TFAJournal+Chris

Text to self, text to text, text to world Respond to daily assignment Question

Today -- Respond, look for something in the culture (expected, unexpected, what do I think about that?) Read to the end of chapter 6.



Do journal entry related to chapters 9-1 including these three things:

 * a) Paragraph of Text-to-Text/Self/World Connection:**

=
As I was reading through the chapters 9-11, I was able to see the relationship between Ezwefi and Ezinma that it was not a normal relationship between a child and a parent, but more rather than same. Although Ekwefi is the mother, because she is able to treat her daughter so highly, I was able to see a relationship where the heirchy of respect and the respect between them are equal. As I was reading the story, I was able to interpret this because Ekwefi lost so many children in the beginning of the story, she loves and gives all due respect to her daughter more than anything else, because she does not want to experience that pain again. For example, on page 76, lines 4 and 5, it says, "Enzima is dying", came her voice, and all the tragedy and sorrow of her life were packed in those words". While I was reading this portion, I was relate to the real world connection with not only Korea, but with the world. Parents who experienced multiple deaths of their children, or those who have gone through multiple failed deliveries and finally managed to have a baby are over-respecting them. Like parents who does not want to lose their children again, they communicate and call their children almost every hour, and constantly becomes nice to them, and in some cases, the children takes advantage of that situation.=====

b) An interpretive or evaluative question stemming from the first paragraph of your journal:

 * My Question:** My question is, when Okonkwo sees this type of situation where there is a strong bond between real live and relationship between Ekwefi and Enzima, do you think he will learn a lesson and change about his view of women and marriage?

I responded to Seungwoo's question
=Chapter 12~14= = = Journal+World Connection

Towards the end of chapter 17, with Okonkwo getting exiled from his clan, the unexpected has happened to me. Although he has killed Ezedudu's son, I never knew an accident would bring punishment. However, I learned from the book that killing a member of the clan would be considered as a sin, and when I read how the punishments were decided, it was very lineant and unbelievable. I personally though that the way how he was punished for his crime and how the clan thought it as a crime against the goddess was very unreasonable. For the connect to the world, of course, there are comparisons about the punishment people receive for the murder. In the real world today, even if a person has killed another person, the punishment would be counted as a major crime. There are electric chairs that kill people for punishments, and I think the fact that he has to be off the clan for 7 years is very considerate compared to what he has done.

Predictions

I think because Okonkwo is going to be used to the culture of Mbanta; how they respect women. As a result, I think that he will learn the "Women's Supreme" concept, and go back to the Ibo clan to change the way things are right now.

Question

Will Okonkwo learn the "women-respect" culture of Mbanta and spread the message back to the Ibo clan?

=Will Okonkwo stay the full 7 years in the culture of Mbanta, or will he leave without resisting his frustration of the concept of respect for women? =

Chapters 15-19
As expected, white men had come to Africa to discuss about conquering. As I was reading the previous part of the story, I began to realize that with Okonkwo going to another part of the clan, where the conflict of the story would be. Yet, there it was, the conflict of the white people attempting to conquer the African people. Like we are learning in World History, the conquer of African people from the white people were one of the World-Connections. I thing that while I was reading the story, the fact that different people who had different races at the time had different thoughts such as who were the "higher" position of the social hierarchy. Throughout reading TFA, I was able to realize the similarity of how Africans and the white people are able to develop religion, as well as how they live throughout their livesl changing depending on different people conquering each other. Imperialism, like the World connection again, was able to be seen as a potential event of the story.

Although Okonkwo was told by Uchendu and Obierka to be more literal, he still seems to be showing anger and uncontrollable violence against other people, especially still treating women as the dominant level of the society. For example, towards the end of the story, Okonkwo still treats Nwoye as the lower class of the society; he yells and screams at her, while grabbing her by the back and abusing her.

My question is, from seeing what has happened with Nwoye, will he ever learn to treat women fairly? Will the visit from the white people somehow change his action towards women??