Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - Book Critique

“That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog…” (208)

Things Fall Apart is an unbiased fiction book that provides a great view of the Ibo culture and its interaction with the “white man.” In the beginning of the book, we take a look at the life of Okonkwo in the clan Umuofia. It is noticeable that the role of man is violent but heroic, and you must act that way or you will not be considered a man. We find Okonkwo beating his wives, which also shows that the Ibo believe in polygamy. They are also polytheistic, believing that everyone has their own god, which they call chi.

They have an oracle who is believed to be in close contact with one of the gods, and he is approached when help and advice is needed. Once in a while they have large parties, and unfortunately Okonkwo shot a woman in the clan. This is very bad for his ego because he is well known throughout Umuofia, and being sent to his mother’s clan, Mbanta, would weaken his connection with his people, and he would be forgotten. He is banished for seven years, and during this time, the white men came into Umuofia and built a Catholic Church and schools in the area. Once he returned they were already settled, and this was good news for some, like Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye. But, there are still others with Okonkwo that are upset. Okonkwo gets in trouble and is whipped by the Commissioner, and this just later angered him more. He kills one of the Commissioner’s men, and then he kills himself.

Okonkwo is a very strong representation of the Ibo culture. After seeing his father, Unoka, “fail” in life, he didn’t want that to happen to him, so he wanted to be a well-known warrior and be respected. He would constantly act violently, but violence was what he stood for. The culture accepted this attitude, but when the white man saw people acting like this, he thought it was a corrupt community. I personally do not like Okonkwo, but I respect him for his representation of his culture, and he should have the right to stand for it. The white men did bring the culture benefits, but their rules took away the purpose of the people’s lives like that of Okonkwo’s. Okonkwo commits suicide because his life vision has died, and his son went off with the Christians. His life was deeply immersed in the culture for so long, and when it was gone, he had no choice.

Here is my poem that shows what life was like for Okonkwo when the white men came:

He’s trying to be a man,

Trying to be a warrior.

Afraid of being Unoka once more.

A man from another planet,

He returns to find home inside out.

Who he knew to be Is now worth nothing.

He’s trying to find a scent that is no more.
He doesn’t understand why Nwoye has gone.

His life is like a car without fuel

On a “not a through” street

That is only one way

An ape living in Antarctica.
His fright of realization

That feels like extermination.

A game that no one will play.

The church devoured his title.

He can no longer live – no way.

The white men of the Catholic Church were both a positive and negative influence. Mr. Brown, for example, was a very pleasant man, and he applied what he knew about the Ibo culture to the Church, bridging connections, which resulted in followers from the clan. This decision that the people of Umuofia made only gave them opportunities, and especially for the women. However, another white man, Mr. Smith, was not compromising. He saw blacks as corrupt, evil people. His goal with the Ibo culture was more to fix them and change them from their “evil ways” instead of help them. Even though they have helped some of them, they have destroyed the Ibo culture even if they meant to or not.

This book could open the eyes of many people. History has been written in the way that gives glory to the conqueror, and doesn’t ever tell the other side of the story. Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apartin the way that shows you what really happened, but never gives you his opinion. There might be many people that haven’t heard the overview of this sort of story, and might think exactly what Mr. Smith thinks – that the Ibo culture was evil and corrupt. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know about the Ibo and also discover they are not cultureless. This book definitely will change the way people think for the better.

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Anchor Books, New York. 1959.

The Stranger by Albert Camus - Book Critique

"What did other people’s deaths or a mother’s love matter to me; what did his God or the lives people choose or the fate they think they elect matter to me when we’re all elected by the same fate, me and billions of privileged people like him who also called themselves my brothers? Couldn’t he see, couldn’t he see that? Everybody was privileged. There were only privileged people. The others would all be condemned one day. And he would be condemned, too. What would it matter if he were accused of murder and then executed because he didn’t cry at his mother’s funeral? Salamano’s dog was worth just as much as his wife." (121)

It’s not that often that characters like this our found in fiction stories. Monsieur Meuersalt’s life is quite dark and dull, but his personality and his reactions to things that happen are very interesting and unique. The book is based on the philosophy called existentialism, which states that individuals are responsible for all meaning in their own lives. “The Stranger” is a perfect name for this character, as his thought system seems alien. The situations he was involved in were awkward, but his responses to them were even more so. However, the character’s ideas are certainly noteworthy. It raises some questions as well, for example: “Should this man be punished for we he physically does, even though it wasn’t really his intention? Shouldn’t his thought system backfire and cause misery and self-punishment if it would be truly harmful to anyone?

The book starts off with Meuersalt’s mother dying, where he had tearless eyes at the funeral. Later, he finds a girlfriend, Marie, who he often thought he wanted during pleasurable moments at the beach and the movies. But, Marie asked him once if he wanted to marry her, and he said that would be fine. She questioned him again, asking him if he would marry another woman if she asked to marry as well, and he said yes. Within this time, he made friends with Raymond; a man who justified the abuse of his own girlfriend when he thought it was needed. Raymond asked Meuersalt to write him a letter to his girlfriend, who Raymond thought was cheating on him. Raymond wanted her to feel bad for what she’s “done,” and Meuersalt went ahead and wrote this “hate letter” for him.

