"One of the central features of Things Fall Apart is Achebe's balancing of principles through the metaphor of masculine and femenine a metaphor that seems to derive from deep within Ibo thought. Thus, the god who, above all others, regulates life in Umuofia is Ani, the earth goddess. And it is a reflection of Okonkwo's failure, to seek balance between the manly virtues and the womanly virtues as understood in Umuofia, that each of the disasters that afflicts him can be seen as a crime against the earth. One is tempted to say that this is Okonkwo's tragic flaw: he is a man who lives in a culture that requires a balance between "masculine" and "feminine" that he does not acknowledge (in part because he is ashamed of his father who has failed to be a "real man"). And it is through this flaw that he is destroyed. A mark of Achebe's mastery is that he manages to communicate this ideal of balance ... even while describing a culture that will strike many modem readers as overwhelmingly---- even oppressively---- dominated by men."
---- Kwame Anthony Appiah
17 comments:
In my opinion, theses above quotes from Keame Anothony Appiah are right in his culture or in current European culture, but not in Okonkwo’s culture. Basically, Keame are saying that the severe attitude of Okonkwo to his culture provides his failure. There is no denying Okonkwo has a bad temper and lots of oppressive behavior to his families. Also, I agree that all of his acting is because of the fear of weakness. However, again Okonkwo lives under his culture instead of us, his father led a bad example and he learned from his father’s lesson. In order to survive in that kind of environment, he finds out a really good to improve his situation. When he was born, he didn’t have opportunity to choice life style. His father’s failure pushes him to become stronger and stronger. During the growth, he owns enough ability to protect himself in his culture; the forcible way of act also takes strong root in his body. As Keame said “each of the disasters that afflicts him can be seen as a crime against the earth.” His forcible behavior is not always good for his life; it brings him disaster as well. But, I don’t think that’s his fall. The environments and culture requires him to do that, he just don’t know what is the limit of strong, therefore he broke some rule of the earth goddess.
Okonwo's masculinity has brought him lots of fame. This trait has brought him far in his life so far. This manly behavior has brought him many successes and titles. This was the basis of when he was a young adult, now as he ages and has wives and children, he has a hard time knowing when to have a masculine and feminine side. This is what leads up to all of the crimes against Earth that he commits. If Okonkwo would have found that balance of masculine and feminine I believe he would be a great man and leader in Umuofia. The fear of being weak like his father controls his present day actions and leads to the downfall of him.
I think that the way balance between masculinity and femininity are seen by the Ibo culture is what makes Okonkwo such a troubled man. Okonkwo is seen throughout the book in a chronic identity crisis. This is that as time passes Okonkwo is more and more lost not knowing what the correct action is. He just acts towards what he thinks are the most “manly” actions. What apparently moves Okonkwo to act this way is the fear of becoming like his father. He is so obsessed with being a man that he forgets the balance and acts one sided. So far his “manly” acts had gotten him exiled and now he won’t achieve the goals he strived for.
According to Kwame Anthony Appiah quotes referring to the balance of masculine and feminine characteristics, her thoughts contrast those actions in Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”. Okonkwo, in his early ages, knows his balance of when to be that dominant masculine man and when not to. But as he grows older, earning himself more achievements and succeeding through the tribe, that all changes. I think he gets carried away because of the culture he was in, not necessarily because of who he is. He began to beat his wives more and not maintain that balance. I do not completely agree with Kwame Anthony Appiah because they are different scenarios and cultures.
I found this quote from Kwame Anothony Appiah very interesting because Appiah says that the unbalance between “masculine” and “feminine” is what caused Okonkwo’s failure. “Masculine” in Umuofia culture requires fearless, and yet, Okonkwo tried his best and do become the most masculinity man in the nine villages, but his masculine did not always bring succeed. He seeks extreme masculinity and refuses to accept any womanly virtues. His extreme masculinity finally made him to kill his own son and made him panic. Gender is a identity of human beings, I think it is true that being too masculinity or femininity would not make us better as a human according to Chinua Achebe and Appiah and our personal experiences. But could this balancing problem happen beyond gender? Could this idea be applied to cultures?
