...your ruins would you? Okonkwo gets himself into this exact situation, Okonkwo is a strong, prideful village man who loses everything that he has worked for all his life. He struggles through a series of events to maintain his status and dominance, unfortunately, he does not succeed and ends up committing suicide. In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo’s prideful behaviors and reckless actions led to his downfall, but still, the Christian missionaries would have inevitably aided in Okonkwo and his clan’s demise. Okonkwo’s prideful behaviors is one factor that led him to his doom. When Okonkwo...
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...Things Fall Apart “Unlike his father he could stand the look of blood.” Okonkwo could not stand his father for he was a debtor and a liar for he said, he will pay the debts he owed back but never did he do this. He then borrowed more and more money from the people putting him so far in debt that he would surely die before paying it. Okonkwo looked at his own father as a piece of scrap that meant nothing to anyone no one cared about Unoka. “Okonkwo's father.” Unoka being the man he is, Okonkwo feared nothing more than to be like his father, he feared it so much that he actually became abusive. “Okonkwo ruled his house with a heavy hand.” Okonkwo has to be aggressive to his family because he fears being like his father. If Okonkwo shows...
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... Faith is an important part of life because it gives people something to believe in and hope for. In the story “Night” by Elie Wiesel, the main character, Elie, has to learn how to survive the Holocaust. Throughout the the story, he faces hardships and daunting challenges that almost cost him his life. By examining the novel “Night”, we can see that faith is the key to survival, which is important because those who do not have faith often lose focus of the importance of surviving. Elie survives because he has faith. He believes God will save them from a terrible fate. In the story he says, “Oh God, Lord of the Universe, take pity on us in Thy great mercy…”(29) This quote shows that Elie wants God to save him and his people from the atrocious Hungarian police and impending future. Although Elie’s faith decreased and increased throughout the story, he still managed to make it out alive. Rabbi Eliahou’s son does not survive because of his lack of faith. The son has no faith that his father can keep up with the crowd. In the story it says, “A terrible thought loomed up in his mind: he had wanted to get rid of his father! He had felt that his father was growing weak, he had believed that the end was near and had sought this separation in order to get rid of the burden, to free himself from an encumbrance which could lessen his chances of survival.” This quote shows that the son thought of his father as a burden that would hold him back and get him killed so, he felt that he had to...
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...Okonkwo A Tragic Hero Okonkwo's fortune really helped him become a tragic h Is Okonkwo from Things Fall Apart a tragic hero who dies at the end of the story.There are many ways that Okonkwo can be a tragic hero. Can Okonkwo and these three ways peripeteia,superiority, and his hamartia make him his own tragic hero in his life,village,or story. ero. From his farm to his titles he became a tragic hero of fortune. Okonkwo's farm helped him make fortune by his yams. His yams had stocked him up for the winters and he could also help his friends. Another way he has fortune is his wives. Okonkwo has three wives and with this he seems to have fortune to be able to have three wives to support.The last way okonkwo has fortune...
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...Making the Connection Can the actions of the father effect your family? In the stories Notes of a Native Son, Killings, Under the Influence, and All Over but the Shoutin the father makes all of the difference in the lives of the people around him. Whether the father is a drunk, never there or just a horrible parent, it effects the children’s lives in all types of ways. The father figure in a family can either make or break a family in the stories Notes of a Native Son, Killings, Under the Influence, and All Over but the Shoutin. In the story Notes of a Native Son the father figure was in a sense, nonexistent in the family. This was because the son of the father was a second generation free slave so the son earned everything he earned and the father almost taught him nothing. Some fathers are there in their children’s lives but do not have an impact and just let the kids be which can either be a good or bad thing for the children. The son admired his father in his looks and how he took care of himself, but never admired how unappreciative his dad was of his skin color even though he was a handsome man. In the story Killings the father played a different role in wanting vengeance for his son’s death. There was nothing wrong with their family and the kids had everything going for them as they completed college and were going into graduate school. The father took it really hard when a less fortunate man decide to take his son’s life just because he was dating his wife at the...
