Blog Post Report #2
A similar belief that death is not a singularly defined state of being is present in both Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. This idea is illustrated in Slaughterhouse Five following Billy Pilgrim’s letters to the newspaper describing to humans the Tralfmadorian truth that death is not an end, rather the person would exist in the past and as such still be considered alive. The Second example from Slaughterhouse Five would be when Billy Pilgrim is examining a child in the optometrist office and attempts to educate the child his father isn’t dead. An example from Things Fall Apart that strongly suggests a belief in life after death would be when Ekwefi, Okonkwo’s wife, implores death itself to let her latest child stay in life with her. A final example would be when a medicine man in the village known for his knowledge tells Okonkwo of ogbanje children, the cause of the constant fatal misfortunes of Ekwefi regarding her children that continue to die.
In my first quote from Slaughterhouse Five(SHF) we will look at the passage that demonstrates Billy Pilgrim’s revelation of Tralfmadorian belief regarding death. In this passage Billy states that, “The most important thing I learned on Tralfmadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist” (Vonnegut 33-34). In this passage Billy defines death by what he was told by the Tralfmadorians, or aliens when he visited them. Not only does Billy state his belief in various states of being regarding time, but also when one dies, he is alive in another time, and never truly can be considered dead. This leads into a belief system incorporated by multiple states of existence thus multiple instances of deaths might occur or already have occurred to his person.
Another example is when Billy is examining a boy in his office whose father was said to have died in Vietnam. In the passage it states that while Billy “Examined the boy’s eyes, Billy told him matter-of-factly about his adventures on Tralfmadore, assured the fatherless boy that his father was very much alive still in moments the boy would see again and again” (Vonnegut 172). In this instance, Billy is again using this Tralfmadorian term of existence or un-death, suggesting to the boy that he will see his father in the past when he travels during his life through time. By that line of reasoning again this demonstrates in this book concerning Billy Pilgrim, there is no death, not in a final sense.
Now we will look at examples from Chinua Achebe’s book Things Fall Apart regarding similar beliefs regarding states of existence where death is not as singularly defined. In one instance Ekwefi, pleads with death literally by the names she gave her children. In the passage it explains Ekwefi in her “Deepening despair found expression in the names she gave her children. One of them was a pathetic cry, Onwumbiko— “Death, I implore you.” But Death took no notice; Onwumbiko died in his fifteenth month” (Achebe 77). Ekwefi is very literally trying to bargain or gain pity from death itself, as a form or presence in this case, something that can decide to let a child stay in the world of the living if it wants. In instance this demonstrates another example of death not being a singularly defined state to the characters, in this case Ekwefi.
Another example is when Okonkwo is told of what was happening regarding their child misfortunes by a diviner of the Afa oracle. In this passage, “This man told him that the child was an ogbanje, one of those wicked children who, when they died, entered their mothers’ wombs to be born again” (Achebe 77). This is another definition of what it means to be dead, separate from the last because the child itself is aware of its temporary death state, and goes to its mother’s womb to be born and die again, tormenting its mother. They view ogbanje as a human wicked spirit, with harmful intent in this version of existence after death.
Most of my illustrations I feel have demonstrated a similarity in their diversity regarding definitions of death not being a permanent state of existence in these stories, and even as a physical presence. I feel the authors set out to highlight the cultural dualisms in each stories case, attempting highlight a higher state of existence within the confines of their respective stories universes. The idea of existence post death is certainly an attractive one, and the diverse ways these authors went about it was very interesting to see examined and discussed.
-Josh N
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse Five. Dial Press Trade. 2009.
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Anchor Books, A Division of Random House, Inc. 1994.
In my own words feminism would be the equal rights to women and men. However, women do not always get equal rights and they are often stereotyped. I think in “The Story of an Hour” you could relate some of Mrs. Mallards choices to feminism. It says in out textbook “How to Interpret Literature”, on page 154, “a feminist interpretation depends not so much on the characters themselves as on the broader social contexts that shape how we process the characters.
I interpreted some of Mrs. Mallards choices to feminism because of what I have heard and learned growing up in the world and what has happened around me. There has always been stereotypes to feminism and people assume that some women are not as strong as they may seem to be, simple because, they are women. In “The Story of an Hour” Mrs. Mallard may seem to be weak because of her choices.
Mrs. Mallard gets news that her husband dies during a railroad disaster. At first, we don’t know how she feels about his death. She goes into her room and it seems that she is sad. Which is how you would think a wife would react to her husband’s death. She sinks into her chair, but then it starts talking about “new spring life”, and “delicious breath of rain was in in the air”. You start to wonder why the author, Kate Chopin started to describe these things as positive. Then it goes back to Mrs. Mallard who then seems sad again stating she was “motionless”, “as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams”.
Then she abandons herself. And she starts saying “free, free, free!” The readers wonder what is going on at this point. Why does Mrs. Mallard say she is free? Then it appears she is scared that she feels free. Then it says at the end of the paragraph, “She saw beyond that bitter moment a long possession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely.” Which got me thinking, she may not have been happy to be married to Brently Mallard.
