TATD Passage Analysis

Analysis

The passage that was chosen was at the end of chapter four, where Said is caught attempting to rob Rauf Ilwan’s house. Rauf first begins to talk to Said about how he had premeditated his plan to rob his house. Rauf says, “I can read you like an open book”. This metaphor is used to show the clairvoyance that Rauf displays on the attempted robbery. It denotes their earlier relationship, Rauf being a mentor to Said. Rauf continues to say that, “I've been waiting for you, fully prepared. In fact, I even drew up your plan of action. I'd hoped my expectation would be disappointed. But evidently, no mistrust in you can prove groundless." This again emphasizes Rauf’s deep and critical understanding of Said’s character. This paragraph paints a portrait of Rauf being a dominant person in the situation, as he predicts Said’s plan, and Said as an old dog who can’t learn new tricks and is still using his old methods. Said seems very nervous and shocked by Rauf discovering Said during his robbery. Rauf’s dominant character is appearing again, but he speaks about Said’s character and says, “I know your thoughts, as clearly as I know your actions." Said answers saying that he hasn’t been able to adjust to life outside of prison, but Rauf doesn’t believe his excuse and thinks Said is lying to him about his state of mind. Rauf again tells Said that he is able to predict his actions and his true intentions. This again illustrates the character dynamic between Said and Rauf. This could be a reference to the class distinguishment between the lower and higher class. At this time, the lower class had been feeling undermined by the Egyptian population. The dynamic between the characters shows the reality of the relationship between the higher and lower economic classes. Said (representative of the lower class) seems terrified on the consequences to his action which are controlled and decided by Rauf (representative of the higher class). Moreover, Said’s failed attempt can express his stubborn grasp with his past. Said often holds grudges throughout the novel. Said is so naive towards change that he uses archaic methods of theft that are predicted by Rauf, a man that seemed to have developed his mindset on the revolution and has a paradigm shift on the topic. This also evident through his surprised reaction to Rauf letting him escape. This depicts Said as a tragic hero. He tries to portray himself as a modern-day Robin Hood but is caught red-handed. This depiction is meant to elicit a sympathetic connection between Said and the reader.  

Passage

"It was idiotic of you to try your tricks on me; I know you. I can read you like an open book." Speechless, helpless, and resigned, still recovering from the shock of surprise, Said had nevertheless an instinctive sense that he would not be handed back to the custody from which he'd been set free the day before. "I've been waiting for you, fully prepared. In fact I even drew up your plan of action. I'd hoped my expectation would be disappointed. But evidently no mistrust in you can prove groundless." Said lowered his eyes for a moment and became aware of the patterned parquet beneath the wax on the floor. Then he looked up, saying nothing. "It's no use. You'll always be worthless and you'll die a worthless death. The best thing I can do now is hand you over to the police." Said blinked, gulped, and lowered his eyes again.

"What have you come for?" Rauf demanded angrily. "You treat me as an enemy. You've forgotten my kindness, my charity. You feel nothing but malice and envy. I know your thoughts, as clearly as I know your actions."

His eyes still wandering over the floor, Said muttered, "I feel dizzy. Peculiar. It's been like that ever since I came out of jail."

"Liar! Don't try to deceive me. You thought I'd become one of the rich I used to attack. And with that in mind you wished to treat me--"

"It's not true."

"Then why did you break into my house? Why do you want to rob me?"

"I don't know," Said said, after a moment's hesitation. "I'm not in my proper state of mind. But you don't believe me."

"Of course I don't. You know you're lying. My good advice didn't persuade you. Your envy and arrogance were aroused, so you rushed in headlong as always, like a madman. Suit yourself, do what you like, but you'll find yourself in jail again."

"Please forgive me. My mind's the way it was in prison, the way it was even before that."

"There's no forgiving you. I can read your thoughts, everything that passes through your mind. I can see exactly what you think of me. And now it's time I delivered you to the police." "Please don't."

"No? Don't you deserve it?"

"Yes, I do, but please don't."

"If I set eyes on you again," Rauf bellowed, "I'll squash you like an insect." Thus dismissed, Said was about to make a quick exit, but Rauf stopped him with a shout: "Give me back the money." Frozen for a second, Said slipped his hand into his pocket and brought out the two banknotes. Rauf took them and said, "Don't ever show me your face again."

