Essay on Beliefs and Conflict in Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart is a story about personal beliefs and customs and also a story about conflict. There is struggle between family, culture, and religion of the Ibo people which is all brought on by a difference in personal beliefs and customs. There are the strong opinions of the main character, Okonkwo. We are also introduced to the views of his village, Umuofia. Finally, we see how things fall apart when these beliefs and customs are confronted by those of the white missionaries. Chinua Achebe is a product of both native and European cultures. This has a great effect on the telling of the story. When he tells the story with an understanding and personal experiences in both cultures. He does not portray the African culture and their†¦show more content†¦This is an example of the difference in personal beliefs among family. Some may say that the book is about the differences in beliefs between the Africans and the colonizers, but it is more than that. It is clear that it was Okonkwos personal beliefs and not necessarily the views of the people of Umuofia which guided him in what he did. One of these is his reliance in the strength of anger. Although he felt strongly in the beliefs and customs of the Ibo people, there are several occasions in which Okonkwo made a decision to disobey the customs in order to live out his own personal beliefs. For example, in chapter four, Okonkwo is yelled at by Ezeani, the priest of the earth goddess, for beating his wife during the sacred week of peace. Okonkwo did not feel remorse for his actions and probably thought of it as a sign of strength and manhood. Okonkwo was always worried about being seen as weak. One good 3 example of this is when he kills Ikemefuna. Okonkwo liked the boy because he saw several good qualities in him that he wished his own son possessed. He had to be killed because of one of their customs. When it came time to kill Ikemefuna, Okonkwo delivered the second and final blow from his machete and killed the boy so that people would not think that he was weak. After Ikemefuna was killed, Okonkwo was unable to eat or drink for days because he was upset. But, heShow MoreRelatedThings fall apart1057 Words   |  5 Pages Reflection on the novel Things Fall Apart The Idea of Culture in Things Fall Apart The novel Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe is a story about personal beliefs, customs and also about conflict. There is struggle between family and within culture and it also deals with the concept of culture and the notion of the values and traditions within a culture. The word culture is Latin and means to cultivate. To cultivate has several meanings; it can mean to plow, fertilize, raise and plantRead MoreCoculturalism And Cosmopolitanism1749 Words   |  7 Pagesharmony? The book Cosmopolitanism by Kwame Anthony Appiah is structured around the idea of cosmopolitanism, which invites people to take a step back and to realize that humans similarities and differences are a good thing and should be embraced, not disdained. The book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe tells the story of a man named Okonkwo who belongs to the Igbo tribe. Okonkwo started with nothing and worked his way up to become one of the most powerful men in his tribe. Towards the end of the bookRead More Confli ct and Tradition in Things Fall Apart Essay example748 Words   |  3 Pages Conflict and Tradition in Things Fall Apart nbsp; nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; The book Things Fall Apart successfully expressed how Chinua Achebe had succeeded in writing a different story. It pointed out the conflict of oneself, the traditional beliefs, and the religious matters of the Africans. Throughout the novel, Chinua Achebe used simple but dignified words and unlike other books, he also included some flashbacks and folktales to make the novel more interesting and comprehensibleRead MoreChinua Achebe s Things Fall Apart1343 Words   |  6 Pagesattended the University of Ibadan and later became a professor at two different universities, David and Marianna Fisher University and Brown University. To educate and inform the Nigerian people of the Umuofia village, Achebe wrote the novel Things Fall Apart. He wants to demonstrate that the Umuofia people that they were not primitive prior to the arrival of the Europeans. His purpose is to inform the Umuofias that the Europeans did not create the culture of their villages . To convey his messageRead MoreChinua Achebe s Things Fall Apart1290 Words   |  6 PagesAfrican Culture that he experienced when he was younger. In the book, Things Fall Apart, author, Chinua Achebe, introduces the reader to an entirely new side of African culture, and the changes brought when outside forces collided with a different culture through the author’s characterization, the novel’s theme, and the author’s purpose. Chinua Achebe uses characterization in the first part of Things Fall Apart to introduce the beliefs and male gender expectations of the people of the Ibo culture. AchebeRead More Things Fall Apart Essay1582 Words   |  7 Pages Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. New York, New York Copyright 1959 Author Biography Albert Chinualumogu Achebe, or Chinua Achebe, was born November 16, 1930, in Ogidi, Nigeria. His parents were Janet N. Achebe, and Isaiah Okafo, a teacher in a missionary school. Mr. Achebe was educated at the University College of Ibadan, but also attended Government College in 1944. He wrote his first novel, Things Fall Apart, in 1958. During the Biafran War,Read MoreA Civilization Falls Apart Essay1167 Words   |  5 Pagessemi-dignified European society. The novel Things Fall Apart by Nigerian-born author Chinua Achebe, tells the story of a Umuofian villager named Okonkwo, and how Okonkwo has to come to grips