English 121 Scott Jordan

Things Fall Apart

2005-04-24T21:14:00.000-07:00

The story of Chinua Achebe’s book, Things Fall Apart, follows the path of a Nigerian man as he struggles with change and tradition. We see this struggle through the eyes of a man named, Okonkwo’s a wealthy and respected man of his village. Driven to prove himself from a young age, he has worked hard at becoming a great warrior thus receiving a high standing in his villages clan, unlike he embarrassing father.

As the story progresses, we get to see how Okonkwo deals with matters in his life. Due to his fathers meek attitude towards life and war, Okonkwo has grown up just the opposite, firmly believing in ideals of bravery, violence, thrift, wealth, he’s extremely opposed to music and hates anything like conversation and emotion. He sounds a lot like me, a stoic. While these very beliefs do bring success they also bring torment to his family as he frequently hands out beating to his wives and children, for being lazy or not cooking dinner. So while Achebe tries to depict Africans not as the stereotypes that Europeans have portrayed them as, he doesn’t go so far as to say that these Africans are perfect. These men still beat their wives and children, and even break sacred laws during holy weeks. In fact, Okonkwo’s desire not to look weak drives him so far as to kill his beloved adopted son when the Oracle orders his death.

To me, a culture can only survive by adapting. If things stay they are for countless generations, the society will not in the end grow, and prosper, but instead fade and decay into ruin. The only way a society can stay the same way and stay that way forever, is if it were perfect and I think I can safely say that is near impossible. However by adapting to new ideas and situations a society can come closer and closer to harmony. When someone like Obierika questions the Igbo’s ways, people like Okonkwo react harshly towards him, for they are deep rooted in their ways. Often when an entire society changes, it is close minded people like him who have the toughest time changing.

Unfortunately for Okonkwo, it wasn’t his violent nature, nor was it was stubbornness to change, it was rather a complete accident that he is banished from the village for 7 years. It’s during his exile from the village that things start to drastically change. In his place of exile, Okonkwo is surrounded by women much to his anger, for he doesn’t wish to be surrounded by such emotional people. So unfortunately it is not he who changes, rather his native village. A group of missionaries come to the visit, establishing a church and a European form of government. While these missionaries have actually come in peace, by introducing White languages, rules and religion, these Christians are in fact disrupting the harmonious nature of this African tribe and causing much turmoil.

While change can in fact be a very good thing for society, it has to come from within. A natural evolution of new ideas and thoughts there the society itself introduces is the only way the change can in fact take place and peacefully be incorporated into the culture. When another society tries to impose change it is often met with anger. Many would think that the ultimate tragedy of the story is the utter downfall of Okonkwo, much of which he couldn’t help. I however think that the true tragedy is the complete break down of the Igbo clan. The fundamental rule of there society was to live in harmony with each other, and it would appear that if it weren’t for the white men, the clan would have lived on in that harmony for generations. Blame it on the Christian to ruin harmony.

Invisible Man

2005-04-18T17:33:00.000-07:00

The Invisible Man, written by Ralph Ellison is about a young black man growing up in the mid 19th century being confront by racism along the way. Throughout the book the narrotor is constantly confronted by his lack of true self identity. First he thinks that his way of life at the college is the right way to go, but as a Vet so accurately points out, the narrator was simply conforming to the white peoples views and was actually trying to deny his African-American heritage. So rooted in this belief that the narrator actually made a racist comment aboutanother black man, saying “they sure are a hell of a people.”

When he finally started to embrace his roots, he unforuntely joins up with the Brotherhood, an organization who doesn’t want to deal with the matter of race and encourages the narrator to supress those thoughts. When he starts to reverted back to his thinking of accepting his race and speaking out againist racisim, the Brotherhood shuns him and it leads to his complete detattachement from the group.

Through the civil rights movement, the equality of African Amercian men and women have risen dramactically since the days of Emerson. Unfortunetly it isn’t completely gone, in fact I would say that a number of sterotypes of African Amercians, and actually all minorities have probably gotten worse. While certain TV shows do have characters with these sterotypes in their stories, and it’s all meant in good fun and eneterainment, I think the general public is getting the wrong idea. Suppose a certain community doesn’t have many African Amercians in there area, and when they turn the television on, all they see are gangsta rappers going around shooting everybody with really bad grammar. Now of course this isn’t actually the way African Amercian are, it’s in fact a small percantage of their true population. But all it takes is for closed minded person to see this, accept it as fact and start hating all black people.

If Emersons novel had to be update for today, I would say that the current group of people who are getting disgriminated againist the most, is the gay community. Just like blacks in Emersons time, gays are where the general hate is directed. The biggest issue from gays at the moment is the matter of marriage. A very basic right to most if something denied to these people. America is supposed to be all about the land of the free, freedom of religion and even government alignment. Yet these people are being denied a right that the very Constitution gives to them just because some closed minded Chrisitians run the country and make excuse why it shouldn’t be allowed. Just like in Emersons time, society discriminate againist a group and thinks up a reason to justify it. Just like the narrator, gays today are so afraid to accept what they are in fears that they will never be accept into society, that they try recreate themselves. Some gay men either never tell anyone that they are in fact gay, or try and supress their feelings so much that they would even marry a woman. If you can’t see similarities between that and the narrator’s actions in the story, then you must be blind like so many white folk in the Invisible Man.

