Cody AP Blog

The various relationships supporting characters share with Okonkwo serve to characterize him as a loving man who masks his gentleness with “manly” actions out of fear that he will become a failure like his father. These relationships also serve to give the reader an inside look into Igbo culture.

It all starts with his father, Unoka. Unoka is significant  because he is considered the failure that Okonkwo used as inspiration for his actions and inactions. However, his mother is never mentioned, showing her insignificance. The aspect of women meaning less in Igbo culture is only reiterated through other relationships.

Obierika is not related to Okonkwo but serves as a foil for him. They are best friends and Obierika is the more laid back out of the two who doesn’t always agree with the culture of Igboland although he continues to follow it as a faithful community member.

Okonkwo has 3 wives, some more significant than others. His first wife is nameless which shows the value of women is low even though she is his first wife who bore him four children. Next is Ekwefi, the second wife, who is the most unique of the wives. Her and her only daughter, Ezinma, are considered as equals and both her and her mom act as counterweights to a clear cut structure in the Igbo culture through which Okonkwo views the culture. His third and final wife, Ojuigo, is there to show irresponsibility. She is beaten for being irresponsible showing the depth into Igbo culture because it is ok to beat women. She is an outlet for Okonkwo to think of all women as irresponsible and stupid.

The first wife had three sons and a daughter. Nwoye, the first son is a soft child who helps to show the differences between the men and the women of Umuofia, especially in their stories. Nwoye enjoys the women’s stories even though Okonkwo wants him to start acting like a man. Obiageli, Nwoye’s sister and the other two nameless sons are pretty much insignificant thus far, showing how much children mean to Umuofia. Nkechi is the third wife’s child as is relatively unimportant. Ikemefuna, the adopted son helps to bring out the softer side of Okonkwo. Ikemefuna is good for bringing about indirect characterization of Okonkwo through his secret love for Ikemefuna.

 Then we go into the spiritual branch which brings about the spiritual aspect of Igbo culture. Agbala and Agadinwayi, which is actually the name of magic, both represent the war success of Umuofia. That war success is what brought Okonkwo fame making them important in his life. Ezeani, Priest of the Earth Goddess, and Chielo, Priestess of the Oracle, both imply that the spiritual aspect of Igboland is unbiased by sex. No sex dominates, and both are equally important. The friendship that Chielo has with Ekwefi is simply to tie in the aspect of the spiritual realm of Igbo culture to that of everyday Igbo life. Thus wrapping up our relationships that occur through the first seven chapters.

Locust’s are revealed differently in The Bible than they are in Things Fall Apart, but they are similar in one way. In Ibo culture the locust’s are considered to be this great sensation that everyone gets excited about. They only occur once in a long while so when it happens everyone rejoices and hopes that they stop in their village. However, in The Bible, locusts are looked upon as a plague. Locust’s are meant in The Bible to eat all the herbs and fruits of the trees and generally to harm the humans living in that area who don’t have the Seal of God. In Ibo culture the people, wait until most locust’s are sleeping before they go and take them and essentially eat them.

Locust’s are similar in one way though. “the whole country became the brown-earth color of the vast, hungry swarm” (pg. 49) In the bible the locusts also covered all the ground and even covered the sun so that darkness was shown on the land. In the book the locusts moved as a black cloud that covered half the sky with their great numbers. 

The author is happy and excited for the locust’s to come because they are so rare and interesting to be able to see. It is almost like an honor to be around when the locust’s fly by your village. In The Bible locusts are never intended to mean good, but rather a plague and disturbance. The locusts can almost be looked at as a giant change. They have the ability to bring a tribe happiness, or bringing a whole city to fear them. They represent how quickly things can change, or even the scarcity of opportunities that people need to make the most of.

There are a few purposes to the first chapter. First it establishes the setting of the story, then it introduces the protagonist of the story, and also a theme is noticed in the first chapter. The speaker is an insider of the umuofia tribe showing that this story is set in a native background and also told to us through a third person point of view.

The protagonist of the story, Okonkwo, is established in the first paragraph. He is described very thoroughly for all to know who he is and how he acts, or even how everyone responds to him. “Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond.” (pg. 1)

A theme is also introduced in the first paragraph. It includes Okonkwo and his shame he feels towards his father, Unoka. “When Unoka died he had taken no title at all and he was heavily in debt. Any wonder then that his son Okonkwo was ashamed of him?” (pg. 5)This statement brings about the insight into the theme of letting one’s own fears affect their attitude or actions.

Overall this paragraph lays down the foundation of the story. You get some little insight into relationships between men and women, and also the community with the people within. Setting, formation orf theme, and the main character were all a part of the main purpose in the first paragraph.

“Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats is a very unique poem that has to do with art and nature. Along with the art and mainly the nature that occurs in this poem there is also an opposite theme. Many things in this poem have opposites including the changeab;e aspect to the permanent aspect and also the nature vs. art. Another thing I learned was how this poem related to the beauty of life, but it goes into more detail. For example it talks about how when she is frozen her beauty will never leave compared to the mortal love that is not permanent and won’ t last forever. “She cannot fade” and “human passion” are examples. Other things that I researched had to deal with the archaic language in this poem. Words such as bliss, piping, timbrel, and ditties just to name a few, had very interesting meanings. Tambourine for timbrel, happiness for bliss, piping having to do with music, and songs/poems for ditties. Those were all relative but just goes to show how old this poem really is. After looking at the diction I did a little background check on the author and saw that he was a romantic poet who lived a short life. His short life was ironic because in the poem he talked about the nature of immortality and mortality. It seems like he almost wanted to believe his statement of how beautiful life was so he mentioned it throughout the poem.

There are a quite a few things I would do if I could rewrite my essay. One would be to create a thesis that has a theme involved in it. Right now there isn’t a clear theme making the essay unstable. Without a clear theme all my supporting paragraphs would have nothing to refer back too. Another thing I would do different would be making a plan before I start so that I have a clear structure and it will be organized. Clarity is a big thing that I would definitely want to change if I could rewrite the essay. Points were made in the essay but weren’t really expanded upon so that would be something to change. Theme is the biggest concern because when you don’t include one you can’t use concrete details to support your theme. Then as if mere details relate back to the thesis is enough you won’t get as an effective essay without including some sort of relation back to a theme, or universal idea. Structure, clarity, and a theme can all be easy fixes if you make a plan before writing. Making a plan is something I would do if i could rewrite in order to achieve a better score and provide a stronger essay.

Discuss a significant person, experience or achievement that has meaning to you.

This story was very interesting to me, while also really confusing. I really want to know the significance in all the different sections that the author split the story up into. For the most part I think it separated the different parts but what was the significance of the clever titles? Another thing that confused me was why the narrator stays unhappy? He becomes unhappy because of his news about his deafness and then the tumor but after almost fully gaining back his hearing and realizing the tumor posed no threat, he still remained bitter. The elements of this story go much deeper into the meaning of everyday life, but I can’t figure out just what it is. From the weird indian family he meets in the hospital to the other activities he does in his life while taking care of his two sons because the wife is gone, all are things that show the character of the narrator. It seemed like the narrator had a connection with his “drunk” of a father for the last line proves that sometimes only those closest to you can understand what you’re thinking. “But none of them laughed as hard about my beautiful brain as I knew my father—the drunk bastard—would have” (14).

Paul’s Case: Who you are might bring you temporary happiness, but what you want to become might make you kill yourself in the end so save you the pain.

Blue Blue Blue. His Blue eyes were like “blue stones”. “Big blue eyes”, and “his eyes were blue fire”. Blue for the most part is a very calm color that usually is good for relaxing people. When you think of blue you don’t think of harshness. Fire contradicts the blue symbolizing the calm passion that Paul possesss’. His glossy blue eyes when he has extreme concentration on the horse represents his dynamic feature. Other symbolic things have to do with the whispering voices. How creepy were those? They represented ghosts that were greedy for more. they were never satisfied. The main allegory has to do with Paul. Through the symbols of this story Paul is trying to bring money to satisfy his family but most importantly his mom. However the difficulty in which he brings about the success, represents how difficult it is in the world to be successful and happy at the same time. Paul tried so hard and all of his work was for nothing when he died and his mother lost something more important than the money, him.

Archetypes are repeated patterns that occur more than once. The Task of “The Lottery” was a huge archetype that really stood out to me. The whole village coming together to perform this monstrous task is so absurd yet they go about it without a complaint.  Somehow no one finds a fault in what they are doing. The main universal archetype of this story is seen throughout the world only manifested much differently. Instead of stoning the winner, in many cases people get lottery tickets and the winner instead gets rewarded with money. There are many different ways a lottery can be performed but the main ideas are all the same. The archetype of the “black box” shows how the color black, meaning death or darkness, comes into play when ultimately whoever picks the paper out of the box with the dot will die. The “scapegoat character” archetype also comes into effect in “The Lottery”. Mrs. Hutchinson will be the scapegoat for she gets the punishment from the whole village for doing absolutely nothing. She did not do anything wrong but just happened to have the worst luck. She was the scapegoat for the town.