I believe that Kwame Anthony Appiah’s quote on Okonkwo is extremely accurate and powerful. Okonkwo is a very self interested person and has lost the equal balance of the masculine and feminine traits. This is a result of Okonkwo’s father being a poor role model and Okonkwo wanting a better life than his father displayed. Having this balance between the both masculine and feminine traits consists of empathy and aggression. Yet Okonkwo based his life around uncontrollable aggression. This leads to the self destruction of himself and only brings out his weak feminist traits. As we read further, these feministic traits get worse and worse in Okonkwo’s mind and he resembles more of his father each day.
The quote from Kwame Anthony Appiah, I believe pertains to the book, Things Fall Apart, about the evident role that masculinity and femininity play the Ibo Culture. The line between being masculine and feminine is drawn very clear in the book and is an evident part of Okonkwo’s battle with himself throughout the book. He battles with himself to be the opposite of his father which is to be masculine.
I believe that the quote from Kwame Anthony Appiah is extremely powerful and shows meaning. What Appiah is trying to say is that Okonkwo is so caught up in trying to be "masculine" that it is actually causing him to show "feminine" traits. His reputation means everything to him, and when he is unsuccessful in what he does, his "feminine" characteristics begin to emerge from the depths of his soul. Although normally in the Ibo culture it is normally better to poses both masculine and feminine attributes, Okonkwo is an exception; he sees this as absurd. The fact that he is striving so strenuously to be manly makes his weaknesses shine even more when he does fail. His weaknesses in his case are his feminine characteristics. What Appiah is generally saying is that Okonkwo's disproportional virtues are only digging him in a deeper hole than he already is living in.
I think this paragraph raises a very interesting thought. While the idea of balancing masculinity and femininity is a prominent part of this paragraph, I would like to explore the relationship between Achebe and Okonkwo. Achebe and Okonkwo are very similar, but choose to follow different paths. If you think of it as a superhero story, it might help to make this connection. Okonkwo would be seen as the “bad guy” who has turned bitter and is ruled by fear. Achebe would be considered the "hero", because even though he has gone through the same things as his enemy he has been able to overcome any fear or self hate and do the right thing. Achebe has found a balance, while Okonkwo is battling with his mind against his heart and conscience. Achebe has been able to portray his story as one where there is no “hero” or “bad guy”. He has been completely honest and just with both sides (the “white men” and the tribal people). Okonkwo would never admit that he might have been wrong; that would be seen by him as a weakness.
I believe that Kwame Anthony Appiah’s quote on Okonkwo is extremely accurate and powerful. Okonkwo is a very self interested person and has lost the equal balance of masculine and feminine traits. This is a result of Okonkwo’s father being a poor role model and Okonkwo seeking a better life than his father displayed. Having this balance between both the masculine and feminine traits consists in empathy and aggression. Yet Okonkwo based his life around uncontrollable aggression. This aggression leads to his self destruction and only brings out feminine traits. As we read further, these feminine traits get worse and worse in Okonkwo’s mind and he resembles more of his father each day.
In my opinion, I feel that he was too afraid of showing his feminine side throughout the book. Because he had a bad childhood, it led him to become more masculine and made him to be motivated to have more success than his father did in the village. His father was not a typical dad; he was lazy, worthless, and he had a bad reputation in his village. Because his father wasn't a good role model in Okonkwo's life, it made Okonkwo to be more masculine and a hard worker that he had great success in his village and was well respected. But he was too caught up with having too much success that it brought him troubles, regrets and pains. Since he didn't had a good balance of showing his masculine and feminine side to his family; he put fear in his wives and children eyes which he didn't want them to see any weaknesses in him. He condition himself to be only masculine at all time and was not going to let down. I feel that if he had contributed both feminine and masculine characteristics to his family; then I believe that he would of been happier and would had a great success in his village.
I believe, Kwame is saying that Okonkwo's continuous utmost pursuit for their opinion of "masculine" characteristics has defeated its purpose. He was desperate to succeed in the tribe unlike his father. He believed that in order to succeed, he had to be the most "masculine" man in the tribe, although their can be severe consequences. For example, he killed his favorite son, because he believed that he need to show his "masculine" side, no matter what. Kwame also mentions that Okonkwo does not relize that he lives in a culture that needs both sides of the charateristics, "masculine" side and "feminine" side. Lastly, he indicates that Achebe had sufficiently expressed the domination of men, when communicating the ideal of balance.
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