TFAJournal+Sung-Woo

Respond to the Question

Okonkwo, “one of the greatest men in Umuofia”(pg. 208), committed suicide because he feared of failure. He showed his last dignity by committing suicide without being judged by white men of murdering messenger. By committing suicide, Okonkwo saved his pride and possibly bring the start of revolt against white men. People of Umuofia will understand why Okonkwo has committed suicide and they will start looking at the bad part of the white men and their actions. Thus, Okonkwo did the right job by the fact that he tried to keep the Ibo Culture by showing terrible consequence of white men’s actions. However, Okonkwo’s family and friends will receive huge impact on their lives and will live in misery. Okonkwo kept his manliness and showed white men’s actions that gave horrible impact on Ibo culture by hanging himself. He did the right job and people of Umuofia will try to retrieve their culture by resisting against the European powers. If he didn't hang himself, then he would be judged and be killed by the white men which means that he would lose his dignity. Obierika said in page 208, "You drove him to kill himself," and he clearly understood what the white men did to him. There weren't other options that would bring same impact to the society. He did the right job.

Chapters 15- 19

Text to World Late 19th Century and early 20th Century are when European powers were in competitions for the new markets, natural resources and Africa was the right place for them. Many Africans were captured as a slave and commissioners spread the religion in these regions. The book’s events are happening in Nigeria around the late 19th Century. Thus, the book’s settings reflect the events around the world. Nigeria was imperialized and many western cultures moved in to Nigerian society. In the book, Nwoye, Okonkwo’s first son, was “among the Chritians”(pg. 151) and Okonkwo “overcome with fury.” Christians were in the village to spread their religion and the imperialism helped them to spread it to the Nigerians. Although Nwoye feared his father to “go too near the missionaries”(pg. 149), Nwoye stays with the Christians and it angered his dad.

Change of Okonkwo Okonkwo changed from who he was in earlier parts of the book. At the beginning, he was “masculine” by not showing any emotions beside anger. However, at the end of Part 1 of this book, he have changed and started showing more emotions such as worrying about Ezinma. I expected that he would change more in seven years but I was wrong. He didn’t change a lot over 7 years and still showing anger. He states that “this was a womanly clan”(pg. 159) and insults and disrespects women. He also reveals his anger when Nwoye changed his religious views to Christianity. Okonkwo roared and Nwoye “struggled to free himself from the choking grip.”(pg. 151) Okonkwo didn’t change a lot from who he was in Part 1. **Revealing his anger didn't change at all, he reveals displeasure to his family and he reveals his outrage of motherland.**

Question: What interested Nwoye to join Christianity? He also thought about converting his mother, brothers and sisters to convert them to the new faith.

Chapters 12-14

**Journal(To Myself)** In chapter 13, Okonkwo was forced to move out of his village after an accident. I, when I was in fourth grade, moved to the United States of America. Moving from where you have spent most of your life living is terrible and extremely difficult. On page 131, Okonkwo doesn’t want to work as hard as he did before because “everything had been broken.” Like when I moved to America, I had no friend and I knew no one there. I was very scary and didn’t know what to do for first several days. I’m predicting that not only Okonkwo feels that way but also his family will be deeply worried and scared about new culture. Everyone around the world would be scared if they go to someplace new to them and I and Okonkwo are all same. Even though there are some cultural differences, there still are similar characteristics that all human beings share.

**Prediction** I predict that there will some major and minor disputes among the family members because of new surroundings. In addition, Okonkwo’s family will live all 7 years in his motherland. His children will definitely change because of new environment and new education. I’m predicting that the story will last more than 7 years. Thus, Okonkwo will return to Iguedo. Because the time have passed and things would change in 7 years, many of Okonkwo’s friends could be dead. By the fact that the setting of this book is in Nigeria, I can predict that Okonkwo’s village might go through westernization.


 * Question

Did anything foreshadow that Okonkwo will be removed from Iguedo? **

Chapters 9-11

**Text to world** All the moms around the world loves her sons and daughters. They will always care and worry about their children. When mom’s child is sick, she will worry about her and would stay near her sick child to help her child. From chapter 9, Ezinma, daughter of Ekwefi, is sick and Ekwefi “had borne ten children and nine of them had died in infancy.”(page 77) After losing 9 children in infancy, she will be concerned about Ezinma’s health. Ekwefi kept “a huge fire burning all night” Not only moms care about their children, but also dads care about their children. Okonkwo “sprang from his bed” as he heard that Ezinma is sick and “went into the bush to collect the leaves and grasses and barks of trees” to make the medicine for //iba//(page 76). Even though Okonkwo tries to not reveal his emotions, he still cares about his children and tries to do anything to save Ezinma. Ekwefi tried to make the best medicine and she “began to tend the medicine pot almost as if it was itself a sick child”(page 86). Okonkwo and Ekwefi both tried their best to save Ezinma because they love Ezinma and is their child. Love of the parents is same anywhere on this planet.

