What is your impression of Okonkwo so far? What is his personality like? What are his attributes and faults?

Things Fall Apart is a novel that was written on 1958 by the Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. Chinua Achebe is known for making most of his works on English, but with that special African touch. His works center mostly on African or even Nigerian plots, which makes his works more interesting because we can know about his culture, traditions and people. Starting to read this novel, the main character is Okonkwo, which is a respected warrior from the Iguedo clan and other nine villages. 

From what we have read on class(until chapter seven) Okonkwo is a respected and powerful man. Because his dad, Unoka, was an unsucccessful man which Okonkwo was ashamed and even he hated him, he decided to be different from him and start living differently than his father. In the book it says that "he everything that his father Unoka had loved". So, if his father loved gentlenes, idleness, and had fear of violence, Okonkwo was very brave and do not fear wars, and also was very aggresive. Another important aspect is that he won a battle against Amalinze "The Cat" and since then, he won respect from other villagers. He is recognized for being like a war leader, and for not having pitty among other people they fight. From this, we can say that one of his attributes is that, because he likes fighting and go to war, is pretty powerful on the village and one of the persons that the villagers have respect. So, his attributes that I have seen so far is that he is a great fighter and is one of the major factors that other villages respect Iguedo. 

However, we been seen that Okonkwo has faults due to the fear of failure and of weakness that his father once had. One of his main faults is that he is extremely aggresive. In the book says that he liked to punch people, even if he had no reason to do it. Maybe it was the pressure of not showing his real feelings and one of the ways to take them out was hitting people. Another fault that we have seen is that he is cruel with people around him. For example, Ikemefuna was like an "adopted" child from Okonkwo, because he was from another clan, but when the decree comes to tell that Ikemefuna must die, Okonkwo lies to him and told him that he was going home. At the end, Okonkwo(having the fond that he was having for Ikemefuna) kills him with his macheteWith this, we can conclude that Okonkwo may not demostrate his real feelings, and that was the reason for him to be a cruel, extremely manly and aggresive man. 


In my opinion, Things Fall Apart  is a novel that is different from others: it represents, in a clear way, how the Africans and in this case, in the Iguedo clan, live during the  colonization era. Okonkwo, is the main character of the story and Achebe demonstrates us from the beggining how this man behaves and how is his personality. Maybe it is because, even that we know most about him, he is still mysterious and maybe, can change on one moment his way of being, or maybe that way of being can lead him to his end...

What is the role of oral tradition/literature in Things Fall Apart? Use some examples and explain how they help the story-telling.

Chinua Achebe makes on Things Fall Apart a curious and special way to tell the story of Okonkwo. The role of oral tradition and the literature era are very important to Achebe for his peculiar way of writing. Achebe wants to transmit how Africans pass their oral tradition in his novel. This, by making the story be told by a third person but with a omniscient point of view,like if there where elders of a tribe.

One of the aspects that makes Achebe's novel unique  in his way of writing is the use of African words. By using this, the reader can feel and relate to the oral traditions of Africa. One example is in chapter nine, where Ezinma has fever or iba, and Okonkwo "took his machete and went into the bush to collect the leaves and grasses and barks of trees that went into making the medicine for iba". This kind of parts are the ones that makes the reader go inside the story, because of the context that the novel gives. Another example where it demonstrates the use of African words: " Outside the obi Okagbue and Okonkwo where digging the pitto find where Enzinma has buried ver iyi-uwa". Achebe wants to transmit to his readers the sensation of being part of the tribe, to feel what they think and feel.

Another important aspect about Things Fall Apart is that it gives the context of the 19th Century, of the colonization of Africa. Achebe wants to transmit the African point of view through the storytelling. For example, since the start of the novel, the narrator is  telling how Okonkwo became important on the  village. It is an omniscient narrator and I think it relates to what oral tradition is about, because he is not objective in some parts of the novel but he knows what he wants to transmit to the reader, like an elder that wants their villagers to feel their stories. It is clear that the post-colonialism literature is present on this book, even that he wrote it on 1958.

Things Fall Apart is a novel that, in my opinion, is the antithesis of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness for many reasons, and one of them is the African oral tradition that is present through all the novel. His way of writing, even that is in English, transmits his African way of telling stories and, it is clear that he wants to proof that Africans tell stories way different than Europeans or Americans.

Compare and contrast Poe and Conrad (in so far as we have read Conrad).

 During this new semester, we have seen in class two different authors from different Eras: Edgar Allan Poe and Joseph Conrad. Edgar Allan Poe is well known for his short stories, but also for introducing the British horror stories and detective stories to American literature. On the other hand, Joseph Conrad was a person that lived on three different countries, and is known for his novel Heart of Darkness. Even that Conrad and Poe are different on their writing style, they share some themes and motifs on their respective works.

