Paper 3

         It is tradition for many centuries that women are suppose to stay at home and watch the children and the house while the husband works. It has always been practices and became a custom especially during the earlier centuries. When a women does not follow that tradition, she is looked down upon and seen as not normal. In A Dolls House, Nora who is married to Helmer is not too happy with her life which fell under that tradition and
struggles with it through out the play. Women should not have to follow a tradition if they would rather do
something else such as get a job of her own or know who she is before getting married.
         Nora is a mother of three children and does not work instead she stays home and watches them and
takes care of the house. That is the normal tradition to do and to stand by your husband and never lie to him or leave him. Nora has a deep secret though, that she once borrowed money from Krogstad, a man who works with Helmer. She had to borrow the money to take a trip to Italy that was too cure her husband of a sickness he had. What she did is seen as a horrible thing to go behind her husbands back and hold a secret from him for  so long.
     It is not right too have women follow this culture because "it is tradition", women should have the right to
be anything they want to be without having to worry about being ridiculed for it. Nora had to live to live with her husband for 8 years even though she was unhappy and did not love him. She did this because she was living under the tradition and never noticed how unhappy she actually was, which happened very often in the earlier centuries. " You have never loved me. You have only thought it pleasent be in love with me" (76, A Dolls House) Helmer also fell under tradition because he thought the "perfect" wife was a wife you takes care of kids and who never does wrong.
     When Helmer finds out about what she has held from him for many years he yells at her and calls her a "thoughtless women" (72, A Dolls House) and he cannot believe his "perfect" wife would have done this to him and continues to yell at her about it until he receives a note that says that it is all forgotten and Helmer is happy and tries to make it seem like everything is okay but Nora does not accept it and leaves the home and Helmer is very shocked because this goes against the tradition.
     Women should not have to stick to a tradition because it has been followed for many centuries it is not fair to them. They should be able to do what they want and not have to worry about if they will get no respect for doing so. Nora was very brave and strong for walking out even though she left behind her children but she needed to find her self first before anything. Hopefully women can be seen just as worthy as men are in his society.
                                               Works Cited
Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll's House. New York: Dover Publications, 1992. Print.

TFA paper 2

Gabriella Chavez

English 201

Elizabeth Whitley

         As children grow up they look up to their fathers and hope to be just like them and work towards that. Especially a son will look up to his father the most but what happens when the father was not such a great role model. In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo’s father Unoko was not very successful, he many debts, was very lazy and died without a title. Okonkwo struggled with not being anything like his father that it also affected his own son Nwoye, who in his eyes was very weak and lazy. The relationship between a father and his son is crucial because it will affect their own child in the future.

         Unoko, Okonkwo’s father was often laughed at because he was very poor and barely had enough money to feed his family and was a loafer. (Achebe,5) He kept on piling more debt and never paying people back, which is embarrassing to his family. Unoko dies without a title to his name, which means he is remembered for nothing, but a man who had lots of debt and was lazy. This angered Okonkwo so much that he set out to never be like his father and to be strong and die with a title to his name. It is quite extraordinary how he grew his own yam farm when it was once nothing and how we raised his family with his 3 wives and children as well.

         Okonkwo’s son Nwoye was the eldest of all his children and was expected to be very strong and tough but was actually very emotional and lazy. Okonkwo despised this aspect of his son and did not want him to be a failure like Unoko so he would beat him whenever he showed any type of emotion or lazyness. Okonkwo believed firmly on showing nothing but strength “To show affection was a sign of weakness; the only thing worth demonstrating was strength”. (Achebe,28) Okonkwo’s way of thinking comes from his father because father was not very strong he was lazy and not got anything done.

