Paper #2 Exercise

Paper #2 questions: 

Q.1) How does Things Fall Apart conform to, or deviate from the conventions of a particular genre, and for what purpose?

Q.2) Show how and to what effect Achebe make use of myth, legend or other stories and tales.

A.2)

Things Fall Apart is classic novel written by Chinua Achebe. This book tries to depict African society and the culture that is Igbo. Traditionally, this culture is oral. A lot of the know-hows of the Igbo people relate to what they're told while growing up. Also, the different stories that Achebe tells in this book are vivid descriptions of the symbolism present in Igbo culture. It is also mentioned that the Igbo people thrived on story-telling and the use of language, hence making oral culture a core part of Igbo society.

An example is the story of the birds and the tortoise. This story was told to Ezinma by Ekwefi. In this story, a tortoise cheats the birds out of a hearty meal that they were supposed to have with very prestigious hosts. The turtle before coming home then asks a parrot to tell his wife to lay out soft things in their backyard so as to break the turtle’s fall. Instead, the parrot maliciously tells the turtle’s wife to lay out hard objects, because of which the turtle’s shell breaks. The medicine man then fixes the turtle’s shell, but the shell is still rough This story is told all of a sudden without no apparent purpose behind it. But through just the inclusion of this story, Achebe is able to reflect the values of the Igbo people, and how strongly they’re held. The turtle is like person who breaks the law. The broken shell symbolises the broken law and how the person can never be the same again. Such an analogy helps the book progress well without sounding unrealistic, and helps Achebe achieve his objective of reflecting on his culture in a realistic but non-derogatory way.

The coming of locusts is another example. Legend said that the locusts reappeared each year for seven years every generation from a distant cave which had been guarded by stunted men. A question would then come to the readers mind: how did the elders know? Such an induced thought reemphasises the importance of oral culture in Igbo land. The fact that the people believed this myth makes the reader formulate an identity that the Igbo people recognise themselves by.

Hence, the story telling tradition in Igboland is identified as an important one. Without all these stories in the master plot, the book would not be able to tell the story of what the things were; far from telling how they actually fell apart.

Obierika's memoir (Reflection)

What is happening now is not good. Everything is falling apart, from the language to the customs of our culture. Our way of life is being threatened by the white people. I don't know why this is happening, but it might be because of the fact that there has been increased violence in the past couple of days.  Okonkwo had been interfering with the white people far too much, and now this is happened. He had been recently imprisoned, falling prey to an ambush. Then the hammer broke the nail. Okonkwo, trying to keep his culture's dignity, was even more humiliated. Everything then just started to break down. Okonkwo, oh how dear a friend was he- committed suicide. I knew then that things had become really bad.
Ever since then, the white people have gradually taken power of our land. There is chaos everywhere, as the remnants of the culture are being wiped out. The district commissioner has assumed the power of his queen in our land, and thinks that we are being civilised. He seems like a benevolent holder who thinks of himself as the one who connects the dots for us. But this is far from the truth. Even though this might be better in some aspects, I think this sudden change is bad for us. All these years, Igbo tradition has been carefully preserved and evolved. But now, the actions of certain people have provoked the actions of the colonisers. Only if certain people like Okonkwo had kept their cool, things might have been a bit better. We are helpless. We are breaking down. Things are indeed falling apart.

Paper #2: Analysis: 'Discuss the significance of social status in Things Fall Apart, and comment on its contribution to characterization.'

In the book Things Fall Apart, the characters have constructed in a critical and meaningful way. A lot of their actions characterize them, but a large part of their identity is influenced by social status. The importance of social status in Igbo society cannot be understated. The Igbo judged and ranked their people according to what one has accomplished; not what his ancestors have done. This can be seen in the book when the readers are informed that 'Even if a man washes his hands with elders, he can have food with an elder'. However, this was often only true to males. 

