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The influence of China Achebe
Essay on chinua achebe and the language of the colonizer
China achebe and african culture
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Albert Chinualumogu Achebe was born on November 16, 1930 to Isaiah Okafo and Janet Achebe in the very unstable country of Ogidi, Nigeria. He was exposed to missionaries early in his childhood because Ogidi was one of the first missionary centers established in Eastern Nigeria and his father was an evangelist. Yet it was not until he began to study at the University of Ibadan that Achebe discovered what he himself wanted to do. He had grown apalled to the "superficial picture" of Nigeria that many non-Nigerian authors were providing. That is when Achebe resolved to write something that viewed his country from "the inside". (Gallagher, Susan, The Christian Century, v114, 260) His first novel, Things Fall Apart, achieved exactly this. Things Fall Apart is based on Nigeria's early experiences with the British. It is the story of an Ibo village and one of it's great men, Okonkwo, who is a very high achiever being a champion wrestler, a wealthy farmer, a husband to three wives, and a man with titles. Okonkwo's world is disrupted with the appearance of the first white man who tries to inflict his religion on the Umuofia natives. Okonkwo, a high tempered man, later kills a British employed man and eventually takes his own life.
Achebe himself once said, "Language is a weapon and we use it, and there's no point in fighting it." ( Gallagher, The Christian Century, v114, 260) These are words that Achebe lives by. He stood by this statement throughout his entire career with a language style that would change African literature. was no exception. He accomplished his goal by writing about his own culture and his own family in a poetic, proverbic style. < qtd. in http://www.upress.state.ms.us/catalogs/books/c/html/conache.html > The unique language style of Things Fall Apart not only changed Achebe's career, but it also changed his country. Achebe himself once said, " Art is, and always was, at the service of man. Our ancestors created their myths and told their stories for a human purpose. Any good story, any good novel, should have a message, should have a purpose." < http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/achebe.html> Achebe used the "weapon" of language to convince "outsiders" that Nigeria is a nation with great potential.
Many people are led to believe that the death penalty doesn’t occur very often and that very few people are actually killed, but in reality, it’s quite the opposite. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1,359 people have been executed as a result of being on death row since 1977 to 2013. Even though this form of punishment is extremely controversial, due to the fact that someone’s life is at stake, it somehow still stands to this very day as our ultimate form of punishment. Although capital punishment puts murderers to death, it should be abolished because killing someone who murdered another, does not and will not make the situation any better in addition to costing tax payers millions of dollars.
Set in Africa in the 1890s, Chinua Achebe's ‘Things Fall Apart’ is about the tragedy of Okonkwo during the time Christian missionaries arrived and polluted the culture and traditions of many African tribes. Okonkwo is a self-made man who values culture, tradition, and, above all else, masculinity. Okonkwo’s attachment to the Igbo culture and tradition, and his own extreme emphasis on manliness, is the cause of his fall from grace and eventual death.
Chinua Achebe was thirty years old when Nigeria gained its independence from Britain in l960. He had been born on November 16, l930 and named Albert Chinualumogu Achebe. However, two years prior to independence his first novel, Things Fall Apart, was published in l958 and it propelled him along with his nation into the consciousness of the world. Things Fall Apart remains the most widely circulated book in modern African literature. By the time of Achebe’s death on March 21, 2013 he had achieved a mythical stature as the greatest storyteller of his generation.
Karl Marx was born middle-class in 1818 at Trier, Germany (Weber 39). He was more communistic than capitalistic; he saw many flaws in the system. Marx believed that everybody should have equal wealth. In his eyes, capitalism split people into two main classes, the bourgeoisie and proletariats. The bourgeoisie was the wealthy class that owned the factories and businesses. The proletariats were the wageworkers that could only sell their labor (Weber 14). Capitalism made the gap between to two classes even larger by making the rich richer and the poor poorer. In 1867, Das Kapital was published arguing about the unfair society capitalism creates. The bourgeoisie has the power to control who works when and for how much. They also control the media, government, and other social powers which give them more influence over the workers. The proletaria...
Achebe negates the idea of Eurocentricism. He shows that Europe isn’t the center of the world. He also shows that Africa isn’t the red headed stepchild of the world either. While Africa may have some faults, it is far from being uncivilized and the home of savages. The Africans had their own government and religion. Achebe brings up the point that if Europe hadn’t tried to divide up Africa, they would have been better off. He shows this point when Okonkwo killed himself. He is symbolically saying that if the Europeans hadn’t come into Umuofia, Okonkwo wouldn’t have killed himself and wouldn’t have lost hope in his tribe.
