Comments for Mythology #3

I commented Aaron and Sara F. Both of them were just like me; they had basically no idea of what was going on during Alan Watts podcast. Thought both of them oddly enough only understood the whole west and east thing. I basically agreed with both of them. I really did not understand what was going on during the podcast, and like them I only understood the west and east thing.

Mythology of Hinduism #3

Wow, lol, I had no idea what this guy was talking about at all. Just from hearing this man talk, he must be brilliant because he had such an in depth view at Hinduism, that I could not comprehend what he was saying. Alan used many comparisons to link Hinduism to everyday life. He also talked about how the west and eastern sides differed. The western side believes that the world was constructed by one god long ago. The eastern side believes that god is still creating and will continue to be create things for as long as this world lives. Alan also went on about this "self" thing, which I once again had no idea of what he was talking about. I mean why could he not just talk about the "self" thing without bringing all of this comparison stuff into it. I think that if he would just talk about things normally then maybe it would be easy to understand. Though, the one thing that I disagreed with was the angel thing. Angels fly because they have wings lol, not because they think of themselves lightly. Of course, I understand that I am not going to understand the whole concept of Hinduism in a sixteen minute podcast and that it would take much more time. Overall, I thought the podcast was interesting, though, I believe that I understand stuff better by taking notes in class.

Common Theme

After reading all four short stories, I was able to pick out one theme. This theme, I thought played a big part in all four stories. This common theme was selfishness. In every single short story one of the main characters showed selfishness in one way or another. In the short story The Life You Save May Be Your Own, Mr. Shiftlet finds himself in a very promising predicament where he can gain a car at no cost to him. Mr. Shiftlet ends up hurting an old woman and her deaf daughter because of his own selfishness. In the short story Rules of the Game, the same incident reappears. Though it is a parent that ends up hurting her own child. Waverly's mother ends up using Waverly's talents to try to kick their family up on the social ladder. This upsets Waverly a great deal that her mother would take advantage of her talents like that. The short story Book of the Dead also exhibits the theme of selfishness, and like Rules of the Game a parent hurts their child. In the Book of the Dead Ms. Bienaime's father hurts her because of how he lied to her all of her life, and how he gets rid of her statue out of selfishness. Out of all four short stories I believe that a Teenage Wasteland exhibited the most selfishness. All throughout the story Donny did nothing except for take advantage of his parents who where only trying to help him. That is why I picked selfishness as my common theme.

Teenage Wasteland

Teenage Wasteland is the last of the four short stories that we have had to read, and overall I did not like this book at all. The reason I did not like this book is because of the main character Donny. Donny is one of the most pathetic person I have ever seen. He does not care about his school work, he disrespects his parents, and he drinks. I think that this story was in a way trying to make the reader feel bad for Donny and for me that was not the case. Donny reminds me of Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye. Both characters take advantage of their parents and their love. Holden basically hated his parents even thought they tried to give him a promising future. Donny is no different. He completely disregards/disrespects his parents and he just wants to do whatever he wants to do. His mother and father try to do all of this stuff to help him. They send him this psychiatrist, they get him a tutor, and they even let him stay out later. The only thing that Donny does is take advantage of his parents. I also thought that the tutor did Donny no good. The tutor just keep on telling his parents to give him more space because he is trying to become an adult and they are just holding him back. In the end Donny runs away and I do not feel bad for him at all. At the most, I think that he did not deserve to have such nice parents. The person that I did feel bad for was Daisy (Donny's mother). I felt bad for her because she tried so hard to help him out.

