Thursday, February 7, 2008
Chapter 20
Okonkwo makes plans for a bigger and better compound than he had before and to marry two more girls. He also plans for his daughters to marry in Umuofia as a plan to help him regain his status as a power in his tribe. Okonkwo has all these high hopes of regaining everything he lost and gaining even more than he left with but when he returns he finds Umuofia very different than when he left. It had experienced trauma from the Christian missionaries stealing their youth. Okonkwo once again wants to be manly and fight the missionary through violence but they are unable to do so because the people are doubtful in the ability of the tribe to do so and if they can even get anyone to stand up to them because so many have already allied themselves with the Christians. What I don't get though is why the people have gone to the missionary becasue the white men have treated the people so badly. It makes me wonder why they would want to join them because they have hanged people just for breaking their laws and are arrogant and shrewd. I'm almost 100% positive that this will lead to the destruction of the whole entire tribe. I'm really starting to not like the story anymore. It seems rather boring now because I've seen it coming for quite some time now.
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1 comment:
We do see a bit of "high hopes" appear in this chapter, but you know its simply the eye of the hurricane right?
I think as you point out, Okonkwo sees these marriages as a way to "marry up" his family to regain the social status he lost during his 7 years of exile.
Okonkwo is frustrated at the tribe's reluctance to take up arms and fight as you point out. This is the part of the novel where we see that the village begins to "fall apart" and become confused as to how to address the Whites. A similar fate befell the American Indians of North America. Some didn't want to fight, and they could never unit under one commander when they did.
The first preacher (Brown?) was better than the 2nd preacher (Smith?) I can't remember which was which, but I think the nice one attracted a lot of followers. They were smart to recruit the tribe "cast-offs" and folks nobody liked. That gave people a place to turn for acceptance.
YOUR WROTE:
"I'm almost 100% positive that this will lead to the destruction of the whole entire tribe. I'm really starting to not like the story anymore. It seems rather boring now because I've seen it coming for quite some time now."
You have the advantage of history on your side. From what we've studied in class, you know the fate of this tribe does not stand a chance again Colonial powers the Whites can bring to bear.
It's always easy after a football game to sit back and say "I knew the Steelers were going to lose" or to armchair quaterback or 2nd guess a losing team "After the fact"
The lessons of history repeat themselves every day. This is why we must learn them, to avoid them from happening to our own culture.
Mr. Farrell
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