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Achebe - Chinua Achebe Videos 3 videos
All Okonkwo was asking for was a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Granted, swinging your machete around may not be the nicest way to ask, but still. The guy d...
Books become classics because they either reflect on or influence the world around us. As was the casewith Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Of...
Things Fall Apart 49851 Views
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Description:
Anyone who has ever bought anything from IKEA knows this to be true.
Transcript
- 00:04
Things Fall Apart, a la Shmoop. Okonkwo[1] is one manly guy.
- 00:11
Really manly.
- 00:12
That all you got?
- 00:13
He’s spent his entire life trying hard not to be like his father, who he thought was
- 00:18
lazy and cowardly.
Full Transcript
- 00:20
So Okonkwo works hard to be an awesome farmer.
- 00:23
He wrestles like a champ.
- 00:25
And he’s a brave leader of his people. But when Okonkwo hangs himself at the end
- 00:32
of Things Fall Apart....
- 00:33
…sorry… belated spoiler alert…
- 00:35
Is he acting as a brave martyr, living up to his manly reputation?
- 00:40
Or is he being a coward just like his dad? When white missionaries invade the land...
- 00:48
Okonkwo is ticked off.
- 00:49
Really ticked off.
- 00:51
The missionaries are shoving the tribe’s beliefs to the side....
- 00:54
And replacing them with Christianity.
- 00:57
Before, the village elders made the laws.
- 01:01
Now, it’s a foreign Queen.
- 01:07
Okonkwo wants to free his people from this foreign power.
- 01:15
He tries to rally his tribe to fight...
- 01:17
But many refuse... Some even join the other team.
- 01:21
Enraged, Okonkwo even beheads a kotma <<CAHT-muh>>,[2] one of the Africans who collaborate with the
- 01:27
white men.
- 01:28
But still his people won’t rise.
- 01:30
So for the first time in his life Okonkwo purposefully breaks the laws of his community...
- 01:36
By committing suicide.
- 01:37
Sounds like a bold move, right? He bravely faces Death rather than submitting
- 01:41
to the white man…
- 01:42
And dies on his own terms… just like he lived.
- 01:46
On the other hand...
- 01:47
Is it possible that Okonkwo kills himself because he’s afraid of change?
- 01:52
Should he have had the courage to adjust his warrior ethics?
- 01:56
To lead his people toward a peaceful compromise with the missionaries?
- 02:00
Or should he at least have stayed in the world of the living to fight some more?
- 02:04
He lived his whole life afraid of the ghost of his father...
- 02:07
Afraid he’d turn out to be a coward just like him.
- 02:10
But in the end, did he do the cowardly thing?
- 02:13
Shmoop amongst yourselves.
- 02:14
[1]y particular pronunciation here? [2]any particular pronunciation here?
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