Checking In

Hello! I am loving the comments so far--great job! A few of you have emailed me about blog invites. I have resent the invitation to anyone who has contacted me. Let me know if you didn't receive it! I just wanted to offer a friendly reminder about outside sources. You must use three. You may NOT use sparknotes, about.com, wikipedia, or any kind of plot summary. Stick with academic sources and you'll be fine.

One of the biggest problems students seem to have with the summer homework is finding appropriate sources. Feel free to share any resources you've found particularly invaluable. Don't forget to access district databases and check out the local library (and their online databases) as well.

There are only two weeks to go until the July 25th essay due date! So far the essays that have been submitted are looking pretty fabulous :)

Point Of View

When I read Things Fall Apart I realized that their were many similarities to the Poisonwood Bible. Except the fact that the point of view was switched from African tribe to American missionaries. This lead me wonder why Chinua Achebe used third-person omniscient and if he just used a point of view of Okonkwo how it would have effected the novel?

Suicide

In the end, is the death of Okonkwo due to fear of what the white men would do to him for killing one of their messengers, or because he knew they would kill him, and he would've rather killed himself then be killed by the men he despised so much?

Ikemefuna's Death

In the beginning of the book the Oracle sentences for Ikemefuna's death, and without questioning it the Men go out to the forest to kill him. Was there reasoning behind his death at all?

Okonkwo's Chi

Throughout the book the author talks about one's "chi" or personal god. The people of the clan believed that if you had a bad "chi" then you lived a bad life, full of misfortune. When Okonkwo's life continued in a downward spiral, he blamed his "chi". If Okonkwo knew that his "chi" was bad, then he knew that this misfortune would follow him to his downfall. Why did he try to prevent his father's footsteps if he already knew he had an ill fate?

Confused

I am confused on the essay prompt. Are we supposed to answer all those questions, or do we just pick one to focus on in our essay?

"Rough Beast"

Does anyone else think that the "rough beast" from the Second Coming is relgion...?