Things Fall Apart CH. 21

In chapter 21, a connection to the novel’s title is further established as things begin to “fall apart” for Okonkwo. His obsession and meticulous planning of his glorious return to his native land falls short of his expectations when the clan fails to recognize his arrival. Why is it that Okonkwo’s return is not the source of great rejoicing among the people of Umuofia as he had expected? Is it simply the fact that they are too consumed with the recent permeation of the European customs in their clan or did Okonkwo’s previous actions lead to this lack of excitement over his arrival?

The parallels and contrasts of the Umuofian and European views on religion are also explored in this chapter. While Akunna attempts to establish a connection between the two religions by comparing Chukwu to God, Mr. Brown is quick to sever any ties between the two while remaining attentive. Soon after this conversation is finished, Mr. Brown is said to have “come to the conclusion that a frontal attack on [the religion] would not succeed”. Should we as the readers therefore come to the conclusion that the conversation was simply a religious war tactic by Mr. Brown? Is it possible that this somewhat intolerant exchange may be foreshadowing an ominous event in the following chapters?

Things Fall Apart -- Ch. 4

"Even Okonkwo himself became very fond of the boy--inwardly of course." In chapter 4 of Things Fall Apart, Achebe uses the word "inwardly" several times to describe Okonkwo's emotions. The effect of this is a convoluted mixture of feelings. While we may still believe that Okonkwo is a cold, harsh man, the word "inwardly" forces us to take a second look at his character. “Inwardly" serves to expose another side of Okonkwo. The inward Okonkwo is repentant, understanding, and even kind. What other emotions might Okonkwo be feeling inwardly that he is unable to show due to his preconceived notions of the definition of weakness? Is Okonkwo truly satisfied with his life or is his pride in his hard earned success simply a mask that once removed would reveal a desire for the ability to openly express emotion?

A Day in the Life of the Typical PCDS Senior

The alarm sounds at exactly 6:20 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; 7:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Today is a Friday, and without fail my alarm begins its daily ritual of singing at me at 6:20. The song that is attempting to wake me up is one from my middle school years, transforming the last few minutes of my dreams into some memory from those days and thus easing me into the school mindset. I work up enough energy to kick off my warm covers and sit up in my bed. I walk to my bathroom and look in the mirror: my hair is wildly messy and there is an attractive drool mark on my cheek. I splash some water on my face and brush my teeth, then proceed to dress myself and fix my hair. It is now 6:45 and I do not need to leave until 7:00; this is a record. I contemplate what it is that I will do for the next fifteen minutes and finally decide that I will take this time to indulge in the riveting task that is making my bed.

Fridays are all about the countdown to the end of the day. Every class ends up feeling endless.

The first couple classes of the day are a never-ending blur of boringness. The only thing that keeps me going is the thought that soon it will be lunch, and I will be faced with the always exciting mission of choosing where it is that I will eat on this fine day. Lunch approaches and we decide on AJ’s. I am disappointed. Half of the time we decide on AJ’s and I was hoping today would be one of those rare days where we decide to go somewhere new and exhilarating. On the bright side, the company of my friends always makes up for it.

It is now 12:10 and an inescapable dread swoops over us all. In a measly five minutes we will have to put away our phones and go back to the reality that is learning.

It’s the last class of the day. I can’t help but count the seconds until the class is over. How can I describe the last class of the day on a Friday? It is like watching the grass grow for fifty minutes. There is an air of restlessness among the students. On rare occasions, the topic of the day is enthralling enough to prevent me from keeping my eyes glued to the clock. Today is not one of those days. The last five minutes are the most painful. You find that you are so close to the end of the day that it ends up feeling like someone tampered with the clock and now one clock minute equals five real life minutes.

Finally, the bell rings and a stampede of students rush out to the quad. Clusters of students discuss the plans for that Friday afternoon. Me? I am just glad I will have two whole days of relaxation until next week’s routine starts.

the grass should always be greener on our side

Beyond the humorous exterior of Jim Hall’s Spiderman poem lies a deeper truth that we could all relate to. We all possess flaws that we would like to change, parts of ourselves that we consider imperfect and are often ashamed of. For some it is introversion, others impatience, arrogance, an argumentative nature, a lack of humor, the list goes on. Sometimes our flaws may even be considered something good by another’s standards but for some reason we have a tendency to look at the dark side of things. One way or another we find that the grass is greener on the other side; we find ourselves wishing that we possessed someone else's qualities that we do not have.

Locating your flaws is not something that is terribly difficult, but as I sat in my room reflecting on my imperfections I found the task of making them public rather difficult. Needless to say, the open nature of our English class blogs scared me away from writing honestly. As I mulled over what defect of mine could be credible yet not too personal to expose to around 59 curious students I came to a sudden realization: my worries over broadcasting my flaws to my peers was in itself my biggest limitation, my “fwame-wesistant suit” that I dream of burning. I feel that this “fwame-wesistant suit” is in one way or another shared by everyone out there. At the core of our insecurities is the desire to be able to flaunt our flaws proudly. Think about it--don't we all wish that we could let go of our doubts and expose ourselves to the world as we are? We all wish to be accepted and although we often believe that the easiest way to do so is to modify our personalities to conform to society’s standards, it is probably less complicated to be ourselves. Yes, there will be those people in your life that just cannot seem to get past the fact that you are a bit strange or lack the right kind of humor, but chances are you will find people who accept you for who you are and when it comes down to it, it is probably better if the people you hang out with could not care less that you like to sing loudly at school.

In conclusion, I believe that we should all attempt to wear our “fwame-wesistant suits” with confidence and pride. More often than not we cannot shed the integral pieces that create our characters, for they are our identities and make us who we are. Therefore, what we must learn to do instead is accept our defects and embody an attitude that says, “If you don’t like who I am, then I am certainly okay with that.”