with the changes that are happening in everyday Ibo life. The novel Things Fall Apart is not your typical tall African tale. The novel is a story, a story not just about one person, but about an entire civil-society circa 1890s that becomes overwhelmed with the ideas and beliefs of the European colonizers, or asRead MoreThings Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe1341 Words   |à ‚  6 PagesThings Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, is set in Nigeria during the 1890’s. The novel focuses on the clash between Nigeria’s white government and the culture of the Igbo people. Learning to Bow: Inside the Heart of Japan, by Bruce Feiler, covers Feiler’s journey to Japan to teach English and American culture for a year in the 1980’s. Throughout each novel, the reader is presented many different elements of each societies beliefs and culture. The central conflict surrounding each novel involves oneRead MoreThings Fall Apart913 Words   |  4 PagesThings Fall Apart The theme of the book Things Fall Apart, which focuses on the breakdown of a society as well as the main character’s personal breakdown, stems from many conflicts of interests and misunderstandings throughout the book. There is not one single moment in the book where everything falls apart, but many times throughout. In the beginning a lot of problems arise from Okonkwo’s anger problems, and his inability to see other’s views. His ignorance is what ultimately leads to his exileRead MoreAnalysis Of Things Fall Apart 1027 Words   |  5 PagesConflict With in Friends â€Å"Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.† The author, Achebe, uses part of the poem â€Å"The Second Coming,† and hints at the turmoil that is intensifying as the community falls within the novel â€Å"Things Fall Apart.† (Yeats, 1) The African tribal system is beginning to have many cultural and tradition changes while

Superstition in Huckleberry Finn Free Essays

Superstition If you step on a crack, you will break your mamma back, keep cats away from babies because they suck the breath of the child, and cross my heart and hope to die, cut my throat if I tell a lie are examples of some superstitions that people believe in. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, superstition is a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jim and Huck use and believe in many superstitions. We will write a custom essay sample on Superstition in Huckleberry Finn or any similar topic only for you Order Now There are many examples from the book that show this in the characters. Most of the superstitions are ridiculous, but some actually make a little sense. In the book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, one of the main themes he uses in this book is superstition and two main characters that have attitudes that are different and similar towards superstition is Huck and Jim. Huck at the beginning of the story wasn’t superstitious at all. He thought Jim was crazy for being superstition. Huck weakly believes in superstition but later in the story his views changes. Huck killed a rattlesnake and placed it on the foot of Jim blanket, Jim see the dead rattlesnake with his mater and told Huck that this was bad luck. Huck later says â€Å"I made up mmind I wouldn’t ever take a-holt of a snake-skin again with my hands, now that I see what had come of it†(pg53); this mean that he do not really know all the superstitious things because he placed the dead rattlesnake at the foot of Jim’s blanket, just joking around, and he found out what happens as the effect of the joke. During this time Huck become a firm believer in superstition. Huck helps his friend Tom use superstition to help Jim escape by telling Jim’s keeper, Nat, who believes witches are haunting him, that the only cure is to bake a witch pie and give it to Jim. In the witch pie there were things that were going to help Jim escape. Next Jim views about superstition are different than Huck. Unlike Huck, he is a very superstitious man and used it for almost everything in life. He also does not joke around with superstition, unlike Huck. Jim uses superstition to fill the things he didn’t learn or understood in life. Jim uses superstition for a sign for all things that happen in nature. One example of this is, â€Å"Some young birds come along, flying a yard or two at a time and lighting. Jim said it was a sign that it was going to rain†(pg45). Jim looks at the birds and can tell that it is going to rain. Since there were no weather devices in the eighteen hundreds, signs like these were used to predict the weather. Jim view superstition by his faith by thinking the hairball is a magic spirit. Superstition kind of motivates him to escape to freedom because he found out that he was going to be sold for a high price because he believes if your chest is hairy you are worth a lot of money; which encourages him to escape his owner, Ms. Watson. Although Huck and Jim have different views on superstition, they also have views that are the same. They both do things that would stop the superstition from bringing bad luck. For example during the rattlesnake episode, Jim tells Huck to chop off the snake’s head, then skin the body of the snake and put it around his wrist, so he would not be cursed. They become irrational when anything remotely superstitious happens to them. They also think when something bad happens to them it is the effect of the superstitious act that they did. In conclusion, in Mark Twain’s novel, â€Å"The Adventures Huckleberry Finn†, he uses superstition to show many points. Mark Twain uses superstition to show contrast between an organized, Christian religion and believing in and superstitions and one’s own beliefs. As Huckleberry Finn and Jim are hurled back and forth between these two different faiths, the reader gets a keen idea of the beliefs and lifestyles people followed living in this story. He uses it to serves foreshadow the plot at several key junctions. For example, spilling salt leads to Pa returning for Huck. Overall, superstition is used in â€Å"The Adventures Huckleberry Finn† as a way to share Mark Twain’s own opinion on religion and refined living with his readers and help them to understand the good and bad of both ways of living. How to cite Superstition in Huckleberry Finn, Papers

