Ch 12 Weddings

WOW! This chapter was so interesting because someone was about to get married! So what exactly does this meant to Umoufia? Wedding time was a moment were everyone knew about and they had to somehow be involved with the preparations. The women were in charge of helping the bride's mother and they had the task of "cooking for a whole village" (110). Men, women, and children would have to work towards making the day a great one; Everyone got together to celebrate this event. For the bride and the groom, this meant business. Their families would get together and this meant a dowrie. This was the exchange that the families had to make in order to be able to marry the bride and groom. The day of the wedding everyone was supposed to bring a present to the couple and this usually meant goatskin. This was viewed as a sacred gift. But what i found most interesting of all, was the speech the family of the bride gave to the groom's family. They said: "We are giving you our daughter today. She will be a good wife to you. She will bear you nine sons like the mother of our town" (117). Wow...They pretty much decided the number of sons she was supposed to bear the man. What if she only bore 3 children? Was she going to be cursed by the gods? I don't know the answer, but what i do know is that this was like too much pressure to put on a woman. Nowadays, the couple decides the amount of children they want. I don't think that in this century women would appreciate their family telling her how many children to have. However, this was extremely important in the story because when a couple got married, it was as if they literally married each others family memebers.

Ch 10-11 Spirits and Stories

Spirits would gather around the village every once in a while. These spirits would serve as judge in case anyone had problems. For example, the spirits decided what Odukwe had to do when he faced his angry in laws. The villagers believed that the spirits were given the knowledge to lead the town and that they saw the future so they would trust in them and do whatever they told them to do.

The people also believed that stories were powerful. It was their tradition to tell stories to the young people so that they woul become wise when they were grown ups. The stories had a great message and they helped children understand how they had to behave in the village and how they had to conduct themselves towards the adults. Ekwefi's told Ezinma a story about a Tortoise and the birds. The Tortoise was greedy and wanted to outsmart the birds. At the end of the story the Tortoise ends up being defeated by the birds. This story has a great message because it teaches everyone not to take advantage of others, but this story can also be foreshadowing an event in Things Fall Apart .

Ch 8-9 Ekwefi's children

Ekwefi, one of Okonwo's wives, had had a terrible luck with children. Once got married in Umoufia you were supposed to bare children to your husband right away--it was the job of the woman. However, Ekwefi had a hard time with this subject because nine of the ten children she gave birth to died in infancy. After the death of her first child, she "found expression in the names she gave her children" (77). These names had to do with death and how she wanted death to stop taking her babies. It was very important to the villages to give meaning to names because that was who they were. They believed that names gave personality to the person but maybe the gods had other plans. Of course, this led her to become bitter but she did not envy the other wives for having healthy babies: "she did not blame others for their good fortune but her own evil chi who denied her any"(79).She was afraid of losing her daughter Enzima, who was very sick. I can imagine how horrible it must have been for her to go through all of this, but perhaps her "chi" had something better in store for her--Enzima, who stopped being sick later on.

Ch. 6-7 Wrestling and Manhood

Wrestling was the sport that men did in Umuofia. It was very important to them and so the whole village had to gather around to be an audience and cheer on the teams. Whoever was proved to be the strongest "men carried him shoulder high and danced through the cheering crowd" (47). This was such and important event for everyone that after the match they would sing praise to the victorius young man.

Then, readers see how important it was for the men to work. This is nothing out of the ordinary compared to todays world, but in the story, women weren't supposed to work at all because men were the head of the household. And so this takes me to the point that these men had to be firm in their emotions. Okonkwo's newest member of the family, Ikemefuna had to b killed because "The Oracle of the Hills and the Caves has pronounced it"(57). This meant that Okonkwo couldn't do anything to stop the villagers from killing the kid. However, when the time came, the men asked Okonkwo to kill the him and he did because "He was afraid of being thought weak"(61). This is extremely important because that is how people used to think during those times. If Okonkwo had refused to kill Ikemefuna, he was most likely going to be "tormented" by the spirits because he was a weak man--and a weak man cannot be a leader.