Edgar Allan Poe emphasizes his stories on revenge and baseness, but Conrad highlights themes like slavery and the idea of what is civilized and not. Edgar Allan Poe, in his short stories makes the principal character to revenge against another character in order to reestablish a “natural order”. On ¨Hop Frog¨, we see that the main character wants to kill the dumb king for making him humiliations. Joseph Conrad makes the main character on Heart of Darkness to start telling a story on how he went to Congo and to tell about slavery and the civilization there. When Marlow was telling how he became Captain, he recalls a story from Captain Fresleven, who was in charge of the Africans but due to a lack of patience, he hurts the chief from the African Village and his son, trying to save his father, kills the Captain. Comparing them, the two of this situations (Poe’s stories and Conrad’s novel) have murder, but one is really intentioned and the other it was just for pure defense of individuals. So, maybe there are alike on some themes, but they focus on different perspectives.

Another point about Conrad and Poe is the way they represent this idea of darkness in their works. Edgar Allan Poe represents darkness as something evil, madness, and it can be related in many of his stories with murder. For example, on “The Pit and the Pendulum”, the main character is on a type of prison where sometimes is very dark, representing that way of being nearly dying and suffering. On the other hand, Conrad has this idea of darkness as the unknown, mystery and also we can say fear about something or somewhere. The clear example is the title of the book Heart of Darkness, where later the main character will have fear saying that being inside the jungle will be like being on a “heart of darkness”. Even that they expose different kinds of darkness, the two of them can represent opposite sides of it: civilized versus the uncivilized, good versus bad, instincts versus reason; also both play an important part of their works.

Joseph Conrad and Edgar Allan Poe works can seem so far different, but on some aspects they are alike. Even that some themes are quite different, we can relate them and see that they both expose detailed situations and make the readers to let out their instincts or their sensitive part of them. Also, both of them center on same ideas or motifs, but they represent them on different ways. As from what we have read in class, we can conclude that not only because they were from different Eras or from different countries, does not mean that some authors can have similarities. Because as humans, we might not exactly be like others, but we share something in common: that we keep learning to understand each other.  

Why does Poe choose these themes and motifs?

“Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality”. This quote was from the poet and a short story writer Edgar Allan Poe. He is recognized for introducing the British horror story, the Gothic genre, to American literature from the nineteenth-century. For knowing the perceptions of this author, as a reader you have to not only read because of loving horror stories, but for comprehending that for Poe, humanity is more that we see. Edgar Allan Poe chooses certain themes and motifs for making the reader understand his perspective of the real human nature.

The themes that Poe puts on his stories was on the purpose of understanding the lack of self-control of the human being. One of them is the madness that their characters show from wanting revenge from another character, in order to feel sane. For example, on “Hop Frog” the main character wants to kill the king and the other 7 men because of the madness that he had inside. By killing them, he revenges from other humiliations that they make to him and Trippetta. Another theme that Poe uses constantly on his short stories is baseness. On his short stories, he makes their characters to drive crazy and to make what their uncivilized part tells them to do: to commit murder, or to become insane. A based character of Edgar Allan Poe has no regard for others, and he or she only have interest on their own. Madness, revenge and baseness are themes that Poe uses frequently to show that on the right moment and time, we do not have control over ourselves and we have to do what our passions want us to do.

Moreover the themes that he uses, one important essence of his stories are the multiple and singular motifs that makes his works so unique. Death is one of the most important motifs of their stories. His horror stories are a clear example of this motif: in most of his stories, one of the characters ends dead because another character kills him or her due to his insanity. Besides most of his horror stories, Poe also included these motif on their detective stories, in order to make the reader understand that death(wanting it or not) is part of the life cycle and that one day, every one of us is going to reach that point, the end. Another motif of Poe’s stories are animals. On some of his stories, like “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, he introduces real animals as murderers, like the ourang-outang that killed the two women. But, on most of his stories, he makes the humans comport like real animals, and that is some interesting aspect that the reader notice. By these motifs, the people that read his stories comprehend the real message of what he is trying to transmit.

Poe, by the use of some specific themes and motifs on his short stories, achieves catching the reader and making him or her comprehend that human nature is something more complex that they imagine. Humans are not only logical and reasonable, we still have flaws and commit mistakes, but now a days (and also when Edgar Allan Poe lived) society want people to behave a certain way, forgetting that we still are animals and as them, we have passions that can lead to our real interests and desires. But fortunately, by reading his short stories, we can be conscious that on some point of our lives, on the right moment and time, we can really go unreasonable and mad and we will not have control of that. As Neal Shusterman says “One thing you learn when you’ve lived as long as I have-people aren’t all good, and people aren’t all bad. We move in and out of darkness and light all of our lives.” In other words, everyone is searching their own happiness and safety regardless of another people's feelings; because eventually, everyone must live as they want to live his or her journey in life.

What have you liked/disliked so far about Margaret Atwood? Why? Explain what you have learned about post-modernism. How does postmodernism relate to Margaret Atwood?

On this past week, we had been reading some examples of post-modernism short stories that can make us, as class, have a better idea of the post-modern theory with the basic elements. Also on this past week, we read some of Margaret Atwood's work, based on some anecdotes and essays that she wrote; Margaret Atwood is a Canadian poet, novelist and essayist. 

