Chpt.+3-6

1. **Text-to-text:** When I read the part about Ekwefi muttering “guns that never shot,” under her breath, it reminded me of the book The Death of Ivan Ilych, by Leo Tolstoy. Even though Okonkwo and Ivan Ilych doesn’t have much thing in common, the fact that both of their wives disliked them made me think that they are similar to each other. This part about Okonkwo’s second wife, Ekwefi, saying something bad about him under her breath shows that she doesn’t like him. For Ivan Ilych, it was obvious that his wife hated him, since his wife showed her hate towards him during the whole story. It is also common that their wives loved Okonkwo and Ivan Ilych at first. Later on in the story, it is said that Ekwefi loved Okonkwo so much, after she saw Okonkwo beating the Cat, that she left her husband to become his wife. For Ivan Ilych, during the first part of the story, it was said that Ivan Ilych and his wife fell in love and got married.

2. **Culture:** I could find the culture of Okonkwo’s clan when it was time for the harvest, when Ekwefi ran away from her husband, and when the children of all three wives brought meal for Okonkwo before the wrestling game. Before the harvest, the clan held a feast to give thanks to the earth goddess called Ani. This shows their religion and that they do this for every harvest season. The part about Ekwefi shows that women had to marry with the men that her parents decided and that she have to be his wife forever, but that she can run away. When the children of all three wives came into Okonkwo’s room with his meal, I thought that it was like a tradition that the wives send their child or children to her husband with his meal to wish him luck, in the night before an event that he is involved in.

3. **Question:** Did the wives have done nice things for Okonkwo only to let their child or children to inherit money from him and become the next “leader” of the clan?

-  [|knordahl]

Jenny, you drew some nice parallels between //The Death of Ivan Ilych// and //Things Fall Apar//t. Nice job. The point you brought up about Ekwefi grumbling under breath does make me question some things about the way we choose to communicate our thoughts and emotions with others. Ekwefi was defiant enough to mutter something quietly, but she wasn't defiant enough to make her statement loudly. Do you think that the other wives also muttered things too, but we just don't hear about them in the book, or are the other two wives more subservient and never talk back like Ekwefi does? none      **Save**PreviewText Editor