Many people see other people as equal or lower than or higher than them. This includes by wealth, knowledge or rights. Few people know about the caste system in India, but many people are able to point out the untouchables. Why? Is it because everyone knows that they are better than the untouchables? Some people feel that the untouchables are strictly only in India, but they don’t realize that even bigger countries have untouchables; they are just called something else. Many tribes in Africa also have untouchables, including the Igbo tribe.
Untouchables are usually never accepted in any society, but they have their own place in which they live. According to dictionary.com, and untouchable is “a person disregarded or shunned by society or a particular group; social outcast”, or basically a person that is at the bottom of a social level. In Chinua Achebe’s book Things Fall Apart there are indeed untouchables and they are clearly mentioned in the book. Achebe describes untouchables as “A person dedicated to a God, a thing set apart-a taboo for ever and his children after him. He could neither marry nor be married by the free born. He was in fact an outcast, living in a special area of the village, close to the Great Shrine. Wherever he went he carried with him the mark of the forbidden caste – long, tangled and dirty hair. A razor was taboo to him. An OSU (Igbo word for untouchables) could not attend an assembly of the free – born, and they, in turn could not shelter under his roof. He could not take any of the four titles of the clan, and when he died he was buried by his kind in the Evil Forest.” (Achebe 156). An untouchable’s main problem is its existence. Untouchables are not permitted to be around a “normal” human. Many peopl...
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The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Dubois is a influential work in African American literature and is an American classic. In this book Dubois proposes that "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." His concepts of life behind the veil of race and the resulting "double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others," have become touchstones for thinking about race in America. In addition to these lasting concepts, Souls offers an evaluation of the progress of the races and the possibilities for future progress as the nation entered the twentieth century.
The Man Behind the Mask in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe The aspects of similarity and difference to today's world, in the novel Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, are fascinating to observe; the cultural beliefs and pressures of a society are very much like today's media's effect on many teenagers and young girls. The story is a journey through the life of a man whose influential past causes him to struggle in building his own future. Okonkwo's father affects his current life and causes him to struggle with certain issues in many ways, for instance Okonkwo tries to be the exact opposite of his father, personality wise and Okonkwo's main solution to this is violence, mostly towards his family. However, Okonkwo's culture helps shape his personality as well. Yet the ending to his life is not as fulfilling as he had hoped for.
Society is filled with outcasts. Everywhere one looks, there is someone who is different and has been labeled as an outcast by the others around them. People fear disturbance of their regular lives, so they do their best to keep them free of people who could do just that. An example of this in our society is shown in people of color. Whites label people who do not look the same as them as and treat them as if they are less important as they are. The white people in our society, many times unconsciously, degrade people of color because they fear the intuition that they could cause in their everyday lives. Society creates outcasts when people are different from the “norm.”
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
Lynch is a writer and teacher in Northern New Mexico. In the following essay, she examines ways that the text of The Souls of Black Folk embodies Du Bois' experience of duality as well as his "people's."
Language always conveys a message. Language can convey a message that is full of manipulation. In Robin Lakoff’s essay, “Everybody’s a Politician”, she discusses how manipulation is used in day to day conversations, even if one is not intentionally trying to manipulate. Language can be used to dominate others. In the essay, “the Language of Oppression” by Haig A. Bosmajian, he explains the power of using names to define others. Language can change the way a person thinks. In the same essay, “the Language of Oppression” by Haig A. Bosmajian, he also discusses the way someone thinks can be changed by language. Lastly, language has the power to degrade an individual. In another essay, by Robin Lakoff, “You Are What You Say”, she explains how
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe both encompass many different aspects of the effects political unrest conveys on society. An entire society does not change easily, and uprooting customs all at once, and replacing them with something unlike customs previously established, does not resonate well with the members of that society. Although an individual can willingly change with little hesitancy, that one person does not represent the whole. On the other hand, when others are introduced to new customs, the transition overwhelms them. The tensions of societal change that the characters of Cry, the Beloved Country and Things Fall Apart confront consist of so-called crimes committed, the environmental circumstances, and their willingness and unwillingness to abide by the new rules.
