Haiku & Limericks

HAIKU

The night wind blows hard,
through the open pink window,
The calm night strikes me.


LIMERICKS

There was once an old knight
Who always lived in fright
He dreamed of a cockatoo
And awoke with a terrible fright
And found out that it was true.

Week 2 : Women in Things Fall Apart

Go through your notes on gender differences and other websites dealing with gender studies. Based on your reading, reflect on how these women are treated in the novel. The following questions can help you as you write your reflective piece in your blog:

•  How are the women treated in the novel? Do all members in the community agree with the status quo? Why? 
• What contributions are made by the Igbo women to the survival of their culture? 
• What are the changes in women’s roles in this present world?

Retrieved from : http://reflectiononthingsfallapart.blogspot.com/

  The women in the novel Things Fall Apart are treated not equally in the novel because we can see how the society views women throughout the story. Yes, there are times where women seems to be protected and well taken care of, however, the power gap can still be seen clearly in the story. For example, Okonkwo can freely beat his wives and no one scolds him but in the Week of Peace, hitting the wife is forbidden and there are punishment to those who still does it. The fate of the young girl that is offered as sacrifice in the beginning of the story is quickly decided whereas the boy is still considered whether to be sacrificed or not. This is implementing that the life of female is not that important in the culture. 

Some of the community members did not agree with the status quo, for example, during Okonkwo's exile, they were sent to his wife's motherland, and people there respects women. For example, Uchendu advises Okonkwo to be good to his wives. 

   There are many contributions made in making sure the Igbo culture still survives. For example, the women gave birth to children, which if there are no women, there will be no addition to the number of people of the Igbo culture. Secondly, they take care of the children which is very important because if there were fewer women in the Igbo society, all the children will be sacrifices because the men does not seem to care about the welfare of the children that they killed.

      Today, women are seen as valuable as the men because we can see women working and being in high position although a thin gap between these two gender still exists. Nowadays, women can even be the breadwinner of the family. 

Name : Elfera Achin
Class  : TESL (R1)

Question: Elfera, what is this gap that can still be seen between men and women?

In ensuring the survival of the culture, what is their role as wives/mothers/daughters/leaders?

   The gap between men and women can still be seen in our society. That is a fact that cannot be denied. Even though there a few of women leaders all around the world, their role as a female will still exist. This includes the taking care of the children, doing the household activities and obeying their husband. 

  To ensure the survival of culture, women, as mothers, must take care of their children because the mothers are always expected to take care of the children more than the father. As daughters, women should have a good education in order to ensure they have good education and be good leaders in the future. While women who are leaders should fight for female rights to ensure that female is highly regarded in the society.   

In the novel, the women are not treated well especially by the protagonist, Okonkwo. The culture in the village allow the men to get married to as many women as they want to but the women have to have total loyalty toward the husband. Okonkwo himself has four wives of his own and he is not treating them well. During the week of peace, Okonkwo beats his wife hard. The culture of the Igbo people also does not allow the women to go out and socialize but to stay at home to take care of the husbands and the children.  Only the men have the responsibility to go out to find the needs of the family.

Yes, I think all the members in the community agree with status quo as it is clearly seen in the novel. They do not allow the women to go out and socialize but the men have the total freedom. Not just to go looking for foods perhaps, but they also have been given the freedom to get married with as many women as they want. Meanwhile, the women have to stay at home and have to have total loyalty to the husband and serve them well.

The way the women of the Igbo people are treated is not suitable with what they have been doing. The women have given birth for the continuation of the generation of Igbo people. The people should respect the women but they do not. The women also have given total loyalty for the family by taking care of the children and serve the husband well. They even do not allowed to go out.

In this present world, the women have given a lot. They no longer have to stay at home but also able to be the breadwinner of the family. Now, the women as the leaders also can be seen everywhere. This has shown that the women are able to stand the same level as the men. They should be respected and given the same right as the men.

By, 

Angela Devung

In the novel Things Fall Apart, the women are not treated equally. In Igbo culture, women are seen as  the weaker sex. The dominant role for women is to make a pure bride for an honorable man, to be a submissive wife and to bear many children. Even though the women’s level is not as high as the men, they still play important roles in the upbringing of the tribe. All the members in the community are agree with the status quo because they believe that men are responsible to be the leader of the family and should not look weak. The ideal men provide for his family materially and have status on the battlefield. Okonkwo, is extremely concerned with being masculine and devalues everything feminine.

Even though the women are seen as a weak gender but still there are some contributions made by the Igbo women to the survival of their culture. As seen in the novel, many of the spiritual entities consist of goddesses and even the priestess is a female character.

In this present world, we can see that there are lots of working women. Women are not seen as the housewife and only do the house chores. Besides, many of the high position in the workplace are dominated by women. 

-Kelly Katty Jameson-

Week 1: Your Thoughts on the Novel

I am sure by now you have completed reading the whole novel "Things Fall Apart". There are issues which you might find troubling. You may even disagree with some of the actions taken by the characters in the novel. Your views are important and let not the various articles you've read swayed you into accepting them as gospel truths. Do question what you have read.

In your respective blogs, think reflectively of the issues found in the novel. The following questions should help you in your analysis:

• Based on your reading of “Things Fall Apart”, what aspects of the Igbo culture allow the British to take over? 
• Since Sarawak has also undergone colonisation, how has this affected aspects of culture in our society? 