We read her "Letter to America", which impressed me a lot because now-a-days few people really express what they feel about some country like the U.S.. Although Atwood is Canadian, she wrote this to point out how America has been changing through the years due to actions made by other nations. I think that one of the things that I like of Atwood is the way she is sincere in her works, she is not afraid to be "rebel" by writing all that she feels or thinks is right. This letter in specific describes this perfectly, because like U.S., our society has changed so much, and we do not know how they are in reality. Also, we read her "Tour-de-farce", which I really like because she tells the story the way she would tell it to a friend or a known person; she uses literary devices related to one literary theory named post-modernism like pastiche, self-awareness, deconstruction, subversion, etc. On the other hand, something that I do not like about the Canadian writer is the use of some words that I do not understand  (maybe, are from Canada) and that leads me to stop the writing and look up for the word(thing that it is not bad, but like stops me from the fluidity of my reading. 

Reading Margaret Atwood means that, in part, we are also learning about post-modernism. The post-modernism theory we have been seeing it about two weeks ago, but our teacher makes us read some examples and puts us some videos for our better understanding. I have learned that post-modernism is to go out of the usual, to be "rebel" about all the past theories (like modernism) and put something different on it or re-order it . Some basic elements of the post-modernism theory are self-awareness, which are: subversion, that is reacting against a certain system or being rebel; deconstruction is having certain stuff or knowledge and tear it apart to built new knowledge or stuff; self-awareness is, for example, that characters know are characters; intertextuality is referencing many texts or authors to a literary work and finally pastiche is bringing different elements from different things and stories. Our teacher tells us that post-modernism is not only on literature, is on art, on movies, on architecture and also on our daily life, when we change something of make something out of different things. I think that I am liking this post-modern theory, is different from the others and really transmits something to the readers. 

Relating Margaret Atwood with post-modernism, I think that this Canadian writer has elements of post-modernism in her works. I discover that in the works that we saw this week, she uses a lot of the literary device subversion, which make her stay out of the usual and that is (to my opinion) something characteristic in her and what attracts the reader. Also, being post-modern is to be different by making something that is against the system and Atwood expresses her ideals, dreams, anecdotes, and feelings with the help of this theory. I am really liking post-modernism, and personally, I think that for being successful in life you have to be like post-modernism... different from the rest! 

Pd. I know is in Spanish, but you cannot deny it is very post-modern! :D

More poems of John Donne. Opinion and identification of literary devices.

On the past weeks, we have being seeing more poems of John Donne that were pretty interesting for us to analyze them and find out that Donne was not always thinking about sexual stuff or was always super religious. First of all, Donne also has his nice and cute part, talking about themes of love and remaining in love. He talks on some of his poems about being in love, what love means for him and her beloved one and together, they can reach spirituality.

 Also, we found out that Donne defends in one of his poems, the love that he shares with her beloved one. As we saw on the presentations and the analysis of Donne's poems, he was, at the beginning of his long life, making poems about young and innocent love and the power that it has.In my opinion, now I have a different perspective of John Donne because I thought he was a very sexual man and on the other hand, that he also talked about religious things that in his time were important for him and the people of London. Some of the literary devices that I found on his poems were enjambments,cesuras, anaforas, epiforas,and most of the time he uses conceits and his wit for making paradoxes and antithesis. 

What aspects of "Satire III" didyou find appealing, interesting if any? How? Why? What did you learn about John Donne the man, not the poet, as we studied "Satire III?" Comment on any aspect you wish about your experience with "Satire III."

In this past weeks we have being seeing "Satire III" by John Donne, which is one of the longest poems I have ever seen and analyzed in my life. Even that it was long, it was pretty interesting the theme that he was mentioning: seeking the truth. Some things that I found interesting in the poem was that he relates his poem with many personalities of different religions and takes the reader to have and idea about the religion he is talking. Another aspect that I found interesting in the poem was all the enjambents that he puts and for analyzing, it is kind of tricky because enjambents,can change the meaning of all the verse.

As reading and analyzing "Satire III", we discovered that John Donne was a frustrated man that, maybe, did not feel like having a real religion or did not was sure about the religion he was following. Because, when he was a child and as a teenager, he was catholic but as time went by, he changed his religion to the Anglican. I think that John Donne did not found the real truth in the two religions or in another religion that he would consider, because in "Satire III" he expressed that frustration of not finding the true religion or the truth that can take us to heaven or with God. 

I believe that, like John Donne, all of us pass to that point in our lives when we are in search of the truth, or the "real" religion that can make us fulfilled and happy. "Satire III", is a poem that has a lot of rhetoric figures that make the poem have double meanings, thing that is characteristic of John Donne. This poem make me reflect about life, about the real truth because although I do not doubt about my religion like John Donne, maybe I have not found the real truth that can make me real happy for believing in God completely. Even if there are two different eras, I think that his poem is the expression of many man that seek the truth about life and religion.