Thursday, January 24, 2008

Chapter 5

It seems to me like the Feast of the New Yam is similar to our Thanksgiving. They have it because they are thankful that they had a good harvest. I know that Thanksgiving is not about a harvest or anything, but in the sense that they are giving thanks for something they received it is similar.

Where it said that they shaved the children's heads in patterns that caught me off guard. I was not expecting that. I wonder if they did it to the girls and boys. I suppose so. I guess it is just another wacky custom.

Okonkwo's character makes me want to stop reading this novel. I wish something bad would happen to him and maybe it will I don't know. Why does he have to just yell at people when they haven't done anything wrong. I am just so disgusted by him and I know that I have written that a thousand times, but I can not get over it. What makes him so angry that he has to make up reasons to beat his wife? In the part about the banana tree, it said that he was angry and that he "found an outlet" for his anger. What, is he just mad at the world or something? Then the part about almost shotting his wife! I would rather die than trade places with any of these women they have it so horrible. All she did was make one remark and he went crazy. Maybe karma will get him.

I didn't know if when Ekwefi asked her mom about her eye twitch if she was just making up what she said or if she thought that was true. Earlier the book said that the mother made something up to quiet the daughter, but I didn't get if she was doing that again.

I was surprised that when Obiageli said "people should not talk when they are eating a pepper it may go down the wrong way" to Okonkwo he didn't snap. With his character I would think that he would take it as an insult to his intelligence.

2 comments:

Sarah said...

In a way Thanksgiving was started because the Pilgrims were thankful for their harvest. I didn't think about it before, but they do seem to be very similar. I don't see how people can live in a society like that. Do the women just accept it as normal, or do some of them try to get out of those situations? It is very irritating to read about, because in our society, it is frowned upon, and when people find out about domestic abuse, most often something is done to stop it. I don't see how they can just look the other way.

Deryk said...

I never actually compare their feast to Thanksgiving, but now that you say that it does soud like the first thanksgiving.
Okonkwo is getting very violent and something bad is going to happen to him.