The Name Game: Things Fall Apart post 1

The first 50 pages were a bit difficult for me. I struggled with keeping track of who was who because the names sometimes sounded very similar. From the beginning, I thought Okonkwo would be a hero, but I quickly found out that he did not have any traits to make him a hero. He seems way too aggressive and hot-headed. I took sympathy to his father for all the death that he was in. It made me upset that they didn’t get along too well. I believe that the only good thing to come out of their relationship was Okonkwo’s motivation to work hard in life. I also thought that it was interesting how their village asked for a young man and a virgin when a woman from their village was killed. I would understand asking for a woman, since they killed a woman, but I don’t understand why they asked for a young man too. Often times, the narrator says that Okonkwo is feared. I think that is a horrible thing to be thought of as. That is not the trait of a leader. I believe that Okonkwo could make a fantastic leader if he was more loving and less aggressive. Also, he wanted “to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved” (Achabe 13) which I think is a pretty stupid goal for life. One part of the book that stuck out to me was when they talk about the priestess Chika. China has a leadership position in their village and also has the power of god. It’s not often that women have leadership positions in novels and it’s rare to hear about them. I did not think that in this book a woman would have a role like this, so I enjoyed to see that a woman was in power and that a man would go to her for advice. I also liked how she told him to “Go home and work like a man” (18). I also liked how when Okonkwo was young, he went to Nwakibie and asked for seeds. This shows his determination at a young age to do something great. This is a positive leader trait. Some of my favorite parts was when Okonkwo showed affection for his kids, even Ikemefuna who wasn’t technically his son. But I felt that whenever he showed love, he would counter that with aggression, like shooting at his wife. I am rooting for Okonkwo to change the way he acts and become more loving and lose all of his aggression, but at this point I’m not sure that will happen. 

At times, this book seems a bit dull, but I think the character development is growing and really helping the story.