Book of the Dead

Out of the three shorty stories I have read so far, I have still liked Rules of the Game the best. Book of the Dead was a very strange book. Ms. Bienaime makes this statue of what she thought her father looked like while he was in jail. To Ms. Bienaime's surprise, someone becomes interested in buying the statue from her. Since the beginning of this story I have sensed that Ms. Bienaime's father is not who he says he is. Well, anyway, one day Ms. Bienaime wakes up to find her dad and the statue missing. From what it sounds like, her father must of been missing for some great period of time because she went to the police about it. I thought that it was kind of funny when her mother called and yelled at her for not keeping track of her father. I believe that this situation shows how childish her father actually is. Eventually her father returns, and as soon as her father walked through the door she asked where the statue is. He tells her to follow him, and he will show her. He leads her to this bench beside a pond where they sit down and he tells her that the statue is in the water. Throughout Ms. Bienaime's life she believes that her father was tortured in prison, when he was actually was the one doing the torturing. He also then begins to tell her that he was not good enough to have such a good statue of himself. At this point, I am a little bit confused and mad. I am confused because I thought he was the one tortured and why would he throw the statue in the water. I am mad because of how he tortured the prisoners and how he threw the statue in the water. That was none of his business to get rid of that statue. If I was Ms. Bienaime, I would be furious. I just do not understand why he thought he had the right to get of the statue when it was not even his. Her daughter was about to sell her first statue. I also felt bad for the people who where suppose to get the statue because it sounded like the daughter really wanted it for her dad. Even though that is not going to happen now because of Ms. Bienaime's selfish father. It just makes me mad.

Rules of the Game

Rules of the Game is a so much better short story than The Life You Save May Be Your Own in my opinion. In this short story, a young girl named Waverly Place Jong falls in love with the game of chess. First off, I would hate my parents if they named me after a street. Naming your kid after a street is just horrible. The street she was named after was not even a cool street name. Well anyway, back to the story. Waverly first encounters the game when her brothers get a chess set for Christmas. She watches her brothers play and she just falls in love with the game, so she starts to play the game against her brothers. Eventually she gets to good for her brothers and then begins to search for more people to play against. Waverly gets so good that she ends up being like 490 points away from Grand Master status at the age of I believe nine. I enjoyed this story much better than the first one that I read mostly because I like to play chess myself. Chess is a very challenging game because you always have to be predicting what your opponent is going to do next, so you always have to be playing the game at an almost futuristic view. What I mean by that is you have to be playing as thought your defending/attacking against your opponents next/future moves. The only thing that I did not like about this story is when Waverly's mother is always bragging/showing off Waverly to other people because she has a child prodigy on her hands, and eventually Waverly catches on to what her mother is doing and in a way begins to despise her. I can not blame Waverly for despising her mother because of what she did. If my parents used me as a way to show off like that, I would be mad as well.

The Life You Save May Be Your Own

The Life You Save May Be Your Own is the first of four short stories that I have read. This short story really made me mad, and I am a person that does not get mad often or easily but this story somehow did the trick. The thing that made me the most mad is that guy that shows up and takes advantage of that poor old lady and her deaf daughter. From the very beginning of the story when that man first showed up, I knew that he was going to do something to hurt the old woman and her daughter in some way or another. These characters are always so easy to pick out because they always seem to show an exceptional amount of feelings to one thing, and in this story the man had his feelings directed to the broken down car. The whole way through this story the man took complete advantage of the old woman and her deaf daughter. He was even completely sneaky about it all. He always told the old woman what she wanted to hear and did what she wanted him to do. All this man did the whole story was suck up to the old woman and her daughter by building a new roof on the greenhouse, helping out around the house, and actually talking Lucynell (the old woman's deaf daughter) like a real person. Throughout this whole story Lucynell even starts to like the man. At the end the man fixes the car, has it repainted, and then gets money to marry Lucynell and take on a some what honeymoon. The thing that made it the worst was when he leaves Lucynell in a diner and takes off without her. He did not even leave her anywhere near home. So overall, this story really made me mad. I felt really bad for the old woman and Lucynell, but at the same time I hated how they were so gullible and most of all I hated how that man could be that heartless.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 25