The laureates of men ranged from heads from wars to the titles they bought and the number of wives they had. A lot of the men when presented in this book are seen through the lens of a typical Igbo citizen. For example, Okonkwo was characterised as one of the most important and influential men in Umofia. He had started working hard from a tender age,  and was a famous wrestler in his young years. He had thrown Amalinze the cat, who at that time was considered to be one of the best wrestlers in the village. Okonkwo worked hard on his farms, even in the hardest of times, and never gave up. He eventually began fighting wars and winning them with ease. This social power that he gained accelerated him towards getting titles. Earning these was a mark of accomplishment in the Igbo community. Okonkwo in the book had earned two titles, and with his hard-earned money, bought two barns and had three wives. The effect that his social position has had on his characterization can be clearly understood here. Having all of the above helps Achebe to characterize Okonkwo as one who has great strength, emotionally and physically.

On the other hand, Okonkwo's father, Uknoka, is characterised as a lazy and nonchalant person. Unoka hasn't earned titles all his life, and hence is characterized as a blemish on Igbo society. All he used to do was play the flute, and rejoice during the harvesting season. Unoka was a very good mooch though. His tongue was said to have a silver lining. As seen in the text, whenever any lender used to ask Unoka for their money back, they would receive no money. Instead, Unoka says that he has bigger debts to pay off, and that he would pay back the lender's money when his bigger debts were repaid. According to Achebe, Igbo was a language which used a lot of metaphors and imagery. Hence, according to the society's language and his unique abilities, he should have been respected. However, the Igbo people fail to see this side of him and he is looked down upon in the society. This disrespect for Unoka ultimately leads to a characterisation of Unoka as a man who had no skill, and was unwilling to work. The readers are blinded by his social status, and understand his character in a lower light than they should.

Some of the women characters in this book aren't regarded in the highest position of society as well. For example, Okonkwo's third wife had once gone to plait her hair, leaving Okonkwo's children and meal behind. When she returns late, Okonkwo starts beating her, only to be eventually stopped by other members of the house. The children were safe at home in the care of the other wives anyway. This portrays his third wife as an outlet for Okonkwo to vent all his angers. This objectifies and minimises the social status of the third wife. She has no power over where she can go just because of her social position, i.e., being the third wife of Okonkwo. The third wife is ended up being characterised as a weak and helpless woman due to this. Similar instances in the book that cannot be discussed in the commentary, such as how Okonkwo follows Ewkefi solely to give her 'moral support', also undermines the social status of women in Igbo society, leading to lot of controversy around the book. This portrayal of a lower status of  women in this book is a large indication of the effect of social status on characterisation, and the importance of characterisation in this book as a whole

The characterisation of Okonkwo in 'Things Fall Apart'

In his counter-colonial narrative, Chinua Achebe chooses a protagonist named Okonko, who can also be labeled a tragic hero. This narrative, titled 'Things Fall Apart' is about the colonisation of the Igbo people. Okonkwo is depicted as a character who is immensely powerful, and the ideal man from the Igbo culture. As a teen, Okonkwo gains fame and popularity by throwing Cat, one of the best wrestlers of the time. As he gets older, he starts going to wars. He is said to have brought back five heads from the wars that he had fought in. He is then kicked out of Umofia, his native village, for mistakenly killing a fellow clansman. Okonknwo then flees to take refuge in his motherland, where he prepares to come back in style to Umofia. He planned what he was going to do once he got back, but unfortunately when he did, Umofia had been completely changed.

All the men had seemingly become like 'women', and the Christian missionaries were taking over. The youth had gone to schools in search of better job opportunities. Okonkwo then began to realise the gradual destruction of the society he had worked so hard to become powerful in. Eventually, Okonkwo realises that the organic and integrated society he liver in as a child had now become a hapless system of chaos. Not bring able to handle all this, he had little thought but to kill himself. Achebe has presented the protagonist, Okonkwo, as a tragic hero who symbolises Igbo society himself. The frictional and uncertain nature of Okonkwo is attributed to the culture, which sometimes contradicts itself. In an already delicate structure of society, further intervention by the colonial powers leads to the death of Okonkwo, symbolising the demise of the Igbo culture.

