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Things Fall Apart (Important Quotes and questions ("Why should a man…

- - - - Okonkwo repeats "I wish Ezinma had been born a man" several times. Why is value associated with being a man? How do gender roles define the social behavior of this time period? Have we really changed away from this thought process?
- - - - The fiery brutality of Okonkwo is something his wives and children are fully aware of. Okonkwo’s viciousness, previously introduced through metaphors, is now more literal than metaphoric. He is clearly an aggressor, but truly, that makes him no better than the white men that colonize their clan. Their brutality is hidden under the facade of peace. In reality, it tears the clan apart, and causes Okonkwo to kill out of rage. Their “peaceful” religion causes the clan to “fall apart” as the title suggests. Their aggression is subtle, but present. Okonkwo’s aggression is more obvious, but in the end, both forms of aggression cause the clan to fail out of its once prosperous state.
    - - "Why should a man suffer so grievously for an offense he had committed inadvertently?" 125... is it too far to say that this is exactly what readers are doing? If we are meant to realize that what our ancestors did to these clans was wrong, should we feel the blame? Colonizing these clans was a crime, one that we now obviously feel ashamed about. But is it our job to grieve over these mistakes when we weren’t the ones committing them? These white colonizers deserve the blame. We realize that what we did was wrong. But it was the colonizers who needed to realize that what they were doing was wrong, not us.
  - - - This quote is discussing their plan of action to combat the Christians setting up in their clan. The snarky response to the question reveals their dislike of the imposed religion. Readers are given insight to the culture of the clan, and their reluctance to accept the presence of Christians. We can now better understand their perspectives and why they may or may not like the idea of having these missionaries present in their clan. Sets up a comparison of their religion versus the clan’s. The clan’s religion focuses on earning the respect of gods, through sacrifices and respectful practices. Missionaries make claims that their god accepts and loves all believers without that unrelenting amount of work and constant sacrifice.
  - - - Similes are the device that I noticed the most in TFA. Achebe focuses on putting similes to use because he understands that readers can't precisely understand what happens within the clans. If we consider our ancestral backgrounds, most kids in our class don't come from families who belonged to these clans. Our ancestors are the missionaries and Christians that sought to push their religion on others. Those missionaries can't understand why what they did caused things in the clan to "fall apart" which is why the narrator is forced to use these similes. Members of the clan understand everything the narrator says because they experience it firsthand. But readers and missionaries struggle to understand the clan's values and ways of life. Similes are the bridge between understanding other cultures that we are not a part of.
- - - - Being a man is synonymous with control, power, not being like your father, and being unappreciative of the women who fuel their success. In Okonkwo's situation, he has wives who cook him 3 meals a day, bear his children, and offer him solace when he is in need. His scorn towards them is unwarranted, and I wonder how far he would be able to go without them.