Summer Blog Post #2

During my stay in Paris this summer we decided to meet up with a friend of my brother who lived in the city. My brother had met her in America during one of her stays in the country as a foreign exchange student. So, after setting up as meeting place and time we set off on the metro to meet Alex.  Once we spotted her we went through quick introductions and then began our stroll along the Champs-Élysées. After doing some window shopping we decided that a Starbucks break was exactly what we needed to power through the rest of the day. Now this is where it gets a bit interesting. My family began placing their drink orders in English of course which was fine as the barista seemed to be quite fluent. When it came time for Alex to place her order she spoke in French to the barista. However, the barista replied and kept speaking to her in English. After repeatedly attempting to speak French to the barista and having him reply in English, Alex finally asked "Do you not speak French?". The barista replied that yes he did speak French and then it dawned on him that Alex was actually a native French speaker, not just some tourist wannabe.

Now this is a prime example of how we code switch according to our appraisal of a situation. The barista realized that we most likely did not speak French and therefore he switched to the common language of English in order to communicate with us in a more efficient manner. This ability to code switch is highly important in today's society. We often find ourselves having to alter our speech in accordance with who we're conversing with. However, as seen in this case we can sometimes make mistakes when making assumptions about people. Overall, I found it interesting how the barista was able to make assumptions in order to be more accommodating in this scenario.  

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Summer Blog Post #1

Let's face it, nobody wants to be in Abu Dhabi during the summer. It's a hot mess and anyone who has been there during that hellish time of year can attest to that. So like a proper UAE resident I fled the heat and headed for a climate more suitable for actual human beings. After a couple flights and a short stop in Rome I found myself in The City of Light, also known as Paris. Despite having been to France multiple times I never seemed to make it to Paris. I had a tendency to stay in the mountains or on the sunny beaches, so this was my first glimpse of the city.

As we began our descent I kept my eyes glued to the landscape that was rapidly passing by. After mistaking three distant radio towers as the Eiffel Tower, I began to grow impatient at the seemingly never ending landing. Finally I felt the wheels meet the ground and breathed a quick sigh of relief. I walked away from the baggage carousel with all of my luggage and I said a quick thank you to the god of airports for keeping my bags safe and then hopped in a cab to head to the hotel.


Now one thing they never tell you in movies or books is that sunset in Paris seems to be running a bit behind. I stepped out of my hotel and had to do a quick double take at the sky and then at my phone. My phone told me it was about 9:30 p.m. but the sky was telling me a completely different story. It was deceivingly bright out and could have been mistaken for 7:30 p.m. back home in Abu Dhabi. As I sat in a restaurant eating  dinner and listening to a French man butcher Nirvana karaoke, I realized that I was beginning to fall in love with this strange city.

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How To Write About Americans

When writing about America there's a couple things you need to do to ensure your writing is successful. First, you need to remember that America is large country and therefore its essential that you generalize all your ideas and view all the people as the same. Who cares that there's fifty states I mean they're all pretty much the same anyway right? It's important to ignore the varying cultures as there's no way you could possibly write about the culture of Hawaii and Texas in the same article. Its better if you just treat everything as a general "America".

If you feel like including an image, try and find a picture of the most obese couple you can find. It's a bonus if they're wearing unfashionable clothes and obnoxious white sneakers.

Now you need to highlight one of the main aspects of American culture: obesity. If you hadn't noticed, everyone in America is obese. Everyone.  If someone isn't obese yet they're definitely on their way, gaining a pound with every bite they take from their BigMac. Ah yes, the glorious BigMac. You need to emphasize the way in which Americans treat any McDonald's as a shrine to God. It's good if you describe in depth the way that those golden arches make any Americans eyes instantly light up with desire and cravings which are never satisfied.

The Redneck is the only type of American and any character variation besides this must be ignored because there's no way a country as small as the United States could have variety among the population. Now, if your story takes place anywhere remotely southern then your character must be a redneck. When writing dialogue for the redneck, you can never use the word "Y'all" too much. Of course, your redneck needs something to drive on all those country back roads so they should own at least one pickup truck, if not two. Now The Redneck idolizes one thing above all others: freedom. If your character ever feels that their freedom is being violated then they have the right to respond with an argument that makes absolutely no sense. Who cares about the increasing homicide rate? Your character deserves a gun and nothing will stop them from exercising their Second Amendment. How can you expect your character to hunt or defend his freedom without a gun? The Redneck is almost always uneducated but it's important to remember that this isn't their fault. There's no way they could go to school when they had to spend all their time working on the family farm. However, when working on a farm all day your character tends to use a lot of energy so it's important that they maintain a healthy and balanced diet of beer and more beer as this will provide them the energy they need during the day.