Feminism in the Story of an Hour free essay sample

Feminism can be traced in â€Å"The Story of an Hour† which is about an hour in the life of the main character Mrs. Mallard . . In this story, a woman named Mrs. Mallard believes her husband to be dead, and at first, is very sad. Then, as her independence sinks in, she is elated with the idea of her newfound freedom. At last, she discovers that her husband has not died and she is so surprised that she dies of heart disease. The story shows the thoughts and emotions that can support the feminist theory. At the beginning of the story, Mrs. Mallard is overcome with grief with the loss of her husband. This shows that the female is an emotional person compared to men. It was natural to know that she would be upset with the death of her husband, but the story had both her sister and her husband’s friend be there to break the news to her. Mrs. Mallard has heart problems which can make the reader see her as a weaker person right at the beginning of the story. From the start, we as readers are told to see Mrs. Mallard as a naturally weaker character. the story reveals that society is a patriarchal society . So the female has no real authority or important role. She is inferior than man . She is dependent on man. The female is regarded as a fragile creature. Mrs Mallard has been oppressed in her marriage. Chopin suggests that all marriages, even the kindest ones, are inherently oppressive. Louise, who readily admits that her husband was kind and loving, nonetheless feels joy when she believes that he has died. Louise views Brently’s death as a release from oppression. She never names a specific way in which Brently oppressed her, hinting instead that marriage in general stifles both women and men. She even seems to suggest that she has oppressed Brently just as much as he has oppressed her. Louise’s epiphany in which these thoughts parade through her mind reveals the inherent oppressiveness of all marriages, which by their nature rob people of their independence. After she hears the news of her husband’s death Mrs Mallard ‘s character starts to appear as a feminist character. She goes to her room. After she sits down, Mrs. Mallard begins to appear as a stronger woman which is where the feminist theory takes effect. She looks out of the house through the large open window which could also signify the open opportunities available to her now. She begins to see how her marriage made her into a lesser person. She realizes that she has been living her life through limitations caused from being married. Mrs. Mallard knows that she can begin to live for herself. The story says, â€Å"There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature.    This quote shows the feminist theory that it was assumed women were oppressed and shows the patriarchal ideology. She was bending her will and freedom to a white man that held all of the control in the relationship. Marriage, in this story, appears to be the male having complete control over the woman. It also seems like Mrs. Mallard thought that she wasn’t even allowed to have her own thoughts which was probably true. To question your husban d at this period in time meant that you were being an out of control wife. Mrs. Mallard goes on to realize how much she really does not love her husband. She doesn’t feel the need to have guilt over it since he is already gone. She finally breaks away from the role forced onto her as the perfect wife and can begin to stop holding herself back. This can show the reader that a woman at this time might not even be aware of just how much of herself she has to hold back when married. It seems like Mrs. Mallard didn’t allow herself the thoughts of being completely free from him and what she will be able to do when he’s no longer around, until he was actually dead. The window in the story can symbolize an escape from the traditional gender roles according to the feminist theory. The big comfortable chair is located right in front of it, comfortable possibly meaning that she shouldn’t fear being uncomfortable escaping the typical gender role and becoming an independent woman. Once she sits in the chair she notices all the beautiful things going on outside, â€Å"the trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life† is referring to her new life as a woman breaking free from traditional gender roles and experiencing woman’s rights. When her husband who is actually never really dead in the first place came inside, Mrs. Mallard died right there because when she sees her husband, all her feminine freedom is crashing down around her and now that she has seen the freedom she could have as free woman she could never go back to being under the control of a man and ever be happy again. â€Å"When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of the joy that kills† means that when a man has control over a woman, it’s like a disease on the woman’s heart and it’s not healthy to give in to inequality, eventually it will kill them. Once she gets to experience the delights of woman’s rights and freedom the thought of being without that kills her, literally. The images of feminism in the story There are different images in the story that reflect the idea of feminism. After Mrs. Mallard knows that her husband died , she does not just sit there paralyzed by how her life will be over without him. However, immediately , she goes to her room alone to be at once with her