Things Fall Apart Summary: Chapters 1-6

Okwonko is a very strong and harsh man who lives with the fear of failure. When he was little his father Unoka, never showed any effort in providing a good life for his kids, he was always lazy and trying to escape his duties. Since then, Okonkwo had always been determined to work hard, for never having an opportunity to become as his father.

One day the whole village of Umofia was called to gather at the market place. A daughter of town had been killed. The wife of Ogbuefi Udo, had gone to the market at Mbaino and had been torn from life. A member of the place was immediately sent to see if they preferred war or to offer a virgin and a kid in exchange for the sin. Since all the neigbouring villages feared Umofia, they sent a fifteen year old boy called Ikemefuna and a virgin who would replace Ogbuefi’s missing wife.

Ikemefuna, afraid and confused, was ordered to stay in Okonkwo’s care, soon enough he became very good friends with Nyowe, son of his first wife, and started calling Okonkwo “father”. Although Okonkwo started to like the kid, he never showed any sign of affection or love for anyone, neither his wives or children,  since he considered it a symptom of weakness.

Okonkwo had always worked hard for having a successful future, when he was young he once asked Nwakibie, a very rich man, to give him his first yams for growing and promised not to fail him. The man admiring his efforts gifted him with more than four hundred yams. Although the weather conditions for the year made it impossible for Okonkwo to grow the crops, he never lose faith and kept going through. That’s why he was very harsh with Nyowe and beat him often when he showed any sign of laziness. With strong work, he got to have three wives and live with eight kids.

Umofia was celebrating the week of peace. Before growing crops nobody worked and everyone should be kind to others to honor the Gods of Earth. Okonkwo arrived home, searching for his youngest wife Ojiugo. She wasn’t there; she had gone to plait her hair without asking him. When she returned, Okonkwo was so mad that he beated her very heavily. No one could believe it, he had broken the peace. Ogbuefi Ezeudu, the oldest man of the tribe, gave him his punishment, to take some animals, a cloth and a hundred cowries to Ani, the great Goddess. Everyone spoke of the great sin this man had committed.

New Yam was about to come; Okonkwo grabbed his gun to go hunting, when he noticed someone had cut some leaves of the banana tree. It had been Ekwefi, his second wife; he turned around very angry and nearly shot her with his gun.

The wrestling tournament, took place in the second day of New Yam, Ekwefi forgot what had happened and attended, just as all the village, to see the event since she is passionate about wrestling.While watching the battle, Okonkwo starts to feel threatened, he remembers how he had thrown Amalinze the Cat when he was eighteen. He was afraid that someone could be better than him, that someone could overcome him, he felt like he was failing. He was jealous because now he wasn´t the only one, a young wrestler could be just as good as him.

Reference:

Achebe, C. (1994). Things fall apart. New York, Anchor Books.

African Literature

African literature has been an important part of all written and oral arts since long time ago. It consists of amazing and legendary proverbs as well as many stories about all the problems and situations that all people living in the country have been facing throughout the years.

The first african written work was found in the year 2300 b.C., just after the Egyptians started using papyrus and texts when the members of their town died. With this, the people from the sub-Saharan Africa, started using oral literature such as: proverbs, riddles, epic narratives, songs, chant, folktales and all those things that made their culture rich in rituals and traditions. In the year 1920 African literature was enormously influenced by the Islams. People started using an Arabic style to write such as the first African history written by Abd al-Rahman al-Sadi.

Colonization came to destroy the primitive and peaceful culture that Africans had. Europeans forced them to do harsh work. They were not just treated as objects, they were kidnapped and sent far away from home. This made all slaves to start writing about their situation and feelings. Soon, all newspapers were full of African poems and stories.

The Negritude movement, started between 1920 and 1930, which was all about valuing everyone’s life, since Africans were treated so badly, they had lost all hopes in everything.

Many books and writings were published to make this people understand they were real human beings, and to make conscience that they were still a country and that they had to keep fighting to move forward. 