Ch. 4-5

This chapters are very intense. Okonkwo now has to take care of a boy named Ikemefuna. I don't know if afraid would be the right word to describe Okonkwo, but he didn't show his emotions. I wondered why it was so bad for a man to show his emotions. Did he think that he would lose authority? Or was it that he didn't want to be known as weak? Well, he never really says if he grew to love Ikemefuna. But we do have some violence coming from Okonkwo, when he beats his second wife heavily--forgetting that it was the Week of Peace. Everyone was supposed to to be silent and calmed during this sacred week. This is because they believed in many gods, and, according to their tradition, if someone broke the rules they would be cursed by the gods. This is something that I found very interesting because it really shows me the history of African American people. It is true that they depended heavily and truly believed that they were in their respective lives because fate and their gods wanted it that way.
Everyone knew each other around the village and they would sometimes get together to watch some wrestling. This was an event where every family member would assist to. I think that this was a way to get their minds off their daily lives and where they could have fun. The women played a big role in the story. They were supposed to be submmisive wives and had to take care of the food for their husband and children. Okonkwo had three wives and so they each had to prepared him a meal because if not he would certainly get mad at them. They had to take care of their children and make sure that they grew up to be responsible and hardworking people. Also, whenever the sound of the drums were mentioned and described, it really gave the story some flavor and authenticity. This is because the reader can imagined how the sounds were being played and he or she can transport their minds to that specific time mentioned in the story.

Chapters 1-3

The first thing I noticed when reading the first few chapters is that one has to pay close attention to every detail mentioned in the story. What I mean is that everything has a meaning and there is a reason for it to be mentioned. From the the very beginning, I noticed how the weather will play a big role throughout the story. It is mentioned quite a few times and every time you read about it either something good or bad will happen in the story; It's kind of like they are connected to each other, and the weather is like foreshadowing a certain event. The moonlight and darkness were also mentioned a lot throughout the story. Darkness was where no one, not even the bravest man, would dare to do dangerous things: "Darkness held a vague terror for these people, even the bravest among them"(9). But moonlight is like the opposite of darkness because "on a moonlight...the happy voices of children playing in the open fields would then be heard"(10).

Readers are introduced to a man named Okonkwo. He was a wealthy farmer, with three marriages, and very succesful--everything his dad wasn't. So this man represents the qualities of what an African man represented in his village. Even though he may have looked like a strong man, he was "dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness"(13). I think that this is something every man was afraid of. They wanted to be successful without ever having to experiences failure--they wanted to leave a legacy.

Locust

The locust represented in the novel is very significant. Locusts have a binary attribute to them in Things Fall Apart. When the locust descend among the tribe, the clan accepts them as good, "At first, a fairly small swarm came...soon it covered half the sky, and the solid mass was not broken by tiny eyes of light like shining star dust. It was a tremendous sight" (pg. 56). The tribesmen and women danced about collecting the locust as they descending on their crops, their roofs, and throughout their homes. The locusts were good food to eat. Readers should take note that this is a foreshadowing event. In the Bible, one of the plagues that befall on Pharaoh is locust. The locust invaded Pharaoh's land in Egypt and devoured everything. Later, the locust in Things Fall Apart would represent the missionaries that invaded the clan. Okonkwo hated these locusts as they devoured up the great men of the tribe and led the tribesmen astray feeding them the living Word of God. Here the term "locust" represents both the destruction of a religion through missionaries as well as a the benefits of the locusts bringing food into the tribe and settling on the homes of the clan.

Truths of Religion

In the last post, I hinted about certain universal truths within religion. There are several that I recognized in Things Fall Apart:

1. The gods of Umuofia and the Christian God are both known through stories, but are never fully understood

2. Both gods had spirit forms and took the form of humans

I would first like to discuss point number one. Umuofia and other clans in Africa believed in gods that derived from mythical stories or stories from nature. Each member of the clan new the answer to their gods' wills came from the Oracle. The men and women would constantly check with the Oracle to discover their fate and which path they should take that would lead them to their fate. Of course, if something went wrong and their fate did not turn out as it was prophesied, the tribesmen would blame it on the man's or woman's chi (personal god). The Christian God is also represented by story. Christian's rely on the Bible to reveal the truth. In a way the Bible is the Christian's Oracle. It is through faith that the Christian accepts what the Bible states. But there is an important difference between the Umuofia gods and the Christian God. The Christian God is the only God who is not shaken by man or woman's mistakes like the Umuofia gods are. Second, the Christian God rejects the idea of men having a personal god. In this way, the Christian God proves that he is the ultimate One. The only God who does not need help from creation to express the Word he speaks.

The second bullet point listed discusses each of the gods and God descending from the transcendent to fellowship with humans. However, when the gods of Umuofia came down to associate with humans it was usually for punishment or to discuss destruction. When God sent his Son to earth, he sent him with a message of love and redemption. God is feared for his greatness and love not for his fearful destruction. He desires a relationship, a unity, and a love from his creatures, whereas the Umuofia gods sought after power. Another difference between Umuofia gods and the Christian God is that the gods chose many different humans to possess. God made an entirely new individual to represent his sovereignty. He did not place fate in the hands of an imperfect human that could be manipulated to change his or her will.

