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?

The effect of language and power on identity (Takeaway from the discussion on Woman Warrior and How To Tame A Wild Tongue)

Social identity is one's sense of self as a member of a social group. This is shaped largely by the cultural identity of a person, which is one's sense of how their culture affects their actions and their personal identity. 

In the text 'Women Warrior', the author describes how she was silent when she was a little kid. How she did not feel confident while talking, but felt better when she was reading, shows how she was conforming to the stereotype of the 'shy little Asian girl'. But soon, as she started meeting different people, like the 'black ghosts' and the 'ghost teachers', she became a bit more outgoing. In sixth grade, the author describes how she was flustered when she met another girl who was very quiet. She went after the quiet girl everywhere, and tried to talk to her. The author was angry at the fact that the little girl never talked. Here, we can she how the outlook, and hence the identity of the author changed. As the author grew up, her personal identity started to change. She started to discover herself, and it quickly grew up on her. This change in personal identity overcame her cultural identity, which led to a change in her social identity. This was only possible since she knew English, which shows the relation between language, power and identity. How she tried to instil the same change in the little girl is described to great length in the passage.

"How to Tame a Wild Tongue" is a description of how the author feels oppressed due to the fact that she did not connect with either of the languages: English or Spanish. During her childhood, she was taught in school that Spanish was a bad language. She was forced to speak English, which she conformed to then, since she did not understand much. After that, later in her life, she was discriminated in the Spanish community itself because she spoke in Chicano. Chicano was thought of as bad Spanish, hence her perception of her personal identity changed when she spoke Chicano. Chicano made the author feel like she was not as important in society, and lowered her self-esteem, as was the case with a lot of Chicano speakers. But as the author grew, she realised how important Chicano was to her and people who spoke it. She says in the passage how she will no longer feel ashamed of existing. This shows us how the change in perception of the authors personal and cultural identity by herself led to a creation of a new social identity.

What is interesting is how personal identity isn't permanent in the above cases, and is largely affected by the power of the oppressors language. Social and cultural identity all depend on the perception of the culture and oneself. We can see that language and power lead to varying perceptions of the social,personal and cultural identity in the two texts, which ultimately impacts the master identity of a person.

Linguistic imperialism in the post-colonial anglophone world. (Specific focus on education)

The world as we know today runs on languages. Everyone speaks languages, from Arabic to Chinese to Afrikaans. But in the modern post-colonial world, the prowess of English as a language is undeniable. English is as common a medium of transferring information as you will come across. It is visible in many facets of peoples lives all around the world, from the economy they depend on to the the various forms of entertainment. But English has had the most lasting impact in one field: Education.
English is the most prevalent in Education. All of the top universities in the world have English as their medium of instruction. Universities like MIT, Stanford and Oxbridge have requirements for proficiency in English. If an applicant who qualifies for admission is not admitted, it is most probably because their proficiency in English as a language. The existence of tests that grade the level of proficiency of a person in English reveals to us the power that English has had since the Colonial period.
Since education is a stepping stone for anyone's life, English might establish itself as more important than the persons native tongue. This might have bad implications for the native tongue of that certain someone, which my lead to loss of culture. The fact that this is actually happening just reveals to us how much power English has maintained throughout the years.
But the real problem comes to surface when we realise that even the best educational institutions in a country whose native language is not English, have English as a medium of instruction. Yes, some might have courses in native languages as well. but it is a rare occurrence. Some even require a certain proficiency in English that is demonstrated through tests. This is a huge problem, as a lot of educators and students are killing their own culture without realising it.
For example, in India, even though there are many languages, the medium of instruction of the best education system is English. The best universities in India, like the IIT's have an English medium of instruction. This although does not look as bad, until we realise that India has around 780 languages. Courses in these universities do not have any of these 780 languages as their medium of instruction! Even the best universities in the states where native tongues are prevalent, English is still prevalent as a medium of instruction! This shows the massive linguistic power English has had to this day in India.
Even though receiving education through an English medium is efficient for the world as it helps in unifying people of different cultures, it has an immense impact on the way people think about their own culture. Given that not a lot of people will stop speaking in their native tongues, a small portion still will. This small portion, as time progresses might become large. It may even become larger until  it results in the extinction of the language, and even threaten the existence of a culture itself.

Paper 1 Analysis (Text #2 in the Paper 1 Booklet)

The given text informs the audience of the food crisis in the Sahel region of South Africa, and enumerates the steps that Oxfam is taking to reduce this deficit of food. At least this is what the article looks like it's trying to convey on the surface. But on closer investigation, it turns out to be a persuasive piece that tries to publicise Oxfam. We will now analyse how this article tries to persuade the reader, starting with the analysis of the target audience and its real purpose.

The main purpose of this article, as stated above is to spread the word about the work of Oxfam on the scarcity of food in Africa. Since Oxfam is an organisation that runs massively on donations, it can be said that the real purpose of this persuasive piece is to bring in more donations. This leads us to discovering the real target audience: the rich and/or philanthropic people of today. This is seen by the  use of 'we' and 'investing' in the sentence 'By investing in longer term interventions to reduce people's vulnerability to external shocks, we can work to break the hunger crisis in Sahel.' Prospective Oxfam workers and curious readers are also targeted here, but the main motive here is to popularise Oxfam and hence bring in more resources. How the content does this is addressed in the following paragraph.

