Monday, January 4, 2010
Guest Blogger - Stephanie O.
So basically my post date has terrible timing because we are currently in between items in class; we just got done reading Oedipus (which is about a guy who has some serious issues) and we have started reading Things Fall Apart (which, from what Ms. Arko has told us so far, is about a guy with major daddy problems) but we haven't read enough to do a post on yet. Also last week we read this poem called A Second Coming. In this poem the author, William Butler Yeats, basically says that everyone thinks that the second coming is the coming of Christ, but he thinks it is more like the end of the earth, because Jesus is really a shpinx like beast. Yeats wrote that because World War one was ending but what I was wondering was why did that lead him to think that the world was soon coming to an end? Maybe it was because it is hard to imagine a world without war once you've been in fighting for so long. Whatever his reason I don't think that world is going to end anytime soon. In the poem Yeats says, "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold" from this line is where Achebe got the name of his book. In what we have read so far of this book (Things Fall Apart) Unoka, who reminds me a lot of my older brother, is a bum and owes a lot of people a lot of money and when Okoye comes for his money Unoka just laughs at him and pretty much says , "yeah right! Do i look like i have the money to pay you back with!" Unoka died a poor man with a lot of debt and his son Okonkwo is now determined not to end up like his father. So far he has lived a better life in the sense of money and wives and titles but in the sense of family he fails almost as much as his father failed at holding on to money.
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With Yeats Poem I thought a different way about it than the class did as a Jesus interpretation of the poem. What I thought it meant to me is that Humanity itself has lost its ways of civilization so there is segragation among the beings. The last line tells that there will be mere anarchy all across the world. With the definition of anarchy it seems to be that it says that there will be no government rules or laws. So this would mean that God would then disappear from humanity leaving it to die, and wither away because God stands for the governing of the whole world, setting up the laws of mankind and if crimes were committed God would punish them. So, what I connoted from the poem is that when humanity falls once again there will be no saviors and it will be only be time until all of us just wither and die. If anyone else has any objections or other ways that they thought of the poem please post!
ReplyDeleteI interpreted the poem as a Jesus interpretation mainly because that was how the poem was first presented to me. If I hadn't had that explaination I may have come up with a different explaination similar to the world falling to a total anarchy. I believe that this poem has a resemblence to the second coming as Jesus mainly because of the sentance "slouches toward Bethlehem to be born." I think that that sentance itself gives the whole poem a new meaning. Up until that sentance I wouldn't have assumed that it was about the coming of Christ. As I have read deeper into the poem I have come up with a sense that it could also be refering to the end of the world. I think that this poem has many potential meanings but only the author has the true meaning and purpose.
ReplyDeleteLike Halle said, I too saw the poem as connected to Jesus, after it was pointed out to me. I didn't read that deep into it, but as soon as someone pointed out the correlation in class, I immediatly recognized it. The poem can be read/interpreted so many different ways, as with most poems, and sometimes it just takes someone mentioning a different view for you to see the poem in a different way.
ReplyDeleteDuncan
ReplyDeletei think the 2nd coming symbolized the coming of Jesus to africans, but brought by the white people. They bring religion in a bad way. They ignore all other cultures because they believe they are righ. "Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world"
I also believe that Okonkwo tried so hard not to be like his father because he did not want to end up a disgrace to the village. He wanted greater things. He tried so hard that he failed miserably at being a father and husband. I believe this was his tragic flaw.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Megan, the first time I read the poem I thought it was connected to Jesus. I thought I had it all figured out. Then after we finished reading Things Fall Apart I realized that this poem has so many different meanings you cannot even begin to explain all the different ways people see it. I think I thought it was about the second coming of Jesus because thats what I learn and think about every week when I go to church. But others, like the village people of Africa see it as the invasion of whites because that is something they think about a lot.
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