Opening Things Fall Apart, the reader is immediately “thrown” into a complication between Okonkwo and Amalinze that arose around 20 years ago. The reader can quickly identify the role culture plays in everyday life. “The drums beat and the flutes sang…”(page 3), music is heavily influenced throughout African culture. Also after the harvest, everyone gets together to play music and indulge in the wonders of the harvest.
Okonkwo’s father is introduced in the first chapter of the novel;neither are like one another. Okonkwo is such a rapid irrational thinker while his father, Unoka, was simple minded. His father had no intention of thinking of tomorrow and he was “a debtor”(page 4). Although Unoka did not consider the future and was lazy he resembled a happier outlook. The time of year he cherished most was the time of music and feasting after the harvest.
Okonkwo’s settled his confrontations with his hands while his father couldn't stand the thought of ear nor the sight of blood. This really speaks to their characters and explains why Okonkwo’s has no patience for his father. His father was a known debtor and was ashamed of him. He knew he would grow up to be better than him and anyone who he had ever known. Okonkwo’s now was the best wrestler in the nine villages and was a wealthy farmer. Usually age was held accountable for the respect owed to a person in the tribes but Okonkwo and his achievements contradicted every aspect of that. He was known of one of the greatest of the time.
It is interesting how you classified Unoka as happy. While reading I did not connect his simple mindedness with happiness. This connection helps me see how Okonkwo's determination and pride can be troublesome to him. The pressure he puts on himself to be the a great man causes stress and takes away from his happiness.
ReplyDeleteWhat is interesting too is how Okonkwo defines success: by doing all those things Unoka didn't do. The son embraces all that the father disdained, and he loathes everything (music, indebtedness) that his father experienced. You remark at how Okonkwo rose so far so fast in his culture, it is true too that when a man is driven blindly to succeed to an extreme degree that he is sometimes shortsighted and intolerant of those things he doesn't see as necessary to that success.
ReplyDelete