Chapter 25 starts out with the commissioner visiting Okonkwo's hut most likely to punish him for what he did to the messenger. When the commissioner arrived there was six men sitting out side of Okonkwo's hut and tells him that he is not home at the moment. The man that tells the commissioner this is Obierika. After the commissioner asked a second time and with threats of imprisoning them, Obierika agrees to take them to Okonkwo if they promised to help them. Obierika lead the men to the back of Okonkwo's hut where they find him hanging from a tree. Okonkwo has hanged himself, I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT. I always thought that Okonkwo was just so stable. He never showed any signs of committing suicide. The reason that they needed the commissioners help was so they could get Okonkwo down from the tree. Obierika also starts to yell at the commissioner saying that it was his fault for Okonkwo's death. Obierika must of been pretty mad because I believe that this was the first time he has expressed his anger in a negative way. So the commissioners men take Okonkwo down and bury him. Obierika could not because his body was considered evil after committing suicide. So this is how the book ends, I could not believe it. It made me so made, I was hoping for a full out war but no there was not. Well there was a couple of things not explained in the last chapter which are: how is Okonkwo's family doing after his death, and will there be a war or not in the future. Overall, I really did not like the book all that well. Even though the book was full of African culture, there just really was not that much action, in my opinion.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 24

Once Okonkwo and the others were released, the town holds a meeting and people from all of the nine villages come to hear what is going to happen. Okonkwo has already made up his mind of what he is going to do. Before he goes to the meeting he gets his war dress and some other gear and then hes off. During the meeting they were discussing how the church and white people have harmed the village. In the middle of the meeting messengers come and order a stop to the meeting. Well Okonkwo kills one man with his machete. By doing this he hoped to create a frenzy between the men of the nine villages and that they would go to war against the white people. Though unfortunately he gets the wrong response from the crowd. They let the rest of the messengers go. At this point I have no idea what is going to happen. One instance they want to go to war and then in another instance they do not. Well I still think that Okonkwo was justified in what he did. Since there is only one more chapter, I hope that they go to war because I want to see some action.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 23

The town is now on high alert because of the church being burned. The villagers have been arming themselves with guns and machetes preparing for the worst. They are fearing that the white people may strike back with force and they did. The Commissioner requests the leaders, including Okonkwo, of the village to talk to him about the burning of the church. The leaders accept to talk but they take their machetes. Just as soon as they put them down, a group of soldiers arrests them and they are thrown in jail. Where they are beaten. The town is required to pay 250 bags of cowries for the burned church and to set free their leaders. After talking about it the tribe desicdes to pay the fine. I think that this was a very bad move for the white people. I believe that this could ignite dormant warriors in the tribesman. Even though in the end the whites would be victorious, I think they would suffer some casualties. Either that or the tribe will back down. Well it looks like I am just going to have to keep reading and find out what happens.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 22

In this chapter the village receives a new Reverend. The Reverend is known as James Smith. Smith unlike Brown demands total submission to the bible. He does not believe in Brown's tolerant practices. The people of the village are becoming much more Christian. One man named Enoch, unmasks a egwugwu, which is like a huge no, no. So the egwugwu burn down his whole compound. They then approach the church and tell them that they are going to burn it down to cleanse their village of the evil sin that Enoch has brought upon them. Though the Reverend at first refuses to let them burn down the church. Though, he later steps aside afraid that they become violent. I do not agree with how they handled the whole unmasking part. I think that it was just completely uncalled for them to burn down the church. I think that if the white people keep standing in the way of some of the people that the story could turn violent. Although, as of now, the story seems as though more and more people will convert to Christianity.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 21

Chapter twenty-one starts out describing how Christianity has been coming a lot more popular. Mr. Brown is kind of like the new leader of the village Umuofia in my opinion. I believe that Mr. Brown does a great deal of good for this village. He builds a hospital, school, and has set up trading posts. Not only did he potentially save peoples lives with the new hospital, but he also is bringing a lot of money into the village. Mr. Brown also tells Okonkwo that his son Nwoye is attending a school for teachers. This enrages Okonkwo. I do not think that it was a good idea that Mr. Brown said that to Okonkwo, I am surprised that he was not killed. Okonkwo has become very disappointed in his people because of how womanish they have become. First they let the whites stay, then they are now joining their church, schools, supporting their hospital, and trading posts. As far as trying to get the villagers to learn how to read and write, I agree with that 100%. I think that it is very important to be able to communicate especially if people of a different culture will be coming to the village wanting to trade or something like that. I feel bad for Okonkwo because when ever he returned to the village it was like no one had even noticed that he was ever gone. I believe that the village will become more like the white people.