Universally, all gods that have been made and the Christian God that has been are discussed through stories. The two may possess similar traits with one another, but it must be noted that the Christian God does not fold to the will of the humans nor does He require humans to enact his will. Umuofia gods must yield to human fallacy. When the missionaries came to preach the Word of God they tried to make this point. But it is difficult to break bonds of tradition without first educating and proving their gods invalid.

Wedding Feast

A traditional wedding in the Umuofia clan was similar to a traditional American wedding because it included many family members, traditional dances, and food, yet it was different because the clan treated the bride as a possession. Currently, American men and women neglect the spouse's family members as a part of their family and focus on creating a family for themselves. This is not the case for the Umuofia clansmen. The clan's men and the suitor's clan both come together and contribute to the celebration. The women from both tribes cook together, learn about each other, and discuss the nights events with the bride. There is a great amount of unity between the two tribes even though they rarely spend time negotiating with each other. When the wedding festivities begin the women serve the men, the bride is presented to the men, then the women leave so the men can continue discussing terms about the bride and how each man at the celebration has contributed to his society. When the women come back out to dance for them men they all watch and sing gaily with each other. Presents of wine and cocks are given to signify approval of the marriage. After the celebration, the woman leaves with her suitor to go live in the land of her suitor's for seven market weeks before they return back to her mother-land. I do not agree with all the traditions of Umuofia, but I do agree that weddings today need to be more focused on the coming together of two families, not the money spent, the friends invited, the food being served, or even just on the bride. Umuofia went even farther exemplifying the importance of not only a family coming together, but an entire tribe. American brides, grooms, fathers, and mothers should remember that they are uniting themselves with each other as well as fusing two families together. Another aspect of a wedding that Umuofia represented was the bride and groom returning back to the bride's homeland after spending time with her suitor's family. I found this interesting because this is a biblical principle that is emulated in a pagan tribe. It made me realize that there are certain "truths" that remain constant in all forms of religion.

Explanation of Stories

Stories are more than words painted across the pages of a book or the words flowing out of someone's mouth. Stories represent something, explain something, and have morals. In the case of the Umuofia tribe, stories were used to explain the science of nature. The story about the tortoise and the birds taught the children that the tortoise has an uneven shell because he disappointed the birds, lost his wings, fell from the sky, and shattered his shell on the ground (pg. 96-97). Concrete sciences were foreign to an un-Englished educated society, yet the clan discovered a way to explain things beyond sciences through folklore and the gods. It is amazing that the clan could come up with such elaborate stories to explain things that needed much more explanation.

Power of the Song

Things Fall Apart is full of African culture. Two things that grabbed my attention were the use of song and stories throughout the novel. Songs were usually sang in times of joy and for a calming effect. For example, on page 6 Unoka always turned the subject to lyrics whenever the clan discussed war. He wasn't a fan of war in any way, "He could hear in his mind's ear the blood stirring and intricate rhythms of the ekwe and the udu and the ogene... decorating them with a colorful and plaintive tune." This quick passage about music resembled the use of blues in the 60s and the way that music has the power to change the way one sees life. . There needs to be music to survive, whether to determine the future or to sing praises for the simple acts of nature like rain, "And the children sang, 'The rain is failing, the sun is shining, alone Nnadi is cooking and eating" (pg. 35). Songs also were used to praise accomplishments. When Okafo defeated his opponent in battle the crowd sang a cheer for his victory. Through lyrical ballads, Things Fall Apart exemplifies the importance of music within a culture. Without music, cultures become silent.

Let them Bow to the Queen

The governmental system radically changed once the missionaries came to the clan. Before the missionaries began to implement their system of government, Umuofia had their own idea about how to run their clan most effectively. Page 92 provides an example for readers of a trial that Umuofia held regarding a run-away bride. The bride ran away because her husband was beating her too much (not that beating her was a crime, just the amount of time he did so) that her life was threatened. Her mother land took her away from her husband until the husband proved to be fit to have her again. In doing so, they reclaimed her bride price and refused to hand her over to her husband. The husband was furious and went to the clan's gods to settle the dispute and what he saw as injustice. The crowd gathered, the men representing the gods listened to both sides, then the men representative of the gods rendered a decision. Government, any form of legal system, is everywhere. But when the missionaries came they viewed Umuofia's form of government as insufficient. As a result, the British built a cour system where they appointed a District Commissioner. It was through the DC that trials were heard and judged, "They had built a court where the DC judged cases in ignorance. He had court messengers who brought men to him for trial...they had built the center of their religion and trade and government," (page 174). I do not believe that the British Empire should have rejected the quality of the clan's tribe so hastily. True, the clan had to tweak their governmental system, but the British took over without properly educating the clansmen which only made the British superior over the clansmen. The clan lost control of their own tribes because of the lack of education. Had they been educated on proper governmental system instead of overthrown, the clansmen could have changed their government within the tribe. The clan was not given the opportunity to do so. They were being taught about the Christian God and his power, but they were not being taught governmental skills or even new morals. Changing a government changes the way a people group runs and ultimately changes the morality of the group. Unfortunately for the clan, they were changing too quickly to keep up and understand properly everything that was occurring.

