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Conflicts in things fall apart by Chinua Achebe
Conflicts in things fall apart by Chinua Achebe
Conflicts in things fall apart by Chinua Achebe
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Though constantly confused, needs and wants are the driving force behind every decision. It is virtually impossible to make a decision without analyzing the needs and wants of every person affected by that decision. However, countless decisions in today’s society are only directed towards what will benefit the decision-maker. In those cases, the influence of needs and wants is amplified because the decision-maker fears damage to his reputation. As an effect, his want for an unblemished reputation will drive nearly every one of his decisions. Such is the case for most people. Their desire to satisfy their needs and wants, not those of others, drives the decisions they make. Therefore, all of the choices and decisions in life are driven by needs and wants. …show more content…
The main character, Jonathan Iwegbu, is a former coal miner facing a society devastated by a civil war. For nearly every citizen, problems are a part of life. Jonathan decides to make the most of it by choosing decisions that will satisfy his needs. One of those decisions is as follows: “He put [his bike] to immediate use as a taxi and accumulated a small pile of Biafran money ferrying camp officials and their families across the four-mile stretch to the nearest tarred road… At the end of a fortnight he had made a small fortune of one hundred and pounds” (Achebe 390). Based on his need for money to survive, Jonathan decided to use one of his most prized possessions as a source of income. Throughout the entire story, Jonathan makes different choices and decisions based on his needs for
Often, a person is seen as the embodiment of the value of their action, thus a person can be seen as “good” or “bad,” and the consequences of justice that affect them are based on the general value of their general actions. The value given to actions is based on a soc...
The “What's in it for me?” mindset that so many people live with in today's world can appear to be a selfish question. Morris believes that it's anything bu...
In “How Not to Get Into College: The Preoccupation with Preparation” and “Somnambulist” the authors reflect on how individuals in today’s society are pursuing extrinsic goals rather than intrinsic goals. Individuals often pursue extrinsic goals because it causes them to feel temporary happiness; also corporations and board directors create a system which causes individuals to pursue the goals of the company or organization, rather than individuals pursuing their own personal goals. Individuals that are being motivated extrinsically by short periods of happiness or by systematic company designs, find themselves morally unsatisfied or numb to society due to them not fulfilling their own goals. Both Alfie Kohn and Heron Jones suggest in their
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is set towards the offset of the 1800s. The protagonist goes by the name Okonkwo. He has lived all his life resenting the poverty that his father represented and the man he was. In his adult life, Okonkwo becomes, extremely wealthy, but is strict and withdrawn from his wives and children. He commits a crime by killing a boy who was under his care during the non – violence week of peace. As a result, he is banished from the community. During the period of exile, white missionaries come to his village and spread the Christian gospel. Okonkwo is shocked by this conversion upon his return because his son is amongst those that were converted (Achebe, 179). Okonkwo constantly battles with the missionaries to the point where he murders one of them. His struggle with all the mixed emotions he goes through causes him to take his own life.
Today I will be writing on Fiske's five unifying themes in social psychology. Fiske argues that there are core social motives that impact human interaction. I will include a brief overview of the definition of the core social motive approach. Second I will include A brief discussion of each of the five core with a brief definition and an example for each. Lastly I will include a more in depth discussion of only one of the social needs and I will include a summary of at least two research articles that investigates this motive.
In other words, the kind of choice made is dependent on an individual’s values. According to Margaret McLean, the selection between good or bad is made depending on three ways. In the first case, an individual thinks all that matters are the results. As such, why not lie? The outcomes may be bad, and it will hurt people. In the second perspective, individuals are guided by the rules. Therefore, why not lie? The rules mandate the truth. In the third case, a person chooses not to lie because of his/her values. For instance, they are honest. Therefore, an individual’s decision-making process is guided by the anticipated results, rules, and character traits (McLean,
Imagine a group of foreign people invading your home, disavowing all your beliefs, and attempting to convert you to a religion you have never heard of. This was the reality for thousands and thousands of African people when many Europeans commenced the Scramble for Africa during the period of New Imperialism. A great fiction novel written by Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, highlights the responses to missionaries by African people. The African natives responded to the presence of white missionaries with submission to their desires, strategic responses to counteract them, and with the most disruptive response of violence.