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.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 19

Chapter nineteen is one of the shortest chapters in the book, I believe. It was also very boring. Basically Okonkwo is just about able to go back to his fatherland. So he sends money to his good friend Obierika to have him build him two huts. Okonkwo has to wait until the dry season before he can return home. So he has this huge feast thanking his relatives for helping him out when he needed them. Though the funny thing is that Okonkwo has been talking down about that whole village being all "woman" like. I think that Okonkwo is one of the most hypocritical personI have ever known. Since this chapter was very short and boring there really is not much to talk about.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 18

This chapter starts out describing how the Christian church is becoming much stronger and how it is gaining many members. In this chapter the church wants the people to shave their heads, but they believe that shaving their heads they would die. Well they ended up shaving their heads and nothing happened. This once again proves that the villagers gods and beliefs are all wrong. In this chapter some sacred python supposedly gets killed and there is this whole big ordeal about it. Just about now Okonkwo has had just about enough of these Christians and tries to get the elders to force them out by force. Well the elders decide to not force them out. So now it is getting close to Easter and the women of the church are sent out to get water to clean the church. When they returned with empty pots it is revealed that they where whipped by their husbands. I believe that , that was completely out of line to do that. If you believe in something different that does not mean that you should be punished or beaten because of that belief. This little Christian church begins to grow into almost a small community because it had gained so many members. I am guessing that almost the whole village will become Christian.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 17

Chapter seventeen starts out with the Christian missionaries asking for land to put there church on. The elders of the village allow them to have to build their church on this plot of land in the "Evil Forest". To the elders surprise the missionaries are very excited to be able to build their church there. The reason the elders allowed them to build their church in the "Evil Forest" was because they believed that the forest would kill them lol. Of course, the forest would not actually kill them. I believe that the forest is kind of like the "Boogeyman" of today. In this chapter Okonkwo finds out that Nwoye has been hanging around with the missionaries. Okonkwo is furious and wonders how he could ever raise such a weak son. The first women that joined the Christian church was Nneka. Nneka was not afraid to stand up for what she believed in, and back in that time I am going to give her a lot of credit for doing that. Nneka would is kind of like the Rosa Parks of their time. I could also not believe that if a woman would have twins they would kill them. That is just completely wrong. I am also glad that Nwoye leaves Okonkwo for what he did to him. I believe that things are going keep going wrong and possibley drive Okonkwo to insanity.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 16

This chapter starts out with Obierika returning once again to the village of Mbanta to talk to Okonkwo. As he is walking through the village he sees Nwoye with Christian missionaries and decides to talk to Okonkwo about it. Okonkwo refuses to talk to him about Nwoye and I believe that it is because he is very disappointed in Nwoye for talking to the Christian missionaries. Since Okonkwo will not talk about Nwoye, Obierika talks to Nwoye's mother about it. She tells him that they showed up and was telling them about how they should accept the one real god and stop believing in their false gods. Basically, everyone in the village laughs at them and just calls them crazy. I guess if I was there and I was taught that there was more than one god, I would probably call them crazy to. Some how Nwoye some what believes the missionaries because he says that it explains the death of Ikemefuna and the twin newborns. Once again I really do not know where this book is going. My best guess is that Nwoye will convert to Christianity.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 15

This chapter starts out with Okonkwo's good friend Obierika making a visit to Okonkwo. This somehow his second year in exile so I guess that the book has skipped over quite a bit. When Obierika arrives he gives Okonkwo some bags of cowries. He also tells Okonkwo that the village of Abame was destroyed by the white men. It started when some arrived at the camp and the prophets predicted that they would destroy their village so they killed the "white men". The funniest part was when they tied the white mans "iron horse (bicycle)" to the sacred tree so it would not go anywhere haha, lol. Then village was destroyed by the white mans following comrades. I think that when they tied the "iron horse" to tree so it could not get away was the funniest thing I have heard so far in this book. Well at this point I believe that some wars will break out because of the white mans arrival and possibly Okonkwo could be killed in the fighting.

