Chapter 4

This book is pretty interesting. I'd have to say that the most interesting aspect of it is comparing the cultural differences between our society and theirs. Even though this book is taking place 100 or more years ago, it's hard to imagine that these kinds of things aren't going on in Africa today. As we learned in class African men treat their cattle better than their women. It's just really different I guess. I liked at the beginning when Okonkwo called the other man a woman at the meeting and everyone basically said, "Hey that's not nice. Take it back," but what else are they going to say to the best wrestler in all of the lands. I can't imagine being in Ikemefuna's shoes. He was just taken away from everything he knew and thrown into a hut to be adopted by a whole new family. That's sort of what would be happening with human trafficking going on all over the world. The thing that I really don't like about the book is how Okonkwo just beats his wives for the smallest most superficial mistakes that they make and just beat them silly. It's like if one of the girls in class turns in something late and all the guys gang up on her and curb-stomp her. It just doesn't seem right, and what I really don't get is why Okonkwo is doing it because his father never was mentioned as beating his wives the way Okonkwo does. That might just be the reason that he does it though is because of total resentment of his father. He shouldn't take it so far as to make other people pay for Okonkwo's past experiences because as I said in earlier posts, the broken chain will never be able to be prepared unless changes are made.