Analysis Of Aphra Behn 's Oroonoko

In her book “Building Fiction” she explains the differences between a short story and a novella, providing several examples including the short story “Carpathia”. In her writing, you could feel the bitter-sweetness of her parent’s experience. Specially, her mom. It also points out a big controversial issue in society, gender

1. In traditional Ibo culture, women are not treated as equals and are equivalent to possessions. In a family, the children always belong to the father, not the mother. “I have even heard that in some tribes a man’s children belong to his wife and her family” (74). Okonkwo appears appalled to this blasphemy. It is common and ideal for a husband to possess multiple wives, and men beat their wives for even the smallest infractions. During the Week of Peace, the goddess forbids wife beating, such as when Okonkwo beat Ojiugo. “And when she returned he beat her very heavily …It was unheard of to beat somebody during the sacred week” (29-30). To live in a culture with so many threats to them, women are required to be mentally and emotionally

The omniscient narrator acknowledges a near-invisibility of women in Things Fall Apart. Describing a communal ceremony, he confesses, "It was clear from the way the crowd stood that the ceremony was for men. There were many women, but they looked on from the fringe like outsiders"(pg.77). They are not invited to stay when men are engaged in any discussion; they are not included in council of war; they do not form part of the masquerades representing the judiciary and ancestral spirits. Okonkwo views women AS weak and foolish. He has a different expectation for men and women. This can be clearly SEEN by the way that he raises his children. He tries his best to train Nwoye to be strong and brave while he feels sorry that Ezinma is a girl. Okonkwo knows that "Ezinma has the right spirit", but he does not try to make her TOO be brave or TOO strong. He favors her the most out

The way in which the women of the Igbo village are presented, by Achebe, make it seem as if they serve very little purpose to the society. The main character, Okonkwo, is infatuated with making sure he does not turn out to be like his father. By living in a village where manliness was crucial and weakness was not, Okonkwo viewed his father as being a weak and cowardly mean because he could barely support his family. To make sure he did not become an adult that resembled his father, he developed the characteristics of being brave, wealthy and even violent. Since he acquired these traits, it gave him a sense of superiority over his wives and the other women of the village. Perhaps because of Okonkwo’s behavior, the women of the village are treated with less respect. It is portrayed by Achebe that the women of the Igbo village only purpose is looking after the children and helping their husbands when or if it is needed. Although the women of the Igbo village are described as being insignificant, the women are the people that fill in the gaps in the society. For example, the women are the ones that cook, clean, take care of everyone, help harvest and grow food, as well as all the other everyday tasks that are easily overlooked.

When the readers meet the young, subordinated wife of a physician, who remains nameless throughout the entire story, perhaps hinting at the commonness of such situations where all those women are the same: faceless and nameless, this woman’s dilemma becomes obvious. She has been stripped off the only function a woman in those times had, the domestic one, due to the fact that she suffers from a mysterious illness which requires the infamous bed cure. Gradually, she is treated more and more as a child, unable and even forbidden to express herself in a creative way, namely to write, being persuaded that it cannot do any good to someone in her condition. This is why the protagonist (who is simultaneously the narrator), takes it upon herself to write a journal about her experiences and the mysterious woman that haunts her from the

Speaking of skeletal remains, there is evidence of body modification at Cahokia. Gregory Perino discovered filed teeth at Cahokia. These findings showed observers that this practice was only done for a short period of time in the transition from Late Woodland Period to the Mississippian period. According to Perino, the siginificance of filing teeth cannot be explicitly determined but majority of them were thought to be ambassadors; but the fact that these filings were also found on young persons, throw off the conclusively of saying this was due to differentiating in social status (Perino 1967:541).

figure in society. The woman wants so badly to get better and she knows her writing will

The Arapaho tribe of Wyoming is one of four groups of Arapaho who originally occupied the headwaters of the Arkansas and platte rivers. The first years in the 1600s the Arapaho once resided together to the east near the Great Lakes farther north in Canada.The last last year was 1890 when the Northern Arapaho conflict with the US Cavalry was during wovokas ghost dance turmoil. The are people from the Great Plains Native American cultural group. Arapaho today live in Oklahoma together with southern Cheyenne.

Knowing about the writer of a literary text can shape significantly the way that it is read. Consider the effect of the writer’s context on your understanding of The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum.

Why is this event important to the author? This narrative follows a girl, growing into a woman, wishing to be an author. More than this, she wishes to be accepted by her father as an author. It follows her struggle to validate her education to her family, and overcome the stigma attached to her non-married lifestyle. In the end, she brought a story she had written to her ailing father, who was not only delighted to read it, but also wanted to share her work with the whole family.

Almost all the female characters in the story were seen as a possession and/or wife. One of the few exceptions to this would be Queen Olof, the mother of Yrsa. Queen Olof acted more as if she were a king rather than a Queen, in the sense that she would “dress in a coat of mail, carried a sword and shield, and wore a helmet” (Anon, 6. King Helgi attempts). She ruled over her own land in Saxland and had no intention of getting married (in

      "All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of AphraBehn, . .

Aphra Behn’s novel, Oroonoko, gives a very different perspective on a slave narrative. Her characters embody various characteristics not usually given to those genders and races. Imoinda’s character represents both the modern feminist, as well as the subservient and mental characteristics of the typical eighteenth-century English woman. Oroonoko becomes an embodiment of what is normally a white man’s characteristic; he is the noble, princely, and sympathetic character that is not usually attributed to black men in general throughout most novels of slavery. The complete opposite character style is given to the slavers; the English are viewed as the barbaric, cunning, brutal characters that are usually portrayed in opposite and more generous

There were many women, but they looked on from the fringe like outsiders" (Achebe 87). With the festivals, held in the public places, men presided and took the seats of honor in front. Women were forced to stand at the edges and look on from there because they simply weren't as important. It was the men who held the courts of justice and decided on punishment. Also, throughout the book, Achebe emphasizes the women's role in childbearing and their fault if the children are not born healthy. "Nneka has had four previous pregnancies and childbirths. But each time she had borne twins, and they had been immediately thrown away. Her husband and his family were already becoming highly critical of such a woman and were not unduly perturbed when they found she had fled to join the Christians. It was a good riddance" (Achebe 151). Because Nneka could no longer fulfill her role as a mother in Ibo society, she was no longer respected. She was not valued for her intelligence or her personality. She was valued by whether or not she could produce healthy children. Because she couldn't, she no longer had a place in her society.

Women also endured a lot more during their lifetime from their husbands than would have been thought to have been acceptable for the peace of the community and tradition, although some punishment methods may have been a little extreme. The men of the village of Umuofia in precolonial Africa were allowed to treat their wives in ways that modern American wives would not think of tolerating. When one wife to decided to cut a few leaves off a banana tree, capricious Okonkwo flew into a fit of rage and beat her. “Neither of his wives dared to interfere beyond an occasional and, tentative ‘It is enough Okonkwo,’ pleaded from a reasonable distance.” (page 38) She was able to have been beaten and Okonkwo’s other wife weren’t allowed to interfere, less they get a beating too. After his wife received the beating, she got upset and seemingly bold when he told Ikemefuna, the prisoner of conflict to get his gun and she whispered a remark that his guns never shot. Okonkwo was immediately devoid of anything but anger and “he heard it and ran madly into his room for the loading gun and aimed it at her. He pressed the trigger… he threw down the gun, and jumped into the barn and there lay the woman… frightened but quite unhurt.” (Achebe 38-39) Okonkwo committed attempted murder on his wife and, these types of behaviors was not necessarily the norm, but was allowed since it was committed against a woman, and Okonkwo was showing a firm hand.