Said walked back to the banks of the Nile, hardly believing his escape, though relief was spoilt by a sense of defeat and now in the damp breath of early daybreak, he wondered how he could have failed to take careful note of the room where he'd been caught, how all he'd noticed had been its decorated door and its waxed parquet. But the dawn shed dewy compassion giving momentary solace for the loss of everything, even the two banknotes, and he surrendered to it. Raising his head to the sky, he found himself awed by the dazzling brilliance of the stars at this hour just before sunrise.

Thesis Statement

Through the secondary characters and sub-plots, Achebe discusses in Things Fall Apart, themes such as gender roles to show how the themes were used or conceived in the specific context. This assists  the reader to posses a clearer understanding of how these themes were portrayed in the specific context.

Things Fall Apart: Tragic Hero

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a book about the protagonist, Okonkwo, who is highly acclaimed by his tribe for his accomplishments. Even though his father was shamed across his tribe, he had manage to resurrect his family name. This book was meant to be a reataliation of other books written by white men who try to comment on his society. The book shows that there was a community and structure based on tradition and beliefs that the outsiders could not understand. The main character, Okonkwo, goes through some unfortunate hardships that he doesn’t realize where caused by his own actions until later in the book. Why would Achebe use the tragic hero archetype for Okonkwo? The first reason that would come to mind is to help normalize what the “outsiders” would think about the people. This would help stabilize the view of these cultures rather than exaggerating and misconstruing their society. In more detail, the situation in where Okonkwo climbs and falls in the rankings. He built himself up from the rubble of his father’s legacy (or the lack there of) and then he fell off. People in many society’s outside of the one in the book can relate to this situation. Of course he does include the cultural context (e.g. The locusts ruining their land yet they see it as a fortune, beating his wife during the peace week).  Achebe wants to show how, even though they are originated from different ideals and beliefs, that their system’s structure is organized and somewhat similar to the “outsiders”, more specifically the white Europeans. This similarity could help them stabilize and limit the exaggeration of barbaricness that could be the basis of why the Europeans colonize.

Colonization of the Ibo

Greetings to the Members of the Royal Colonial Institute. I have come in peace to discuss the process of colonization. Colonization is altered from how members of your group display it to the people of equal or higher class than yourselves. This affects both parties at hand and I will begin to explain exactly how this could occur. Let’s commence with the colonized. The perceived goal is to implement an organized political and religious structure to our society to help improve functionality. However, once colonialization begins, things fall apart. The population that these folk are trying to control could already have a structure that may seem folly and counter intuitive to outsiders but is esoteric and could only be understood by the people that animate the society. We already formatted our own civilized culture. But people like yourselves could not fathom the complexities that is our system. The same goes for our religion. You could never understand it if it struck your head. So, your misconstrued persecution of our society and culture gives justification that you are allowed to manipulate our people, or even cause mass genocide to reach your goals. Knowledge is never complete: two heads are better than one. Your perception, your knowledge of us isn’t the correct and complete knowledge. After you have full control over our communities, you begin implementing your beliefs into our system. You expect us to disregard the information we espoused since our youth. The people will reject the beliefs. This will cause more harm to both parties, especially the colonized as they are forced to learn the information. You also apply strange rules into our society that give our people a disadvantage and punish us if we break them.  Another point is the power. You have more power and also have a thirst for our resources as your resource are near inhabited population with class. You think we are an unwise people and will allow you to take what you like. But we understand the goal and the consequences that it will have on the Ibo people. So, you use your overpowered techniques to murder our people and enslave the next generation into destroying their own land and doing the work that you wouldn’t do. This unethical and shouldn’t be tolerated, but we cannot battle each other for our land. Once you have reached your goals and decide that we are useless and invaluable to you, you will leave us. But people will begin to discuss your atrocities that you’ve committed selfishly, which will damage your reputation. We must rethink our approach to colonialization and domestication or it will ruin the perception of each other’s parties and their reputation. The colonialized will have a belief that any exterior population are dangerous and they will begin to associate significant differences, like skin color, to certain situations.