At the beginning of this chapter Okonkwo told his girls that he didn't want them to marry anyone from Mbanta not because they are bad people, but just because he wanted them to marry someone from Umuofia when they got back, but would anyone want to marry them? They are from an exiled family. Maybe this exile thing is not as serious as I think it is.
Okonkwo also said that he wants he sons to join the ozo society when they get back to Umuofia. I think that is may be something like a fraternity. Maybe similar to a country club as well. Okonkwo said that he would use wealth to get them in and not very many people are accepted into it. I guess it is kind of combo fraternity and country club.
I guess the missonary thing is way more advanced than I thought as well. I guess that I didn't really realized that seven years have passed in about thirty pages of this book. The whole thing creeped up on me just like it did them. Maybe Achebe did that on purposed to catch the reader off guard just like the people caught the tribes off guard.
I had no idea that there were so many, and they were settling. I guess there are not only missonaries now, but just regular people. It even said that they made laws and gave trials to some of the villagers. I don't get it because the villagers do not have to listen to these people at all. Are they scared or do they not know how to handle this?
Either way the situation is turning for the worst. The control is shifting hands almost without anyone noticing. It is so sad how people just came in and took over. They just didn't care about the people already here, and they changed their entire world.
2 comments:
Yeah I don't think that the missionaries realized that they were changing everything about the village. All of their beliefs and everything.
Good point about the exile stigma. You'd think they are "damaged goods" belonging to Okonkwo's family, but I guess they don't have that sort of negative attachment? Must be a cultural difference I guess?
I did a google search on the ozo society and hits to Achebe's other novel "The Madman" seems to keep coming up. Apparently it is something important to the author?
A fraternity is probably a good guess as you suggest. I'll let you know if I find out what it is.
As for your advancement of time theory, yeah, I guess 30 pgs for 7 years is a bit of a leap. It does catch the reader off guard and it sets up the conflict for the whites vs black natives. Sort of a Rip-van-winkle gig going on here.
We do get a good look at what Colonialism does to a society. This is another reason for reading the book. We get to view the coming of the whites through "their" eyes.
Mr. Farrell
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