12 July 2012
Confusion
I really enjoyed the novel, but I kept getting tripped up by all the similar names. For example, one of Okonkwo's wives is Ekwefi, she has a daughter named Ezinma. Throughout the short story of the taking of Ezinma into the cave late at night I kept having to go back and think about who was who! But it is not just Okonkwo's family that is hard to keep straight. The villages and the neighboring families also have similar names. Another strange thing I noticed about how the book is written is that Achebe does not always call characters by their names. He may call them "Nwyoe's daughter" or "Obierka's son-in-law". This just adds to the confusion of who belongs to who and which family is which! I'm thinking about making a character chart just to keep everyone straight.
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9 comments:
So this has nothing to do with your post but how do you make a post?!
I felt overwhelmed by all the names at the beginning of the novel but eventually I was able to get past them and focus on the story. Before I started the book I read the character overviews which helped. They would probably still be helpful if you are still working on your essay.
I had the same problem, especially with Ekwefi and Ezinma. I had to go back a lot as well, but I eventually knew the difference. It was pretty confusing and even frustrating, but I think it was just one of those things where you have to keep going back and then you'll get it. I agree with Amanda. The character overviews were very helpful with all of the similar names and I will probably end up using it for my essay.
There's a lot of similar names, but the most important part is the story line. I tend to focus on the plot and what's going on and then go back to make sure I know who is doing what. If you still can't keep track, checking summaries to make sure you have everything straight is a great tool. I know in the beginning when it jumped around between the people they were discussing and the different clans when they all have similar names, helped a lot.
Honestly, I still do not know who is who. That was probably the biggest challenge for me in this book. It was very easy to read and understand, but keeping the names straight was very difficult. I also had trouble remembering some of the tribal words and what they meant so sometimes I really had no idea what people were doing and who was doing it.
The names were definitely hard in the beginning, but after a while I figured out something that helped a lot. While I was reading, after each chapter I had a word document up to summarize what I had read to make sure that I was understanding. I also listed who (the names of the characters in that chapter) and what they did. That seemed to make reading this book way easier.
I agree, the names were very difficult to keep track of at times. When I began reading the novel I had to stop and go back to the character overviews quite a few times, but after a while I got used to it. I also thought the notes at the bottom of the pages were very helpful in reminding me or teaching me what many of the tribal words used actually meant.
I completely agree. I had a hard time with not only keeping the characters straight but attempting to pronounce the names while reading. It was a challenge but I eventually caught on after reading a few chapters.
Well, personally when I go through a book that is full of similar named characters, I like to give them more culturally present names such as Cam for Okonkwo and Lizzy for Ezinma. That way there isn't any difficulty in trying to pronounce the name or remember who is who. It also helps puts you into the story simply because you aren't saying to yourself, "wow, why am I reading a book about Africa anyways?"
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