Later on, Raymond, Meuersalt and Marie went to a barbecue on the beach with Raymond’s friends. On the way, they ran into two Arabs on the street that Raymond had fought with before, and they later encountered each other again on the beach. Masson, Raymond and Meuersalt almost ambushed the two Arabs (while Raymond carried a gun), but they ran away and Meuersalt took the gun from Raymond for safety. They all headed back toward the barbecue, but Meuersalt took a different route. He claimed it was very hot, and he felt pressured by it as it was beating down on him. He ascended a flight of stairs and ran into one of the Arabs on a bench a few steps in front of him. The heat forced him to continue forward, and the Arab pulled out a knife while Meuersalt raised his gun and shot several bullets at him.
A lot of these actions seemed careless and pointless to Meuersalt, but the court found him to be quite a strange character. The would likely think, “Why didn’t he cry when his mother died? Why did he write such hateful letters for people? Why did he shoot this man?” These things make it look like he was very hateful. Towards the end, Meuersalt’s chaplain, a man with strong Christian faith, was upset that Meuersalt didn’t believe in God, but claimed he would pray for him anyway. This made Meuersalt furious, since he doesn’t feel that he should be prayed for or that any man should be concerned with someone else’s life. He didn’t feel guilty or upset about his life so far, except for the fact that he was in prison. He thought that everyone was privileged, and that was all that people should know. He knew he could care less if someone did the same thing as he did. He goes far even to declare that his neighbor’s dog is equal in value as his neighbor’s wife. He observed that everyone would be condemned anyway, and we all have the same fate.

Even though Meuersalt seems to be so strange, what is it that we can learn from this? We can basically say that this shows existentialism through the thought that everyone should be concerned with himself or herself, since our life is all up to ourselves, and no one else. If someone was to do what Meuersalt did, he would say it’s their problem, not his. Even though Meuersalt’s life seems valueless, we know that the way we think and what we do is up to us, and punishment only comes from ourselves. Otherwise, punishers will be punishing themselves as well. This book is one of the strangest but most interesting of its kind, and brings up many questions that could change the way we see our lives.

I recommend this book to everyone, but specifically to people who like to contemplate the validity of the world’s morals and punishments. The world tends to judge people more on what they do than what or how they think. This book is very controversial, and is focused on this point of thinking/action. We are too worried about other people’s lives when we should worry about our own. The Stranger is not really for people who prefer fiction genres like science fiction, fantasy, and mystery, since those tend to make people daydream. Nevertheless, this book can free people from the seeming burdens and worries that the world presents to us, and can reveal our tendency towards prejudging and blaming others. You will find that this “stranger” has something to prove: that he is not as strange as we think.

Camus, Albert. The Stranger. Vintage International. New York. 1988.

1984 by George Orwell - Book Critique

"Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past."

This book seems to have been written in fear. The totalitarian governments seemed to be quite frightening, and George Orwell shows us what it could have led to. Everyday people would easily be caught in the situation that Winston ended up in, but it is interesting to think of how other people would react in the same situation. This book is not a fairy tale, but it is so realistic that it is a possibility. My main question is this: if this were to happen, how could we escape the struggle?

Winston's situation seems hopeless in the end. When he got together with Julia to get by the structured controlling system, he thought everything would work out. He even had O'Brien reassure him that they would "meet in the place where there is no darkness." It was only until he found out that O'Brien set him up that he couldn't resist surrendering to Big Brother. His early hope was that the proles would be able to overthrow the Party, even though he saw them completely brainwashed and unable to explain the past truly. They seemed to work like robots, lifeless and inhuman. Things like newspeak and doublethink were diminishing any freedom for intellectual truth: "War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength." After having a romantic relationship with Julia and later being caught by O'Brien and put "in the place where there is no darkness," his fear of torture forced him to betray Julia and start to love Big Brother. George Orwell's psychological point was that physical pain can control the human emotions. The limitations of the body can potentially overpower you.

1984 is a brilliant work, as an individual usually could find no way out of it. All of their personal freedoms are taken away and their emotions suppressed. Pleasures seemed impossible because the physical situation is always watched through the telescreens. People are forced to act the way the Party wants them to, as their jobs are to change everything in favor of them. This control can be seen in the book's saying, "Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past." No one is able to remember what happened in the past because of this, and this gives the feeling of being blind and helpless. Where is the freedom at all?

For me, I didn't feel that I would be imprisoned or limited by this situation. Knowing the past isn't an issue for me, and neither is the future. Freedom can only be found in the present moment, and it can't be taken away from you. It is only fear, hate, etc. that gives such a limiting feeling. The physical situation and the limitation of the body means for most that there is no power, peace, freedom, or pleasures. What is so funny is that people overlook the immediate! The power to be is so much grander than physical pleasures, and love for Big Brother wouldn't be a problem if you were all-loving and all-embracing. The Party is not against that at all. There wouldn't be a reason to rebel because their would be no sense of limitation or control! You could feel like you are Big Brother, omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. Physical pleasures cannot pass the power of all-encompassing, unconditional love. War would eventually stop this way if everybody was able to stay present. "Who controls the past controls the future," but that wouldn't matter anymore!

I recommend everyone to read this book, whether they find themselves potentially trapped in the same situation as Winston or if they find the way out. You can never find perfection in political systems, so worrying about that will only lead to fear and realizing the limitations of the body. Valuing the same things as Winston did could unfortunately lead to similar struggles. However, I challenge everyone to read this book and find a working freedom from the 1984 situation for their own lives. I believe I found the escape route and I would love for people to apply it, but I would also like to hear another method to freedom.

Orwell, George. 1984. Penguin Books. USA. 1949.