The final thing to remember when writing about Americans is their national pride. In America every day is the 4th of July and if your character isn't flying the American flag how can you be absolutely sure they're even American? They should also sing the national anthem every day as this shows the pride and dedication to their country. If you follow all of these tips then you should end up with a true American.

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Paper Two Practice

Show how and to what effect Achebe makes use of myth, legend or other stories and tales.

In Things Fall Apart,  Achebe includes many Igbo myths and folk tales such as the story of the cunning Tortoise and..... Achebe includes these stories as they illustrate many key values of the Igbo culture and also give warnings about the consequences of not following these ideals. As in many cultures, these folk tales highlight cultural ideals as they are often passed down through storytelling and allow these values and ideals to be ingrained in the minds of younger children who will then eventually pass them down to their children. Achebe incorporates these stories effortlessly into the novel which allows the novel to retain its authenticity while simultaneously giving the reader valuable insight in the Igbo culture.

One of the longer stories within the novel is that of the cunning Tortoise. We see this story being told by Ekwefi in chapter twelve of the novel as Okonkwo's wives and children sit in their huts listening to folktales. In this particular folktale, Tortoise convinces the birds to give him feathers so that he may join them for a grand feast in the sky. However, once they arrive Tortoise tricks the birds and ends up eating all the food, leaving only scraps for the birds. Out of anger, the birds take back the feathers they had loaned Tortoise and leave him stranded in the sky. The Parrot then tricks Tortoise and tells the wife of Tortoise to put out all the hard objects instead of the soft objects. Tortoise then jumps and lands on all the hard objects which causes his shell to break into pieces which are then put back together by a medicine man, providing an explanation for why the shells of tortoises are uneven. This story highlights many of the main values of the Igbo culture. This particular folktale is a good example of how the Igbo people value transparency in the community. Tortoise deceives the birds and lies to them however as we see later in the story this greatly backfires on him. This demonstrates to the reader that the Igbo culture holds transparency in high esteem and not living a transparent lifestyle can result in consequences.

Achebe also finds a way to communicate and incorporate these ideals within the novel by including mentions of other stories. Instead of telling the whole story as in the case of the Tortoise story, Achebe inserts one or two sentences describing a story which highlight the main idea of the tale. For example, when Okonkwo breaks the Week of Peace "They called him the little bird Nza who so far forgot himself after a heavy meal that he challenged his chi." This story warns about letting your success go to your head as this could cause you to do unwise things. Besides this one tale, Achebe includes many other stories such as the one of Eneke the bird which says that since men have learned to shoot without missing, he has learned to fly without perching. This tale demonstrates the idea which is highly prevalent in the novel and is contrasted by the character of Okonkwo. Eneke represents the idea that one cannot remain stagnant but must learn to adapt and change along with its environment. However, Okonkwo contrasts this idea as he is unable to realize that his actions must change due to the presence of the white men. In this sense Achebe is using a story to give contrast with one of the characters.

In conclusion, Achebe utilizes a variety of folktales and stories in order to highlight some of the main values and ideals of the Igbo culture. These tales also lend the novel a sense of authenticity which therefore enriches the content of the story.

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Obierika Memoir

I should have known that the intentions of the white men were not entirely true...They arrived in Umofia with their silly  religion and like fools we allowed them to stay. We underestimated them and that was the first step leading towards our ultimate demise. How we were unable to see their true agenda is still unknown to me. They were smart and their moves were strategic. By converting people to their faith they were able to effectively tear us in two. We no longer faced them as a unified front and this made opposing them that much harder. It is much easier to fight an enemy unknown to you however, when the enemy begins to be the familiar faces of our brothers there's no point in fighting as we have already lost the most important battle. Perhaps if we had fought back harder in the early stages they might have withdrew from our land and left our people alone. Okonkwo was a fool in the end but he was right in his recognition of  the white men as a true threat to our way of life. Oh how easily they stripped us of our power and bent us into submission through their promises of religion and education for our sons and daughters. What we didn't realize was that this education they were offering was simply to shape and form us into mere cogs in the machine of colonization, giving us jobs which only served them and their causes. Things fell apart in Umofia and we only realized this when it was too late and our fate became inevitable.

