I Grew Up On The World With Drought

“{Ikemefuna} had become wholly absorbed into his new family. He was like an elder brother to Nwoye, and from the very first seemed to have kindled a new fire in the younger boy. He made him feel grown-up, and they no longer spent the evenings in his mother's hut while she cooked, but now sat with Okonkwo in his obi, or watched him as he tapped his palm tree for the evening wine. Nothing pleased Nwoye now more than to be sent for by his mother or another of his father's wives to do one of those difficult and masculine tasks in the home, like splitting wood, or pounding food. On receiving such a message through a younger brother or sister, Nwoye would feign annoyance and grumble aloud about women and their troubles.” [38] Before Ikemefuna came into their lives, Nwoye didn’t talk to his father very much, while he usually spent most of his time helping his mother in the kitchens. He was also a very emotional and ‘weak’ little boy. “Later in the day {Okonkwo} called Ikemefuna and told him that he was to be taken home the next day. Nwoye overheard it and burst into tears, whereupon his father beat him heavily.” [41] “...Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down… As soon as his father walked in, that night, Nwoye knew that Ikemefuna had been killed, and something seemed to give way inside him, like the snapping of a tightened bow. He did

In the short story “Lullaby” by Leslie Marmon Silko, nature is an evident theme. Nature is a very important part of Native American culture and it heavily influences their beliefs. “Lullaby” is a story about a Native American woman named Ayah. Ayah goes through many hardships and uses nature to get through these traumatic events. Nature is a significant part of the story because Ayah finds comfort within it, nature is symbolic throughout the story and Ayah receives closure from nature when Chato perishes.

Okonkwo also tries to show himself as an unsympathetic character to show that he is not a weak man, like his father, Unoka. (Being a weak man is a very degrading quality for the culture of Umofia.) An example of Okonkwo’s unsympathetic personality is Ikemefuna’s death. Although Okonkwo treasured the presence of the adopted buy, Ikemefuna, Okonkwo contributes the last and fatal blow to Ikemefuna, causing him to die in the Evil Forest. Okonkwo, regardless of his love for the boy, killed Ikemefuna ultimately to prove his manliness and strength to the tribe, a valued aspect of the culture. “Okonkwo’s machete descended twice and the man’s head lay beside his uniformed body.” (Achebe 146) Okonkwo is also very unsympathetic in regards to his father, Unoka. Unoka was a poor man who was always in debt; he had an interest in music and enjoyed talking.

Okonkwo’s significance in the death of Ikemefuna establishes his intense value of power, while the wise elder Ezeudu values inaction, weakness, and empathy. Okonkwo’s complete disregard for Ezeudu’s orders fractures their

Okonkwo’s oldest son, Nwoye, has to achieve high expectations, to be just like his father. If he falls short of Okonkwo’s near perfection, he will face consequence usually in the form of physical harm. Okonkwo wants Nwoye to be strong, powerful, independent, and hard-working. He must be like is father, and not like his grandfather, Unoka, or his mother. Unoka was an absolute failure in Okonkwo’s eyes, and a terrible father, who did nothing to help the family. Okonkwo is a man and wants his son to be a man too, not womanly like his mother. Okonkwo wanted “his son to be a great farmer and a great man” (33). Okonkwo is “worried about Nwoye....my children do not resemble me...too much of his mother in him” (66). Okonkwo knows that Nwoye resembles more of his mother than him, but also knows that he resembles Unoka too. Both fathers want their sons to be just like them, but do little to ask what they want in life, and neither father will budge on what they want for their sons.

            At the beginning of the novel, we find out that Ikemefuna has been given up to the Ibo tribe as a sacrificial compensation in order to prevent a war. Before the council has decided Ikemefuna’s fate, he is sent to live with Okonkwo’s family, and during the period of three years, Ikemefuna

In “A Barred Owl,” Wilbur constructs a singsong narrative of two stanzas with three couplets each. This arrangement provides a simple and steady rhythm that echoes the parents’ crooning to their child when she is frightened by “the boom / [o]f an owl’s voice” (1-2). A light-hearted tone is established when they “tell the wakened child that all she heard / [w]as an odd question from a forest bird” (3-4). The parents’ personification of the owl makes it less foreign and intimidating, and therefore alleviates the child’s worry. The interpretation of the hooting as a repetitive and absurd question — “Who cooks for you?” — further makes light of the situation (6). The second stanza introduces a more ominous tone by directly addressing the contrasting purposes words may serve given a speaker’s intention. While they “can make our terror bravely clear,” they “[c]an also thus domesticate a fear” (7-8). This juxtaposition is

