Throughout
the whole novel,struggles with the changes taking place in his tribe. He is initially known as
one of the strongest, most honorable tribesmen, but as the white man begins coming in and other
tribal members begin to change as a result, particularly his own son, Okonkwo cannot handle the
change. He sees these other clansmen as weak, like he saw his father was weak. The one thing
Okonkwo fears the most is weakness. By novel's end, Okonkwo has tried to remain strong against
the tide of change, but he appears to be the only one. When he kills the colonial official in
the...
Monday, 4 May 2009
In the story Things Fall Apart, why did Okonkwo kill himself?
Saturday, 2 May 2009
Do you agree that Eliza in Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion represents the new woman?
I would have to say
that I disagree that Eliza, from Shaw's represents the new
woman.
Eliza does not wish to change herself until it is brought to her
attention that she needs to be changed. Therefore, she does not represent the new woman because
the new...
How does Shakespeare develop the them of "fate versus free will" in act 4, scene 1, of Macbeth? How has the theme evolved since the beginning of the...
There is an
interesting tension within between free will and fate: on the one
hand,does clearly assert agency (after all, he actively engineers his rise to power and the same
can be said of his eventual downfall), but at the same time, you might get a sense, reading this
play, that the power of fate is something too great for any one person to truly resist or
overcome.
This is perhaps most clearly illustrated in the example of , whose
children are prophesied to become kings. If we look toward Shakespeare's own time, Banquo was
believed to be an ancestor to the Stuarts (including Shakespeare's own patron, King James I of
England and Scotland). This particular prophesy, then, would ultimately be fulfilled across a
span of centuries.
Thus, there is a great deal of complication as to where
free will begins and where it ends, because Macbeth is simultaneously culpable for his own
crimes (an agent of his own ambition), but he is also subject to the manipulations and demands
of fate (and even perhaps a pawn to them). The events of act 4, scene 1, maintain this tension;
when the subject of prophesy returns, the repercussions of which will loom over the rest of the
play.
In this scene, Macbeth again meets withand receives new prophesies
(which he will misinterpret, to his eventual doom). Three apparitions are conjured. The first
warns him of , the second famously states:
Be bloody, bold
and resolute: laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall
harm Macbeth (4.1.79€“81)
The next reads:
Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until
Great Birnam wood
to high Dunsinane hill
Shall come against him. (4.1.92€“94)
These prophesies describe Macbeth's eventual destruction at the
hands ofand Macduff. As we find out later in the play, Birnam Wood will (in a sense) go on the
march, and (later still) we'll learn that Macduff had been born from a C-section.
Thus, these prophesies are directly alluding to Macbeth's eventual downfall, but
Macbeth himself misunderstands the meaning of the prophesies as relating to his own
invulnerability. Thus, in his arrogance, he will proceed to underestimate the threat Malcolm and
Macduff representa factor which does play a role in his eventual defeat.
In
this respect, we again see the intertwining of free will and fate because, ultimately, while
these prophesies are fulfilled to a certain degree, it's worth wondering how much they actually
depend upon Macbeth's misinterpreting them to take effect (which brings us back to the subject
of agency vis-a-vis Macbeth).
What does Milan Kundera mean by "the unbearable lightness of being?" themes about the novel
Kundera's
title of the work reflects a passage in which he sought to distinguish between
"weight" and "lightness." When he speaks of weight, he is speaking of the
weight of our experiences, our memories. This weight defines who we are, what we do, and how we
proceed. It is brought on by our choices in these domains. It is a part of us, but it is also
crushing. We are pinned underneath it, as he says, and it is painful at times because weight
usually is. At the opposite polarity is the notion of lightness, where we transcend our
experiences and seek an "idyll where nightingales sing," (to paraphrase from another
Kundera work,
Friday, 1 May 2009
In Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace," what is the character sketch of Mathilde Loisel?
Maupassant's
"" is written in 3rd-person omniscient, which means that the narrator does know all
about Mathilde. However, he chooses to sketch Mathilde by way of indirect description; that is
to say, even though he does mention that she's unhappy, most of her character is determined by
how she reacts to situations and consequences detailed throughout the plot-line. For example,
the mood surrounding Mathilde is whining and complaining. She tells the maid to clean up more in
order to make the dull house look better than it is. She complains that she doesn't have money
for a dress or jewelry, too. Mathilde truly doesn't realize what she has; neither is she
grateful for anything in her life. The indirect inferences force the reader to piece together
Mathilde's character throughout the whole story without the narrator needing to blurt out that
she is an ungrateful woman. Sadly, she learns the hard way about what it means to be grateful
for what she has.
Where is "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker set?
The setting of
"" is rural Georgia in the early 1970s when the Black Nationalist Movement
emerged.
Many African Americans struggled for cultural and political identity
as they sought to bring into the American consciousness the contributions of their race. In
reaction to their history of repression, "white" names were discarded by leaders such
as Malcolm X, who excoriated those who retained the surnames of former slave owners. Following
the example of the movement of Malcolm X, Dee adopts another name, Wangero, and her boyfriend,
who has renamed himself Hakim-a-barber, seems to represent the militant groups. These names are
mocked by Dee's mother, for she feels that one's past, whether positive or not, is part of a
person's history and development.
Mama also recognizes the hypocrisy of her daughter
and boyfriend, as they wish to take family heirlooms and put them on display like a museum piece
rather than use them the way they were intended to be.
When Dee attempts to
take the quilts sewn from pieces of family history and put them on display, her subservient
daughter Maggie tells the mother that her sister may have these quilts. Mama suddenly has an
epiphany:
When I looked at her like that something hit me
in the top of my head and ran down to the soles of my feet. . . I did something I never had done
before: hugged Maggie to me, then dragged her on into the room, snatched the quilts out of Miss
Wangero's hand and dumped them into Maggie's lap.
The
mother's actions are a recognition of the lives of African Americans. Whether for better or
worse, the quilts represent the historical travails, love, and authenticity of her family, a
heritage that she recognizes all the more when it is threatened. She wishes to protect the quilt
from Wangero, who would pervert this history by displaying the quilt as an artifact.
After Dee and her boyfriend depart, Mama and Maggie sit in the yard and watch as the
Georgia dust settles behind the car.
What is the history of one famous feud? Between families, nations, religions, or even people? Anything would help, thank you! (:
The
Hatfields and McCoys were a famous example of feuding families in the United States. The feud
began during the Civil War as the Hatfields and the McCoys found themselves on opposing sides of
a war. The Hatfields, living near the border of West Virginia, fought for the Confederacy.
Meanwhile,...
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