• Are there any changes brought about in the lives of the indigenous tribes in Africa and Sarawak? 

Source : http://reflectiononthingsfallapart.blogspot.com/

   In my opinion, the openness in the Igbo culture is the reason why the British could take over. The British takes over slowly through Christianity. The Igbo culture welcomed them and did not do anything about the spreading of Christianity. They accept them and even allow them to build a church in the Evil Forest. Therefore, I think the openness in the Igbo culture gave the opportunity to the British to manipulate they’re people and lastly, takes over.

  It has brought good effects towards the society. Sarawakian people that experienced the period of colonisation tend to be fluent in the English language. This is because of the influence of the language that was used by the colonizers. Furthermore, there are mix marriages happening in Sarawak. For example, an Iban woman marries a foreigner. This creates more multicultural diversities in Sarawak.

  It did changes on the lives of the indigenous tribe in Sarawak because they start to have a solid religion and also they will be able to choose between the good and the bad because of the experience that they had during the colonization.

Elfera Achin

(tesl 1). 

The aspects that the Igbo culture has which caused to the downfall of the people are because of their obsession toward their culture. For example, they allow the British to build a church in the Evil forest. They think that they will not be able to stay for a long time in the forest as they believe that the spirit in the Evil forest will punish them for what they’ve done. They rely on the nature and their believe to take action for punishing the White but as time goes by, the White successfully build the church and that is the beginning of their downfall.

Since Sarawak has also undergone colonization, it does affect the aspects of culture in the society. This can be seen in the aspect of language and mix marriage. During colonization, they had introduced English language to the people and we can see that our ancestor or grandparents that had experienced colonization before are very fluent when they speak in English language. Besides that, mix marriage also emerged in Sarawak. We can see that many local people married with the British people.

With the invasion, there are a lot of changes brought about in the lives of the indigenous tribes in Africa and Sarawak. As we can see in Sarawak, the British had influenced a lot especially in the education system and many more. As for Africa, the British has built clinics, schools and churches for the people. From there we can see that many of them starting to lead a healthy and useful life. 

- KELLY KATTY JAMESON-

                In a country long time ago, it is proven that man rule by using religions. That is where we can read, people identify their King or their ruler as the prophet or the son of God.  This method had been used by the British to conquer people around the Globe by spreading the Christianity to people that they colonized  The Igbo people was blinded or being corrupted by the British when the British bring in infrastructure and schools for the Igbo people and the Igbo didn’t realized that slowly the British take over the Igbo people culture and also their ministry. The British also use the weakness of the Igbo culture and spread the Christianity where the new religions is much better than the Igbo culture and this had attracted many hearts to join Christianity.  This eventually leads to the goals of the British that is to take over the Igbo’s people culture, religions and their ministry.

Sarawak society come from multiple of tribes and culture which is differ from one another which represent their identity. So how does colonization affect them? Simple. Same situation with the Igbo people, they bring in the Christianity and we can see that Sarawak are still dominant of Christian religions and the British bring in their language and teach to the local people. Surprisingly, some old folks can speak English well and far better than the youngster today, this is because some of them have the chance to enter school during the colonization time and they pick up the language.  We can say that, the British use three methods to conquer people, through language, religions and their culture. For example like the culture of wearing neck tie and suits to any formal events. The old folks still practice this and they were very comfortable in using suits because to them, this is the culture that have been taught to them and how they should dress up and it is also a way to respect that event  by dressing up well.  But the identity of the Sarawak people is still untouched because the British want them to stay as what they are and not let the local people to develop because it will affect them in conquering the country.

Yes. Absolutely. Prove is that, we can see that they doesn’t practice the old religions anymore and the practice a more civilized culture and traditions that can ensure the development of the tribes. The tribe people know about knowledge when they were introduced about school and today they already understand the need of education. They also like I have mention before, they practice some good culture from them and until today, they still practice it. 

____ Albinus Arbut....

The society that has undergone colonization does improve in usage of English language as the British people used English language as medium in socialize in daily life. The community also being more open minded as the British people do spread the culture in Malaya. Our society did improve in economy section when colonization occurred.

The indigenous tribes that existed in Sarawak and Africa do overcome changes when the people in the community become more modern and the idea to improve in technology begins to develop. The indigenous tribes can be a successful tribes but the society needs to work harder to make the economy and social life in the tribes work out.

(Fawwaz Anuar)

Based on my reading on the novel “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, I believe that the aspects that bring to the downfall of the Igbo people is because they do not have the strong belief in their culture. This might due to the cruelty done in their culture. For example, the Igbo culture does not allow twins to be born and raised up. Once the mother gives birth to twins, they will be thrown to the Evil Forest. I believe that every human have a sense of humanity in them by nature.  Which mother does not love her own children? So, from here I believe that deep down in their heart, they know there is something wrong with the culture from the beginning but just because they are living with that belief, they have to accept. Therefore, when there is new belief introduced and it is much better, they accept it without much compromise.

Sarawak also has undergone colonization hundreds years ago. It has affected a lot of culture in the society. The obvious one that has been affected is the religion itself, which is Christianity that has been brought by them.There are a lot of Christians in Sarawak as compared to other states. 

Besides, they also have changed the culture of the Iban people. Last time before the colonization, it was the Iban culture to kill people and they were proudly keeping the heads for collection. The more, the greater they were.

Written by, 

Angela Devung Dennis