This chapter is about Ikemefuna at first. After the clan decides that he will be living with Okonkwo for a while. Later, he became ill for about three weeks, healing a few days before the Week of Peace, an African tradition. Every one seems to start and like Ikemefuna, and Ikemefuna even starts calling Okonkwo his father.
The Week of Peace is to have a week where no cruelty shown towards others. This is to ensure a good growing season and is the week before the planting of the crops. Well, one day in the week, Okonkwo broke the peace by beating his wife, Ojiugo. He beat her because it was her turn to cook dinner, and she was not home so he becomes angry. After committing this during the sacred week, he was punished by the priest, he had to give a "she-goat" (female goat), a hen, a length of cloth and a hundred cowries to the shrine of Ani, their god.
After this week, every one proceeded in preparing their crops. During this, Okonkwo lets Ikemefuna and Nwoye help prepare yams, but they screw up and get yelled at. Okonkwo knew that they were too young to know what they were doing, but as we all have learned, he is obsessed with success and feels it is never to early to learn.
This novel seems to be a lot about success and failure. Okonkwo hates unsuccessful and lazy people. I also feel he is being very self-centered. He seems to be afraid that people in his family might fail, letting his reputation fall, and then that be a stain on him when he goes into society. So far, with this obsession, bad things keep happening to him, so I am thinking that something is going to happen to him and he'll be lowered in his society.
3 comments:
I agree with you when you said that somehting is going to lower him in society. I think that it is going to be such a tragic thing that it is going to cause him to hit rock bottom. I'm not sure what will happen, but I think that it is going to be worse than anything so far.
Wow... my thoughts exactly. His self-centeredness/perfection lifestyle have been driving me crazy this far. It has blocked out any other emotions he may feel for others, which I think is only going to hurt him in the end.
I think you guys may be a little too harsh. Yeah, okonkwo is a jerk, but he is a self made rich dude. I dont think he is going to come down in society. I think that he is a perfectionist, but then, so is my dad. As for his behavior, you may have noticed that they werent yelling at him for beating his wife, but for when he beat his wife. His violence is coomon in that culture. It is only his timing that seems nonconformist.
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