Chapter 5

I can't believe the trouble that Okonkwo goes through to beat the crap out of his wives. It's like he's waiting for one of them to make a mistake so he can be ready there to just punch one of them right in the face. The one wife took a few leaves from a tree and the guy beats the crap out of her and then pulls a gun on her for nothing. I was wondering too while reading if this might have been a gun from the slave trade that was happening around that time because the gun was rusted which would suggest it is older and may have been payment for slaves. Then again it is a completely different culture than what we're used to. I thought The Feast of the New Yam was a little wierd and I'm sort of anxious to find out what yam foo-foo is. It'd be awesome if that story of the wealthy man was true. I'm pretty sure that would top any of our Thanksgiving dinners, although my mom makes one mean yam haha. I don't understand what is going through Okonkwo's head when he would rather be in the fields working than be feasting with friends and family. The whole work because my father was lazy thing is getting out of hand in my opinion and it's sort of annoying. I'm looking forward to reading about the wrestling competition. I have the feeling it will be a highlight to the book. My favorite part of the chapter was the description of the drums as the pulse of the village. Also, I can't help but notice how Achebe writes about the young girls with their names, but he refers to the wife mainly with Okonkwo's X wife with the occassional name thrown in. That suggests that this really is how they treat women and is no exageration. Women treated like dogs...who'd have thunk it. I'm only kidding girls, so don't kill me.