Within every man is a story to be told; one that is evolving day by day and night by night. Each new experience births a fresh reaction that represents a strand of generational DNA. As the chain of events progresses, two things may occur. An individual may follow in path of this genetic pull or dislike it so much that he/she may stray far away from it. In the case of Okonkwo, it was the latter.
Karl Marx is most often recognized as a radical who wanted to overthrow capitalism. Marx’s ideals came about at the start of the English Industrial Revolution and many believe that he was an evil radical who did not contribute to society. Marx’s most important contribution, however, was his analysis and critique of capitalism. Karl Marx was a man seeking justice, even though he ultimately created chaos in the process. He believed that in order to understand a society we must understand the society’s industry and structure of employment. In other words, Marx believed that all aspects of any society grew out of its economic base.
The novel "Things Fall Apart" was set in the southeastern part of Nigeria where most Igbo’s live. I remember when I first saw the Novel "Things fall apart." I read the plot summary a sentence which, mislead me was "it is the story of a "strong" man whose life is dominated by fear and anger." I concluded this story is just going to be about a man who was like the James bond of his town. I read the content of the book and found out I was totally wrong. The author gave a full insight to the readers, which helps to unravel the culture of the Igbo’s and how the land of Umuofia was during the anti colonial era. The book focus on so many things, but the main things are Gender, Culture and Religion. I always wanted to know what inspired Chinua Achebe to write this Novel I have read several articles and a lot of people write and talk about the novel inspiration, which was showing the aspect of Africa people didn 't know or usually see in a literary novel.
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is a powerful novel about the social changes that occurred when the white man first arrived on the African continent. The novel is based on a conception of humans as self-reflexive beings and a definition of culture as a set of control mechanisms. Things Fall Apart is the story of Okonkwo, an elder, in the Igbo tribe. He is a fairly successful man who earned the respect of the tribal elders. The story of Okonkwo’s fall from a respected member of the tribe to an outcast who dies in disgrace graphically dramatizes the struggle between the altruistic values of Christianity and the lust for power that motivated European colonialism in Africa and undermined the indigenous culture of a nation.
The conclusion is that the Oedipus Complex definitely plays an integral role in the most of the movies made about Hamlet. Two of the three films I discussed are clearly paradigmatic, as each has in some way further contributed to the idea of Hamlet?s aberrant sexual feelings.
Karl Marx was a 19th century philosopher and economist, whose writings on communism and capitalism continue to influence people to this day. His arguments focus mainly on the detrimental effects of a capitalist society on the human condition. He believed capitalism to be an unnatural and unsustainable social and economic system, which not only negatively impacted the poorer facets of society (e.g. the workers), but the rich (e.g. factory owners) as well. Capitalism, according to Marx, fetishizes production, therefore alienating those involved in said production, as it places profit above human existence.
Marx helps us to understand capitalism and the system in which we live in today. He argued that capitalism is prone to regular crisis and uprisings, and we see that when we observe meltdowns around the globe currently. We will, of course continue to live in a capitalist society, as opposed to a communist one, but with the knowledge that it is a system that requires intervention from time to time of political institutions. That is evident just recently when bailouts were needed to keep such institutions going during the economic recession of 2008, and which Marx predicted would be an outcome of this type of society. Marx is considered one of the most important social theorists of all time.
The novel "Things Fall Apart" was set in the southeastern part of Nigeria where most Igbo’s live. I remember when I first saw the Novel "Things fall apart." I read the plot summary a sentence which, mislead me was "it is the story of a "strong" man whose life is dominated by fear and anger." I concluded this story is just going to be about a man who was like the James bond of his town. I read the content of the book and found out I was totally wrong. The author gave full insight to the readers which helps to unravel the culture of the Igbo’s and how the land of Umuofia was during the anti colonial era. The book focus on so many things but the main things are Gender,Culture and Religion. I always wanted to know what inspired Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe's novel, Things Fall Apart, uses the changes in African tribal culture brought about by European colonization to illustrate the evolution of the character Okonkwo. As Okonkwo leads his life, his experiences, personality and thought are revealed to the reader. The obstacles he faces in life are made numerous as time progresses. Okonkwo's most significant challenge originates within himself. He also encounters problems not only when in opposition to the white culture, but in his own culture, as he becomes frustrated with tribal ideals that conflict with his own. The last adversary he encounters is of the physical world, brought upon himself by his emotional and cultural problems. The manner through which Okonkwo addresses his adversaries in Things Fall Apart creates the mechanism that leads to his eventual destruction.
Hamlet goes to his mother’s closet room when she requests to see him. This is the one scene where we get to see Gertrude’s character, yet uninfluenced by Claudius’s presence. Hamlet at this point in the play is very strongly influenced by his Superego, while Gertrude is still in a flux that her ego has not sorted out yet. She is seemingly blind to the negatives of her actions influenced by her id.