1. In the novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is a man who does not do well in showing his emotions. He does what he shows strength to the other villiage men , instead of what he truly believes is right. On the inside Okonkwo is weak, as opposed to his outside, he is percieved as a strong man. Oknokwo has earned great respect in his villiage. He had done this by wrestling one of the villiage's greatest wrestlers and defeating him. The villiage interprets wrestling as admirable entertainment. Okonkwo's culture believes that when one can show physical and emotional strength, they are considered strong and worthy men. If they do not show much strength and are emotional, they are considered women. For the Igbo society, being called a woman is humiliating, for women are conveyed as weak, uninteresting indivisuals who speak of nonsense. Women, in the society, get beat for not obeying their husbands and doing their 'duties' as a wife (e.g. cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the childeren.) Okonkwo does his best in his inablilty to empathize. Therefore, he is known as a man. Okonkwo differs from what is considered the modern hero. Western heroes are usually empathizing, and they do not beat women. Heores in this day and age are expected to fend for themselves and not expect women to cook and clean for them. Also either men or women can be heroes, not just men. Heroes are expected to show their strength and hide their weaknesses. Strength is usually a person's physical ability. Their weakness is usually their cowardice.
2. Even though Okonkwo is a strong person, his father was not. Okonkwo's father, Unoka was weak and lazy. He did not ever have enough money to support his family, and when he did have money he would waste it away on palm-wine. The only activity that would make Unoka happy and at ease was playing his flute. He seemed to be his most joyous when he played his flute. Okonkwo was disspaointed in his father for all the debt he would put himself in. Okonkwo did not admire his father at all. He felt this way because Unoka was never there to teach Okonkwo much. Okonkwo was some what neglected. Unoka was a negative example towards Okonkwo. Okonkwo would see what his father was, a dead-beat dad who drank all the time and never respected himself, his villiage, or his family. Okonkwo learned from his father's mistakes and promised himself that he would not make those same mistakes. He wanted to be someone different from what his father was. Okonkwo wanted to be more, he did not want to be the joke of the villiage. Later, Okonkwo proves to Igo societ that he is a better man than his father ever was. Okonkwo's success and Unoka's failure shows what the Igbo society considers a true man. To be a true man they must succeed in showing their physical strength and by wrestling. Also men must do 'manly' activities such as moving large objects or go kill people. To succeed in this cultural context one must be emotionally strong. Show as little emotion as possible. Once a person has succeeded in showing that they can fend for themselves, then they are considered strong. In the Igbo society women seem to be excluded in ganing success in the Igbo society.
3. The narrator of Things Fall Apart seems to be sympathetic for the people of Umuofia.
4. Things Fall Apart the time is not apparent. The setting seems to be in Africa. Chinua Achebe depicts the Igobo culture as loyal to their Gods and beliefs. Chinua Achebe depicts everday life as civilized. He makes it seem as if what goes on in the Igbo villiage is an everday situation. One of their rituals consist of sacrifices. The people's beliefs are very vital to them. Their beliefs are what their beings revolve around. Igbo's people's beliefs make up their morals. Chinua Achebe seems to say that the Igbo culture does not rank people by social stature, or by wealth of their forfathers. Anyone in the Igbo culture is bale to attain a high rank. The ranks show how people have succeeded in their lives, or failed. Sometimes titles can lessen someone as a person. Personal achievement seem to be very important to the men of Igbo Culture. Their personal acheivements make the men who they are, and that is what they are noticed for. The social life for Igbo culture seems to be very organized. The people know when the festivities start and end. People seem to embrace any interruptions in their agenda, for they have no other choice. The important celebrations in the Igbo culture are The Week Of Peace, wrestling matches, and sacrifices. Religion, war and the arts play a significant role in this story. Religion, arts and war make up the Igbo culture. Religion shows what their belife systems are, war is an example of how they protect themselves, and art is a way the Igbo people express themselves. The individual's role in the Umuofia community shows how each person handles the life they are given in their own way. Igbo's lifeways are simliar yest different to those of ours. In modern times we do have festivities as the Igbo culture had, their perspective on life is to obey their God's and rulers. On our time now, most people do pray to God. In our time our belief is not to beat our women and childeren because then there is a penalty. Also, the Igbo people were polygamous, in this time we do not believe in polygamy, although in a few places it is still practiced.
5. At night the people of Umuofia are afraid to go out at night, even the strongest of men are afraid of evil spirits. The people are afraid of the dark. In the dark most thing seem more sinister and scary, such as snakes. At night the people are afraid to disturb the peace of the silence. At night instead of calling snakes, "snakes" they refer to them as "strings".
6. The conflict was that someone had killed a daughter from Mbanta and the Igbo society had taken away Ikemefuna from his motherland Mbaino to set the score.
7. Important crops of the community are the yams, plantains and kola nuts. The seasons for planting are right before it rains. While doing this the people had sharecropping. Sharecropping is navigated by farmowners having people grow crops on their land and the farmowners get a certain amount of the crops in exchange. Cocoa yam and cassava are considered womaly and yams are considered manly.
8. In Okonkwo's home each of his wives has a separate hut which she lives in with her childeren. As for the husband, he gets his own hut. Okonkwo has three different wives, each of them cater to his manly needs. Ekwefi, one of his wives, seems to have a deeper connection with Okonkwo. Ekwefi had runaway to follow the woman that had taken her daughter for a certain amount of time, and Okonkwo began to worry and followed her. As fo the childeren, Okonkwo is happy when his little boys start to act as older men. He values Ezinma the most, at times he wished she were a boy. He seems to be the closest and less agitated with her. His son Nwoye happens to the eldest and the first boy. With his son Nwoye, Okonkwo seems to admire how he has broken apart from his mother at a young age, but soon when Nwoye starts to see life through other persepectives Okonkwo exiles him from the family. Mwoye is Okonkwo's eldest son, so Okokwo expects so much out of him, but Nwoye shows signs of his grandfather, Unoku. Men and woman have many different roles in Igbo society, men are depicted as strong and smart individuals, they do not cry or show emotion. Otherwise, they are considered women. Men have ownership of childeren, despite the fact that most of the childerens' lives their mother raises them. As for women, they are considered nurturers and storytellers. Woman tell many proverbs to childeren. Okonkwo 's attitude towards this is that these stories woman tell are useless, and that young boys should stop listening to them. Okonkwo things that women should do as they are told, and not question any man. Okonkwo is a sexist male.
9. Do to Okonwko's crime of beating his wife during The Week Of Peace, he was reprimanded. The culture values their beliefs very much, given that they punished Okonkwo for his behavior. According to Ezeani wife beating is considered wrong at all times because it angers the Earth Goddess.
10. In the novel, Things Fall Apart, their culture seems very intersting. Although it is a different culture, it does have many simliarities to our culture, such as the festivites, how people obide by their religion and their beliefs and the abuse of women and childeren. The people follow their religion as if it were sacred. It surprises me how afraid women were to stand up for themselves. I was not surprised at how they did not welcome the white men. They were after all very different form the Igbo people. I was a bit angry when I first read about Okonkwo beatinf his wife, it made him seem very short-tempered. Also when he had a hand in killing Ikemefuna, that showed how much of a coward he was by not standing up for Ikemefuna.
