Post-Reading: Things Fall Apart

2. "To show affection was a sign of weakness, the only thing worth demonstrating was strength."

There are many people who feel like this. Most people would immediately think that a man would be the only to say/think that, but some women feel like that too. Sometimes people who have experienced a lot of emotional pain feel like this (whether they are men or women) because they don’t want people to think they are weak and try to hurt them or because they simply don’t want to be hurt again. Thinking/feeling that is bad in my opinion because showing affection isn’t a sign a weakness, it is a sign that your are brave and strong. I believe that because to put yourself out there emotionally like that is hard sometimes because you are giving people the power to hurt you- you could get hurt by the person you care about or people can use that person to get to you- and that takes a lot of courage. 
There are examples of this quote all throughout the book Things Fall Apart. Okonkwo doesn’t show any affection to his children or his wives. He does this because the village/tribe he is from is one the most feared and he has to live up to that. A lot of the things he does is so that no one will think that he is weak. He also doesn’t show any sign of affection out of fear of becoming like his father. His father was a poor man whose wife and kids barely had enough to eat. He was said to be a coward and he couldn’t stand the sight of blood and he owed all of his neighbors money. Okonkwo was dominated by the fear of becoming a failure of becoming like his father, of becoming agbala. That is why this quote was like a motto to him. He feared doing anything that would make him look weak or anything like his father. That is why he killed Ikemefuna who was like a son to him. He killed him because he was afraid of looking weak to all the men that were there. In Okonkwo’s mind the only way to not be agbala was to never show anything but strength. He ruled his home with an iron fist, he worked all day and made sure that his family didn’t slack off. If they did they would get constant nagging and a beating, especially Nwoye, his eldest son.

In conclusion, I don’t agree with the quote because I believe that showing love and affection is a sign of strength and courage because there are millions of possibilities of getting hurt because of that affection and love. This quote is important in the book Things Fall Apart because it describes the way people lived/thought in Umuofia, Nigeria. The main character Okonkwo was afraid of losing the titles he held and becoming like his father so he never showed anything other than strength and he used this quote as a kind of motto.

Pre-Reading: Things Fall Apart

3. Many people are afraid of change.  Discuss a time when change was destructive, and discuss a time when change was beneficial.  Why are people so afraid of change?

Many people are afraid of change. Why? Because they don’t know what to expect. I, personally am not afraid of change. Though I do get nervous, but I am not afraid of change.  Sometimes change can be a bad thing, for example moving across the country. This would be a bad thing because not just because you are leaving all your family and friends behind but also because you leaving everything familiar and entering uncharted territory. But something good could come out of that. You could find better opportunities, like going to a better school/college or a better job. I believe something good always comes out of change.  Most people are afraid of change because they don’t know what’s going to happen and can’t prepare for it. It could also be that they are afraid because they can’t always control when or how things will change.

There are times when change can be beneficial, for example when slavery was abolished in the mid to late 1860’s. This was beneficial to all the African Americans who were held against their will as slaves. It took years for things to change and even after slavery was abolished that didn’t stop people from being racist. There are also times when change can be destructive. For example when Hitler/the Nazi’s took over Germany. They committed mass genocide, so many people died. So many women and children died. So many kids left without out parents, so many parents whose kids were killed.

In conclusion change can both be beneficial and destructive, but good things can also come out of the bad. When the Nazi’s controlled Germany they committed mass genocide, but they also helped the country become more prosperous, Germany came out of the depression it was in under the control of Hitler. That doesn’t make up for the millions of people killed during the Holocaust nor does it excuse or make any of it better, but it does show that even in the most dire of situations a little bit of good/improvement can happen.