Things Fall Apart - Day 2

Today we started class by looking at a list of proverbs. What it a proverb? It's a short saying, some people call it a "quote," that speaks of something as a truth. It often feels like a piece of advice. So, for example, one might say "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen" or "Two wrongs don't make a right."  Check out the list of proverbs on the handout and see how many you know - there is a missing word from each one - ask me for the answers (or just Google it!)

• List of proverbs

Also on the handout are pairs of opposing proverbs - how can two statements both suggest a truth and be opposites of each other? For example, how can it be true that "Clothes make the man" but we should also remind ourselves "Don't judge a book by its cover"?

We had a conversation about the list of proverbs - since they are American proverbs, what do they tell us about being an American?

We used a similar question as we turned our attention to the novel - what do the proverbs in the opening chapter tell us about the Ibo? We are told they use proverbs in their daily language quite a bit, and that "proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten" (7).

Lastly small groups explored these issues to determine what they mean for the Ibo, and then shared their findings:

• Strength and achievement
• Religion and spirituality
• Justice
• Social rank
• Father / son relationships
• family
• Rituals and traiditons