Antigone and the question of pride and

This past week in our English class we were asked to read the play Antigone by Sophocles. The play’s ultimate moral was what seemed to intrigue me the most, for I found it to be exceedingly important:

“Wisdom is by far the greatest part of joy,
and reverence toward the gods must be safeguarded.
The mighty words of the proud are paid in full
with mighty blows of fate,
and at long last
those blows will teach us wisdom.”

Before I could ponder the truth behind this statement, I contemplated Creon’s situation. Was Creon’s tragic flaw one of pride or simply skewed principles?

Upon thinking I found that Creon’s problem comes from a little bit of both those options, but weighs more heavily on his pride. I believe that Creon’s arrogance was fueled by his single minded nature, which saw only one alternative to ruling his kingdom. When his “my way or no way” method of ruling is defied by a woman, the claws come out and the instinct of pride takes over. His egotism hampers his ability to see the illogicality of his actions and thus brings the death of his son and wife, an event that finally cures Creon’s blindness towards reason. Although too late for actions, the tragic occurrence allows him to see his wrongdoings as well as shows the audience the toxicity of pride.

After analyzing the root of the problem, I considered its application to real life. How often do we see pride or skewed principles bring down people? Must we suffer in order to acquire wisdom? I came to the personal conclusion that pride is more often the source of downfall in plays than in life. This is not to say that pride is non-existing in real life but rather that we seldom see someone’s overly haughty nature become the downfall of them. Unfairly enough, excessive pride frequently goes unpunished. On the other hand, single mindedness when it comes to ruling is many times seen as the collapse of said ruler. In many but not all cases, the “bad guys” fall from power as a result of their oppressive laws. Consider if you will, Hitler. Although this may be a cliché example, Hitler can be seen as the quintessence of someone whose clearly inequitable laws eventually brought him down. As an answer to my second question, I think that suffering is not required for the process of obtaining wisdom, but is however often the case. We attain knowledge in many ways, but sometimes the more valuable pieces of wisdom come after some form of affliction. By affliction I don’t mean that death or utter desolation has to happen in order to gain from it. Even something as seemingly trivial in comparison such as getting caught doing something bad can teach us something valuable.

In the end I found Antigone to be an extremely thought provoking play whose morals can be applied in various situations.

Books

Ella Enchanted- this book is one that left a mark on me because it was one of the first books I read that I truly loved. Any time I catch a glimpse of it I am reminded of my childhood.

Crank- I liked this book because the way it was written was extremely different.

Angels and Demons- I really liked this book because of all the mystery around it. Every page made me want to go on.

Early Bird (A Memoir of Premature Retirement)- one of the funniest books I've ever read. I still laugh every time I think back to it.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- this book is one of my favorites because when I read it, it gave me a chance to escape real life and enter one of magic.

The Time Traveler's Wife- although sad, it was very heartwarming.

The Great Gatsby- by far my favorite school book that I have had to read. Gatsby is also one of my favorite characters.

Great Expectations- I liked this book because the characters were so diverse and each one made a different statement.

The Jungle- I found this book to be very revealing. Also, just as I was told, it changed my entire perspective on the food industry.

Life of Pi

I have to confess. Up until about two weeks before the first day of school I had no idea we even had summer reading. To my knowledge, no letter had come in the mail and so naturally that meant no summer reading. I thought that the fact that PCDS of all places did not assign their upcoming senior students the task of reading over a three-month break was very strange, but I was quick to brush it off and think nothing more of it, categorizing this peculiarity as pure luck. Upon finding out I did in fact have to read a book for school, I decided to go with Life of Pi by Yann Martel since more than one person recommended it to me. Considering the book’s length I thought I would never finish in time, but was surprised to find that it intrigued me to the point where the opposite occurred, and I was done reading several days prior to school’s start.

To me, one of the most interesting aspects of the book was the blurred line between human beings and wild animals. I found the pages right after the sinking of the ship to be extremely interesting in regards to this statement. One of the first examples of personified animals comes along with Richard Parker, the tiger whose very human name actually led me to believe that it was a fellow human who Pi was beckoning towards the boat. Richard Parker’s human-esque qualities can first be seen when he is depicted weighing the pros and cons of life and death in the rocky ocean. The description of both his struggle in the ocean and his optimistic reaction to Pi’s lifebuoy flying towards him is so human-like that even Pi forgets that he is beckoning a “vicious” tiger towards his boat and leads to a humorous twist where Pi changes his mind and tells Richard Parker to drown instead. The story goes on and Pi is left stranded on the raft with an array of wild animals, where the idea of humans and animals being the same becomes more prominent as the animals experience the same shock and despair that Pi feels over the tragic sinking of the ship. The zebra continues to live quietly and painfully for several days, paralleling Pi’s sense that although he feels infinite grief and emotional strife, life continues. The hyena whines and barks in fear of the vast ocean paralleling Pi’s own fear. Later the hyena attacks the zebra and an interesting observation is made by Pi that shows that in survival situations, humans and animals take on the same principles: “I didn't have pity…for the zebra. When your own life is threatened, your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival” (120). Finally, Orange Juice becomes one of the main symbols for this idea within the book. First, Pi sees Orange Juice experiencing seasickness, a sight that he finds funny specifically because of how human a trait it is. During a second and sadder instance, Orange Juice is seen somberly looking out to the ocean, searching for her two young children and inadvertently doing what Pi had been doing for so long. Lastly, before her death which she so vehemently and humanly attempts to prevent, Orange Juice is described vigorously protesting the killing of the zebra, much like a human would upon witnessing the murder of a fellow being.