Practice IOC - 5 short passages from TEWWG

https://www.dropbox.com/s/umz01uz8gmjw0im/Practice%20IOC.m4a?dl=0

(Voice recording)

I was unavailable to do all 5 passages, so I only finished 3 of them. 

I will add other 2 right after I go home tonight.

Passage #1, Chapter 3

"'Cause you told me Ah mus gointer love him, and, and Ah don't. Maybe if somebody was to tell me how, Ah could do it." 

"You come heah wid yo' mouf full uh foolishness on uh busy day. Heah you got uh prop tuh lean on all yo' bawn days, and big protection, and everybody got tuh tip dey hat tuh you and call you Mis' Killicks, and you come worryin' me 'bout love." 

"But Nanny, Ah wants to want him sometimes. Ah don't want him to do all de wantin'." 

"If you don't want him, you sho oughta. Heah you is wid de onliest organ in town, amongst colored folks, in yo' parlor. Got a house bought and paid for and sixty acres uh land right on de big road and . . . Lawd have mussy! Dat's de very prong all us black women gits hung on. Dis love! Dat's just whut's got us uh pullin' and uh haulin' and sweatin' and doin' from can't see in de mornin' till can't see at night. Dat's how come de ole folks say dat bein' uh fool don't kill nobody. It jus' makes you sweat. Ah betcha you wants some dressed up dude dat got to look at de sole of his shoe everytime he cross de street tuh see whether he got enough leather dere tuh make it across. You can buy and sell such as dem wid what you got. In fact you can buy 'em and give 'em away." 

Passage #2, Chapter 8

"Janie! Janie! don't tell me Ah got tuh die, and Ah ain't used tuh thinkin"bout it." 

"'Tain't really no need of you dying, Jody, if you had of—de doctor—but it don't do no good bringin' dat up now. Dat's just whut Ah wants tuh say, Jody. You wouldn't listen. You done lived wid me for twenty years and you don't half know me atall. And you could have but you was so busy worshippin' de works of yo' own hands, and cuffin' folks around in their minds till you didn't see uh whole heap uh things yuh could have." 

"Leave heah, Janie. Don't come heah—" 

"Ah knowed you wasn't gointuh lissen tuh me. You changes everything but nothin' don't change you—not even death. But Ah ain't goin' outa here and Ah ain't gointuh hush. Naw, you gointuh listen tuh me one time befo' you die. Have yo' way all yo' life, trample and mash down and then die ruther than tuh let yo'self heah 'bout it. Listen, Jody, you ain't de Jody ah run off down de road wid. You'se whut's left after he died. Ah run off tuh keep house wid you in uh wonderful way. But you wasn't satisfied wid me de way Ah was. Naw! Mah own mind had tuh be squeezed and crowded out tuh make room for yours in me." 

Passage #3, Chapter 9

Before she slept that night she burnt up every one of her head rags and went about the house next morning with her hair in one thick braid swinging well below her waist. That was the only change people saw in her. She kept the store in the same way except of evenings she sat on the porch and listened and sent Hezekiah in to wait on late custom. She saw no reason to rush at changing things around. She would have the rest of her life to do as she pleased. 

In what ways could Wallace's theory be applicable to [Their Eyes Were Watching God]?
How could this novel specifically develop empathy and emotional intelligence, as well as contribute to the self-awareness of the reader?

Wallace's Theory is people should be thinking about different people's perspective. Simply, people tend to forget the importance of surroundings if they are too close to our daily routine like Wallace made a comparison with young and old goldfish at the beginning of his essay. It is also related to [Thier Eyes Were Watching God] written by Zora Neale Hurston because throughout her novel, it develops the emotion of Janie in detail with much explanation of surroundings or atmosphere of the situation which leads the reader to eventually think in the way how Janie does. Also, the flow of the novel is quite simple and time-based, which allows the reader to understand the situation easier than other novels which keep skipping between multiple points of view in different time periods, which might confuse the reader. As the novel flows naturally, the readers can easily feel emotionally related to the protagonist even though the reader doesn't really have any of the similarities based on their culture or race. As Emotional Intelligence is based on people's ability of empathy, and this novel has many of the aspects of developing empathy throughout reading process, the novel [The Eyes Were Watching God] helps the reader to develop their empathy and emotional intelligence.

how the genre, narrative voice, and structure of Things Fall Apart are influenced by context

Explain how Achebe's choice of narrative structure relates to this learning outcome from part 3 of the course?

learning outcome: demonstrate how the formal elements of the text, genre, and structure can not only be seen to influence meaning but can also be influenced by context.

Achebe's signature structure of "Things Fall Apart" of spiraling all over the basic information of Igbo culture and Okonkwo's conflict between other characters at the beginning of the novel and suddenly develops into great conflicts between societies(Igbo and Christianity) best represents Achebe's choice of narrative structure that relates to the learning outcome. As Achebe is periphrasis throughout his beginning of the text, develops further understanding of the Igbo society which is not common for the other foreigners to specifically know, or relate to them. Therefore Achebe is providing opportunities for the readers to understand the structure of the primitive society of Nigeria and their story of getting colonized by British Christianity, due to their lack of understanding. If Achebe did not form his novel in this way of speaking(periphrasis), it could not be able to express deep emotions and religions of the Igbo society which won't let the readers to personally relate the foreign society with them, the aim of Achebe wanted to deliver. 