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...Living a life alone; neglect often leads to such circumstances, it isolates an individual – both the neglected and the one that is neglecting. This is exemplified in the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Illustarted by themes such as guilt and redemption, negligence is seen in Baba’s relationship with others, Amir’s relationship with Hassan, and Amir’s struggle to undo the damages done by his negligence. This illustrates that, “Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike.” (Rowling). Self-hatred is the damage that is caused by Baba’s actions of neglect. By neglecting Hassan’s right to know the truth, and by not showing him fatherly love – Baba betrays his own son. As a result, his actions of neglect are met by guilt and self-hatred. In Rahim Khan’s letter to Amir, Baba’s negligence towards Hassan is portrayed. “Your father was a man torn between two halves, Amir jan: you and Hassan. He loved you both, but he could not love Hassan the way he longed to, openly and as a father.” (Hosseini 301).This portrays the fact that Baba’s negligence takes the form of a misportrayal of love towards his son. Although he wants to show his love to Hassan and Amir equally, his social status restricts him from doing so. As a result, he neglects Hassan from the knowledge of his real father, and from fatherly love. As a result, these actions of negligence cause Baba immense damage in the form of guilt and self-hatred. Self-hatred and guilt is not the only damage...
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...The construct of self-concept can be defined as the relatively stable set of perceptions you hold of yourself (Interplay pg.70). Meaning-so, self-concept is how you view yourself, and present yourself as an individual; your identity and what makes you, you. Reggie Davis holds himself as a broken man who is eager for a better existence, but held up in anger that he cannot express. These ideas are visible when the other characters tell the audience about Reggie’s past. Elliot describes a scene while in the courtroom, mid-custody dispute, of how Reggie would refer to himself in his texts messages to Elliot's daughter. Reggie had portrayed himself as a “street nigger,” a hard, offensive, black man. In the present day, Reggie’s self-concept...
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...One way CHinua Achebe uses details conveys tone in the novel “ Things Fall Apart” is when he says, “If a child washed his hands he could eat with kings. Okonkwo had clearly washed his hands and so he ate with kings and elders.” At first glance this doesn't seem like much of a sentence, but it carries a strong meaning. The phrased ” washed his hands” is what Okonkwo had to do. His father died with a bad reputation and achieved nothing. Okonkwo had risen above that and became a great man all on his own. He earned respect from the entire village and was able to eat with the most important people of Umuofia. This shows a sort of strong motivational tone . Another way the author uses details to show the tone is from this entry: “He...
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... I believe that Christopher McCandless was not a crazy person, however, he may have been incompetent in the sense that he was unprepared and rash in his decision making. Throughout the novel, the author, Jon Karakauer, explained the life of Chris McCandless and his last journey in the American west. Krakauer describes McCandless’s journey with so much detail and information provided by his loved ones that it’s clear to suggest McCandless was intelligent, stubborn, and unprepared during his lifelong adventure. Throughout the novel, Krakauer pieces together the puzzle that was Christopher McCandless’s life. While most of Chris’s family was in utter confusion and grief as to why Chris would leave without a trace, Krakauer discovered why and truly understood Chris’s reasoning. All of Chris’s life, Chris felt out of place but often enjoyed being alone. Carine, Chris’s sister, told Krakauer of Chris’s antics as a young adult, “The only way he cared to tackle a challenge was head on, right now, applying the full brunt of his extraordinary challenge”. Since he was a child, Chris played various sports and was involved in many6 activities in and out of school. He was often a natural but the traits he inherited from his dad proved to be a great weakness for Chris. He had little patience for perfecting and refining his talents. A teammate of Chris stated that Chris was always hard on himself and the team, which would usually be good but proved to be another one of Chris’s traits that most...
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...Archetypes Seen In The Lion King Throughout the Lion King, the characters are all shown to exhibit different types of archetypes. Archetypes are patterns shown in our instincts that shape the way we act. Simba in the Lion King shows ‘the Hero’ archetype. While Nala has ‘the Herald.’ However, while Timon and Pumbaa are different characters the traits that they show both fit under ‘the Jester’ archetype. In THe Lion King due to the personification of these animals, the characters can fit under these archetypes more clearly. The Lion Kings main protagonist, Simba has the archetype of the hero. In the beginning of the story he wanted to prove himself to be brave and courageous much like his father. He learns many lessons from his father to help...
