Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Things Fall Apart: Chapter 20
This chapter starts out with Okonkwo wanting to rebuild is compound, though much larger. Luckily he has been able to get over Nwoye and him converting to Christianity. He also wants his daughters to wait until they return to Umuofia to marry because he believes that the men there are more worthy. When Okonkwo returns he is very shocked to see the the "white people" are thriving in his village. They have a church and have even established a judicial system, which in my opinion is much better than the one that they had before that. I can not believe that Okonkwo thinks that their judicial system is harsh. I mean think about it, before they used to beat people and get a way with it. Well now this one guy killed this other guy because they were fighting and he got hanged for it. I think that, that is a fair punishment in return. Now I can only hope that they do not allow the beating of woman or children anymore. I am just glad to finally see a good judicial system set up, well an "ok" one I guess. I believe that Okonkwo will do something drastic in the mean time and get himself into big trouble because of how much he hates the Christians. I also do not think that he is very happy with his tribe that let them stay.
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2 comments:
I like the foreshadowing in your post. You predict that Okonkwo is going to get himself into trouble with the Chirstians, which is something anyone who knows Okonkwo could easily see.
While the law and order thing is nice, it is culturally alien to these people. It is also destroying their culture and their traditions.
Achebe does this to us. He presents us with a proud village, and then shows us of its impending destruction. I guess you couldn't have written this story with a happy ending, due to the coming of the whites. It would be the same way if you were to write a novel about the American Indians I'll bet.
Mr. Farrell
good points. this is very like the native americans. the white dudes brought religion and laws and then bam! they took over completely. the judicial system may not be really harsh, but it is a massive shock to these people and completely different from what they are used to. they may calm down eventually, who knows?
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