Things Fall Apart Idea of Strong - 750 Words

Strength vs. Values Strong and powerful is controversial, because it differs person to person. Also, throughout generations and cultures, the definition has been modified. Usually, one’s values are connected to their interpretation of strength. For example, my emphasis on my values are utterly different from Okonkwo’s values. The Ibo culture developed their own idea of strength, American society has modernized it, and one’s values may differ from another’s. Throughout Things Fall Apart, the Ibo’s idea of strength is illustrated through the villagers and Okonkwo’s thoughts. The ultimate result Okonkwo desired was prosperity, and when he spent seven years from his clan, he developed a plan to accomplish this.†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"We all know that a man is the head of the family and his wives do his bidding. A child belongs to its father and his family and not to its mother and her family† (121). Now, in America, a wife is determined by love, and not bargaining and money. Today, any person in America, â€Å"the land of opportunity†, can be educated and get a job. In the Ibo society, the only way to succeed was to be male and a good farmer, and Okonkwo followed this concept. Okonkwo’s values and mine relate to the cultures we live in. An important value to me is my education, because in America, the main way to thrive is to be erudite. Okonkwo strived to be a good farmer, because in his clan, â€Å"yam stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed† (30). His culture also valued possessions, although I try not to value them. Okonkwo wanted to be successful and be the opposite of his lazy father, just like I want to be able to support myself when I grow older. â€Å"Even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness†¦Okonkwo was ruled by one passion-to hate everything his father Unoka had loved. One of those things Berman 3 was gentleness and another was idleness† (13). By being unsympathetic, â€Å"his life had been ruled by a great passion-to become one of the lords of the clan. That had been his life-spring†Show MoreRelatedChinua Achebe s Things Fall Apart1069 Words   |  5 PagesThings Fall Apart was written by a Nigerian man named Chinua Achebe in 1958, with the intentions of fully exploiting the truth and creating a new perspective about African culture. Seeing as though Achebe lived through the colonization of the Igbo people, he was able to write without stereotyping Africans and European people. 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Things Fall ApartRead MoreChinua Achebe s Things Fall Apart1636 Words   |  7 PagesThings Fall Apart was written in 1958 by the Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart follows the life of Okonkwo and his village of Umuofia and how everything changes as Christian missionaries come to spread the word of God. Chinua Achebe wrote this novel using stories and tales he heard growing up that were based on true events. Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart because he wanted to people to understand and see what indigenous A frica was like before the missionaries came. He wantedRead MoreThings fall apart1057 Words   |  5 Pages Reflection on the novel Things Fall Apart The Idea of Culture in Things Fall Apart The novel Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe is a story about personal beliefs, customs and also about conflict. There is struggle between family and within culture and it also deals with the concept of culture and the notion of the values and traditions within a culture. The word culture is Latin and means to cultivate. To cultivate has several meanings; it can mean to plow, fertilize, raise and plantRead MoreThings Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe1324 Words   |  6 Pagesthat response understood to people all over the world. Things Fall Apart was written in English to teach people worldwide of the struggles he faced and the people of Nigeria faced growing up. Many authors and critics have written about Achebe’s ‘Things fall apart’ adding their valued opinion on what he was trying to say and his decision to write in English. In the following essay I will be discussing why Achebe wrote the novel Things Fall apart in English and what messages he was trying to reveal ,