How does the ending of the novel reflect and tie in with the dangers of a single story?
At the end of the novel the commissioner reflects on all the events that have just occurred and thought to himself, “the story of this man who would kill the messenger and hang them self would make interesting reading “ (208). The commissioner is writing a book about this tribe and the reader will only see the evilness of an Igbo member killing a messenger and hanging himself and the reader will not be able to see what happen when the commissioner imprisoned some of the men from the tribe. The danger of hearing the single-story causes the reader to see the tribe member as wrong and evil while they can justify why the white men needed to come and colonize this tribe. A single-story creates an idea of a certain group of people and it’s not fully developed because we don’t get a full story about them, and this leads to a misrepresentation of a certain culture and for this case the Ibo tribe.
Does change always lead to destruction? In this novel how can we see change as a good and a bad thing?
In this novel we can see change as a good thing when the Christians come and bring their new religion. Christianity is a religion that is accepting of all men and women and this is seen in chapter 18 when the Christian church began, “admitting outcast or osu” (155). welcoming this outcasts gives them hope and shows the goodness of the hearts of the Christians. The Christians also bring government which brings more solutions to problems far greater than what the egwugwu would be able to come up with.
Change is also seen as a bad thing because it divides the people of the Ibo tribe. All this change and colonization in the end lead to violence. Many people of the Ibo tribe saw this religion as “a lunatic religion” (179). Bringing in all this change and the new religion would make the Ibo people turn away from their old customs and traditions. Okonkwo was not ok with getting rid of these traditions and in the end this led to him being imprisoned because of the violence he wanted to create and lef him to kill himself.
In the poem The Second Coming it says that “anarchy is loosed upon the world”, how is this seen in Things Fall Apart?
With the Christians came anarchy. Before the Christian missionaries came the tribe was peaceful and enjoying their day-to-day life praising their own gods and following the customs of their tribe. Once all this change was brought it created a state of chaos between the people in the Ibo tribe. After the Christians come, “Okonkwo warn the others to be fully armed” (193). Much violence was seen in the tribe after colonization had started anarchy is loosed upon the tribe and is fueled by the change the Christians have brought.
Can Okonkwo be seen as caring or sympathetic (showing sympathy to others)?
I don’t think that Okonkwo can be seen as sympathetic because there are many instances in the novel where Okonkwo seems selfish and carefree.
During the week of peace, “Okonkwo in his anger had forgotten it was the week of peace” (29). And continues to beat his wife and this shows that he doesn’t care for the customs of his tribe and he bases his actions on what he’s feeling in the moment.
Another example is when Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna, A boy who calls him father. If you truly cared about him then he wouldn’t have participated in this killing but this just shows how Okonkwo has such a hard heart and has to look tough for his tribe.
After Nwoye joins the Christians, “a sudden fury rose within Okonkwo and he felt a strong desire to take up his machete, go to the church and wipe out the entire vile and miscreant gang” (152). Okonkwo cannot even be happy For his son and instead of accepting him for joining the Christians he instead it’s quick to anger even towards his own son.
Okonkwo can be seen as caring in the way his relationship is with Enzima. Okonkwo is very fond of Ezinma and after she gets taken with Chielo he waits patiently for her to return because he cares about her. He also takes care of her when she sick and forces her to take medicine because he’s worried about her and truly cares about her wellness.
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