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Post-1945 Literature Videos 13 videos
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Things Fall Apart 49851 Views
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Description:
Anyone who has ever bought anything from IKEA knows this to be true.
Transcript
- 00:04
Things Fall Apart, a la Shmoop. Okonkwo[1] is one manly guy.
- 00:11
Really manly.
- 00:12
That all you got?
- 00:13
He’s spent his entire life trying hard not to be like his father, who he thought was
- 00:18
lazy and cowardly.
Full Transcript
- 00:20
So Okonkwo works hard to be an awesome farmer.
- 00:23
He wrestles like a champ.
- 00:25
And he’s a brave leader of his people. But when Okonkwo hangs himself at the end
- 00:32
of Things Fall Apart....
- 00:33
…sorry… belated spoiler alert…
- 00:35
Is he acting as a brave martyr, living up to his manly reputation?
- 00:40
Or is he being a coward just like his dad? When white missionaries invade the land...
- 00:48
Okonkwo is ticked off.
- 00:49
Really ticked off.
- 00:51
The missionaries are shoving the tribe’s beliefs to the side....
- 00:54
And replacing them with Christianity.
- 00:57
Before, the village elders made the laws.
- 01:01
Now, it’s a foreign Queen.
- 01:07
Okonkwo wants to free his people from this foreign power.
- 01:15
He tries to rally his tribe to fight...
- 01:17
But many refuse... Some even join the other team.
- 01:21
Enraged, Okonkwo even beheads a kotma <<CAHT-muh>>,[2] one of the Africans who collaborate with the
- 01:27
white men.
- 01:28
But still his people won’t rise.
- 01:30
So for the first time in his life Okonkwo purposefully breaks the laws of his community...
- 01:36
By committing suicide.
- 01:37
Sounds like a bold move, right? He bravely faces Death rather than submitting
- 01:41
to the white man…
- 01:42
And dies on his own terms… just like he lived.
- 01:46
On the other hand...
- 01:47
Is it possible that Okonkwo kills himself because he’s afraid of change?
- 01:52
Should he have had the courage to adjust his warrior ethics?
- 01:56
To lead his people toward a peaceful compromise with the missionaries?
- 02:00
Or should he at least have stayed in the world of the living to fight some more?
- 02:04
He lived his whole life afraid of the ghost of his father...
- 02:07
Afraid he’d turn out to be a coward just like him.
- 02:10
But in the end, did he do the cowardly thing?
- 02:13
Shmoop amongst yourselves.
- 02:14
[1]y particular pronunciation here? [2]any particular pronunciation here?
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