Post 2:

In the second half of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the plot becomes much darker and more depressing. Between the deaths of Arnold's Grandmother, Eugene (his father's best friend), and his sister, death has crept its way deep into the story's plot. The deaths take a ginormous psychological toll on the members of Arnold's family. The death of Mary has the largest affect on Arnold and his parents. Arnold has a lot of trouble accepting his sisters death and blames himself for it. He believes that by leaving the reservation first, he forced his sister to rush  off the reservation too. And by doing this, sent her to her death. Another thought provoking section from this half of the book occurs after the end of the basketball game. Arnold goes from seeing his team as David in a David vs. Goliath situation to seeing it as Goliath itself. He realizes that he has betrayed his best friend and turned against his own people. He sees himself as a villain for taking away something as big as a perfect season from a group of people who have so little. This guilt bring Arnold to physical sickness. This section of the novel highlights the inequality between cultures that still exists in US.

Post 1: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian

So far a major theme in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian has been breaking free of stereotypical roles. For Junior, it was breaking free of the dumb indian stereotype. He struggled with this both on and off the reservation. On the reservation, Junior is seen as a freak who is used to taking physical abuse. This all changes when he is confronted by his high school math teacher. His teacher gives him the motivation to get off the reservation before the oppression kills him and his hope. This conversation begins the act of breaking free of the stereotype for Junior. However, once he leaves for a school off the reservation, he still must try to break it. At his new high school, he faces discrimination from many of his peers and even some of his teachers. He must adopt a new set of social rules now that he is in a primarily white school. Before he transferred, the rules of life mostly depended on fighting. But when Junior starts a fight at Reardan, he is seen as tough guy. This baffles him. However, prejudice also exist between Junior and those of whom he is closest with. When he and Penelope begin to date, he tells the reader how he is the smudge that Penelope wants in order to make her life a little less perfect. She only wants to be with him because of his ethnicity. 

The bluest eyes

The second half of The Bluest Eye, Morison continues her development of major characters. The character who she spends the most time portraying is Cholly Breedlove, Pecola's father and, ultimately, the man who rapes her. The story focuses on the early days of his life, but major emphasis is placed on four events in his life: being saved by his aunt, the death of his aunt, being embarrassed by two white hunters, and his first encounter with his father. The final two events play major role in shaping Cholly into the kind of man he is by the end of the novel. The encounter with the two white hunters is a part of Cholly's past that instills an attitude of hate and resentment towards African American women, especially during intimate moments.  This becomes very apparent when he rapes Pecola. Cholly's first, and what appears to be his only, encounter with his father has a demoralizing and humiliating effect on him. With a few quick words, it becomes apparent his father wants nothing to do with his son. This kind of abandonment drives Cholly to a life of alcohol addiction and problems. I find it ironic how Cholly throws his family's life in to chaos and then just abandons them, seeing as I t's almost the complete opposite of what his father did to him. 

The Bluest Eye post 1

So far in The Bluest Eye, the reader has been introduced to the not so subtle racial discrimination of the 1960's. Seen through the eyes of two African American girls, Claudia and Pecola, prejudice has already played a defining factor in the novel. Race and skin color seem to have more of an effect on Claudia them anyone else in the book. Between hating Shirley Temple wanting to tear heads off of dolls, she appears to be looking for a reason to hate other based on their complexion. She also has a tendency to see skin color as a defining characteristic, especially when Maureen, a wealthy white girl is introduced to the plot. There is an interesting section in one of the more tangential chapters. The author writes about the "perfect" life of an African American woman and the life she develops as she grows older. However, this was not the interesting part. What I found interesting was when Morison began to classify some blacks as "niggers" and some as just blacks. She described niggers as dirty, rude people, while blacks were clean, upstanding people. This kind of social prejudice is interesting because this description is coming from an African American author through her African American character and displays a hateful attitude toward some African Americans in her characters community. This kind of "black on black" hatred is something that I realized I haven't seen in other books with a large focus on racism. If this view point comes up again in the novel, it will be interesting to see the context in which Morison does so.

