Saturday, May 3, 2008

Outside Reading, Week 4, Post B

One aspect of Things Fall Apart that I really don't understand is the whole theocracy rule of the village. For some reason, the prophetess or priestess is able to control all the villagers and demand whatever she wants whenever she wants. For example, in this last section, the prophetess Chielo came to Okonkwo's compound in the middle of the night demanding his youngest daughter. So, Okonkwo just hands her over to her. WHY? Why would you simply trust someone just because they claim to have a connection to God? What makes you so sure that they aren't just completely making things up or just suffering from the effects of narcotics, as prophetesses often do. It seems that the people of Okonkwo's community are being unjustly exploited out of their hard labor and toil by some faux-goddess who has an unconfirmed and most likely false "connection with God".

Of course, it could just be that they are reluctant to challenge anything because that's the way they were raised and it is unheard of to question the prophetess. Okonkwo could honestly be afraid of God's wrath and believe that the only way to appease him is to obey everything that his messenger Chielo says. However, he seems pretty sharp to me and may only be following her orders in order to maintain peace and stability and not upset the other villagers. In doing this, Okonkwo is able to keep his current lifestyle and not be kicked out for disrupting the status quo.

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