Things Fall Apart Journals - 21 June 2008 (Week 2)

Entry 4

"Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men usually had. He did not inherit a barn from his father." (p. 16)

It says more then once tin the story that Okonkwo was revered for his achievements, and is very popular among his people. Even though he started out with nothing, since his father was a wreck, he was able to create something from nothing and become someone great in his village. This shows that Okonkwo is a very hardworking person, and can easily become very successful in his life. The fact that he has even exceeded other men of his age is even more surprising, since he started out with less then all of them. However, in a way, I can understand why he would have the drive to succeed, since he has a deep fear of becoming like his father, and would probably work extremely hard to prevent that from happening.



Entry 5

"Some farmers had not planted their yams yet. They were the lazy easy-going ones who always put off clearing their farms as long as they could." (p. 23)

I was a bit mad at how the lazy ones end up being the ones to win in the end. I felt that Okonkwo deserved to get the crops, since he did the most work out of all of them, but even though he did, he still ended up losing all of his crops. Also, this shows me that this book doesn't portray the usual story-tale morals, with this incident being a complete opposite of the Ant and the Grasshopper story. In this scenario, the hard-working character loses when he is compared to that of the lazy characters. Also, I am curious as to what Nwakibie would think of Okonkwo, seeing as he put his trust in Okonkwo's ability, and he's one of the only people to lose all his yams.



Entry 6

"And when she returned he beat her very heavily" (p. 29)

I was a bit surprised to read that Okonkwo beat his wife, not just because it was in a time where there was supposed to be peace, but even more so because beating your wives aren't accepted in western cultures. It is interesting to me how two different societies can have such different views on subjects such as this. Also, it perplexes me why Okonkwo would get married to her in the first place if he would be angry enough to beat her. Okonkwo hitting her in the Week of Peace shows that he probably doesn't like to follow the rules very often, and is not very fearful of consequences.