In society today, everything is about the “now”. Everyone wants something instantaneously. Because of the desire for instant gratification, people are overcome by what they desire which causes them to quench their yearnings by obtaining what they want. For example, an individual that has just graduated from high school and he wants money, so he gets a job at a fast-food chain instead of pursuing a college degree. He wants money now and does not want to pay for college even though he would be making more money over his lifetime in his profession than he does at the fast food-chain.
Culture makes us who we are. Each individual has their own culture from their experiences in life and is developed from societal influences. The various cultures around the world influence us in different ways which we experience at least once in our lifetime. There are occasions, especially in history, where cultures clash with one another. For instance, the English colonization in Africa changed their culture. Chinua Achebe, the author of Things Fall Apart, portrayed this change in the Igbo people’s society, especially through the character Okonkwo in the village of Umuofia; the introduction of Western ideas challenged him. In the novel Things Fall Apart, the author Chinua Achebe introduces to us Okonkwo whose character’s response to the
Philotimia is a major part of human nature in this day and age. There is an never-ending battle for power in the world. Everyone wants to have more than the next person, which leads to tactless decisions motivated by the urge to be superior. Though motivation ...
Cultural clashes result in unnecessary conflict. Several countries (European powers) including France, Great Britain, and Belgium imperialized Africa. They did this because of their demand for raw materials, need for markets, and their attempt to implement commerce, create civilization, and to bring in Christianity to be the primary religion. The clash between the Europeans and the Africans caused the Europeans to colonize Africa and to partition the continent, this partition plan is know as the Scramble for Africa. Chinua Achebe’s thesis regarding Colonial Africa in Things Fall Apart is an accurate portrayal of imperialism and Ibo culture to a high extent due to the religious accusations serving as catalysts for conflict, the use of the Christian, European missionaries attempting to conquer Africa, take the resources of the land, and convert multiple Ibo people to Christianity, and the display of cultural aspects (customs/traditions) about the Ibo people.
One of the flaws inside the Ibo culture that eventually leads to their downfall is the social system. The weaker people join the church as a way to gain acceptance. The osu, or outcasts who lived in the Ibo culture want to feel accepted and as a result, follow the Christians. “The two outcasts shaved off their hair, and soon they were the strongest adherents of the new faith” (157). These two outcasts never have the feeling of being a part of the clan. The church welcomes them. The osu cannot cut their hair, marry, or receive a title in the clan. They are “cast out like lepers” (157). The church welcomes the osu and treats them like human beings. This is where the Ibo social system is at fault. An ideal job is to be a farmer and since not everyone can afford seeds and a barn...
Clara Okeke is a young ,trained nurse who is presented in the novel as a character who finds it difficult to adapt to the Nigerian society before independence. She is the fiance of the protagonist, Obi Okonkwo who she first meets at a dance in England. Though said to be Ibo, Clara is educated abroad and lives a very modern lifestyle much like that of the protagonist. Right from the beginning of the story, we see her relationship with Obi as a very unstable one with many disagreements and quarrels. It is revealed as the story progresses that, she is an Osu and belongs to a group of people known to be outcasts in the Nigerian society of the 1960s where the story is set.
The study concludes that triggering self interest based on money leads to unethical behaviour. In fact, this correlation that money corrupts is supported in many articles including Stella and Willer (2014) who have suggested that the impact of money is so influential and effective that people will act unfairly or will take advantage of circumstances to ensure it is theirs. At the same time, thinking about money and its effects can be the leading contributor to stress. The American Psychology Association‘s recent surveys in America have concluded that matters regarding money are a major influence of stress (American Psychology Association, 2014). It has been concl...
David Carroll writes, of the novel Things Fall Apart, "This incident is not only a comment on Okonkwo's heartlessness. It criticizes implicitly the laws he is too literally implementing..." (Carroll) The incident that David Carroll refers to is the death of Ikemefuna. Ikemefuna was a young boy who was handed over to the village of Umuofia as compensation for the murder of one of that village's citizens. He is handed over to Okonkwo, a great man in the village, to whom he gives every affection. The brief life with Okonkwo and death of this innocent young man, and the life of Okonkwo himself, is a microcosm of life in Umuofia. Inconsistencies, brutalities, and conflict abound in even the highest of Umuofian life. And as Ikemefuna is led off to be murdered by the man he calls father, "the whole tribe and its values is being judged and found wanting" (Carroll).