloria Anzaldua describing her upbringing in 2 separate, different cultures. Her mother tongue is Chicano Spanish which is a language that is considered to be inferior in society and is oppressed and subaltern. Growing up in the United States, the author herself had to learn English and conform to the language as in school she was forced to speak English while she was being pulled away a certain distance from her native Chicano Spanish, which was a discriminated language.

From my class discussion, one key quote that I can takeaway from the text which had a lot of meaning was "Because we speak a language of fire, we are culturally crucified". The key from this quote was to really analyze the meaning of "language of fire" and since the quote refers to her native Chicano Spanish, it can be identified that it's an oppressed language. Language of fire means a language of a culture that has been discriminated and/or colonized which indicates that it's a language that it losing it's speakers and declining. Language of fire also relates to a language "being burned in fire" as people who speak a language of fire are forced to leave their language, conform to a new culture and learn a new language since their language is inferior in the social class and doesn't hold any power.In this case, Chicano Spanish in the story is a language of culture since people like the author herself are forced to stray away from their native tongue.Culturally crucified means a subaltern culture that is discriminated and therefore a possibly abandoned. In the text, being culturally crucified refers to Anzaldua herself having to move away from her own culture and conform to another one (American in this case). In this case of being culturally crucified, killing your own culture and leaving it can most likely be beneficial for the person him/her self as it reduces their chances of being victims of racism and being discriminated. Crucifying a culture means killing it and burning a culture into ashes since the culture is not a culture that seen in a bright light and is generally respected in society and with that the language itself follows and will also be burned as it holds a big part of what the culture exactly is.

The story and the quote itself relates to language and power because when looking at just languages in the world, we are able to recognize the most spoken languages (English, Spanish, Arabic etc) and we can see what power they hold and what great positions those languages are since they are spoken in multiple countries other than their origins. From this story we can now see the other end of the spectrum as looking at Chicano Spanish, you can identify with a language that serves as more of a disadvantage than advantage and is considered to be inferior and a language that can possibly lose its speakers and overall its heart. I can also relate this to real life as back in Sydney, I had a Thai-Australian friend who didn't want to learn Thai since he felt that the language serves more as a disadvantage and that only speaking English was better for him than speaking both English and his mother tongue and he pretty much felt in a similar situation to the author.