Things Fall apart: Chapter 14

Okonkwo and his family go to his mother village where they accept him warmly. Okonkwo's uncle Uchendu gives him yam seeds and helps him build huts. At this point I do feel bad for Okonkwo, even though I think that he had it coming. I mean this bad luck happened at the worst possible time because Okonkwo was just starting to soften up then this happens. Well anyway, Uchendu's son get married and they have a ceremony/celebration. After the ceremony Uchendu talks to Okonkwo and I believe that this helped Okonkwo a lot. Uchendu basically tells Okonkwo that life sometimes gets rough and harsh but its no reason to give up or kill yourself over. Because you still have your family to look after. At this point in the book I believe that Okonkwo will be fine and he himself will become an even stronger person.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 13

This chapter starts out with the village finding out about Ogbuefi Ezeudu's death. To tell the village they use a ekwe, which is a musical instrument of some sort. I found this pretty cool, considering that when something tragic happens you can normally hear like a fire siren or something going off. So I guess that a ekwe is like their fire siren lol. Because Ezeudu was a very great warrior his funeral was massive. This also relates to today in the fact, that if you have a lot of money you can throw more extravagant funeral/parties things like that, compared to if you did now have a lot of money. Another thing that relates to today, is when they play the drums and fire guns at the funeral. You see this happen at a soldiers funeral today. Like I guessed last chapter something bad happens, and this completely caught me off guard, it was almost kind of random. Okonkwo's gun accidentally explodes and kills Ezeud's sixteen year old son. After that happens Okonkwo's family is banished for seven years from the village and their buildings and animals are destroyed. At this point I believe that their justice system is all messed up and just as I thought that I figured out the book it completely changes. So now, I have no idea what is going to happen.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 12

The chapter begins with telling the reader how worried Okonkwo actually was. Though it turns out that everything is going to be ok. To make the day better the village is preparing for Obierika's daughter's uri, which I guess that it is a type of engagement party. Everything is going good until there is this little dispute about cows lol, out of all things. Well this problem is resolved and the party moves on. Obierika has brought a huge goat and the in-laws brought a ton of wine. This whole engagement party type thing, is actually quite a bit like what we do in America today. People bring food, wine, and gifts to these things they exchange greetings and have a good time. Because everything has been going ok in this chapter I am a little bit worried that something bad is going to happen.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 11

This chapter starts out telling a very unique story about how and why a tortoise shell is not smooth. The story itself is just absolutely unique. I believe that the story shows how creative these people were because they did not have the technology that we have. Instead of just coming into the house and being able to watch TV. They actually had to make up their owns stories and games to entertain themselves. In this chapter there is a very disturbing twist and the twist is that Chielo comes to take Ezinma to the Oracle's cave. Even after Okonkwo tries of persuasion they take Ezinma anyway and demands that no one follows. Even after that warning, Ekwefi follows and decides that if she hears screaming that she will save her. To my surpise and Ekwefi's surprise Okonkwo arrives with a MACHETE of all things. I can not wait to see what happens. I hope that if they try to hurt Ezinma, that Okonkwo runs in and shows them who the real god is lol. I know I would. This book in my opinion is finally starting to get good.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 10

This chapter to me seemed very strange. Although once again this chapter shows a lot about the African culture. This chapter starts out with a ceremonial gathering which seemed to me have something to do with their justice system. Anyway this ceremony is basically about their ancestors, known as the "egwugwu"(lol, egwugwu, what a funny word haha). This ceremony is where the ancestors come back as masked men. For some reason this instills fear into the women and children even though, I think that they know its just ordinary men. The first case that came before the edwugwu, is a man who was beating his wife. Because he was beating his wife, her brothers came and laid down the law (lol, how he had that comin). After the brothers gave Uzowulu a taste of his own medicine, they took away his wife and children. If Uzowulu was ever to get back his wife he had to promise to never beat her again, and if he did he was going to lose his manhood. The ancestors vote on behalf of Mgbafo (Uzowulu's wife). After I read this chapter I felt bad for Mgbafo and Uzowulu. The only reason I feel bad for Uzowulu is because of his punishment if it ever happens again, I mean thats just low, and how they singled him out. Overall this chapter basically just showed African culture.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 9

