While reading this novel the first time, a lot of things stood out to me, but three in particular: Okonkwo's aggressive character, the sad story of Okonkwo's son Nwoye, and the story of the evangelical Christians in the last section of the book. I remember studying in history classes some of the stereotypes of white Americans towards African slaves, and I remember one of the stereotypes of the African man as aggressive and someone all white women should fear, and I understand how someone like Okonkwo could fit in that stereotype. He was definitely aggressive and sometimes ruled by his temper; but now we as readers can see the other side of the stereotype and why he behaved the way he did, which was because he viewed his duty in life was to do everything his father did not, and not because he was a rapist of white women or whatever nonsense the slaveowners made up.
Nwoye, Okonkwo's son, was a depressing part of this story to me. One thing I am not sure about is in the scene near the end of the book, just before Okonkwo killed himself. Okonkwo killed one of the five messengers who came from the white man- the first time I read it, it immediately popped into my mind that the messenger was Nwoye- was it?
The third part that stood out to me was the role the evangelical Christians played. This was almost a two-personed argument in my mind, but when the Christians arrived in the story, I wasn't sure if I wanted the Ibo tribes to be the "good guys" and preserve their culture because I had been reading about them for the past two hours; or if I wanted the Christians to succeed, because I know exactly how and why the Christians did what they did in this story- what I did in France this summer was similiar, only we definitely didn't arrest anyone and no one's house or church was burned down.
That being said, when I read through Things Fall Apart a second time, I noticed a few other things... but only because they didn't stand out to me the first time, as contradictory as that sounds. One element I noticed (or didn't...hmmm...) was how capitalistic the Ibo people were. Dr. Webb might have said something about it in class, but I realized the Ibo people used cowries like we use dollar bills, and it seemed almost out of place. At first yams seemed to be the main capital, but then I realized sacks of cowries were being given, spent, and saved, just like modern currency.
That being said, when I read through Things Fall Apart a second time, I noticed a few other things... but only because they didn't stand out to me the first time, as contradictory as that sounds. One element I noticed (or didn't...hmmm...) was how capitalistic the Ibo people were. Dr. Webb might have said something about it in class, but I realized the Ibo people used cowries like we use dollar bills, and it seemed almost out of place. At first yams seemed to be the main capital, but then I realized sacks of cowries were being given, spent, and saved, just like modern currency.
The Black History Pages describe cowries and their uses, and the surprise of the Europeans at the use of cowries over gold, which has been the international unit of exchange. A single bag of cowries could weigh 60 pounds- imagine paying twenty bags of cowries for a wife! I also found some other information about the surprisingly capitalistic aspect of the Ibo people, and also that it is actually spelled Igbo, but the colonists spelled it wrong.
2 comments:
I noticed too how the Ibo people used cowries as a sort of currency - I thought that was interesting.
Nwoye was definitely not a court messenger -- these were people from another tribe closer to the coast where the Europeans first arrived. That is not to say that he might not become one, or play a similar role as some kind of intermediary between the colonizers and the Africans. That would have been a typical role for a person getting the kind of education and Christian religion that Nwoye was getting.
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