Understanding that the cultural perspective was what Achebe desired to promote in Things Fall Apart is something I can agree with whole-heartedly. Our discussion in class on what the representation of culture was is where my understanding seems to differ; I define culture as core values that represent a society in everyday life – what the culture conceptualizes as proper. In that definition, Ukonkwo seems to have most of the characteristics to make him successfully fit in and adhere to those values: he’s entrepreneurial, successful, calculating, and masculine. These things, the society accepts as proper. Conversely, when the society observes Unoka, Ukonkwo’s father, Achebe defines him as being less than impressive, almost a social outcast. Although this character adheres to music and poetry, art and artistic endeavors, I disagree that his liking of these things enforces a strong cultural tie – I think our understanding of culture lies within these things because we have glorified them, as westerners, holding them on high because we this is where our cultural identity established itself. The automatic reflection of Unoka as the representative who establishes culture I think has a western bias inherent. Critical to this argument is how we define culture today – it was said in class that our present-day, American culture can include things like watching TV, the internet and other not-so-glamorous activities; these are things we do on a daily basis, and these things establish core values. Applying the same logic to Things Fall Apart, understanding one caveat (the villagers didn’t always agree with Ukonkwo’s brashness, i.e. his dislike of unsuccessful men), the Umofian culture, in my interpretation, is defined as an agrarian, hard-working, merit-based society with the core values to enforce – the values inherent in Ukonkwo, not his father.
To digress slightly, this is not to say Unoka does not play any role in culture, just not near what we had understood him to.
I agree. Just because Unoka seems to represent the musical and artistic aspects of the society does not mean he has a monopoly on the cultural aspects portrayed in the novel. Ukonkwo teaches us much more about the cultural values of the village than any other character; he frequently chides himself or others for behaving like a woman, and through these interactions we get a sense of what characteristics are masculine and which are feminine to his people.
ReplyDelete