Things Fall Apart - Abraham and Isaac

On Tuesday / Wednesday in class we read the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac, specifically the moment when God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son.

You can find the text of it by clicking here.

As we read the story, we identified "gaps" in it - places where we have questions or things are not explicitly named.  For example, what happens during the three days of their travel before the moment of the sacrifice, or what happens in the immediate aftermath between father and son.

We then turned to the parallel scene in the novel - the one in which Ikemefuna is killed. Okonkwo is told not to play a role in the murder, but ends up doing so as he is "dazed with fear."

One conclusion we reached was about how Okonkwo put personal concerns over his faith in the ways of the Ibo and specifically ignored what he was supposed to do (he also did this when he violated the Week of Peace), while Abraham puts the commandment of God above his own feelings.

Things Fall Apart - Rituals and Traditions

Today we wrote about traditions and rituals. We first discussed the difference between them, then shared personal examples of either a tradition or ritual that is a part of our lives.  This lead to a conversation about why we have rituals and traditions, and then what we have learned about the Ibo based on their rituals and traditions we've read about in the first six chapters.

Here is today's video:

Things Fall Apart - Detail / Structure / Philosophy

Our work today focused on using three lenses as a vehicle for close reading of the novel: Detail / Structure / Philosophy.

We read the passage from the bottom of page 5 to the end of page 7, then focused on the phrase "He who brings kola brings life."  This was the detail we examined - what does that phrase mean - what are the specific terms - what is happening in this moment.

Next we looked at the structure of this sequence - why do the events in this passage happen in this sequence? Why does the kola nut ceremony happen in this order? Why does Okoye wait until later to ask for the money Unoka owes him?

Lastly we looked at philosophy - an idea implied / suggested by the passage, but not specifically named.  I asked you to consider "respect" here. Your answers named respect in terms of the relationship between these two men, a respect for the gods and ancestors, and an earned respect that comes from taking on the Idemili title.

You then worked in groups to examine chapters 2-4 to name your own sequence of detail / structure / philosophy to share with the class.

Things Fall Apart - Proverbs and Cultural Knowledge

In class to day we started by looking at this handout about proverbs.  We used the first page as a sort of quiz - to see if anyone in the class knew all 25 proverbs.  On the second page there is a list of paired proverbs - ones that seem to contradict each other.  We discussed the nature of proverbs - where they come from, who believes them - then came up with a list of some other ones we know and use.  I then asked you to work with a partner to find a proverb from the first two chapters of the novel, to explain what it means, and to think about what it tells us about the Ibo people.

We then talked about cultural knowledge.  For every text we read - a new video game, a sport, a movie, a book, etc. - we always have to figure out what is "true" in that world.  What are the rules? What are the expectations? What are the ways people act towards each others? What are their beliefs?  We then again looked at the first two chapters to identify places where there are things specific to this culture that we do not yet understand.  For example, we talked about the ceremony of the kola nut.  To add to this, I played this video featuring some music played on the ogene, like Unoka enjoyed:

Things Fall Apart - Introduction

Today we started our work with the next novel we are reading - Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.

To find the calendar for your class, or to see the description of the journal assignment, click the corresponding links under the "Things Fall Apart" tab above.

I introduced the novel today by showing you the first 20 minutes of the film, The Gods Must Be Crazy.  If you missed it, or want to re-watch it, or even watch the entire film, I've posted it below.

Happy writing!

Greetings!

Sorry I will not be with you today. I'd love to be there with you to talk about Duke's victory over Wisconsin last night or, even more importantly, your essays.

Today and tomorrow are work days.  I posted the themes from our class discussion in the previous post, or you can find them here.

If  you need information about the different types of essays, you can click here.

Remember, the essay / project is due Monday at 11:59 p.m.

Good luck with it!

The God of Small Things - Themes to consider

Here is a list of potential themes for you to work with for your essay / project