Comparative Essay: Bil Clinton and Chinua Achebe

Emilie Gonzalez October 26, 2012
Comparative Essay Class: 721

Potent speakers and authors have similarities and differences in their speeches and books. They certainly have similar and different ways to appeal to their audience and readers. Speeches such as President Bill Clinton’s “Remarks to the Convocation of the Church of God and Christ in Memphis” and books like Things Fall Apart by author Chinua Achebe are not always different or the same. Certainly Bill Clinton and Chinua Achebe have similarities and differences. Great speakers and authors always have a message. The central message is the main idea of what the speaker or author wants to tell you. Bill Clinton clearly states his message to his audience directly “But I guess what I really want to say to you today, my fellow Americans, is that we can do this and still fail unless we meet the great crisis of the spirit that is gripping America today.” Clearly Bill Clinton wants his audience to know that violence is not going to solve anything and if America joins together everything will become better. Obviously Bill Clinton wants people to join each other not fight because that is what makes the issues even worse. Chinua Achebe states his central message mostly throughout the ending of the book. When Okonkwo gets banished from his village the reader gets a sense of what Achebe wants them to understand. Okonkwo was certainly not the nicest man in the village. He would beat his wives, children and hated his father. After all the bad things he has done the tables have turned and now his son Nyowe has converted to Christianity. Okonkwo didn’t have power anymore so he couldn’t do anything. The ending of Okonkwo shows how the fate of a terrible person is never good. Certainly at end Achebe reveals the true message through the District Commissioner’s thoughts. “The story of this man who had killed a messenger and hanged himself would make interesting reading. One could write a whole chapter on him. Perhaps not a whole chapter but a reasonable paragraph, at any rate.”(Page 171). “It is an abomination for a man to take his own life. It is an offense against the Earth, and a man who commits it will not be buried by his clansmen.”(Page 170). Showing how a terrible person like Okonkwo ends up being buried by strangers and cannot even be buried by his loved ones and clansmen. Bill Clinton and Chinua Achebe have different messages they presented to their audience and readers. Bill Clinton wants his audience to understand that everyone has to join together. When everyone unites that’s when the crisis of violence will disappear. He clearly wants people to join together not fight. Achebe’s message is completely different. Okonkwo was not a nice man to his family or the people who cared about him very much. “Okonkwo dew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought as weak” Okonkwo killed Ikemefuna someone who thought of him as his father and Okonkwo slashed him with his machete only so he wouldn’t be thought as weak. At the end Okonkwo commits suicide because the people of Umofia are following the Christian religion. Leaving the story of his life to be just a paragraph in the District Commissioner’s book. Okonkwo wasn’t even buried by his own clansmen. Okonkwo despised weakness but at the end of the book he was clearly the only weak one. Achebe’s message is certainly that if you’re going to be mean to someone you are eventually going to get it back in the worst possible way. Bill Clinton uses death to appeal to his audience. “A young man who had been killed 18 years old? On Halloween. He always went out with little bitty, kids so they could trick or treat safely. And across the street from where they were walking on Halloween, a 14-year-old gave a 13-year-old a gun and dared him to shoot the 18-year-old boy and shot him dead.” Certainly creating anger, sadness and frustration towards his audience. Gaining their attention and creating different emotions. Chinua Achebe creates emotion against his readers through violence. “In Umofia’s latest war he was the first to bring home a human head that was his fifth head; and he was not an old man yet. On great occasions such as the funeral of a village celebrity he drank his palm-wine from his first human head.” (Page 10). Clearly a line like this is revolting to the reader imagining Okonkwo drinking wine from a human head. Certainly causing emotion to his readers. Such as being shocked, appalled and disgusted. Bill Clinton and Chinua Achebe use the same category to create emotion among their audience and readers. Bill Clinton refers to death to gain the emotional appeal of his audience. Chinua Achebe uses violence and Bill Clinton uses death. Violence and death is clearly the same thing. When Bill Clinton refers to “a young man who had been killed 18-years-old” and Achebe describing Okonkwo’s actions “drank his palm-wine from his first human head.” (Page 10). Both of the actions involve violence. Giving the audience and readers the emotion of surprise. Bill Clintons has a unique structure which is solution, problem, and solution. Clearly meaning that in the beginning of his speech Bill Clinton talks about the problems he has already found a solution to. In the middle of the speech he explains the problems the country is facing that have not yet been fixed. Finally at the end of the speech Bill Clinton clearly presents the solution to the problems America has been facing. Chinua Achebe’s structure for his book is past, and present. Achebe first describes how Okonkwo’s life was in the beginning of the book. Certainly describing how Okonkwo was a cruel man to his loved one. Evidently at the end Achebe writes about the present and what is happening because of the past. All of the mean things Okonkwo has done reverses on him and now his life is impossible. The structure of Bill Clinton’s speech is completely different from Chinua Achebe’s book. Bill Clinton’s structure is solution, problem, and solution. While Chinua Achebe’s structure is past, and future. Evidently causing them to talk and write about different things at different times making their organizational structure different. Bill Clinton’s speech and Chinua Achebe’s book both have similarities and differences. Their emotional appeal is the same while the message and structure is different. Even though Clinton and Achebe’s structure and messages are different they are great and powerful speakers.