The varying contexts that the book is set in leads to various themes. As mentioned above, the abandoning of the Igbo culture by the youth and the outcasts provides a theme of change, struggle and tradition. The youth of the village thought a lot provoked them to join the missionaries. Even though they had to struggle and leave their families, the youth and outcasts prevailed in leaving the Igbo culture. This ensued a chaos in the Igbo community that was now unstoppable. Another theme is that of the varying interpretations of masculinity. Okonkwo considered masculinity to be something different. If a person wasn't powerful and intimidating, he was considered effeminate in Okonkwo's eyes. Similar situations lead to the development of a lot of other themes, all of which cannot be explored in the length of this blog post.

Reflection on the discussion of 'An African Voice'

Today, in class, we had a discussion on the historical context of an African Voice. We talked about how the story of 'Things Fall Apart' related to a lot of our personal lives. When we talked about the colonization of Igboland, I found that it was similar to the colonization of our countries. In India, there was a similar take-over of power. This lead to another discussion of the current ideas of some people in the USA. Some people in Southern USA still hold the same ideas of coloured people being 'slaves' and not equal to everyone else. This surprises me, as we've come so far into the future since the colonial times, but the concepts of  some false stereotypes and discrimination have still not been let go. After a lot of discussion about this, I found my initial assumptions about the Western world as a completely fair society proven wrong, but I also got to learn about various cultures and how 'Things fall apart' is a book that can be related to by almost anyone.

Paper 1 Analysis: Steve Jobs Commencement Address at Stanford

Introduction:

The following is an analysis of Steve Jobs' 2005 Commencement Address at Stanford. The founder of  Apple and Pixar addressed the graduating class at Stanford in 2005. Even though the address was not very significant to any particular subject, it still does a very effective job at achieving its objective. How it does this is looked into in the following Paper 1 style textual analysis.

Analysis:

The given text is an address by Steven Paul Jobs to the graduating seniors at Stanford University. Steve Jobs, being a skilled orator, manages to effectively connect with the students. This analysis will explore how he uses rhetorical and literary techniques in combination with language to convey many ideas that he wants the audience to implement in their everyday life.

The target audience here are the students at Stanford University. This can be seen from the words 'your commencement from one of the finest universities' in the opening sentence. The sentences "I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. " shows that the speech is geared towards the senior graduating from college. The purpose of the address was to discuss the future of the students who were graduating in order to keep up their success. The narration of the three stories further indicated the purpose of the address, which was to convince the graduates that the their thirst for knowledge should be unquenchable.

In the address, Jobs talks about three situations that he had to go through as a person. The first one was about connecting the dots, and rising to greatness. The second story was about love and loss, and how he learned to cope with them. Capping off the speech, the third story was about death, and how he narrowly managed to survive cancer. Merging the themes of life, growth and death, the address transcends many of it's cut-and-paste counterparts. By structuring his speech in such a way, Jobs was able to establish a deeper connection with the audience. The graduates knew that they would go through the three stages mentioned in the address in the same order, utilising pathos to maximise  the influence of the speech.

The tone of the speech does not remain constant throughout. It starts off being instructional, when Steve Jobs gives the audience a background of himself, and his childhood, as he says "It started before I was born". When he talks about connecting the dots, the speech becomes a bit preachy. This is because Jobs talks about how he himself trusted his gut feeling to connect the dots in the future which immensely helped him to establish himself. He is now advising the graduates, which can be seen through the lines:"Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backward 10 years later..... Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future." Also, the speech is humorous at times, an example of which is "... since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them..". When Jobs talks about death the address becomes a bit depressing, but even in the face of inevitable death, Jobs remained optimistic, which is reflected in the lines "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.". The combination of humour,depression,preachiness and optimism in this speech builds up a reflective mood. 