         When The Oracle tell Okonkwo to take in Ikemefuna in and make him a part of his family. Nwoye got very close to Ikemefuna and saw him as a brother. Later on in the story The Oracle decides Ikemefuna’s fate and wants him murdered, Nwoye hears of this by his father and cries. ”Nwoye overheard it and burst out into tears, where upon his father beat him heavily”( Achebe,57). Okonkwo has said “there is too much of his mother in him” (Achebe,66) he hated that emotional and lazy side of Nwoye because it reminded him too much of Unoka as well as Nwoye’s mother.

         All of Okonkwo’s hard abusive ways of fathering eventually did get to Nwoye so much that he sought out to another way of living. When the christian missionaries came to the villages and were trying to get people to follow their religion, Okonkwo despised all of this and that people were following this religion. When Obierika sees that Nwoye is with the missionaries and is in complete shock and speaks to him of his father. Nwoye says “I don’t know. He is not my father”. (Achebe, 144) At this point Nwoye was so upset with his father always bringing him down and never being able to meet up to his expectations he went another direction. When Okonkwo hears of this news he is very upset and when Nwoye walks into their obi he attacks him with fury by gripping him by the neck. (Achebe,151) Nwoye leaves his father and is happy about it and he goes off to a school to help him learn how to write and read.

         After all Okonkwo tried to make his son into a strong emotionless man it failed because he was too abusive and mean to Nwoye. The reason Okonkwo was like this to Nwoye was because of Unoko, he did not want anyone in his family to end up that way. He had such a hard way of showing emotion that in the end he lost his own fight, which it did not have to end that way.

                                         Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor, 1994. Print.

TFA take home test

Gabriella Chavez

English 201

2. Fatherhood

         The problems between Okonkwo and his father created problems with his son Nwoye because he expected his son to be strong and not emotional like himself. He did not want his son to be a failure like Okonkwo’s father Unoka, so he became very abusive towards whenever he deceived him. When Ikemefuna was murdered he cried and Okonkwo beat him up for showing weakness.”Nwoye overheard it and burst out into tears, where upon his father beat him heavily”( Achebe,57) Later on when Nwoye befriends with the white Christain Missionaries and eventually goes to a school for teaching. Okonkwo is angry about this and never talks to his son ever again.

The Ending

         In the end of the novel, Things Fall Apart Okonkwo kills himself by hanging himself on a tree. What leads to him to commit suicide is that his village changing and Nwoye going off to school is what caused everything. Through out the whole novel he does not want to be seen as weak and does not want to die a death without a title, in Umofia that is forbidden. Obierika finds and tells the district commissioner “The man was one of the greatest men in Umofia. You drove him to kill himself, and now he will be buried like a dog…”(Achebe,208). He believes that the missionaries are what causes Okonkwos death and now he must be buried without a title. Okonkwo did make achievements like starting up his life when it was nothing after his father died, that’s a big deal. Even after being exiled for 7 years he came back trying to regain everything he once had.

Bride Price

         In Things Fall Apart, when the women of Umofia get to a certain age they have many male suitors buy them with a bride price. They offer many different things to the girls parents and if it is enough for them they get to marry the daughter. To us this might seem wrong because were use to meeting someone, falling in love and eventually getting married, but to Umofia it is very normal to their culture. One scene in the chapter they all get ready for a women’s wedding, the mother does all the cooking in prep for it. 

Things Fall Apart Respose

Gabriella Chavez

English 201

            In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo wants to be known for being strong and not be like his father, Unoka who was lazy and did nothing with his life and died with no title to his name. Okonkwo who was embarrassed by his father developed a complex and a determination to be known as one of the best in his village of Umuofia. Since he wants to be known as strong he never shows any type of emotion towards his family, he constantly beats his 3 wives when they do one thing wrong and his children as well. When a man from another village kills Ezeugo, a woman from Umuofia, they go to the village and take a virgin and a young boy, Ikemefuna.

