Post by Angie on Jul 12, 2006 20:25:49 GMT -5
Okay, I am going to be posting every essay I can find on my hard drive, so keep in mind that these were written at different stages of my abilities, and sometimes the teacher would force us to do certain things (such as in this one, where we had to include so many partial quotes). Also, we must use a certain (slightly annoying) format and do five paragraphs in our essays.
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The Dirty Bubble is up to his dirty deeds again in Bikini Bottom, so who do the terrified citizens call for help? They call Mermaid Man, of course! As he saves the town from utter destruction, he gets his picture on the front page of the newspaper and glory as the hero he is. However, he never saves the town alone; his trusty sidekick, Barnacle Boy, always plays a great hand in the outcome. Similarly, protagonists are rarely the only important people in novels. In fact, Ikemefuna, Obierika, and Nwoye, secondary characters from Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, all play very key roles in the development of the characters, plot, and story as a whole.
Ikemefuna, who is the adopted son of Okonkwo, is used by the author to show some of the traditions and superstitions of the culture. Toward the beginning of the book, the wife of a man from Umuofia is killed in another village, so as compensation they are sent “a lad of fifteen [Ikemefuna] and a young virgin.” This exchange shows the Ibo opinions on justice, property, and human life by suggesting that people are tradable goods and may be payment for such things as debts, wrongdoings, etc. Also, as soon as he arrives in Okonkwo’s home, Nwoye looks up to Ikemefuna as a brother, and he “kindle a new fire in the younger boy.” Ikemefuna influences him to be a “real” man, and because of his new sibling, Nwoye “feign annoyance and grumble about women and their troubles” when he is asked to do a masculine task. Although the details of Ikemefuna’s life serve a major purpose in the story, so do the events surrounding his death. After three years of his presence in the village, The Oracle of the Hills and the Caves decides to kill him for mystical reasons unknown to the people. When this occurs, the strength of the people’s superstitious beliefs is demonstrated more because it is not merely looked at as wrong and immoral for Okonkwo to play a part in his son’s death, but also as an abomination against the Earth “for which the goddess wipes out whole families.” Therefore, Ikemefuna is a very useful device toward the beginning of the book to set up the Ibo culture and mind-set for the reader.
Just as Ikemefuna is used to show the reader the world of Umuofia, Obierika is used as a foil to Okonkwo to demonstrate the severity of some of the protagonist’s characteristics. Obierika is “a man who [thinks] about things,” but Okonkwo “[has] no patience.” While Obierika tries to look ahead of his current emotions, Okonkwo must be strong and “use his fists.” Obierika’s common sense is further exemplified when he chooses not to play a role in the death of Ikemefuna because Okonkwo’s murdering of his son “[does] not please the Earth.” Another thing that conflicts Obierika’s personality with Okonkwo’s is that he is open to change. He realizes that he must be flexible for his own good because the white man has “put a knife on things that [hold the clan] together,” and if he is unchangeable, he will turn out like Okonkwo and meet a self-destructive end. Obierika’s role as a foil for Okonkwo is very well developed and makes some of the protagonist’s most important characteristics prominent.
While the other two secondary characters help set up the beginning of the plot and the traits of the other characters, it is Nwoye who really aids in bringing about the end of the culture and relating it to the rest of the book. Nwoye first really demonstrates that he does not quite fit in with his clan’s traditions when he doubts its policy of throwing twins into the Evil Forest to die because they are supposedly an abomination against nature. One day he is near the woods when he hears babies crying in a bush, and “something seem to give way inside him, like the snapping of a tightened bow.” With disregard for his heritage, Nwoye later joins the Christian faith. The new system of beliefs appeals to him because of “the poetry of the new religion” and the fact that it answers “the question of the twins crying in the bush and . . . of Ikemefuna who [is] killed.” By joining this new faith, Nwoye not only betrays his clan, but also his father. Okonkwo completely disowns his son, but Nwoye, a seemingly more rational and compassionate man than him, goes as far as to say that “he is not [his] father.” Through these incidents, Nwoye is used by the author very well as a link between the two worlds in the book and a starting rock in the landslide of the Ibo culture.
With Things Fall Apart and other well written novels, a careful reader can note that a novel is rarely just black and white, important and unimportant, but it also has gray areas, like secondary characters, without which things would “fall apart.” Maybe to that observant reader, the minor characters are always there to serve a purpose in aiding the protagonists and keeping a story from utter peril. Just like with Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, only together may the super-heros and sidekicks save the day all the time.
~
The Dirty Bubble is up to his dirty deeds again in Bikini Bottom, so who do the terrified citizens call for help? They call Mermaid Man, of course! As he saves the town from utter destruction, he gets his picture on the front page of the newspaper and glory as the hero he is. However, he never saves the town alone; his trusty sidekick, Barnacle Boy, always plays a great hand in the outcome. Similarly, protagonists are rarely the only important people in novels. In fact, Ikemefuna, Obierika, and Nwoye, secondary characters from Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, all play very key roles in the development of the characters, plot, and story as a whole.
Ikemefuna, who is the adopted son of Okonkwo, is used by the author to show some of the traditions and superstitions of the culture. Toward the beginning of the book, the wife of a man from Umuofia is killed in another village, so as compensation they are sent “a lad of fifteen [Ikemefuna] and a young virgin.” This exchange shows the Ibo opinions on justice, property, and human life by suggesting that people are tradable goods and may be payment for such things as debts, wrongdoings, etc. Also, as soon as he arrives in Okonkwo’s home, Nwoye looks up to Ikemefuna as a brother, and he “kindle
Just as Ikemefuna is used to show the reader the world of Umuofia, Obierika is used as a foil to Okonkwo to demonstrate the severity of some of the protagonist’s characteristics. Obierika is “a man who [thinks] about things,” but Okonkwo “[has] no patience.” While Obierika tries to look ahead of his current emotions, Okonkwo must be strong and “use his fists.” Obierika’s common sense is further exemplified when he chooses not to play a role in the death of Ikemefuna because Okonkwo’s murdering of his son “[does] not please the Earth.” Another thing that conflicts Obierika’s personality with Okonkwo’s is that he is open to change. He realizes that he must be flexible for his own good because the white man has “put a knife on things that [hold the clan] together,” and if he is unchangeable, he will turn out like Okonkwo and meet a self-destructive end. Obierika’s role as a foil for Okonkwo is very well developed and makes some of the protagonist’s most important characteristics prominent.
While the other two secondary characters help set up the beginning of the plot and the traits of the other characters, it is Nwoye who really aids in bringing about the end of the culture and relating it to the rest of the book. Nwoye first really demonstrates that he does not quite fit in with his clan’s traditions when he doubts its policy of throwing twins into the Evil Forest to die because they are supposedly an abomination against nature. One day he is near the woods when he hears babies crying in a bush, and “something seem
With Things Fall Apart and other well written novels, a careful reader can note that a novel is rarely just black and white, important and unimportant, but it also has gray areas, like secondary characters, without which things would “fall apart.” Maybe to that observant reader, the minor characters are always there to serve a purpose in aiding the protagonists and keeping a story from utter peril. Just like with Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, only together may the super-heros and sidekicks save the day all the time.