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... Compare and Contrast HB+A Aristotle once said “Equality consists in the same treatment of similar persons”(‘World of Quotes”) In Harrison Bergeron by kurt Vonnegut and Anthem by Ayn Rand there are two men who are forced by their government to try to be equal. Wearing heavy weights, and a huge nose to make him look ugly, while Equality 7-2521 is made to work in the home of Street Sweepers. Even though he is smart, he is also prohibited from using the word “I”. So they are both prevented from being individuals. Although Anthem and Harrison Bergeron are both a dystopian society their treatment of family and technology differs. If human thought is suppressed, then society is collapses on itself, “The heads of our brothers bowed, The eyes of are brothers are dull and never do they look one another in the eyes. The shoulders of our brothers are hunched and muscles are drawn, as if their bodies were shrinking and wished to shrink out of sight. And a word steals into our mind as we look upon our brothers, as the word is fear” (Rands 46) This quote illustrate that society is already collapsing on itself. The men are lifeless because the council will not allow them to think for themselves. The societies as well are not able to think for themselves for if they do, the council will punish them. Being unable to think makes him or her becoming lifeless. “It was tragic all right, but George and Hazel couldn’t think about it very hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which...
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...there are father and son relationship between several characters in the novel, Okonkwo and is father Unoka and the other relationship is Nwoye and his father Okonkwo. In the novel the relationship between Okonkwo and Unoka was very unique. This led the reader to understand why Okonkwo was the character he was. It is shown from earlier chapters that Okonkwo and his father, Unoka, share many differences but their relationship also owns an underlying message. The author of the novel, Chinua Achebe, included the following saying: “When the mother-cow is chewing grass its young ones watch its mouth.” The saying translates into that a child will have a behavior similar to what his guardians show. How ever Okonkwo show no respect for his father. This is revealed from the quote “he had not been found of his father” (21) Unoka is a very sensitive man and is appreciative of the nature among him. Okonkwo is a total opposite of his dad. Okonkwo always wants to show his power and how he rules his family with an iron hand. Even though Okonkwo has to live with his fathers shame on his name they end up being quite similar based on how they choose to go about conflict....
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...He has denounced everything he has ever known. Impeached the contrivance of his leaders to show his brothers the life they deserve to have. In the story, Anthem by Ayn Rand, it illustrates the strong character, Equality. Equality declaims the leaders of his society “The Council” due to their concealing and cruel ways. Living in a loveless, dark age in the future, he found himself alone. Feeling alone, being what his society would call an “unpardonable sin” because he differed from his mindless brothers. In Anthem by Ayn Rand, “The laws say that none among men may be alone,ever and at any time, for this is the great transgression and the root of all evil”(17). His brothers are always cowering in fear and sadness, making one know Equality was not only doing what was best, but what was best for his brothers, his community, thus even the world. Although Equality denouncing his leader can throw off the balance and scare citizens of his community with shock, if he hadn’t taken a stand his brothers would have continued to be depressed. His brothers are depressed due to being unfairly placed into categories that diminish their abilities in order to keep society from advancing. They place intellectually gifted people in non-intellectual jobs or “houses” and less intellectual people in the home of the scholars and art to keep citizens from finding advanced technology that could change their society in any way. “The Council” acting as a totalitarian society instead of all being “equal”...
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...In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo, the main character is represented as a successful, strong, insensitive, and most honorable tribesmen man. Okonkwo is a man with his own perspective of what being masculine is like. He is one of the most respected men in his village and in the Igbo culture. He is a strong wrestler and a leader. For Okonkwo, being a strong and cruel man is the definition of being masculine. Anything that was a sign of weakness was hated by him. He did not like unsuccessful men, as a matter of fact, he did not like anything that reminded him of his father, Unoka. Showing no emotions was also a characteristic of masculinity for him. Okonkwo was afraid of showing any kind of emotions because revealing any...
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... Symbol Paragraph " I fought growing up so hard. I did not want to grow up." This quotes summarizes Bobby's life. Bobby has a hard time growing up because he is not used to having responsibilities. Having Feather made him become a father and it made him have to take full responsibility for a whole other person, an individual who is too fragile to look after herself. The spray paint that Bobby used on the wall that he tagged represents his emotions. All of the colors that he used on the wall, all represent something. The colors are red,black,green,yellow,and purple. Red represents anger and fear while green represents joy and happiness, and blue represents sadness and frustration. I chose to symbolize Feather for my second symbol. I chose Feather because she symbolizes so many different things. She symbolizes Bobby and Nia's love and Bobby's coming of age. She symbolizes his coming of age because as soon as Nia had Feather, it was like he grew up and stopped acting all childish. Feather also symbolizes the night that Nia gave away her innocence and Bobby's sixteenth birthday. Feather symbolizes Bobby's maturity and the reason why he acts the way he does and why he moved to Heaven Ohio. The trophies that were in the doctor's office symbolize something very important. Trophies symbolize achieving something. Bobby has always wanted to learn how to ski but has never had the time. He will probably never have the time to achieve anything that is super satisfying because...
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