This chapter starts out with Ekwefi running in and telling Okonkwo that Ezinma is dying. Of course this is just an exaggeration she only has a fever (well atleast that is all I think it is). The reason Ekwefi is so scared is because she lost nine other children during childbirth, and Ezinma means the whole world to Ekwefi. I believe that if this is more than just a fever, that Ekwefi will not recover and could actually take her own life because of all the grief. Okonkwo once again shows some emotion and goes to find a medicine man. Now this is the weird part, the medicine man tells Okonkwo that their problem is a "ogbanje". A ogbanje is a "evil" child that enters the mother's womb only to die over and over, so the "ogbanje" cause a great deal of emotional stress. Of course, this "ogbanje" theory is just completely ridiculous, but in a way its shows the reader a great deal of how they thought back then. Instead of thinking that it is just a cold or something they think that it is a spirit of some kind. The most disturbing thing about this chapter is when the medicine man mutilates Ekwefi's third child to ward off the spirit. I think that whole step just completely skipped the good part and went to the bad. That was just completely uncalled for. If Ezinma would happen to die, I believe that their whole family would fall apart.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 8

This is the most shocking chapter that I have read so far. I never could of guessed that Okonkwo would be so affected by Ikemefuna's death as he was. Okonkwo could not stop thinking about Ikemefuna. It even gets to the point where he has not eaten in two days, and he also starts to question when he became a like a woman. The one thing that I think made it so hard for Okonkwo was that it was the season of rest. So he has absolutely nothing to do that could possible take his mind off Ikemefuna. To help Okonkwo he goes and talks to his friend Obierika and their meeting helps Okonkwo greatly. One thing that I found interesting was the whole bride thing. I just thought that it was really weird that they would trade broomsticks or cowaries. So at the end of this chapter I believe that Okonkwo is feeling much better about the whole Ikemefuna situation.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 7

In this chapter Okonkwo for the first time in the whole novel shows emotion!!!!!! He shows a lot of the emotion through his boys which I have never seen yet. He likes having them around much more than what he used to. Okonkwo tells them manly stories about war and things like that. I believe that Okonkwo is finally starting to let the boys see that he does have a little bit of a softer side to him, and he is just not all rough and tough. Even though this is a huge step for Okonkwo, of course something has to ruin it because it is a tradegy type of novel. The village elders finally decide to have Ikemefuna killed. When ever they killed him it said that Okonkwo showed some type of fear. I also believe that Ikemefuna's death will greatly effect Okonkwo and Nwoye, especially Nwoye. I also think that it is weird that the people of the tribe believe that the locusts like hide in this cave guarded by stunted men until it is time to let them go. The people of the tribe also view the locusts as a special dish which I also find very weird ( I just do not see how that would be any good). In this chapter it also shows how much Nwoye has grown. He now does not believe a lot of the stories that his mother tells him, and he now likes to listen to his father's stories. This also triggers some emotion in Okonkwo.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 6

Chapter six is all about the wrestling matches, and says almost virtually nothing about Okonkwo and his family. This chapter goes into great detail about how these wrestling matches were held. These drums start playing at about noon and continue until the wrestling matches are over. The wrestling matches do not begin until about evening. Everyone attends these wrestling matches. The matches start out with younger wrestlers (ages 15-16), and then rise to the older fighters. The older fighters are what the people are most interested in. The fighter would dance over to the other team and choose an opponent and then dance back to the middle are wrestle. Since this chapter is just basically about the wrestling it was hard think about things that I questioned because the chapter was basically self-explanatory. The only thing that I was curious about was if Okonkwo would maybe join in on a wrestling match to still prove that he is strong and able to fight. Though at the end of the chapter it had not mentioned anything about it.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 5

