Whenever I have the chance,
Although I'm stressed for time,
After the school bell rings,
Until the sun goes down,
I ride horses at the barn.
Although I am reluctant,
When the sun has said goodbye,
Before it gets too late,
Because of my responsibilities,
I go home and prepare for tomorrow.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Things Fall Apart Book Review
"His whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness." Okonkwo, a strong man living in an Ibo village in Nigeria, has only ever known hard labor and turmoil for the whole length of his existence. He is finally conquering over his struggles and fears but perhaps as they seem to get better, actually things fall apart. Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart captivated me with its strong, diverse characters, excellent theme, and connections to other works of literature.
This book is full of realistic characters and contains a wide array of diverse personalities. The author did a great job at making the people very believable and encouraging readers to make connections with the characters. Many of them, such as Okonkwo, who was "afraid of being thought weak," can make the readers relate to them. I, personally, do not like Okonkwo very much, which I do think affects how I feel about the book. He "ruled his household with a heavy hand" and cause his wives and children to "live in perpetual fear of his fiery temper."(page 13) He was willing to kill the boy who viewed him as a father all because "he was afraid of being thought weak."(page 61) All of this dampens my view of him, which affects the level of enjoyment that I get from reading the book. I have trouble reading a book in which I do not like or agree with the main character, but that is strictly a personal preference and I do think that others would feel different about it.
However, Achebe's theme that he incorporated into the novel makes up somewhat for the dislike that I have for the main character. The moral that I came to interpret is that one shouldn't let their pride rule their life and control their actions because one day they may come to regret it. This theme, I feel, is directed mainly at Okonkwo. He let his pride rule his life when the story said that "Okonkwo drew his machete and cut [Ikemefuna] down. He was afraid of being thought weak." He let his fear and pride control him and because of that he killed one of the few people that thought the world of him. The theme seemed to kick in after he became depressed and began to regret killing Ikemefuna. He "did not taste any food for two days after the death" and "he drank palm wine from morning to night." However, it seems to me that the message really hit home when he realized that everything he had done in order to make people see him as strong had really been for nothing. "He had all but achieved [his dreams]. Then everything had been broken" and "he had been cast out of his clan like a fish onto a dry, sandy beach." The strong, inspiring theme makes the book much more pleasant to read in my opinion.
Another thing that increased my willingness to read the book was that I could form connections to the people and other personalities as well as link the book to another that I have read. Okonkwo reminds me of a majority of people in today's world, doing horrid things in the name of pride and constantly living in fear of what other people will think of them. I, myself, sometimes find myself fearing what others think of me and letting that rule over how I act so I feel that, even though I do not like Okonkwo,I can somewhat relate to him. This book reminds me of The Odyssey because the character Odysseus is very similar to Okonkwo. Both were very proud, strong, and stubborn. They let their pride get them into some very sticky situations and won't let anything change their minds once they decide on something. Also, both end up finding their whole worlds crashed down around them and eventually realizing that they have no one to blame but themselves.
Overall, I believe that Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a fairly interesting book that offers a wide variety of character personas and possible themes, in addition to having characters that can easily be linked to other, more common pieces of literature and the actions of modern-day people as well. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy reading about different cultures around the world and how the different societies run. I believe that certain people could get a lot of enjoyment out of this book.
This book is full of realistic characters and contains a wide array of diverse personalities. The author did a great job at making the people very believable and encouraging readers to make connections with the characters. Many of them, such as Okonkwo, who was "afraid of being thought weak," can make the readers relate to them. I, personally, do not like Okonkwo very much, which I do think affects how I feel about the book. He "ruled his household with a heavy hand" and cause his wives and children to "live in perpetual fear of his fiery temper."(page 13) He was willing to kill the boy who viewed him as a father all because "he was afraid of being thought weak."(page 61) All of this dampens my view of him, which affects the level of enjoyment that I get from reading the book. I have trouble reading a book in which I do not like or agree with the main character, but that is strictly a personal preference and I do think that others would feel different about it.
However, Achebe's theme that he incorporated into the novel makes up somewhat for the dislike that I have for the main character. The moral that I came to interpret is that one shouldn't let their pride rule their life and control their actions because one day they may come to regret it. This theme, I feel, is directed mainly at Okonkwo. He let his pride rule his life when the story said that "Okonkwo drew his machete and cut [Ikemefuna] down. He was afraid of being thought weak." He let his fear and pride control him and because of that he killed one of the few people that thought the world of him. The theme seemed to kick in after he became depressed and began to regret killing Ikemefuna. He "did not taste any food for two days after the death" and "he drank palm wine from morning to night." However, it seems to me that the message really hit home when he realized that everything he had done in order to make people see him as strong had really been for nothing. "He had all but achieved [his dreams]. Then everything had been broken" and "he had been cast out of his clan like a fish onto a dry, sandy beach." The strong, inspiring theme makes the book much more pleasant to read in my opinion.
Another thing that increased my willingness to read the book was that I could form connections to the people and other personalities as well as link the book to another that I have read. Okonkwo reminds me of a majority of people in today's world, doing horrid things in the name of pride and constantly living in fear of what other people will think of them. I, myself, sometimes find myself fearing what others think of me and letting that rule over how I act so I feel that, even though I do not like Okonkwo,I can somewhat relate to him. This book reminds me of The Odyssey because the character Odysseus is very similar to Okonkwo. Both were very proud, strong, and stubborn. They let their pride get them into some very sticky situations and won't let anything change their minds once they decide on something. Also, both end up finding their whole worlds crashed down around them and eventually realizing that they have no one to blame but themselves.
Overall, I believe that Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a fairly interesting book that offers a wide variety of character personas and possible themes, in addition to having characters that can easily be linked to other, more common pieces of literature and the actions of modern-day people as well. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy reading about different cultures around the world and how the different societies run. I believe that certain people could get a lot of enjoyment out of this book.
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