The House of the Spirits

2005-03-29T20:06:00.000-08:00

The House of the Spirits was written by Isabel Allende, a Latin American woman in the mid 20th century. The book while fictional was primarily based on Allende’s own life, basing characters on her own family members and similar political events to that of her native country, Chile. However the introduction of a woman with telekinetic and precognitive powers being introduced grounds the novel as fiction.
The novel tracks the life of the Trueba family, a very dysfunctional family at that. One of the main characters is Esteban, a very volatile patriarch of the family. Ranging from raping peasant women to beating the eventual beating of his own daughter and wife, Esteban has had anything but a normal life. Or has he? At one point Esteban curses his old and broken bones, and complains that he no longer has the strength to pick up and rape young peasant women. It just the way he says it, it makes it seem so mundane. Not only that, but the fact that none of the peasants complain about it, or revolt against their patron also further enforces the idea that this is a typical event in their time and place. How on Earth such a terrible and repulsive act such as rape could possible enter a societies ideology is beyond me. Ideology is defined as a set of doctrines or beliefs that form the basis of a political, economic, or other system. I can only hope the “allowance” of such an act is only confined to the Trueba mansion. The idea that it could infect an entire country is truly a horrible thought and I would have hoped for a 1940’s country to be above that.
The sad thought is though that rape is still in our modern day, in our country. I didn’t need to read this book in order to get a new view on rape, but it can only further enforce it as horrendous act. Worse, is that many reports almost make it seem like the U.S. has some things in common with the unnamed country in the House of the Spirits. That most rapes are unreported thus further allowed by men and women to keep occurring un-avenged and un-prosecuted.

Antigone

2005-03-11T18:45:00.000-08:00

Antigone, written by Sophocles and translated by Bertolt Brecht, is a surprisingly old story. It’s surprising that considering it’s age and how many different translations and changes to the story have been made, that the core elements, the basic storyline remains. Not only that but much of the themes in the story are still common and meaningful today. However, while today’s audience can still enjoy these stories, changes and updates must occur, this is where Brecht comes in. He made a number of small alterations to characters, even adding a few new to expand upon the plot. Not only did Brecht change the characters but he also changed a few elements of the story so might the audience would understand it more easily.

The story itself is about a young woman named Antigone, the sister to two brothers who have gone to war with each other, ending in both of their deaths. It just so happens that both of these brothers were the rightful heirs to the throne of Thebes and with both of them dead, their Uncle Creon takes up the throne. Since one of the brothers was considered a traitor to Thebes, Creon dictates that he will not be allowed to be buried, and in essence not allowed to make the journey to the afterlife. Antigone being the loyal sister that she is ignores the death penalty against disobeying the order that she goes along and buries her dead brother. Setting into motion the downfall of Thebes itself. It is truly a tragedy by the end, Antigone is dead, dying for a worthy but ultimately futile reason, Haemon the king’s son is dead, committing suicide for not standing up to his father, Creon is left all alone feeling guilt for the events he couldn’t help but let happen and the city is invaded.

"The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez"

2005-03-01T23:43:00.000-08:00

"The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez" by... well there is no author. This perhaps is one of the stories that might not be 100% true, that the way the events happened in the story where not the way it actually panned out. Think of it, even in today’s high tech media culture, events and how people perceive them are always different. Now think back to the 19th century, where Gregorio Cortez killed a sheriff for murdering his brother and his pursuit by Texan Rangers. As we demonstrated in class through playing a child’s game of Telephone, when a sentence is told and repeated through a handful of people, the original sentence is lost. So, let’s take an entire story with lines upon lines of verses, how can the original story possibly be the same after 10 retelling let alone a century later? So not only has the original story lost, but the story that remains today could have so many different variations simply by who tells the story, or even how it was translated.

Gregorio Cortez became what the Mexican people wanted, a great hero of common decent who fights against the cowardly Americans. Cortez most likely was nothing more then a family man who acted in self defense or in immediate revenge for his brother’s death. It’s likely though that young Mexicans needed a hero to fight against the America and when hearing of a small event of a Mexican standing for himself, he was made into a hero, and through the oral tradition of story telling, the hero became a legend.

