Feminism in Things Fall Apart

The novel by Chinua Achebe, “Things Fall Apart” was one of the first African stories.  Many views can be taken from her book but in my following blog I will be analyzing it from a feminist perspective. As I was reading this novel, I reminded me and made me feel as if I was back in the era where women were belittled by men.  There are many examples I could give you to prove my point but I will list a few to support my idea. The main warrior “Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper.”  He had more than one wife which was custom within the village and he did not treat any of them with the respect that they deserved.  They were more like servants rather than a significant other. Okonkwo would beat his wives when they did don’t do as he told; if the wife had not cooked his food by the time that he had returned it would result in a great painful punishment. One of the main reasons that man married woman was for the property that they would get from the marriage, not for love, as we do today.  It was merely a purchase for property but you would also get the perk of having a wife to cook and care for you.  The way Okonkwo showed his little respect for women was how he talked to them, he would say “Do what you are told, woman,” Okonkwo thundered, and stammered. “When did you become one of the ndichie of Umuofia?”  They even would give woman away as peace offerings to keep the tribe alive.  Thankfully many things have changed but through these details from the story I feel I’ve proved my point of feminism in “Things Fall Apart”.

Technocracy and Technopoly: What they mean?

It is stated that the first real technocracy had begun during the eighteenth century, in England. Ever since James Watts invented the steam engine in 1765 mechanization has not taken a break, it just keeps getting even more advanced than before. A technocracy is most easily defined as a society where technology is crucial and fairly little culture or religion or beliefs exist, primarily technology rules. For them an "unseen hand will eliminated the incompentent and reward those who produce cheaply and well the goods that people want"(postman 2). A Technopoly is fairly different from a technocracy instead of partially ruling in technology, technology dominates much like a "totalitarian technocracy"(postman 10).

Fredrick Wilson Taylor fits in much into this article because he could be very well known as the father of the efficiency and had a lot to do wit the progressive era. He sought to find industrial efficiency and how to make it a reality.

I found this article very helpful in better understanding Brave New World, as I do all the excerpts we read. It gives me mOre insight on how technology could be a positive or negative thing, on whether or not it is necessary or useless, and how to understand why characters do the things they do.

Singularity? Is it possible?

This idea of singularity may be crazy and seem to be impossible but I believe that it can happen and as a matter of fact is happening as we speak.  "Computers are getting faster. Everybody knows that. Also, computers are getting faster faster — that is, the rate at which they're getting faster is increasing."(Grossman).  We have advanced so much over the years but mostly in the past two decades, and before we know it there will be nothing but technology and everything will be done for us by a click of a button.  Although this may sound like a good thing it isnt because I agree that technology will become so efficient that eventually "the computers will turn on humanity and annihilate us"(Grossman) or more easily stated they will take over us and our lives.  The whole idea of humanity will be gone because there will be none.
In the story Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Bernard begins to read some romantic words from the great William Shakespeare to Linda but for them it is weird because they are not used to this kind of affection and have no idea what it means, "the strange words rolled through his mind; rumbled, like talking thunder" (Huxley Ch 8),I feel like Bernard is trying to keep in touch with humanity before he loses it all together, he knows that this romanticizing should be normal but is not exactly sure why.

Brave New Word and this article tie together in many ways but one most importantly that we must be conciencious of the advancement of technology around us and to not lose sense of what humanity is. Don't always rely on technology because if we continue to progress the way we have been technology will only need to rely on itself, therefore the elimination of civilization.http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,,686757398001_2033145,00.html

Rhetorical Analysis

For this assignment I decided to analyze a piece by Derek D. Miller, "Postmodernism in Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle".  In his essay he was trying to convey the ideas of postmodernism expressed in the novel Cat's Cradle and how they are expressed.  He does not follow the basic principles to writing a strong essay that we have been taught throughout our years of learning.  Miller's point is to highlight places in which the story tries to explain the postmodern beliefs.  To help prove these thoughts the writer uses a good source, quotes from the story, to persuade his audience that his concepts are legitimate, but he doesn’t use the Schaffer style of writing he just free writes.  It is actually a better method because he is able to show his ideas without being limited to designing the essay a certain way.  Miller also uses dialogue as a tool in targeting his thesis.  Instead of following a structure of writing he goes his own way but does include some of the important pieces of writing such as a strong introduction that emphasizes his main point and a concluding paragraph that wraps up his entire essay.  However throughout the body he doesn’t structure his paragraphs in order to explain his thoughts he includes a variety of different paragraphs whether it’s showing dialogue or just focusing on describing postmodernism.
We have been told to always use good transitions when going from paragraph to paragraph but in Miller’s piece of work he doesn’t and I feel that he still has a strong article.  He can go from talking about how destructive society is becoming to how religion is telling us that we don’t need to know the truth.   These topics don’t even have any relation but his idea still gets across and actually makes his thesis stronger.  It doesn’t confuse his audience but get s to the point and doesn’t bother with useless writing.  There is no use of similes or metaphors but he does compare and contrasts his thoughts with our society today.  He uses them throughout his essay not in a special pattern but wherever he feels they are needed to improve his explanation.  While reading his piece I’ve noticed he is a reliable source because he has read the story himself and seems to understand the meaning and topic of the novel with his use of great diction, dialogue, and quotes and their explanations.  He does build a strong ethos in his introduction and follow all the way through to his conclusion.
From being given the opportunity to read and analyze this academic essay I have gained new understandings of what good writing requires and it is not a structure that you must follow.  I feel as if my whole life of writing has been a lie, the teachers have been told to teach us these rules when writing a piece and to follow them and if we don’t our result would be failure, but we need to write how we feel is right and conveys out ideas the best.
http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/512/postmodernism-in-vonneguts-cats-cradle