thoughts. She sinks into a comfortable chair and is haunted by her horrible news. This is where Mrs. Mallard becomes filled with an inner joy slowly. She looks out her window and sees the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all  aquiver with the new spring life. The chair was facing the open window showing the reader that she has sat there many times before, maybe longing for a life she could not have, seeing all the possibilities in life out before her. Seeing all of this begins to put her in a different frame of mind to appreciate her newfound freedom. She smells rain in the air. ‘’ she felt it creeping out of the sky reaching toward her through the sounds , the scents , the color that filled air’’. In other words, she hears the sounds of life all around her. She smells the scent of a fresh start where the rain washes everything clean. She begins to imagine herself in her new beginning as though her very life is washed clean by the rain. This reveals as if she sees life for the first time and starts to enjoy nature . However, at this point, When she  abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped  her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath:  free, free, free! . She anticipates her own freedom as much as she tries to stop the thoughts. This reflects strongly the theory of feminism which calls for the freedom of women. Blood begins to course through her body as she just begins to realize the unlimited choices in her new life. The ‘’ a monstrous joy ‘’is a metaphor that reflects her feeling of guilt because she is happy for her freedom. ‘’ free Free! Body and soul free!   she kept whispering . Tying back to the quote from the introduction, Mrs. Mallard realizes that body and soul are tied together and that she is completely free. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. The image ‘’ she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of victory’’ is very effective. Comparing her to a goddess of victory shows the immense power she feels at being free. She now sees a future when before people were afraid to tell her the truth. Having the story end with Mrs. Mallard dying and society thinking it was joy of seeing The patriarchal images in the story. The story reflects the strict patriarchal society at that time . this is stressed even in the name of Mrs . Mallard . hroughout the story the main character is not named by her name but by her husband’s which shows how society is restricted at that time and does not give women any importance or freedom. The image ‘’There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul. ’’ He r tiredness is caused not only by â€Å"the storm of grief† experienced by Louise after hearing the news of her husband’s death, but also by a long-time of self-control or suppression in the conventional and patriarchal environment. he is defined as a self-less woman who is attached to Mr. Brently Mallard as his wife, who does not have her own social status and who surely lacks her self identity. This female selflessness and lack of self-identity should be also considered part of the patriarchal suppression. The only time she gets back her own name, the symbol of her self-identity, is when her sister Josephine is calling her through the keyhole, and that is the time when Louise has achieved her self-assertion. The patriarchal suppression can be further proven by many deep ironies applied in the story. While other characters (Josephine and Richards) in the story think that Louise is in deep grief because of the news of her husband’s death, ironically she is actually experiencing â€Å"a monstrous joy† in her room. The story starts with the false death of Brently Mallard, but ends with the real death of Louise, and that Louise truly dies of the shock caused by the unwelcome and unexpected return of her husband, but the doctors, typical representatives of the patriarchal society, have claimed that Mrs. Mallard has died of â€Å"joy that kills. †4 At the end of the story, Louise’s husband, Brently Mallard, comes into the house with only two things: â€Å"his grip-sack and umbrella† (538). If we split the compound word â€Å"grip-sack† into â€Å"grip† and â€Å"sack,† we will easily find that the word â€Å"grip† means â€Å"a tight hold, strong grasp, the power to grasp,† while the word â€Å"sack† means either a large bag. Brent Mallard not only firmly grips Louise’s life but also tightly controls Louise’s fate by controlling her freedom and self-identity. Traditionally an umbrella usually symbolizes some kind of protection, and in the context of this story under discussion it still symbolizes a kind of protection—the protection of marriage, the protection that Brently Mallard provides Louise as a husband to a wife, as a man to a woman in social and conventional terms. But this â€Å"so-called† social and conventional protection exactly proves that a woman exists only as a men’s wife without her own selfhood and self-identity This point can be further proven by the fact that Louise lives as Mrs. Mallard in life and dies as Brently Mallard’s wife, as she is called Mrs. Mallard in the very first sentence of the story and â€Å"his wife† at the very end of the story. . Her repression seems a matter of course for the people around her. Her sister and friend interpret her reactions according to their  model that a woman should be  grieved to see her husband die. The true irony lies at the end, where she is said  to have died of â€Å"the joy that kills† where the reader knows that it is more likely that she dies of extreme grief. In a way, she will not go back into her cage, even if the only option to keep her free lies in death. Furthermore, it is interesting how her death is worded-the doctors say that â€Å"she died of heart disease-the joy that kills†. It makes you wonder whether this sort of thing happens often for the doctors to have a label for it.