Blood Wedding

2005-02-15T21:53:00.000-08:00

A play such as the Blood Wedding clearly shows the how cultural differences, whether by time period or by country, are so drastically different when compared to our present day culture. Many customs and traditions are obviously foreign to us, so we might not get a full appreciation or understanding of the place. However, one thing our society can relate to, if through nothing of our own cultures past, is that women during that time period and location have little to no rights. For Spain, in the 1930’s the typical standard for families are that women were to remain pure, to stay a virgin. Not only should women remain virgins before marriage, and stay in their marriage for life, but even after their husband may die, remarrying is still out of the question. The bridegroom’s mother makes it that fact clear. The fact that the Bride’s is related to the a murderer, the mother is highly skeptical, simply because of her name. So therefore her son marrying such a woman is unthinkable, since the Bride is undoubtedly ‘unworthy’ of her son.

Like so many of the women we’ve read about lately, the Bride rebelled against society. At the very last second, she runs away from Bridegroom’s and into the arms of a former love, a man who already has been married as well. The foreshadowing of Bridegroom’s overprotective mother comes true, that knives lead to violence as Leonardo and the Bridegroom kill each other for the honor of the Bride.

However, for such a story that has a very feminist plot, a woman running away from her customs, it’s interesting that she would almost succumb back to them in the end. Women not only had the choice to divorce or remarry, but they also didn’t have the power to kill someone. did not have the power to divorce or the power to kill somebody. When the Bride comes back to atone for her sins, the Mother lets the Bride live. This could be seen as pity on the Mothers side, but it could also be seen in sense that women did not have the nerve to take a life, which almost seems to rob the story of its feminist stance.

The Awakening

2005-02-10T20:55:00.000-08:00

The Awakening by Kate Chopin, perhaps one of the hardest things, for me personally at least, that I’ve read this semester. Maybe I’m not not interested in reading about feminists, or maybe it’s that I don’t enjoy reading snobby rich people, or maybe its just that there are few quotable passages, but this book was just a bore.

Written in the late 19th century, the plot of this book would be unthinkable. Here’s a woman, Edna, with a seeminling content life, with a husband and two children. Then while on a summer vacation, she meets a man, Robert, and fall in love with him. So not only is the story talking about infideletly, something unthinkable for the time period, but she then procedes run off with this man to find herself.

However, while she is off committing adultery with this man, she does manage to finally break free the typical standards of society by having an awakening. Perhaps by not having her husdand or children control her life anymore, she was awakened. Not only did she have a new independence by running off with Robert, but she was now even capable to do things she new thought she could do before, like swimming. However, in the end this new found freedom, and new perception of life didn’t work for Edna, her new love Robert could not stay with her because she was still married. She takes her life in the same water that she had her awakening. Almost an ironic move, that the very waters that set her free and gave her a new life were also the ones that took it from her.

The Yellow Wallpaper

2005-01-23T13:37:00.003-08:00

Quote
"The most beautiful place! It is quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village. It makes me think of English places that you read about, for there are hedges and walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses for the gardeners and people.

There is a DELICIOUS garden! I never saw such a garden--large and shady, full of box-bordered paths, and lined with long grape-covered arbors with seats under them."

Response
It is a little odd to be picking a quote that has nothing to do with the main focus of this story, the wallpaper, but to me these two paragraphs are just as profound. Especially after reading the entire story, you notice that perhaps this girl doesn’t have to be so crazy. Obviously, the wallpaper in the room that she’s confined to isn’t healthy for her at all. Not only is it not healthy, but it seems to be actually making her worse. Whoever is in charge of her care has gone out of their way to keep her in this room, when perhaps other surroundings might be better for her. Not only other surroundings, but her immediate surroundings could be good for her. She describes the house has being very beautiful and having a quite a lovely garden. Perhaps if her 'captors' had allowed her to take walks through this garden she might not have deteriorated into such madness, like she did with the wallpaper.

It’s also quite odd that she gives a very detailed image of what the house and garden looks like. If you were to close your eyes and here the descriptions, you definitely get a vivid image of what the house looks like. However, that is really the only thing in the story that you can actually imagine. The wallpaper for instance, such a huge part of the story is something completely unimaginable and not even the main character that see’s it everyday can properly describe it.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas

2005-01-22T19:03:00.000-08:00

Quote
"The whole six months afterwards, that I spent with Mr. Covey, he never laid the weight of his finger upon me in anger. He would occasionally say, he didn't want to get hold of me again. "No," thought I, "you need not; for you will come off worse than you did before." "

Response
The entire event leading up to this quote was quite surprising to me. For the past six months, Douglas had perhaps received the worst treatment he had ever gotten by any of his other masters. He mentioned that there was rarely a week that his back wasn’t sore from receiving lashings. So the day that something finally snaps inside him and he not only resists his master, but physically fights back and draws blood is quite astonishing. Not only astonishing that Douglas actually fought his master, but that his master didn't do anything. Mr. Covey, his current master, seemed to have whipped Douglas every other minute and had no apprehension of abusing his slaves. However, when Douglas actually confronts Mr. Covey, his “courage quailed” and “seemed taken all aback. He trembled like a leaf.” It’s a true testimony that abusive people are truly cowards on the inside.

blah

2005-01-14T07:11:00.000-08:00

Making sure this works