Interesting Passages Response from Things Fall Apart
“Clearly his personal god or chi was not made for great things. A man could not rise beyond the destiny of his chi. The saying of the elders was not true- that if a man said yea his chi also affirmed. Here was a man whose chi said nay despite his own affirmation. ” (Achebe, 131) This passage created a question in my mind. Who’s perspective are we reading from? It seems as thought we are reading what a narrator is saying, but the narrator is somebody from that tribe. In most books, if a character doesn’t do the narration, the narrator knows what is really going on or what is going to happen.
In this book, and shown in this passage, the narrator seems to have full believe in everything he is saying. When it comes to what the passage itself says, I start to think about what their beliefs are doing to them. Is this what they are born to believe? Their chi seems to be pulling them back for than helping them move along. It and their other beliefs are always stopping them from something, which is more beneficial then they know. For example, what is so bad about having twins? If anything, that should be a blessing because the family has more children, but with a shorter wait. . “He sighed heavily, and as if in sympathy the smoldering log also sighed. And immediately Okonkwo’s eyes were opened and he saw the whole matter clearly. Living fire begets cold, impotent ash. He sighed again, deeply. ” (153) This was the last paragraph in Okonkwo’s thoughts on Nwoye and also were he sated that he was popularly called the “Roaring Flame”. He then started to compare himself to the fire. I really liked this passage and what was written before it for various reasons.
This action shows us that he and his people aren’t any different than other human beings. We have different beliefs and different life styles, but when it comes down to it there human just like us. We all relate ourselves to things. One example used in English is the use of similes. Similes are just one way we relate ourselves to living and non-living things. Probably the best reason to why I like this passage so much is because I can really relate to it. I don’t mean I once compared or portrayed myself as something I’m not like you’d do in a simile.
I mean that in one point in my life I actually compared myself to a burning fire. I still have that comparison. I could really understand where Okonkwo was coming from with this cold ash thing because I’ve done a comparison a lot like it. I even mentioned a dead fire when I ended that comparison and this wasn’t some poem I wrote for a grade, but an actual journal entry and not just something to get a grade. What I am trying to say is, I really liked this passage and I liked how metaphoric Okonkwo was when he said it.