**Question** What does the tale of tortoise mean from the book? Would it be foreshadowing anything?

Wow, even though my question is different, I was thinking about that too! Personally, I think the question is pure prediction. Yet, in my opinion, I think it is a foreshadowing. For me, I think this tale seems to warn us, like the people that arrived in Umoufla on chapter 7 to warn about Colonialism. When I didn't even finish the tale, I got a glimpse in my mind this is a foreshadowing of the book. In the tale, the birds strip the feathers they lent him, and the tortoise receives harm. This first method of defeating the tortoise showed that cooperation and team work of multiple people can defeat the tortoise, which somehow illustrated me of any harm to someone from a group of people. The second method that was described in the tale of defeating the tortoise was the parrot. Even though the tortoise would seem powerful, when everyone refused to follow through the tortoise's desires, it was shown that he was powerless against them in reality. Because of multiple "heads" used against the tortoise like the parrot's trick as the translator, the tortoise was defeated again. By looking at this standard, I was able to conclude 2 things. Either someone was going to betray someone later in the book, or a group of people were going to attack, or something bad might occur soon. Thanks to the activity we did during English class before reading the book, I gained some prior knowledge about Nigeria: that they have been colonized. I think that this colonization or any sort of harm from the Caucasians would appear against the tribe later on in the story. In conclusion, yes, I think it is foreshadowing.
 * Answer to Question

- Chris

** **Respond to Michael’s Question** “is Okonkwo actually a nice person? If so, what made him to act so cold all the time?” Okonkwo is a actually a nice person and his love toward his child, Ezinma is revealed in chapter 9. He went into the bush to get materials for medicine and he makes a medicine with Ekwefi. If he wasn’t a nice person, then he wouldn’t care about Ezinma even though she is his daughter. He had to act so cold all the time because if he reveals his emotions beside anger, then he is being weak like a woman. To be a strong and tough man, he had to hide his emotions but after Ikemefuna died, Okonkwo started to express his emotions.

Chapters 7-8

**Text to World** Around the world, there are many people who pretends to be evil and pretends to have moral beliefs(hypocrites). Okonkwo, I believe, is pretending to be strong and doesn’t express his emotions beside anger. In chapter 4 page 28, it states that “Okonwo never showed any emotion openly, unless it be the emotion of anger.” However in page 63, “Okonkwo did not taste any food for two days after the death of Ikemefuna” and “he tried not to think about Ikemefuna” showing his depressed and sad emotions about the death of Ikemefuna. Like a lot of people, Okonkwo pretends to be strong but he actually is sorrowful for the death of Ikemefuna. However, any people would be depressed when a very close person dies and that it includes Okonkwo. Even though he acts strong and doesn’t expresses his emotions, he still is a person who feels miserable with the loss of Ikemefuna. If he shows emotion, if he is sorrowful for the death of Ikemefuna, then it means that Okonkwo cared about Ikemefuna not is being weak. Just like many people go and ask for advice when he or she feels depressed, Okonkwo visits Obierika. Okonkwo is just like any normal people who tries to hide their emotions but his emotions are now revealed.


 * Question**

Is being weak worse than being sorrowful for the death of Ikemefuna?



Chapters 3-6

Text to World From the book //Things Fall Apart//, a lot of aspects of Ibo culture is explained. I could make a connection between Ibo culture and Korean culture. From page 20, Anasi, the first wife, wasn’t there and “the others could not drink before her”. Like that, there is a Korean tradition where younger people cannot eat before elders eat. Two traditions are very similar by the fact that they respect upper and elder people. On page 27, it states that “Ibo people have a proverb that when a man says yes his //chi// says yes also”. A lot of Koreans is encouraged to have a positive attitude and be optimistic. Not only does Korean and Ibo cultures share this proverb, but also many people around the world are optimistic. However, Okonkwo has three wives and all the Koreans have one wife or none. Korean law doesn’t allow a man to marry more than one wife at the same time while Ibo culture do allow to have more than one wife.

Culture //Things Fall Apart// has many Ibo cultures explained throughout the story. From page 20, because Anasi wasn’t there all the others could not drink showing the respect to the upper or elder person. Ibo people believe that optimistic people can achieve their dreams as it is stated in page 27, “Ibo people have a proverb that when a man says yes his //chi// says yes also.” Having more than one wife at a same time is also very unique in Ibo culture. Okonkwo has a total of three wives and they all live in different hut and plait their hair. Wrestling is a very important event of the Ibo culture because the contest is held annually and the winner can become popular. It also is one of the most important event of the Week of Peace. Week of Peace is a important event where people gather up and pray for successful year and harvesting crops.

Question Page 47. Is the wrestling contest only for the boys of fifteen or sixteen? If not, why didn’t Okonkwo participate in the contest?

Chapters 1-2

After reading the first two chapters of //Things Fall Apart//, I was confused and had hard time figuring out the characters due to their names. For several terms that I didn’t know such as //ogene(//musical instrument), I used glossary given at the back of this book. It was interesting to see Unoka, the protagonist’s father, die early in the book. Age and achievement were both respected and young Okonkwo was able to be respected due to his achievements. Fights between the tribe or the villages were interesting too. Mbino and Okonkwo’s village’s disputes would be interesting in the future. Okonkwo is a very strict and powerful man, while his son Nwoye is weak boy; what will be the relationship among them and Ikemefuna in future chapters? New member of his family, Ikemefuna and Okonkwo’s relationship will improve in later chapters. I expect that there will be some disputes between Okonkwo and Ikemefuna.