Introduction - Religion

The personal history of an author can have a significant influence on the way meaning is constructed in his/her writing. 

Personal history of an author can significantly influence the novel "Things Fall Apart" on how the plot and the meaning is constructed, because as the writer can express his/her personal beliefs or understanding of certain situation throughout the passage and the writing style might vary based on the author's ideology or background information they have.

It is almost impossible to not put the personal history of an author in the passage of his/her, because as the novel is one product of the author based on his/her imagination, which requires the person's thoughts. For example, in "Things Fall Apart" written by Chinua Achebe, Achebe have expressed how the British have colonized Nigeria in the 1900s. If Achebe was not Nigerian, he might not have a thought about the colonialism of British power, and he couldn't be expressing the history and culture of Igbo society in depth at the beginning of the novel. Also, as he is a Nigerian, he knows the pain of the country getting colonized by other powers, which further makes him deliver what he was thinking about the world. 

TFA Okonkwo Character Analysis

- What is the significance of Okonkwo’s character? What does he represent or is symbolic of? 
Okonkwo's characteristic is reaching for the achievement of prestige. As he is working hard for prestige and honor of himself, he hates laziness of his father, as well as his first son, Nwoye. I personally think Okonkwo is symbolic of patriarchal personality.


- What is the purpose of Okonkwo’s character within the text? 
As Okonkwo is the main character of the novel, he is the main reason why the conflict occurs in the story. For example, while Okonkwo was mad at his family about his banana tree got killed(even though it wasn't dead; his second wife just took some of the leaves to cover foods) and he was beating his own wife and even try to shoot her with a gun as he got too aggressive, if Okonkwo's characteristic was not aggressive and hardly search for honour, the conflict might not have been made, and definitely the story will not be interesting if there is no conflict. 
What I am trying to say is the character and his(or her) characteristic differs hows the situation goes in the whole story as different people react in the different ways, as the real world works in the same way.  


- How does Okonkwo’s character contribute to big ideas?
As Okonkwo's character looks for his honor and prestige, he does anything if that keeps his honor high up. When people in his village decides something and it is personally bad for Okonkwo, he doesn't show his emotion and keeps on doing his work as it is the type of being "manly" as his personality. 

3 important moments in TFA

I think the most important plot of TFA is following: 1)Okonkwo accidentally kills Ikemefuna, 2)Okonkwo gets vanished from the village, and 3)Okonkwo commits suicide.

1) Okonkwo accidentally kills Ikemefuna
I think this is the first "crisis" of the whole story that Okonkwo accidentally kills Ikemefuna, and because of that, Okonkwo gets vanished from the village, and that is the beginning step for climax of this novel.

2) Okonkwo gets vanished from the village
This could be a small climax and another crisis at the same time, as Okonkwo gets vanished from the village because of 1), and because of his vanishment and while he was out of the village, the village gets colonized by the British power. This novel's protagonist is Okonkwo, therefore the emotion shift on him gives the most important scene of the whole story.

3) Okonkwo commits suicide
This could be the biggest climax and the conclusion of the story because as Okonkwo's emotional shift in the final stage of the novel gets very aggressive on the change of the culture in his village while he was gone, and it took Okonkwo to kill himself at the end of the novel.

Why would Achebe choose to set his novel prior to and during the arrival of the colonial administration as opposed to during the context of composition?

Why would Achebe choose to set his novel prior to and during the arrival of the colonial administration as opposed to during the context of composition? 

I think Achebe wanted to show the cultural shift in his country by the colonial administration during that time period. Which could make him very distressed while writing, because I personally think when you are talking about your country’s history and culture and your country have been colonized once by another certain country, it is painful to talk about it as it is grey part of your own nation. I have the similar opinion, as I am Korean and Korea was colonized by Japan during WW2, I personally don’t want to talk about that time period because us Koreans got numerous violence by the Japanese government. However, I want to correct some of the assumptions that might have been made from foreigners who don’t specifically know about history of Korea, as I am Korean who supposed to know the “actual’ history of Korea, and correct other people if they know it in different ways- There are certain cultural misunderstandings such as Koreans can barely understand Japanese language as they are neighbouring countries and Korea have been colonised by them, but it is not true, as Korean and Japanese language is totally different, non of the grammar, alphabet, and structure of the language are the same. 

I felt like Achebe wanted to show similar ideas in Things Fall Apart. As many people don’t specifically know what culture or history of Nigeria, and from that people have wrong/untrue assumptions or stereotypes based on that. Chinua Achebe almost used half of the novel to express the atmosphere of the Nigerian tribe, to fully deliver the actual image of the Nigerian tribes who are not commonly accessible for other people who don’t relate closely.