The piece starts off by introducing the problem, which is the risk of the up and coming food crisis in the Sahel region of Africa. It gives statistics regarding the number of people who are at a risk of facing a food crisis, and compares them with the numbers from previous years, then explaining why they are acting early on the issue. The situation in Sahel is then explained in great detail along with some alarming statistics, followed by the steps Oxfam are planning to take to address the situation in specific countries. The text is concluded through the statement that preventing future crisis would require action to address the root causes and provide long-term support to the vulnerable groups.
Here, the key idea is informing people about the situation in Africa, along with how it requires early action. This theme of acting early to address the root cause helps in developing the tone immensely.

Being informative, this article also has an urgent tone. This is strongly reflected in the language used.
Necessity to take immediate action is shown in the diction of the introductory paragraphs, which leads to a development in an urgent tone. Some examples are phrases like '..enabling action months earlier than in previous crises...' and '... investing now in earlier and cost-effective solutions...'. Information is presented to the reader in the form of crude statistical numbers, which ensures that information gets across to the viewer without breaking urgency in the text. By using phrases like '... we can work to break the hunger cycle in the Sahel.' and '...vulnerable populations can be protected from the worst impacts...', Oxfam wants to plant the seeds of confidence that even some action by the reader can help to address the situation in Africa. In the few paragraphs that follow the introduction, it describes the dark situation in Africa. Phrases like 'low rainfall',  'poor harvests' and 'lack of pasture' paint a bleak picture in the viewer's head. This sad tone alerts the reader and helps in developing the overall urgent mood. The statistics are then given, ensuring that the urgent tone is not overlooked. After this, Oxfam states what they are doing to address this situation and what they want to do, which leads to the development of an urgent and philanthropic mood. The development of the tone in this text is one reason for its effectiveness. The eager tone in the introductory paragraphs, coupled with the you can tone in the body, and the informative conclusion all leads to creating an urgent, philanthropic and positive mood.

This text uses literary devices, namely ethos, pathos and logos to a large effect which are scattered throughout the text. First off, logos, which is appeal to logic, is used in this text as a lot of statistics are given to persuade the reader to support Oxfam's efforts. For example, the text starts off with the statistic that 12 million people across West and Central Africa are facing a food crisis. This statistic makes the reader visualise the region as one with many food problems, hence supporting Oxfam's main purpose of raking in donations. Statistics like these lie throughout the text, to stiffen the reader's understanding of the magnitude of problems in the Sahel region of Africa. Most of the statistics are presented in percentage format, which makes it easier to show the drastic need for addressing the issue.
Pathos, which is appeal to emotion, is also used widely. For example, the personal pronoun 'we' is used in the following way: '...we can work to break the hunger cycle...', which prompts the reader to take some action regarding the issue. But if the reader doesn't do it, he will feel guilty, which is exactly what the article wants to achieve. Pathos is also coupled with logos to provide a drastic impact, which is made further lasting due to the fact that it is in one of the final sentences. The line '... provide longer-term support for the poorest people in a region where 300000 children die from malnutrition related diseases in a non-crisis year.' is very effective. It plays with the readers emotions, implicitly stating that if you don't help, 300,000 children will die every year. This coupled with the statistic that 300000 children die every year due to food scarcity creates a lasting impact on the reader, due to which the reader will feel more obliged to help than otherwise.
Pathos is effectively used as well, as Oxfam establishes itself by stating the steps it is taking, and the steps it is planning to take. In the text, it is stated that Oxfam have started a co-op vegetable gardens program for 1300 women. Also, it states how it has already started helping the vulnerable groups across the Gorgol and Brakhna regions already. These statements further support Oxfam in establishing itself as an effective charity, which will in turn persuade the reader to help them in some way.
The text also uses imagery to a certain effect, with phrases like 'low water levels', 'lack of pasture' and 'high food prices', which paint a picture of poverty and uncertainty for the future. This also helps in appealing to the readers emotion, as they would find it compelling to do something to address the issue.

The structure of this text also plays a part in its effectiveness. It starts off with a picture of a very thin person on the back of a horse, captioned 'Sahel region of West and Central Africa may face a serious flood crisis in 2012'. The image of the thin person gives the reader an impression of what they are about to read. The by-line here is:" The humanitarian response must tackle the underlying cause of crises like this to prevent them from recurring." Before the reader even starts reading the text, they know that it is about the response to the food crisis in Sahel, which makes it more effective than it would have been otherwise. In addition to that, the text is divided into sub-divisions and further into very brief paragraphs, which makes it easier for the reader to skim through the text. The briefness of the paragraphs may also keep the attention of the reader, as not everyone in todays world likes reading long texts, which they have to do since they intend to gather more resources. The first paragraph is in bold, which states a lot of crucial statistics about this particular situation. Making it bold captures the attention of the reader for a longer period of time. These statistics will also be at the back of their mind while they go through the article, reinforcing why they should take action to address this situation.

After analysing this text in depth, we have now found out how Oxfam tries to persuade its readers carefully through the language used. The strong appeal to people, careful development of tone and effective creation of mood, and finally the structure of this text makes it persuade with ease. Hence, we see how the real purpose behind this article is not only to inform people about this dark situation, but also how they should take action to address it: by helping the effective charity, Oxfam.