Reference:

Unc.edu (1930) African Literature. [online] Available at: http://www.unc.edu/~hhalpin/ThingsFallApart/literature.html [Accessed: 29 Jan 2013].

Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian writer, poet, professor and critic who was born in November 16, 1930. Since he was a kid, he was very attracted with everything that had to do with traditions and religion. He studied in the University of Ibada and in 1958 his first and most recognized novel, was published: “Things Fall Apart” which was inspired in a poem by W. B. Yeats called "The Second Coming”.

In the 1960’s and 1970’s, he wrote many books using his admirable creativity about the traditional ways of life coming into conflict from different points of view.

Two years after the Nigerian war of 1970, he went to the United States to give several lectures at different universities.

During these years he also married Christie Chinwe Okoli with who she had four kids.

He has won several prices throughout his life such as the Booker McConnell Prize in 1987, the Man Booker International Prize in 2007 and the Dorothy and Lilian Gish Prize in 2010. He has received great recognition and more than 30 honorary degrees in different universities around the World.

Unfortunately, in the beginning of 1990’s Chinua suffered from a fatal car accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down and forced him to be seated on a wheelchair. But surprisingly this didn’t stopped this man, a little time after, he moved to the united states to teach in Bard College, New York City, where he stayed for fifteen years. In 2009 he left New York to start teaching in Brown University in Rhode Island.

Today we still keep recognizing his great talent and writing, his amazing novel “Things Fall Apart” has sold more than 10 million copies and has been translated into more than 50 languages.

Reference List:

BBC News (2012) Achebe publishes Biafran memoir. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/19742303 [Accessed: 25 Jan 2013].

BIO (1980) Chinua Achebe Biography. [online] Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/chinua-achebe-20617665?page=2 [Accessed: 25 Jan 2013].

Google.com (n.d.) Google Image Result for http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9780385474542_p0_v1_s260x420.jpg. [online] Available at: http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&client=safari&sa=N&tbo=d&rls=en&biw=1219&bih=591&tbm=isch&tbnid=LdzBJdlMA3U3wM:&imgrefurl=http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/things-fall-apart-chinua-achebe/1100271578&docid=-n1D_fs_4tihZM&imgurl=http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9780385474542_p0_v1_s260x420.jpg&w=260&h=401&ei=re0BUeumBKemygG-gIEY&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=184&vpy=216&dur=386&hovh=279&hovw=181&tx=99&ty=209&sig=103641770851650167356&page=1&tbnh=119&tbnw=80&start=0&ndsp=25&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:0,i:184 [Accessed: 25 Jan 2013].

Jiffynotes.com (1999) JiffyNotes: Things Fall Apart: Summary: Points to Ponder. [online] Available at: http://www.jiffynotes.com/ThingsFallApart/PointstoPonder.html [Accessed: 25 Jan 2013].

Importance of Literature in Education

Through our whole lives, literature has always been involved in our schools and education, since its not only important for it, it is a part of it. Many may take it as a friend, other few don´t like it. There is a lot more to literature than books, it is defined as any written or spoken material; the art of written work.

Literature helps us in many ways, it makes us analyze things and lets us see the world through someone else's eyes. It develops our minds and makes them work efficiently. It is important to know and be informed of literature so we can figure out and understand the world we are living in.

Books and written documents, are the ones that provide all the information we need in school, every time we have to research something we can count on a book as a trustworthy source, since most of the information appearing there is verified and real. Without the existence of literature in our daily education, we wouldn't be able to read and write, which are both essential things, not just in our schools, in our daily life. Written expression is one of the main ways of communication now a days.

Many authors have the ability of changing our way of thinking, this is important in education since it is the way that literature will help us find and learn the things that are correct and the ones that aren't. Throughout all the things we read in school we create our own criteria and become the people we are. We get to know other cultures and learn how to accept different ways of thinking.

As wise man called C.S Lewis once said: “Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.”

Reference:
The Argumentative Old Git (2011) Why teach literature in schools?. [online] Available at: http://argumentativeoldgit.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/why-teach-literature-in-schools/ [Accessed: 29 Jan 2013].