Friday 6 July 2012

Elfera Achin
TESL (R1)
2 July 2012
Writing Task



Draft 1
Questions
1.    Which character do I admire most in the novel “Things Fall Apart”? Why?
2.    What are the similarities and differences between the African culture and mine?
Answers
1.       The character that I admire the most in the novel “Things Fall Apart” is Okonkwo. I admire him for many of his positive attitudes. In the novel, Okwonko ia a very hardworking person. He rise from the bottom. At first he was only a poor and ordinary person. However, after he was given the yam seeds by Nwakibie, he worked hard and become a successful man in Umofia. He also shows responsibility. At the young age, he is the one who supported his mother and sister although it is his father’s duty. Okwonko also shows great strength when he successfully beat Amalinze The Cat in a wrestling match. Although Okwonko is seen as having more bad qualities than good qualities, it is still acceptable because he is just filling his culture expectations for a man.
2.       The similarities of the African culture between my culture is their do’s and don’t’s in the night time. The African culture forbid children to go out at night time because they believe that something bad will happen whereas my culture also believes that. Children are not allowed to wonder out at night because there might be a danger. The African culture also expects a man to be tough and strong like Okwonko. My culture also expects the same. Man are supposed to be strong and take care of the family. The differences between the African culture and mine is that in African culture they need to do sacrifition of human whereas in my culture, there is no such thing as human sacrifition. In my culture, a man cannot have more than one wife except he is already divorced. However in African culture, they can have more wife if they want to.


Draft 2
6 July 2012
Answers
1.    The character that I admire most in the novel “Things Fall Apart” is Okwonko. I admire him for many of his positive attitudes. In the novel, Okwonko is a very hardworking person. He rose from bottom to top. At first he was only a poor and ordinary person. However, after he was given the yam seeds by Nwakibie, he worked hard and became a successful man. Okwonko had three wives,many children and  a huge yam plantation. People respect him for the success of taking care of his family and for thehuge plantation which he worked so hard at until it becomes huge. This success earned Okonkwo the high status of representing his village as the second egwugwu, as well as the respect of all of Umuofia. He is also very responsible. He takes care of his mother and sister at the young age because his father was unable to do it. In chapter three there was mentioned that Okwonko supports his family by building a barn through share cropping. That managed to help the family however the mother and sister did not plant yams. The plant coconut, yam, beans and cassava. It can be seen here that Okwonko was the one who worked hard to make sure his family survived. He is therefore responsible towards his family. Okwonko also shows great strength whe he successfully beat Amalinze The Cat in a wrestling match in the age of eighteen. Although the qualities did not last until the end of the story it still does not change my opinion about Okwonko.
2.    The similarity of the African culture and my culture is that both culture forbid children to go out at night. This is to ensure that nothing bad happen to the children. In addition, the African culture and my culture expects a man to be tough and strong like what Okwonko portrayed in this novel at the beginning of the story. The difference between African culture and my culture is that In African culture; yam is their main plantation and was important to them just like Okwonko who worked hard for his yam plantation whereas my culture’s main plantation is rice. It is the largest carbohydrate source of food. All the other cultural activities such as sacrificial and worshipping of many spirits is just the same as my culture a long time ago. 








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