Jisoo's Things Fall Apart

In the book Seedfolks, a character named Kim travels to vacant lot in her town, Cleveland Ohio, to plant Lima Beans to honor her father, who passed away before Kim was even born. While Kim is in the process of planting her beans and watering them daily, people around the vacant lot being to notice her actions . Many people follow what Kim is doing and make there own little garden, which causes the community of Cleveland to be together and to communicate to one another. Throughout the book many character come and go to the garden, and each character shares something in common with someone else apart of this Community Garden. The novel Seedfolks shows that the garden has change everyone’s perspectives on things, and made them feel apart of something they might have never been apart of before. Some people that are involved are KIm, Ana, Sae Young, Maricela, and Curtis.

Whenever you’re about to leave for vacation, do you often feel like you’re forgetting something? But no matter how many times you go over the packing list, you can’t seem to find what it is that’s missing. So you move on, with that feeling still in the back of your mind. Imagine feeling like that, but knowing exactly what it is that’s missing and not being able to do anything about it. Imagine having that feeling with you at all times, maybe not always your number one thought, but always there. That’s just a gist of what loss is. It’s a broad term, making it hard to define; Everyone thinks of it differently and so it is compiled into several definitions. Loss is defined universally as the absence of something meaningful

The shocked and flabbergasted diction of this section lends itself to a similar purpose. The surprise that the narrator shows when Luo initially begins the procedure is indicative to the fear within the protagonists and the absurdity of the situation as a whole. When the narrator says: “what the devil had got into him?” (Sijie 142) it shows the reader that the strangeness of the scene had not escaped the notice of those involved. The befuddled diction continues when the narrator says: “even today it confounds me” (Sijie 142) showing that the situation his oddness was not reduced with time. Overall, this section sets the scene for an intense and decisively odd situation.

“When I finished the book Luo had not yet returned, there was no doubt that he had gone to visit the Little Seamstress so he could tell her this wonderful tale of Balzac’s. In my mind’s eye I could see Luo telling her the story and the Little Seamstress listening vigorously open - mouthed. As I was thinking about her I felt a sudden stab of jealousy, a bitter emotion I had never felt before and my desire to be with the Little Seamstress grew stronger. Later that day, Luo came back with leaves of a gingko tree. “We made love there, against the trunk”; those words made me feel somewhat sick in the heart, I didn’t even know that was possible. I strained to imagine it but words failed me... Why does Luo always get everything? He even said himself

As the conversation escalates, Jig herself hides her true thoughts and instead, says the opposite: “Then I’ll do it. Because I don’t care about me.” (477). It may seems like she agrees to do the operation; but in fact, she is trying to ascertain the American man’s love for her. These implications and hints in the conversation keep them away from understanding each other and contributed to the failure of their relationship. Summing up, relationships in both stories show that communication problems are what tear them apart. Importantly, it is selfishness in the characters that initiate these problems; as they mostly speak from their view and for themselves, which then avert them from understanding their partner, and finally, a broken relationship is inevitable.

Loss is something we all share and experience in life. There are different types of loss which affect our everyday lives, emotions and relationships. If our attachment is strong then we will feel stronger emotions. The complexity of our attachment will also dictate how we move through our grief.

Wyche disputes all the critics who suggested that the text was either about whether Jig should carry the pregnancy to a full term or have an abortion. Wyche feels that the text was a metaphor representing pain which comes as a result of an end of a relationship between two people. One of his main ideas was therefore to dispute some of the ideas that critics had put forward in the past and bring forward a new meaning to the short story. As Wyche noted most of the critics saw a metaphor of abortion but failed to see that the abortion could also be used as metaphor to mean something else which in this case means the pain of a breakup. By bringing other critic’s point of view into play, he successfully acknowledges what they wrote and their ideas but also presents him with a point to dispute the same. Even if he does not refuse the ideas produced by earlier critics, the author presents a different point of view from whatever was presented before.

Jig's main objective throughout the story is ensuring that her partner is happy. This is apparent when she tells him that she will go through with the abortion. "Then I'll do it. Because I don't care about me." "And I'll do it and then everything will be fine." Through these comments it is evident that she truly believes if she has an abortion their relationship will be fine giving little thought to the emotional and physical trauma the procedure will cause. Jig's subservient attitude is indicative of her low self esteem throughout the story. She allows herself to be shaped by a man whose care for her is more than obviously not a reciprocation of hers for

Jig knows that having the child will make her look like a whore in the eyes of her community, thus she knows that she has to get rid of the baby, but in her heart she wants to keep it.

Jig appears to be unsatisfied with her life. In the opening scene, she is imagining white elephants as she looks onto the Ebro hills. The white elephants refer to an unwanted gift. She wants the gift of a child but knows she can't have it because the man doesn't want it. This makes her unhappy and makes her look for an "imaginary life." She drinks a lot and never settles down in one place. As she looks at the hills, she sees that there is no shade and no trees on their side. Later in the story, she sees that the other side of the hills is very fertile with a river, a field of grains, and many trees. Jig imagines her life as it could be if she becomes a mother and changes her lifestyle. Her life would be as happy as that little scene. Jig is also unhappy because she can not express her true feelings. She tries to tell the

Once the woman finished speaking, he nodded. With his eyes focused on the floor, Blaine thought about how he could say the words without sounding as if they were from his heart rather than a cheesy romance novel. Of course he would not take something from a book, neither a song, nor a film, but most people believed his words to come from other sources. That was one of the many things that he disliked about people, their unbelief, but what could he do? Surely Panda would recognize what was truth and what was fiction. "Panda, I'm done with it." He let a moment pass before he spoke again. "I'll admit that I was rather loose with both my body and heart in he past, but understand that times have changed. I've reigned in my emotions and feel completely disgusted by how I allowed myself to fall so far from the path I laid out in my youth.

Jig attempts to make a crucial change in her life by making the right decision,

"No, you wouldn’t have"(615). This line is said in response to the American saying that he has never seen a white elephant. This line is another hint to the sassy nature Jig might have had before the story began. Knowing how to handle tough situations made Jig strong. Strong and determined, she knew what she wanted and how to get it. However, all that changed the day she met him. He swept her off her feet, and she never looked back. He was everything she wanted and everything she needed. He said all the right things, and she fell hard. Jig was no longer the strong woman who knew what she wanted. What she wanted was whatever he wanted. This event leads up to her attitude at the beginning of the story.

I think his behavior was just so he could deflect attention away from him as he tried to figure out

The novel Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe is a story about personal beliefs, customs and also about conflict. There is struggle between family and within culture and it also deals with the concept of culture and the notion of the values and traditions within a culture. The word culture is Latin and means to cultivate. To cultivate has several meanings; it can mean to plow, fertilize, raise and plant, to win someone’s friendship, woo and take favor with, to ingratiate oneself with, to better, refine, elevate, educate, develop and enrich. In Things Fall Apart all these words are accurate in describing the culture of Umuofia. A culture is an