Achebe author of Book: Things Fall Apart
For each of these prompts, you are expected to engage in a developed dialog with the source matter
For your final assignment, you are called upon to write a 6-7 page literary analysis essay (MLA style, double-spaced, with in-text parenthetical citations and a bibliography) in response to one of the five following prompts. Your job in this paper is to undertake close readings of some of the works we have explored together over the course of the semester, making clear claims (via a thesis) about the significance of the literature and its function, contextualizing its relevance, and establishing clear argumentation with ample substantiation throughout the body of the essay. For each of these prompts, you are expected to engage in a developed dialog with the source matter, using quoted material from the primary texts of your choosing, and to present a clear thesis that articulates your claims regarding the texts/figures under scrutiny:
I have chosen this question since it only requires the source of the book and more evidence in depth from it.
“The absolutist, unyielding character that Okonkwo maintains in Things Fall Apart is undeniably one of the traits that dooms Achebe’s central figure to the tragic fate we witness at the conclusion of the novel—and is potentially to blame for the ease with which the colonizing forces of the British are able to subsume Umofia in Parts II and III of the text. Be it with regard to his view of what constitutes power and authority, his limited vision of masculinity and his reflexive rejection of femininity, or his faith in the infallibility of the traditional systems of governance and religion which have historically dominated Ibo life, Okonkwo’s worldview is mono-focal at best, monomaniacal at worst. In this way, Achebe calls his readers to question the ethos of Okonkwo’s character, especially when juxtaposed with the absolutist monotheism of the missionaries’ Christianity and Westernized culture. For this question, compare and contrast Okonkwo’s character with the major representatives of the colonial force in Things Fall Apart—namely, Mr. Brown, Mr. Smith, and the District Commissioner. Is Okonkwo more like or unlike these figures, and how does Achebe make these distinctions clear? And if Okonkwo’s character is not so different from the colonizing forces that overwhelm his culture and heritage, what does this fact potentially mean in terms of how we read Achebe’s novel?”
Answer preview for each of these prompts, you are expected to engage in a developed dialog with the source matter
1885 words