Between 1930’s and 1940’s, a great drought hit the southern west Great Plains. “Dryland farming on the Great Plains led to the systematic destruction of the prairie grasses.”(Congress). It affected farmers by destroying their crops. “Simply put, if farmers produced less, the prices of their crops and livestock would increase.”(Congress). In a way, the farmers were paid less. “In a time when many were out of work and tens of thousands were starving, this wastefulness was considered downright wrong.”(Congress). Without crops to feed people, people were starving. “Cotton, corn and wheat prices doubled in three years.”(Congress) Farmers approved this act.

In 2011 Texas entered into a drought that was the worst the state had seen since modern record keeping began 1895. During the driest months of this drought, the water level of two of the largest water resources for two-thirds of the state were measured at 28 percent less than the average water level. In summer of 2013 central Texas received numerous rains, and many people believed it was a sign that the drought had eased, Unfortunately Texas was far from out of the drought. Today Texas water levels barley sit above one-third full. This is a big problem for Texans everywhere because, Texas uses water for everything from its drinking water, to its agriculture, to its recreational activities. According to the TWDB by 2060 the drought will have cost Texas $116 billion dollars in income loses, 1.1 million job losses, and a decrease in population of about 1.4 million people.

. The Umuofia clan has an elaborate religious system largely based on their natural environment. Surrounded by dense, dark woods, the forest is both respected and feared as a chief god, the Evil Forest. The earth goddess is also revered and feared; as farmers, the Umuofia rely completely on the produce of the land and are subject to drought and flooding. The earth goddess is seen as in control of the weather and productivity of the land, so much of the clan’s social structure is set around not displeasing the earth goddess. Fear of offending the earth goddess motivates the punishment for many crimes, such as Okonkwo’s seven-year exile for killing a clansman. Achebe’s descriptions of the isolation of the Umuofia people and their complete dependence

I was entertained reading this story as it was a new angle on the creation of man that I hadn’t read about before. The birds and the sea animals help her survive the fall and plant earth from the roots

I was able to realize that's Ikemefuna pattern of doing everything that was the opposite of his father’s was also the right resolution because his father is a representation of a man doing more harm than good. An example of my judgement is when he is trying to show his manliness. He believes that being masculine is having the ability to control everybody in the household. This stereotypical father is not being the best role model for his son. Adding on, he believed that, "no matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children he was not really a man" (China Achebe46). This is why he would always talk down to his children and wives to show that he is the authority figure in the house and if anyone one would question

In the Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart there is a character “Ikemefuna” is a boy from a village called Mbaino, a different village than Okonkwo. He lives with Okonkwo’s second wife “Ekwefi” for three years until he was ordered to be killed. In those three years, he grows close Okonkwo’s family. Ikemefuna was taken away from his family when he was young. They took him away because a crime that he did, but he had no part in doing. This makes Ikemefuna become a hard working man to overcome what he had been guilty of. My character Ikemefuna helps change cultural beliefs by changing the other character´s point of view, but Ikemefuna again represents doomed fate, or the lack of free will.

Ikemefuna is very well-liked by Okonkwo and his family, and becomes a mentor and best friend to Nwoye. Okonkwo feels dismay that Nwoye is taking on the torpid characteristics of his grandfather, Unoka, and is quite pleased that Nwoye is thriving and maturing under Ikemefuna’s guidance. “Okonkwo was inwardly pleased at his son’s development, and he knew it was due to Ikemefuna” (Achebe, 1958, p. 52, para. 2). Okonkwo’s pride, and fear of demonstrating any perceived sign of weakness, does not allow him to show any favorable emotion to Ikemefuna; he treats him with the same severity he does the rest of his family. “Even Okonkwo himself

Okonokwo tells masculine stories of bloodshed and violence, however Nyowe still prefers the stories his mother tells, which are soothing and less violent. He recalls the story of the quarrel between the Earth and Sky. Sky withheld rain for years and crops dried up and the deceased could not be buried in the hard Earth. Vulture was sent to Sky to ask for forgiveness. Sky finally conceded to forgive and gave Vulture rain wrapped in tree leaves to give to Earth. On the way back home, Vulture’s, “long talon pierced the leaves and the rain fell as it had never fallen beforeˮ (53). This story illustrates the tribe’s dependence on nature for its survival, and how children are naturally drawn to mother earth and all its