Several reasons that Mrs. Mallard may not have been happy in her relationship can be related to feminism. I related it to women being stereotyped that we are nothing without a man. Maybe that is how Mrs. Mallard felt. That her marriage with Mr. Mallard ruled her life and she was not her own person, she was only known as his wife.
Throughout the story it uses adjectives to describe things as if she was trapped. It also states in the story that Mrs. Mallard had dies of heart disease, “The joy that kills.” Earlier on that same page it says, “she breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.” This reminds me that she felt like she was in a prison sentence when married to Mr. Mallard. When he dies she felt free, that is why she whispered to herself, “free, free, free!”
This story could relate a lot to feminism because of the relationship going on with Mr. and Mrs. Mallard. From the sounds of it, she is not happy in her marriage. It could be due to stereotype with women and feminism. We do not know what exactly was going in in the relationship before the story, however, we might assume that it was not a happy one. No women should be happy that her husband dies. Especially so happy, she died from the joy she felt from his death.
Mattisyn Woods
Parker, Robert Dale. "How to Interpret Literature." Oxford University Press. 2015.
Blog Report #2
For this blog report I will be focusing on the idea of agency from the literary theory of Marxism in comparison to the actions of the main character, Okonkwo, from Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The idea of agency is the ability to make things happen (Parker 235). From this idea sprouts the actions of Okonkwo. Okonkwo is a man that is willing to make things happen for the betterment of himself and his people. However, from this willingness to work and prosper, also leads to Okonkwo’s’ downfall from his fatherland in the killing of the ill-fated boy, Ikemefuna.
Okonkwo has a hard life due to his father not holding any titles making him become more feminine and leading to Okonkwo’s root toward agency, the fear of becoming like his father (Achebe 13). Okonkwo had to work for his farm and everything he had, even going to the wealthiest man in the village just to ask for starter yams (21). Okonkwo’s agency to work and his personal achievements brought forth the fame and respect that he sought for. However, when the time came for Ikemefuna (the sacrifice) to be killed, weakness was not an option for Okonkwo.
Ikemefuna was a normal boy that was made to become a sacrifice due to a murder of another man’s wife in Okonkwo’s village. Ikemefuna ended up staying three years in Okonkwo’s compound and from that a development of a father-son bond was founded. Yet when the time had come to sacrifice Ikemefuna, Okonkwo was warned of what may come from the oldest man in Umuofia, Ogbuefi Exeudu. Ogbuefi told Okonkwo, “That boy call you father; Do not bear a hand in his death…I want you to have nothing to do with it [killing Ikemefuna]; He calls you his father” (57). Even though warned, Okonkwo had an agency to make his actions known and to not show weakness as his father had done; however, in completing the act of murdering his “son” turned out to be Okonkwo’s fall from grace.
Even though Okonkwo exceled in life due to his agency to be better than his father, it also brought forth his own exile as he accidental feminine murder one of Ogbuefi Exeudu’s own son at Exeudu’s funeral (124). In light of the irony, Okonkwo is stripped away of everything that he owns and gained (such as his titles) and flees to his mother’s village for seven years (124). From his need to be unlike his father, Okonkwo in turn slowly becomes like him.
Jessica Fehrman
Blog Report #2
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart follows an African culture far different than anything I am used to in my everyday life.
The first cultural difference is the war based lifestyle. The tribe they belong to, Umuofia, appears to be a very violent tribe. We can see proof of this when a daughter of Umuofia was murdered and the “crowd then shouted with anger and thirst for blood” (Achebe 11). Thirst for blood. The diction used here pushes the idea that Umuofia is a very vengeful, angry tribe. I was raised with a lot of love in my house. Peace and grace were thrown around like confetti when mistakes were made or when someone did something wrong. This tribe is very different in the way they react than the culture I was brought up in.
Another cultural difference is having multiple wives. Main character Okonkwo has three wives of his own and eight children. Having multiple wives is looked down upon in the society and subculture I grew up in, you are to marry your one and only “soulmate” and they are your one life partner, so reading this novel where the men have first, second, and third wives and that this is an expected and ubiquitous thing to have happen there is quite an interesting adjustment.
While there are numerous differences in culture throughout this novel, one more in particular stands out to me; that is sacrifices/death sentences as punishment for wrong doing. As punishment for the murder of a daughter of Umuofia, innocent Ikemefuna was to be sacrificed in order to make peace for the wrong that was committed by his father. I relate this to our modern-day death sentence, which isn’t used as a common form of punishment anymore. Typically, when a person commits a crime, jail is the result. And jailtime is presented upon the person who committed the crime, not the son or spouse or anybody besides that person. Individuality waves through our culture in America and everyone makes their own decisions and accepts their own consequences, they are not passed down or taken by someone else.
This novel is quite the fascinating read for me simply because of all the differences that have come up. It is quite interesting to think about how differently a person would read and interpret this novel if they were from an African tribe themselves or any other culture.
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. A Division of Random House Inc. New York.
Anna Newman