This is one of those instances when suicide sounds more exciting and full of possibilities than hanging in the dorm with rowdy 18 year old kids, who have nothing better to do than chase one another up and down the stairs, then around the perimeter of the outside sidewalk. Am I the only person around that recognizes the immaturity of these fools and openly detests it? Some comment that I'm "too grown" for my own good. There is humor in that one.
Maybe the Jamaican guy that operates the CARE lab (also known as study hall) calls me "Lady" for a reason. However, I'm of the opinion that Old Lady is so much more accurate.
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This is a great day. The first paper written and turned in by me for a college class was returned about fifteen minutes ago. Whether or not the professor and TAs took it easy on their students or not, I scored a 98 A and am damn proud of it. Though it is not masterpiece work, the following is my paper. :)
Alisha Morgan
July 12, 2004
Things Fall Apart: Applying Lecture Concepts
“That the value of the world,” Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, “lies in our interpretation; ... that every elevation of man brings with it the overcoming of narrower interpretations; that every strengthening and increase of power opens up new perspectives and…means believing in new horizons—this idea permeates my writings” (330). Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is documentation of another author whose keen sense acknowledges the social constructions created by men and the conflicts that arise when meaning lacks a definition consensually agreed on. Most evidently, the clash between Umuofia’s community and the Europeans serves as a primary source for differing views between two peoples, with one example of language barriers, which displays each group’s inability to comprehend the other’s actions. The concept of power is also a central idea of the story, defining many sources of social audience and the depth of influence each has, creating a struggle between the others and the self; black against white, religion facing religion; family verses family, community battling against community. Interpretation distorts the meanings assigned by both social groups—Umuofia’s clan and the Europeans with their followers—and each believe their interpretations are the only truth.
There is a clear definition of what Umuofia’s people stand for—hard working, god fearing, family oriented, and praising of masculinity—and it is this definition which binds every life within the village together. It is not until Europeans penetrate the land that the inhabitants of Umuofia encounter a religion, government, language, and way of living unlike any they previously encountered. Arrogantly and with cunning, the whites infiltrate the village in the name of God, maintaining that thousands of years traditional living is wrong. The whites do not believe that they are causing any harm to the clan; rather, they construct that the Umuofia people gain drastic improvements. Missionaries interpret Christianity as the right religion because it is their religion and for no other reason. By attracting the younger generation of clan members, the church grows in numbers as well as bias, and though the non-converts do not agree with the Christian ways, they are allowed to exist without much violent confrontation from villagers. With the rise of Christianity comes the installment of other typical European rule, which includes a government supported by religion, and consequently gains the trust of converts whom have little knowledge of the legal system themselves.
The foreign government formed for the so-called sake of the natives, though it too ignores the many decades of law maintained by each individual clan, mimics the mentality of the missionaries—it does not matter if Umuofia’s people comprehend the law as long as they abide by it, even if it goes against their customs or beliefs. The case of Aneto, for example, displays the clash of laws enforced between the two set of people on a simple matter of land. After killing a man over land he claimed as his, Aneto fled his home, but was captured and hanged by the white man’s government, who declared such an act of murder unlawful. The meaning of law-and-order is lost between the many differences, beginning with language. The white man cannot convey his direct meaning when he requires a translator unfamiliar with much of Umuofia’s background, therefore he is ill equipped to enforce law and government that cannot even relay a proper explanation and outline of what is right and what is wrong. In return, the whites cannot understand that by murdering Oduche, Aneto seals his fate of death because he spilled a brother’s blood on the fatherland, which all of Umuofia understands as a crime against the gods. Their only retaliation is death and death he found—by the pale hands of lawmakers. This ignorance moves Obierika to state, “The white man is very cleaver. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart” (Achebe 176).
While the last of what Umuofia once was crumbles to the ground, one examines the power that slashed it down and is appalled in finding the disregard for a culture deserving of preservation. However, knowledge of social audiences and social construction contend that society will follow the path plowed over and through tradition, language, and religion by the highest and most authoritative power; it is easier to join the crowd than occupy time with self-made amusement. Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart specifically to depict issues of right-and-wrong, and the superiority of the assumed correct positions; he intended to describe the continuous web of power struggle, diversified indifference to other’s beliefs, as well as the sadness felt in parting with what one knew once so well but transformed with the times into something wholly different. The final meaning of Achebe’s fictional world cannot find a clear, concise meaning for “…previous interpretations have been perspective valuations by virtue of which we can survive in life…The world with which we are concerned is false…; it is an ‘in flux,’ as something in a state of becoming, as a falsehood always changing but never getting near the truth: for—there is no ‘truth’” (Nietzsche 330).
References
Achebe,
Chinua. Things Fall Apart. 1959.
Chiricos,
Ted. “Diversity: The Cultural
Relativity of Meaning.”
Nietzsche,
Friedrich. The Will To Power. Trans. Walter Kaufmann and R. J.
Hollingdale.
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