Proverbs in Things Fall Apart

-
Proverbs are a very important part of African oral culture, and therefore prominent in Things Fall Apart. At the beginning of the novel, the narrator notes that,
"proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten."
Achebe writes in English, the language of the colonizer, but incorporates idioms, proverbs, and imagery that invoke the Igbo tradition and culture into his prose in order to convey the experience of African society under colonization and to force the reader to accept the story he tells on his own terms. Yet, Achebe’s translation of the Igbo language into English retains the cadences, rhythms, and speech patterns of the language without making them sound, as Conrad did, “primitive.” Note some selected proverbs,
“A man who pays respect to the great paves the way for his own greatness”
“When a man says yes, his Chi[personal God] says yes also.”
“A child cannot pay for its mother’s milk.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Postcolonial Study of Heart of Darkness

-
Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is one of the most discussed and controversial texts in postcolonial study. It shows the nature and effect of European colonialism in Africa . At the same time, it attacks the colonizers as well, though Conrad can not escape the attack of some post colonial critics like Chinua Achebe for his “dehumanizing” the Africans. Almost all the characters in Marlow's tale take part in the colonialist enterprise for selfish purposes. The narrator expresses that the target of the colonial expedition in different times has been Congo , the heart of darkness which has been the mission for many Europeans “bearing the sword, and often the torch, messengers of the might within the land, bearers of a spark from the sacred fire” Here the symbols "the sword" and "the torch” refer to brutal forces colonial enterprise and to the negation of the native culture by the so called light of civilization.           Marlow's aunt is pleased wi
Read more

The character of Helen in The Iliad

-
Helen   in Greek mythology,  the daughter of  Zeus   and   Leda  (or  Nemesis ),  wife of King  Menelaus  of  Sparta  is thought to be the most beautiful woman in the world.    Her abduction by Paris brought about the Trojan War . Anyone reading about this mythic character does not obtain any unified perspective by various writers. Some writers including Homer take on entirely negative views of Helen. While other writers bear both positive and complex views. Now we will evaluate the character of Helen in The Iliad . Though Helen does not have any active part in Homer’s The Iliad —she appeares before us only six times, all the incidents take place for her. The exquisite beauty of Helen is well known. If anyone wants to refer to any beauty, he mostly uses allusion, simile or metaphor of Helen, the paragon of beauty. Even characters like Dr. Faustus in Marlowe ’s Dr. Faustus long for having Helen beside them— “Sweet Helen, make me immotal with a kiss— Her lips suck forth my
Read more

Search for Identity in A House For Mr. Biswas

-
Vidyadhar Suraj Prasad Naipaul, an expatriate from Trinidad, is a product of post-imperialist society whose primary business as a novelist is to project carefully the complex fate of individuals in a cross-cultural society. In his magnum opus, A House for Mr. Biswas, Naipaul deals with the problems of fragmentation, frustration, alienation, and exile, more definitely the identity crisis of an individual. The novel tells the story of its protagonist, Mr. Biswas from birth to death in different phases, and his problems of identity crisis. Born with six fingers, a symbol of bad luck for his father and family, Mohun feels an alien and an outsider even in his own family and in his own Indian world. Thus, Naipaul portrays the complexity of the relationship between a man and his origins and his inability to escape from it.  Yet Mohun searches for his own identity “I am just somebody. Nobody at all” (279). Unlike his father and brothers’ identity of labourers, Mr. Biswas’s identit
Read more