Women in Umuofia

Being a woman in Umuofia would be awful. America offers women an ample amount of opportunities to the point that women are starting to dominate the work force, family, and school community. But in Umuofia that would be quite unheard of. Umuofia women were subordinate to men entirely. On page 23 it discusses the differences between a good man's crop and the weak crop of the women. This distinction at the beginning of the novel set up the entire them of the novel that women were the weakest members of the tribe and that there were thick lines between what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman. Okonkwo was embarrassed of his father because his father acted as a "woman" by not receiving a great title in the clan, she he didn't appreciate his son when he left with the missionaries and considered him a weak woman, and he considered his clan weak women when they conformed to the missionaries or even allowed the missionaries to inhabit the land. Whenever Okonkwo talked about women it was always negative, "And so he was always happy w hen he heard him grumbling about women. That showed that in time he would be able to control his women-folk. No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule this women and his children (especially the women) he was not really a man," (pg. 53).

I found it interesting though, that the women were ones that the gods talked through, "Anyone seeing Chielo in ordinary life would hardly believes she was the same person who prophesied when the spirit of Agbala was upon her," (pg. 49). Enzimna was carried away by a female prophet to the cave and Okonkwo had to submit to her instructions as well as every other male in the clan. That was only because of the spirit of gods that were apparently in the women during that time. Had it been any other time, the women would still be considered under men.

The White Man's Religion

When the missionaries invaded the surrounding tribes of Mbata and Umuofia, I could not help but feel a little sympathy for the tribes. The Word of God is absolutely wonderful, but these white men neglected one important aspect of these tribes' culture- their government. The white men did not only attempt to change their religion (as they should have). They also tried to impose the ideals of white men on the tribes suffocating the cultural life out of the tribes. Page 176 illustrates the perfect example of this: "The white man's court has decided that it should belong to Nnama's family, who had given much money to the white man's messengers and interpreter" "Does the white man understand our custom about land?" "How can he when he does not even speak our tongue? But he says our customs are bad; and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad." Introducing God and His son to a people group is beautiful and should be done as the missionaries did. The missionaries declared a loud statement when they built their churches and homes on the land of the Evil Forest. By doing so, they said, "Our God is bigger than your God." However, by creating and implementing their own government the missionaries arrogantly denied the tribesmen and women their cultural traditions and made the statement, "We, as white men, are far more superior to your subordinate race." The Umuofia tribe governed themselves differently than the traditional white missionary. Unless someone's life was in danger, the missionaries should have not placed a foreign court system in the land of the tribesmen without the counsel, education, and acceptance from the tribe council. As the old saying goes, "Separation of church and state." The missionaries did not introduce a viable religion that the clansmen could understand, rather many of them did not follow the Word of God by preaching on their level, but above their heads and stating that their governmental customs were the direct result of their God. The missionaries needed to focus more on proving the clansmen's gods subordinate to God. Not their governmental system.

Role of Nature

Nature is the controlling force behind Okonkwo's tribe and culture. Evil spirits inhabit the nature presented in the novel. For example, there is a place called, "The Evil Forest" where the outcasts of society are banished to to die. The fear of evil dominated the lives of the people in the tribe. It was particularly interesting to read a line from Tennyson exemplifying nature, "red in tooth and claw," (pg. 13). This line remains the central opinion of all who believe in nature as a god. Understandably, before the missionaries arrived, the tribe did not have any other idea of a Deity that would be more reasonable than nature. All they knew was nature controlled the answer to their crop growth, who dies, and they questioned the Oracle frequently to seek answers for injustices brought upon their tribe. To please nature, the tribesmen would sacrifice a cock to Ani (the land god) and Ifejioku (yam god) to show their appreciation and dedication to these "nature gods." Although I do not believe in their gods, I find it interesting the amount of respect and reverence the tribesmen and women had for their gods. Modern Christianity sometimes places God at the level of humanity. By doing so, God is personalized to meet the needs of one individuals and comes to resemble Okonkwo's idea of a "chi" or personal god. Okonkwo's tribe feared the gods and their punishments, "What you have done will not please the Earth... if the Oracle said that my son should be killed, I would neither dispute it nor be the one to do it," (pg. 67). Modern Christians believe that they may do whatever they please because of God's forgiveness (which is lacking in Okonkwo's tribe), but must realize that there should be as much dedication to God as Okonkwo's tribesmen and women represented for their gods.