Rip is presented as weak-tempered, in direct opposition to his termagant wife and the wealthy citizens. Unoka is pitted against his son Okonkwo, another successful man. Yet the two characters survive change while Dame Van Winkle and Okonkwo are destroyed. Okonkwo commits suicide because his people surrendered to the imperialists. Although Unoka is left to die, we are encouraged to believe that he becomes reincarnated in his grandson, Nwoye. This striking likeness is meant to suggest that Okonkwo cannot escape his lineage.
By giving these characters the ability to have children that take after them, the authors stress their eminence as enduring characters. Both authors seem to suggest that their respective societies are poised on the brink of change and must therefore plan the course of their future progress, as one set of values becomes obsolete and is succeeded by a new order.
Their societies are undergoing a similar transition from agrarian to modern, experiencing the advent of a new era when muscular strength will not be enough to prevail and artistic vehemence will be much in need. Irving and Achebe are calling for the recognition of the role of the artist in the new circumstances.
Achebe, as the son of a catechist, suffered hostilities from traditionalists who viewed early converts as outcasts. They thrive towards the nobler ideals of life.
Emerson disparages societies that judge the worth of men in terms of material success, disregarding spiritual and artistic accomplishment:. Criticism is infested with a cant of materialism, which assumes that manual skill and activity is the first merit of all men, and disparages such as say and do not, overlooking the fact, that some men, namely poets, are natural sayers, sent into the world to the end of expression, and confounds them with those whose province is action but who quit it to imitate the sayers.
Rip and Unoka live for values that are not upheld by the majority but which, nonetheless, inform the very spiritual foundations of their societies. The Ibo society has to face the intrusion of external agents that are technically superior and equipped to upset traditional power structures. Both characters survive the dangerous transition between these two periods. Achebe suggests flexibility and adaptability to change help one face the vagaries of history. The meek will perhaps inherit the world while the mighty are destroyed.
The values of a society, its past, present, and future, are incorporated in the poet. His communion with the ancestors prepares him spiritually for the mission of folklorist. Unoka and his flute are exiled into the evil forest where the Christian church will soon be erected. His legacy will subsequently attract his grandson, bringing about the end of everything Okonkwo stood for. Rip wanders into the mountains where he is spiritually empowered by the drink that was proffered to him and that generations of henpecked husbands shall later envy him.
Achebe , Chinua. Things Fall Apart. London: Heinemann, No Longer at Ease. A Man of the People. The Education of a British Protected Child. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, The Empire Writes Back. New York: Routledge, Baym , Nina, et al, eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: W. Norton, Buell , Lawrence. Catalano , Susan M. Cirlot , J. A Dictionary of Symbols. New York: Dover Publications, Darthorne , O.
African Literature in the Twentieth Century. Eliade , Mircea. From Medicine Men to Muhammad. New York: Harper and Row, Eliot , Alexander. New York: Meridian, Emerson , Ralph Waldo. Baym Irving , Washington. The Nineteenth - Century American Reader. Thomas Inge. Washington D. C: United States Information Agency, Larson , Charles R. The Emergence of African Fiction. New York: Indiana UP, Despite this fact, Conrad repeatedly uses the offensive slang term in reference to the Africans Marlow encounters.
He groups the Africans coming through the station with inanimate objects, as though they all carried the same value. Conrad lived through a time when European colonies were scattered all over the world. This phenomenon and the doctrine of colonialism bought into at his time obviously influenced his views on Africa and Africans. Colonialism has been defined by Lee C. The colonizers did not pay heed to the native peoples in their territories, nor did they think of the natives as anything but savages.
He had a large compound enclosed by a thick wall of red earth. His own hut, or obi , stood immediately behind the only gate in the red walls. Each of his three wives had her own hut, which together formed a half moon behind the obi. The barn was built against one end of the red walls, and long stacks of yam stood out prosperously in it. He worshipped them with sacrifices of kola nut, food and palm-wine, and offered prayers to them on behalf of himself, his three wives and eight children. Achebe Achebe describes this man and his living quarters with no sense of surprise or mystery, as Conrad would have done.
Okonkwo is a normal and well-respected member of his clan. There is certainly nothing significant or remarkable about him in comparison with other clan members, or other human beings. The rituals that Conrad was so mystified and disgusted by are, in reality, no different from many of the rituals Westerners participate in. Body painting, bizarre chants, and odd dances of victory are considered normal at many sporting events.
Achebe illustrates the excitement Okonkwo feels for the upcoming wrestling match:. Just then the distant beating of drums began to reach them. It came from the direction of the ilo , the village playground. The drums beat the unmistakable wrestling dance—quick, light and gay, and it came floating on the wind. Okonkwo cleared his throat and moved his feet to the beat of the drums. It filled him with fire as it had always done from his youth. He trembled with the desire to conquer and subdue.
It was like the desire for woman. This expression of excitement is both a thoroughly humanizing feeling, and a sense of excitement that any human could identify with.
As the drums thunder, two teams of twelve men challenge each other. Many expect the final match between the two greatest fighters in the villages to be uneventful because of the similar styles of the two wrestlers. However, the spectators are thrilled when the local fighter, Okafo, takes advantage of one of his opponent's moves and suddenly defeats him.
The crowd carries the victorious Okafo on their shoulders with pride. The spectacle of the wrestling matches illustrates the value that is placed on physical agility and strength in the Igbo culture. In ways similar to today's sports, the wrestling events — even in their violence — provide vicarious pleasure for the spectators who consider the victors heroes and often carry them on their shoulders.
Many years earlier, Okonkwo himself sparked his reputation as a powerful man by defeating an opponent who had wrestled undefeated for seven years. This scene also displays the sense of community and kinship among members of the village, as in the brief exchange between Ekwefi and her neighbor Chielo, the priestess of the Oracle Agbala.
The conversation between Ekwefi and Chielo includes several puzzling references to Ezinma:.
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