Chapter fives starts out with the coming of the New Yam, which is like a new year where they celebrate and honor the earth goddess Ani. Even though this is a time of celebration, Okonkwo seems like he hates this time. He says he dislikes it because of how there is no farming, its all just preparing for the big party. When Okonkwo sees this tree that has a couple of leaves missing he basically looses control once a again (what a surprise lol) and starts yelling at his wife and children. Okonkwo also gets in an argument with his second wife about the tree and beats her. He walks away and says he is going to go hunting. Okonkwo's second wife mutters something about guns that do not shoot and then Okonkwo shoots at his second wife but luckily misses. Talk about crazy. I do not understand why Okonkwo has all of this negative anger built up in him. I believe that he is going to do something stupid one of these times and it is going to knock him down the social ladder. And then all of that stuff that he worked so hard for is going to mean nothing all because he can not control his anger. At least there is one thing that will make Okonkwo happy and that is the wrestling matches.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 4

Chapter four starts off telling about Ikemefuna, and how Okonkwo secretly starts to like the boy. In this chapter it also shows how passionate Okonkwo is to his fields. He is a very stern character and he feels that when a man shows affection that it shows weakness and that the only thing worth showing is strength. He is very hard on his two sons about planting yams and he is this way because he does not want them to grow up like he had to. I believe that quite a bit of people these days are kind of like Okonkwo. In the fact that they want their children to grow up and not have any debts and to be successful in life. And possibly the only way to make that happen is working hard as a teenager and earning your own money. Like learning how to save up money and not to get your self involved in things you do not want to be involved in. Okonkwo is trying to straighten them out and make them good hard workers and not lazy like his father. Okonkwo's father must of had a massive impact on his life because he is almost the exact opposite of his father and just about everything he does is because he does not want to become his father. This chapter is a little bit confusing because in the beginning it shows that Okonkwo has an affectionate side to him, but then later in the book he beats his wife for not having lunch ready. Back then that might of been acceptable but definitely not in a the week of peace which was a very import holiday fortheir tribe. I believed that showed he has no self-control. I am also getting a little confused because I have no idea where this book is going, it just keeps talking about Okonkwo and his struggles. Hopefully I will find out soon where the book is going.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 3

Chapter three goes more into detail on how Okonkwo earned his title and wealth. He started out share cropping and his first season of planting was very rough. There was either to little or too much rain, too little or too much sun. Some how Okonkwo worked his way through that season. I believe that one of the reasons he made it through was his determination and perseverance not to be like his father. I also believe that having to support his mother and siblings was also another reason he worked so hard that season to make ends meet. Something that I found weird was how they held conversations. Like how the person who brought the wine would drink it first to make sure it was ok to serve to the rest of the people at the meeting, then how they drank from oldest to youngest, and finally how they had their first wife drink first and then the rest drank in descending order. For the most part they are a pretty nice tribe, I mean how many people do you that would drink their own beverage before serving it to other people. The tribe is also a very hard working tribe, I believe that today we are losing a lot of hands on work, most of it is being done by robots now or in foreign nations. One thing that I do not understand is why they put people who had swelling of the limbs in the Forest of Evil to die, and they would not bury them. I do not understand why it was an abomination to them. I also thought it was funny when they took the one guy to the Forest and he walked back to his house, and they had to take him back again and tie him to a tree lol.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 2

Chapter two begins with a man summoning all of the men to meet in the town marketplace at dawn. They do not meet that night because of the animals that hunt at night. The Umuomfia is a great tribe when it comes to war, they are always ready and willing to fight without second thought. When all of the men gather in the town marketplace it has come to their attention that a neighboring tribe has killed a daughter of the Umuomfia tribe. Instead of creating a war of this situation, the Umuomfia tribe sends Okonkwo to the tribe. He comes back with a young girl and boy. The boy that Okonkwo brought back the the Umuomfia tribe becomes under his care. The chapter continues about describing Okonkwo and how he is a really hard worker and is nothing like his father.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 1

Chapter one starts off explaining who Okonkwo was and how he became famous in the villages. Okonkwo became famous by defeating Amalinze the Cat, who has been undefeated for seven years. This great fight was won twenty years ago. Next the novel introduces Okonkwo father, Unoka. Okonkwo was always very disappointed in his father because of how lazy he was. Unoka also built up many large debts because of how he only spent his money on palm-wine. Okonkwo never liked his father, actually he almost despised him. Unoka died ten years ago. Next the story shifts back to Okonkwo and unlike his father he is doing very well for himself.

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