Boo Eugene boo

I'm not a big fan of Kambili's father, Eugene. He's a horrible person. The past one hundred and so pages are chalk full of new reasons to dislike him. The biggest is that he hardly reacted to the death of his father. And when he did, all he was concerned about was whether or not his father had converted to Catholicism on his death bed. This kind of detachment from his own father causes me to see Eugene as a heartless monster. Another despicable aspect of Eugene that becomes apparent in this section is his willingness to abuse those he loves. From pouring boiling water on the soles of his children's feet to severely damaging on of Jaja's fingers, Eugene repeatedly shows the reader how he brutal a man he is. It's ironic how savage he acts, since he is meant to represent the modern, "civilized" Nigerian man. While he does show remorse for his actions, I still find it horrendous. He blames his actions on his Catholic ways, instead of taking responsibility for his actions. I find this very cowardly. However, Eugene and his sister, Auntie Ifeoma, work as great foils for each other. She highlights all of his negative features, and in return, he highlights all of her positive features. Eugene's strict, by-the-books life style is the polar opposite of Ifeoma's exciting, free life. I find the large difference between the two siblings very interesting since they come from the same background.  

Purple Hibiscus post 2

Purple Hibiscus is a very interesting book so far. It's portrayal of Nigerian culture in recent times is a side of history that literature often over looks. Having read Things Fall Apart, Purple Hibiscus shows how colonization and European influence have affect society in Nigeria. The largest ways that the colonization appear to have changed society are the spiritual and social structures of society. In the century or so since European influence arrived, the Nigerian people have seen a large shift in religion. While there still are people who still practice old clan rituals, like Kambili's grandfather, many people have given up these clan beliefs in order to follow the Catholic Church. This divide in religion can be seen clearly between Nigerian cities, where most of the population is Christian, and rural areas, where people still practice traditional Igbo ways. The social structure in Nigeria has also changed greatly since the arrival of Europeans. In Things Fall Apart, clans had social systems based on titles, where as in Purple Hibiscus one sees a more modern social system more based on wealth. However, in both time periods, males dominate society. It's really interesting to see how Nigeria has changed over the course of colonization and I think Purple Hibiscus does a great job at portraying modern society in the culture

Post 1 on purple hibiscus

Things Fall Apart and Purple Hibiscus are very similar in many aspects. The two novels share a number of strikingly similarities. The most obvious in my opinion is the resemblance of Okonkwo in Kambili's father, Eugene. Eugene is a devout Catholic (this is putting it lightly). He is so set on his Christian ways that he refuses to see his own father because his father is a "heathen". Eugene and his Catholic ideas are very dominating for Eugene's loved ones. This is similar to how Okonkwo acts in Things Fall Apart. Both men have very strong wills and enforce their ideals on others. However, the way in which they spread their ideas is different. While Okonkwo never thinks twice about physically harming others, Eugene attacks others through more refined methods. He uses others' guilt to win arguments, especially against his family members. For those not related to him, Eugene often uses his power and money as a way to convince others to agree with his point of view. Another similarity between Okonkwo and Eugene is their strong belief in an important trait. Where as Okonkwo sees honor as the most important thing in his life, Eugene sees education and success as the most important pillars in a person's character. This becomes increasingly apparent at the beginning of the book when Kambili is not the best in her class. He sees this a failure. Okonkwo and Eugene occupy strong, dominating male roles in their respective books

Final post on Things Fall Apart

I found the end of Things Fall Apart very odd. Having Okonkwo kill himself, the least honorable kind of death, is very out of character. Since his birth, he has always search for honor. This is one of the primary character traits for Okonkwo. I don't believe Achebe sticks to Okonkwo's personality by killing him off in such a way, especially because Okonkwo would have believed it was cowardly. I believe he would have made himself a type of martyr in which he died an honorable death. This sort of death would have suited Okonkwo's character much better (in my personal opinion). However, I do think Achebe made this decision for a reason. Looking at the passage where the Europeans discovered Okonkwo's body, I think Achebe placed the clansmen at the compound, even though they were simply standing around, for a symbolic reason.  I think he meant for the clansmen to symbolize the African race, while Okonkwo symbolized the African way of life. My thought here is that Achebe is trying to emphasize the death of the native African way of life, while the African race stood by silently watching. In the book when the clansmen were afraid to remove Okonkwo from the tree because of superstitious reasons, I believe Achebe is attempting to portray the fear Africans had at the time. I'm not exactly sure where this fear stems from, but the most probable cause for this fear comes from the Europeans. 