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Paper Two Practice

 Discuss the significance of social status in Things Fall Apart, and comment on its contribution to characterization.

The novel Things Fall Apart offers an exclusive insight into the world and lives of the Igbo people which highlights the values and significant aspects of their culture. One of the main aspects which is emphasized in the story is social status and the role it has within their society. Throughout the story there is a constant reminder of social status and we see how this becomes relevant when looking at how this aspect of the culture plays a large role in shaping the character of Okonkwo. Social status is usually representative of the amount of titles a man has taken in his lifetime. A man must be very successful in order to take many titles and therefore these individuals are highly respected in the community. Contrasting with this, a man who has taken very few or no titles is considered very lazy and unsuccessful. Another name for a man who has taken no titles in his lifetime is agbala which is a word meaning "woman". In the Igbo society, the amount of titles a man possesses influences how the other members of the clan treat him and the amount of influence he holds in matters involving the clan such as whether to go to war or not.

Okonkwo's ambition to be respected and recognized by his clansmen is driven by his fear of not wanting to end up as a failure like his father who claimed no titles within his lifetime. He is strongly aware his social status and that of those around him and this affects his actions. One example of his awareness of status is during a meeting when a man begins to speak but is quickly silenced by Okonkwo who makes it very clear that since the man has no titles, he does not have a say in the conversation. As stated before Okonkwo is driven by his ambition and it is very clear that he takes great pride in his status among the clan members. This obsession with his social status and power ultimately contributed to his demise. After Okonkwo's gun explodes and he's forced into exile for seven years his main focus is still on his social status. As punishment for his crimes, the clan must burn down Okonkwo's property and kill his livestock in order to appease the earth goddess. This sets Okonkwo back many years and prevents him from gaining the highest title in the clan as he will have to rebuild his entire life and gain back the respect of the clan. During the seven years he's continually making plans for his return in order to once regain his place among the clan. When he finally does make his return he's disappointed to discover that it does not quite have the impact he hoped. He rejoins the clan but does not hold the same status and respect that he once had. In order to regain the status he lost he tries to show his dominance and masculinity however this only leads to the clan losing even more respect for him as they no longer agree with his overly-aggressive attitude and way of life. At the end of the book Okonkwo kills the messenger but soon realizes that his clansmen no longer agree with him and do not view his actions as wise and this lowering of social status and respect brings him to the realization of his downfall. In conclusion, Okonkwo's obsession with social status along with his fear of ending up like his title-less father drives him to be overly-ambitious and aggressive and plays a key role in shaping his character and actions.

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Okonkwo Character Analysis

As the main character of Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo has a key role in developing not only the plot but also the themes of the story. The themes of change vs. tradition and fate vs. free will are mainly based around Okonkwo and the audience sees them play out over the course of the story. In the beginning of the story, all of Okonkwo's success is attributed to his will. He takes credit for all of his good fortune and says that it is a result of his own hard work and cannot simply be attributed to good luck. However, as things begin to fall apart around Okonkwo he no longer takes responsibility for what is happening to him. It was originally stated that "Okonkwo said yes very strongly; so his chi agreed." however we later see a reversal of this when Achebe says "Here was a man whose chi said nay despite his own affirmation.".

As mentioned previously, the novel is strongly centered around the theme of change vs. tradition. Okonkwo is a true symbol of tradition that refuses to bend to change despite the immense pressure he is put under. Okonkwo refuses to adapt to his changing environment and is strongly against any form of change to his current lifestyle.While this idea of conserving traditional practices is good, Okonkwo fails to realize that change is inevitable and this eventually leads to his downfall within the novel. 

Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart in order to give the world a more accurate portrayal of Africa that they had not yet seen. However, he made the choice to not present the Igbo culture as a utopia and rightly so. While he wanted to portray the culture in a better light than it had been previously, he also wanted to show that the Igbo culture has its flaws as well. If he presented Okonkwo as an unbelievable man with absolutely no flaws then that would make the rest of his story less believable as well. By establishing Okonkwo as a tragic hero he makes the statement that while the Igbo culture is no utopia, it still has its values and should be respected.

In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo's purpose is to drive the plot and themes that are present within the novel. He shows how tradition is often reluctant to accept change and that in the end tradition often loses. Overall, Okonkwo is a representation of any native who was resistant to the oppressive colonization in Africa.  

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