The last chapter started with the district commissioner arriving at Okonkwo’s compound. At Okonkwo’s they had a whole bunch of his friends there sitting around in a circle. They demanded to know where Okonkwo was and they said not here. I figured he ran far away or was hiding somewhere. When the commissioners told them they would kill them if they did not tell them Okierka told them to follow him. They took him to this bush exactly where Okonkwo was hanging from a tree dead! I really was not surprised though I kind of saw if coming from the beginning. Taking your own life though is really not the way to go he could have solved some of his problems if he was not so stubborn. I bet his friends were really disappointed in him especially Okierka. He could not even take him down even though that is not their customs anyway. Plus he got all tongue tied when he was talking about it. I wonder what his family thought about it and what they are going to do now. Ezinma admired and looked up to him for a while. This book ended really weird. It does not even say what happen to the tribe. They were not going to go to war so Okonkwo really had no choice since he knew he would have been killed for what he did anyway. I guess the whole tribe is going to be wiped out now and not exist. They will be over conquered right from under their noses. The very last sentences were very weird. It was like from someone that was going to right just a paragraph on Okonkwo when it took this entire book, which was kind of funny.
This was definitely not one of my favorite books. I really did not like it much at all. It was very informative on Africa, but the whole story line was not that great. Okonkwo was a jerk and ended up killing himself in the end. I really did not like how it ended that much. The very first part of the book was really good. There was a lot of action and emotion but when it got to the second part I hated it mainly because all it dealt with was religion. The whole topic was religion, which got old very fast and was not that interesting. It became hard to keep my attention and it was very confusing. I became irritated how it kept going on and on about nothing and the same thing. I did learn a lot about the African culture though, which was the main goal!
1 comment:
You Wrote:
"This book ended really weird. It does not even say what happen to the tribe. They were not going to go to war so Okonkwo really had no choice since he knew he would have been killed for what he did anyway. "
I agree, I hated the ending of the story. It is not in Okonkwo's character to kill himself. Suicide is a form of weakness, which he despises. Then again, he is confronted with paying for his crime of murder, so we never get to see his last minutes what's going through his mind. Achebe kills him off. You say you saw this coming, but I don't think it's a plausible ending for the character.
Your point is well taken that we never learn of the fate of the tribe, but judging how Colonial rule goes in Africa, we see the after effects for Africa aren't pretty. Chances are the tribe was either wiped out, assimilated to white culture, or relocated. Sad.
As for the book not being one you liked, I won't appologize for that. We didn't read the book to like it. We read the book to learn from it. Sometimes kids don't like to eat their green vegetables with dinner, but as a parent I tell my kids to eat it because it is good for you. You may not have liked the story or the character, but this is an African writer informing you of African culture. It is authentic as it gets, and while you may have not liked it, hopefully you learned from it.
The book shows us two Africas. The 1st half of the book is a proud tribe, with customs, religions, traditions, etc. The 2nd half shows us Africa in destruction. Don't think of Okonkwo as being the main character, so much as it was the tribe that "Fell Apart"
That is why the book is a tragedy.
Americans in general like their stories to end happy and nice.
Real life shows us, this isn't always the case. I don't like to post grades online, so check Edline. I enjoyed reading your blog and you made some interesting observations and connections.
Mr. Farrell
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