Journal+Entry+6+E.Flores

= Chapters 15 - 19 =


 * Text to World Connection**

During Okonkwo's party of gratitude for his mother's kinsmans' kindness at the end of chapter 19, the speech about being afraid for the younger generation, from one of the oldest members of the umunna, reminded me of how some of the old people of today used to be young and poor with nothing. They worked hard throughout their lives and now know what it feels like to be "hungry". Because of their success and are now rich with a family of their own with kids, their offspring tend to be lazy and spoiled. The offspring of the old generation are now the new generation of the world. **However, since they are lazy, they mooch on their rich parents/grandparents and therefore don't know how to be hungry, how to care for themselves, how to fend for themselves.** By living off of the acquired wealth, they are relying on it to give them a life and don't learn anything from it and even take it for granted. And when their parents/grandparents die and all the money has been washed away, the new generation will have nothing and will stay with nothing since they haven't learned a thing from living off the acquired money and will have to learn the hard way of earning it back for themselves. In the book, the old member of the umunna says that he and his other fellow umunna friends have developed good relations and support, thus becoming strong and successful. As for the young generation, he says, they aren't looking so hot, for they don't know "how strong is the bond of kinship", they don't know how to " speak with one voice", and also they have allowed what their people consider an "abominable religion" to "settle in their village. They have also let loose some of the hard work their elders have created in keeping the peace and order of the clan to an extent that their own people have turned their back on the clan and left them for the Christians.


 * Okonkwo's Character**

Okonkwo is as monstrous as ever. He is different from the person we knew in part one. In part one, we saw that whenever there was a fault committed in his family, like if he saw any of his sons being lazy or his wife lied to him, he would beat them. In part two he beat AND almost choked his his own son, Nwoye, to death after hearing that he had attended a service. Later that night Okonkwo had given up on Nwoye and even declared he wasn't his son, yet the thought that Nwoye resembled his grandfather stopped that disowning thought. He even said Nwoye was "not worth fighting for" when he thought of wiping out the new settlers to keep Nwoye from reaching them. Not only that, he was also thinking of killing off all his children if they were to follow Nwoye's footsteps and support the "white man's god". Okonkwo clearly has gotten more violent and careless. He does not seem to be disturbed of killing his own family, he just wants to do what he think is right and appropriate, for the sake of keeping originality in their chi and doing whatever he can from becoming his father or the settlers.


 * Question!**

Is it possible that the people, of the young generation, that do little forms of work like chores and are disciplined at the start of a young age are more capable of maintaining the successful results that their parents/grandparents have worked to create than those who are being provided for and laze around their whole childhood?