The feeling of inferior and superior, rich and poor, high caste and low caste does exist in my society. In my country Nepal, we still have the group of people who call themselves as high castes and they do not touch or eat anything that is touched by so called low caste people. As a result, these people have to change their caste in order to keep themselves away from such discriminations. Regarding rich and poor, we can still see that poor people sometimes ends up working in rich people house and there these poor people are really treated as slaves, even in today 's world. Why? Just because they do not have money or property? Now, after all, these readings and personal thoughts; back then, when Thomas Jefferson wrote "All men are created equal", and he himself had started following this phrase in right way and gave freedom to slaves then today I believe I would not be in this society where these discriminations still
...e most privileges, while the Dalit, or untouchables, remain the lowest and are subjected the same inhumane conditions.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe tells the story of how one unified Umuofian community falls due to its own inner conflicts, as well as to the arrival of Christian missionaries. Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart to change the brutish image of Africa, for the Western world. The use of changing perspectives greatly aided Achebe in accurately portraying Africa as colorful, diverse and complex. For Westerners, viewing Africans as more than tribal and barbaric was a new concept, of which Achebe helped usher in. The story is told through the eyes of many Umuofians, which gives the reader a personal sense for the individuals within the tribe. When all the individual pieces of the story are brought together, the sifting perspectives creates a vast overview of the community, while also deepening the readers since for the tribe by allowing personal details to show through. Achebe captures the complexity of the Umuofia community by changing the perspective from which the story is being told frequently.
“Dead Men’s Path” by Chinua Achebe. In this short story “Dead Men’s Path,” Chinua Achebe gives the protagonist an exciting chance to fulfill his dream. Michael Obi was officially headmaster of Ndume Central School, which was backward in every sense. He had to turn the school into a progressive one, however the school received a bad report when the supervisor came to inspect.
In the book, Things Fall Apart, there are a couple of folktales that are extended throughout the book. These folktales contributes to and comments on the central narrative of the story. Animals and folktales were important to the Igbo people. They used animals in fables and stories to demonstrate their beliefs and rituals. With all rituals, animals and symbols play a crucial role in Igbo society. The fable of the Tortoise and the Birds has uncanny similarities with Okonkwo and his rise and fall. The tortoise’s strength and cunningness eventually gets to be too much, which ends up crushing him. And Okonkwo’s inability to adapt to change leads to his demise. Both the tortoise and Okonkwo’s seek to be strong in society and they both want to be known as important. That is why I believe that the fable, The Tortoise and the Birds, is the closest fable to the central narrative of the story.
Ian Smith, a British politician, once said, “I would say colonialism is a wonderful thing. It spread civilization to Africa. Before it they had no written language, no wheel as we know it, no schools, no hospitals, not even normal clothing.” Although many people believed in the benefits of colonialism in the past, people now have changing opinions after learning the stories told by the Africans. Chinua Achebe wrote a novel, Things Fall Apart, in which Okonkwo, a Nigerian native, and his Igbo clan deals with white men trying to colonize, or pacify and control, the Igbo clan in the 1900’s. Due to the differences of religion and culture, the white men believes that the Igbos display barbarity and lack education,
Upon an initial reading of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, it is easy to blame the demise of Okonkwo’s life and of the Umofia community on the imperialistic invasions of the white men. After all, Okonkwo seemed to be enjoying relative peace and happiness before then. He did have a few mishaps; one of them resulted in him being exiled for eight years. Nonetheless, he returned to his home town with high spirits and with prospects of increased success. However, everything has changed. The white men have brought with them a new religion and a new government. Okonkwo’s family falls apart. The men in his village lose their courage and valor; they do not offer any resistance to the white men. Consequently, Okonkwo kills himself in disgrace and Umofia succumbs to the white men. However, the white men are not the only people responsible for demise of Umofia. The Igbo culture, particularly their views on gender roles, sows the seed of their own destruction. By glorifying aggressive, manly traits and ignoring the gentle, womanly traits, Umofia brings about its own falling apart.
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).