            Through chapter 1-7 Okonkwo is struggling with looking strong and not showing emotion. Nwoye, one of Okonkwos sons gets very close to Ikemefuna and feel like their brothers. Even Okonkwo who is very fond of Ikemefuna but does not show it because he must not show emotion according to him. Nwoye is described as being very lazy and having much emotion and it bothers Okonkwo. Ikemefuna’s fate gets decided by The Oracle that he must get killed and Okonkwo has to go with them, in this case he is very sad inside about this but wont show it. When Ikemefuna runs to Okonkwo and says “My father, they have killed me!” (Things Fall Apart,61) he cut him with his machete, he was afraid of everyone thinking he was weak.

            Okonkwo’s struggle with not being seen as weak seems to actually hurt him more, because he can’t show emotion to anything and that is never good for anyone. In the book he is portrayed as being very angry and just wants to do good in life but he wont if he continues this way.

Paper 1

Gabriella Chavez

English 201

            In the story “Everyday Use” Alice Walker brings up many different personalities and how they have gotten them. Maggie is a African-American women who only one way of living which is too stay home and do house work. Meanwhile her sister Maggie has seen other opportunities of the world because she has traveled a bit and knows what she is capable of. Staying in one place can really affect the person you become because you do not know the world outside of the environment you have been around.

            When Maggie’s sister, Dee, comes to visit her family she appears to be very mean to her family is very embarrassed of her family. She is mean to Maggie and tells her she can better herself if she knew what else was out there. Since Dee has been around to other places than her hometown and has seen how other people act and such that she has lost her sense of self. According to Tyson, that is one of the psychoanalytic theories and Dee has that because the way she acts is that she is better than her family. She lost herself because she was also in denial from where she actually came from and did not want to deal with the reality.

            Maggie appears to everyone that she has low self esteem and is jealous of Dee but it seems that Maggie is happy where she is because she has not seen anything but the world she lives in so in a way she does not know what is out there and if she can be happy. Her sister Dee tells her she can do better for herself but Maggie doesn’t know she can. Maggie probably does not even understand what she means by that statement being that she seems happy where she is which is doing house work and about to get married to a man. Dee actually might be jealous of Maggie because she is happy with the little that she has when Dee has to search around to find happiness and to feel complete.

            Maggie and Dee’s mother seems to have dream symbolism because in the beginning of the story she daydreams of a life with happy children and a perfect life. When her reality is the complete opposite of that because Dee is not happy when it comes to being back home and Maggie is just very quiet and keeps to herself most of the time.

            Staying in one place your entire life can be both bad and good because if an induvual is happy where they are than let them stay that way. If they are not happy than they should see what else is out there and what the possibilities are and if it will make them happy doing so. Maggie seems to be happy where she is and Dee was not so she got up and left to see a whole other world.

Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

Gabriella Chavez

English 201

           

In the story “ The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber” Ernest Hemingway wrote about 3 characters who are in the African safaris who like to hunt. Macomber is married and his wife is with him but usually never goes camping with them, Wilson another character is a friend of Macomber that is a known for being a great hunter. There are many problems within the characters especially between Macomber and his wife, Margaret.

Macomber is very insecure with the way he hunts it is noticeable because he always ask Wilson for advice on how to shoot an animal. He has “insecure sense of self” because when he is around Wilson he acts very different and acts brave. He does not feel very good about himself so when he is around Wilson who is very confident with what he does.

Macomber also has low self-esteem because when his wife goes in the next room with Wilson he worries and feels bad about himself. He in a way competes with Wilson when they hunt together and does things he would not do if he were not with Wilson. He gains some sort of self-esteem after he kills the buffalo and wants to kill more; he gets some sort of adrenaline rush. In the end you can realize he still has no self-esteem.

Macomber was also is in denial with his wife, he believe she will never leave him because he has money. In the middle of the night when caught her sneaking back in he didn’t believe she was ever going to leave, even after she said she would leave. Macomber has a tragic death in the end that was due to his wife shooting him by mistake, but maybe she just wanted to get rid of him. That could have been stopped if he wasn’t in such denial.