This reflective mood then helps to establish a feeling of legitimacy in the speech, hence utilising logos and pathos.  The audience knows that what they're being told has actually happened, and further connects with them. Further, how Steve Jobs describes himself- as a college dropout who has established the biggest tech and animation company in the world utilises ethos in order to establish himself as a very hard working and dedicated person. This ultimately proves to the audience that Jobs is a person who is well overly-qualified to address them, utilising ethos. The use of the personal pronouns helps to engage the audience. For example, "... you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward....  You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever..". Personal pronouns here help Jobs to achieve his objective of engaging the graduates on a personal level, utilising pathos.  There is also an example of hypophora in this address. In the beginning, Jobs asks the question-"So why did I drop out?". This helps in order to build the speech and develop new ideas effectively and in an organised manner. One of the most powerful literary devices used in this speech is  sententia. By saying "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" at the end of the address, Jobs effectively concludes all his ideas in four words. The length of the sententia will help the saying to stick with audience.

In conclusion, this speech only furthers Steve's reputation as a skilled orator. Analysing the structure makes one aware of its importance in this address. By looking at the the tone, mood and literary devices used in the address, it can be seen how Jobs has used rhetoric along with language to his advantage while conveying many ideas.

Practice IOC

Link:https://soundcloud.com/pratik-chaudhari-7/ioc-practice

Extract:

    PROSPERO

But, as 'tis,

311   We cannot miss him: he does make our fire,

312   Fetch in our wood and serves in offices

313   That profit us. What, ho! slave! Caliban!

314   Thou earth, thou! speak.

     CALIBAN [Within.]

314                                       There's wood enough within.

     PROSPERO

315   Come forth, I say! there's other business for thee:

316   Come, thou tortoise! when?

                Enter ARIEL like a water-nymph.

317   Fine apparition! My quaint Ariel,

318   Hark in thine ear.

     ARIEL

318                               My lord it shall be done.

                Exit.

     PROSPERO

319   Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself

320   Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!

                Enter CALIBAN.

     CALIBAN

321   As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd

322   With raven's feather from unwholesome fen

323   Drop on you both! a south-west blow on ye

324   And blister you all o'er!

     PROSPERO

325   For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have cramps,

326   Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up; urchins

327   Shall, for that vast of night that they may work,

328   All exercise on thee; thou shalt be pinch'd

329   As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging

330   Than bees that made 'em.

     CALIBAN

330                                     I must eat my dinner.

331   This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother,

332   Which thou takest from me. When thou camest first,

333   Thou strokedst me and madest much of me, wouldst give me

334   Water with berries in't, and teach me how

335   To name the bigger light, and how the less,

336   That burn by day and night: and then I loved thee

337   And show'd thee all the qualities o' the isle,

338   The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile:

339   Cursed be I that did so! All the charms

340   Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!

341   For I am all the subjects that you have,

342   Which first was mine own king: and here you sty me

343   In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me

344   The rest o' the island.

     PROSPERO

344                                   Thou most lying slave,

345   Whom stripes may move, not kindness! I have used thee,

346   Filth as thou art, with human care, and lodged thee

347   In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate

348   The honour of my child.

     CALIBAN

349   O ho, O ho! would't had been done!

350   Thou didst prevent me; I had peopled else

351   This isle with Calibans.

     PROSPERO

351                                           Abhorred slave,

352   Which any print of goodness wilt not take,

353   Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee,

354   Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour

355   One thing or other: when thou didst not, savage,

356   Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like

357   A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes

358   With words that made them known. But thy vile race,

359   Though thou didst learn, had that in't which good natures

360   Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou

361   Deservedly confined into this rock,

362   Who hadst deserved more than a prison.

     CALIBAN

363   You taught me language; and my profit on't

364   Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you

365   For learning me your language!

Guiding Questions:
-What does this text reveal about the relationship in between Caliban and Prospero?
-What atmosphere does Shakespeare create and why is this significant in terms of plot?