Ekwefi and Ezinme

In the last few chapters of Part One,  Achebe gives the reader a lot  interesting insight into Okonkwo's  life, from family life to tribal commitments. However, Achebe also gives the reader deep insight into Ekwefi's life. Ekwefi is Okonkwo's second wife. Together they share a daughter named Ezinma. Okonkwo attitude towards her gives the reader the impression that he is very fond of her. At one point in the first part, he even talks about how he wished his first son, Nwoye,  was more like Ezinma. While this sort of relationship is unique for Igbo people, Ezinma's relationship with Ekwefi is even more unique. Ezinma and her mother share a very informal connect. Instead of referring to her mother as mother, she refers to her by her first name. In a society where age demands respect, this is very strange.  It is very likely that this odd behavior is due to Ekwefi's multiple miscarriages and the deaths of all her previous children at young ages. Because Ezinma is Ekwefi's only child to have survived childhood, it is likely Ekwefi does this as a way of not identifying Ezinma as her child in case she dies. However, Ekewefi does not let this kind of mentality affect her feelings for Ezinma. Her feelings come to the readers full attention in the last chapter of Part One when she follows Chielo, a priestess who has taken Ezinma to her shrine, through the night. Ekewefi only relaxes once she knows Ezinma is safe, which is when Okonkwo arrives at her side

Post one on Things fall apart

Things Fall Apart is very different when compared to the other books we have read this year in AP Literature. The book centers around a man named Okonkwo through his life in a traditional African village, traditional in the sense that there has been very little European influence on village life. In the beginning section of this book, Okonkwo makes it abundantly clear that he has no desire to be like his father, who the author, Achebe, describes as a lazy spendthrift. Okonkwo is a driven and productive young man. Okonkwo's relationship with his father is not a typical father-son relationship. Other than their bloodline, they appear to have nothing in common. This sort of relationship reminds me of the father-son relationship Huckleberry Finn and his father share. In Twain's novel, Huck and his father are two incredible different people. Huck is a carefree young boy, while his father is a dead beat alcoholic. Both Okonkwo's father and Huck's father have huge impacts on their son's lives; however, the way in which the two boys cope with their dysfunctional fathers is different. Okonkwo uses this affect to his advantage and becomes a determined young man, while Huck simply runs away from his fears and his father. I am looking froward to reading Things Fall Apart. It gives a new view on the colonization of Africa which I haven't yet seen before. Having read books on the affects of the colonization (Power of One) and from the point of view of Europeans (Heart of Darkness), I am very excited to read this book because  I think it will be very interesting because of its unique point of view. 

1/25 - Article on Heart of Darkness

I found the essay discussing racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness very interesting. Having read the book, I understood a lot of the points the author discussed. However, this article also made me realize how much of the underlying details I missed. The first aspect I missed is at the beginning of Conrad's novel. The similarities and differences between the Thames and the Congo provides a very general overview of the book's argument about the civilized versus the uncivilized. The Thames is symbolic of the modern, civilized European, while the Congo represents the chaotic, uncivilized African. The author of the essay points out how both rivers are very similar in that both contain dark histories and causes the reader to question how civilized the European prospective truly is. The other aspect that the author of the article that discussed that I never realized was how Conrad does have the tendency to focus on whether or not a character is in their right place. The article uses two Africans from Heart of Darkness to defend this statement. The first is a man who is working on the steamship with the narrator, Marlow. Conrad goes into very little  detail discussing the man other than why does not belong on the ship. The second is Mr. Kurtz mistress. Conrad puts a lot of focus into this woman's description in a way that depicts her as a wild African savage and is thus in her ideal "place". This article made me realize that I missed a lot of the deeper meanings in  Heart of Darkness.