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Pathos
Achebe uses various characters throughout his novel in order to provoke emotions within his audience. In the book, the main character Okonkwo is used to provoke fear in the audience. Throughout the novel, he shows how fear can transform from being a motivator to influencing irrational,rushed decision making. By making the audience feel fear he achieves his purpose of displaying Igbo culture in the earlier days of African society as well as showing the importance of male dominance in Igbo culture.
Chapter 1 Page 13
"Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. ..It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should resemble his father. ..And so Okonkwo was ruled by one passion -to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved. One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness."
Page 14
"'Do what you are told, woman," Okonkwo thundered and stammered. "When did you become one of the ndichie of Umofia?" And so Nwoye's mother took Ikemefuna to her hut and asked no more questions."
Chapter 7 Page 61
"Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak."
Speaker-Chinua Achebe, Author, African Novelist
Audience- European novelist, Other African novelist,
African society
Purpose-To correct stereotypes about Africans set in mostly Western European novels
To give Africans a voice and humanize Africans as a race
To educate people about African(Igbo) culture
Depict earlier days of African society
To discuss the religious tension and its affects within the community
In the novel, Achebe uses several Igbo words that would have been used in early Igbo society. He also displays different aspects of their culture such as special ceremonies in order to show the differences between various African societies and correct stereotypes where Western European novels depicted Africans as dehumanized.
Chapter 1 Page 13
"Even as a little boy he had been fond to his father's failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala. That was Okonkwo first came to know that agbala was not only another name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken no title."
Chapter 5 Page 36
"The Feast of the New Yam was held every year before the harvest began, to honor the earth goddess and the ancestral spirits of the clan. New yams could not be eaten until some had first been offered to these powers. Men and women, young and old, looked forward to the New Yam Festival because it began the season of plenty -the new year. On the last night before the festival, yams of the old year were all disposed of by those who still had them. The new year must begin with tasty, fresh yams and not the shriveled and fibrous crop of the previous year.
The fact that Achebe is a native African makes him credible as an African novelist. During his upbringing, education did not discuss "Igbo things". Instead, African culture was depicted through Western European novels. This influenced Achebe to write his novel because to educate others on Igbo culture. Also, living in Africa Achebe saw first hand the affects colonialism had on the country. This also gave him motive to write his novel because he wanted to show the religious tension and how it tore apart the unity that once existed in their society.
Chapter 18 Page 158
"'It is not our custom to fight for our gods," said one of them. "let us not presume to do so now. If a man kills the sacred python in the secrecy of his hut, the matter lies between him and the god. ...We put our fingers in our ears to stop us hearing. That is a wise action."
Page 160
"'The village has outlawed us," said one of the women. ...Another woman said, "The want to ruin us. They will not allow us into the markets. They have said so."
Chapter 19 Page 167
"But I fear for you young people because you do not understand how strong is the bond of kinship. You do not know what it si to speak with one voice. And what is the result? An abominable religion has settled amoung you. A man can now leave his father and his brothers. He can now curse the gods of his fathers and ancestors,....I fear for you; I fear for the clan."