Things Fall Apart and Fasting,Feasting:comparison and contrast

Things Fall Apart and Fasting, Feasting: A Comparison and Contrast
Submitted to: Sir Javed-ur-Rahman
Submitted by: Nazir Ahmad Shah
Mphil English 2nd Term
Email ID:[e-mail]
Qurtuba University of science & Technology
DI Khan
.
In the lines to follow I have tried to present comparison and contrast of the two Postcolonial novels namely Things Fall Apart and Fasting, Feasting. From the title of the novel Things Fall Apart and from the name of the author
Chinua Achebe, who is one of the most eminent post-colonial writers, readers can predict what this novel is going to talk about. This book is mostly concerned with the coming of imperialism to a tribe called “Igbo” in Africa and its social complexity. When I first read this book, I discovered a lot of similarities and differences in comparison to Fasting, Feasting, which particularly focuses on life in India after the period of colonialism. Anita Dasai, the author, is also a remarkable post-colonial writer so I decided to discuss about the similarities and differences of both books. This paper is going to point out two major subjects which these novels share the similarities and differences. The first is the attitudes of native towards the colonizer including the outcomes of cultural clash and second, life of women in both societies. Both Africa and India were invaded by the English Empire during the period of imperialism but the attitudes of the native towards the colonizer are different considering in the books. In Things Fall Apart , the native tribe of Africa or “Igbo”, which is separated into many villages, seems to be violently opposed to the coming of the colonizer and the colonizer too reacts violently. For example, when English government had known that his missionary was killed in Abame village, they massacred the village “… until the market was full and they began to shoot. Everybody was killed” or Okonkwo, who was a leader of the African Igbo community of Umuofia, couldn’t stand the coming of the Christian religion so he suggested Mbanta, the village of his mother to fight against the Whites “Let us not reason like cowards…If a man comes into my hut and defecates on the floor, what I do? Do I shut my eyes? No! I take a stick and break his head.” And the situation that was most severe was when Okonkwo killed the head messenger who was sent by English to stop the congregation of Igbo. After that he hanged himself because he knew that the District Commissioners wouldn’t let this pass and they would dishonor him as they had done when they caught him and his friend for destroying a church by whipping him and shaving his head.

At first English came with Christian religion and many villagers converted to Christian and forgot their old pagan gods like Amadiora, the god of thunder. So Igbo saw English as a threat which would gradually destroy their cultures and shatter their relationship in the clan. And it did happen as the villagers thought. Igbo began to discriminate among them by excommunicating those who converted to Christian. “Everybody in the assembly spoke, and in the end it was decided to ostracize the Christians. ” Another example that shows why Igbo saw the colonizer as a threat is the introducing a government and the building of a court. Because of the District court ,the old way of Igbo judgement ,which performed by the 9 greatest masked spirits was gone as can be seen when Enoch, an provocative convert pull the spirit’s mask off,it was a serious offense to the clan because the spirit was killed by the unmasking so the next day the villagers came to destroyed Enoch’s place and demolished his church.Then, the District Commissioners caught them and told them that when the treat others wrongly, they must be judged in the court of law. “ We have a court of law where we judge cases and administer justice just as it is done in my own country under a great queen.” So it’s clear that colonizer’s court was diminished native court’s importance. While native African is opposed violently against the culture of English, Indian conversely, seems to think that English culture is a symbol of good taste and a tool to pull you up to a higher status. This idea is obviously seen via “Papa” in Fasting, Feasting. For instance, Papa thought that eating meat, playing cricket and speaking English show good taste and progress. As the text says “Raised amongst traditional vegetarians, their eyes had been opened to the benefits of meat, along with that of cricket and the English language.” Or “A meat diet had been one of the revolutionary change brought about in his life, and his brother’s, by their education.” So when Papa realized that Arun was a vegetarian, he was very disappointed because all the attempts to raise the status step backwards. And while Arun came to stay with the Pattons during summer, he again saw his father disappointment in Mr. Patton when he learnt that Arun was a vegetarian “ Arun knew and had experiences of, even if a mirror reflection of it-his father’s very expression,…,his stony wait it to grow disheartened, despair…” For education, Papa believed that English education would increase his children’s opportunities. For example, it was Papa who sent Uma and Aruna to study at English school system “St. Mary’s school” as described in the text “ In matters educational,Papa would surely support her. He was educated …” Papa also tried every way to send Arun ,his only son to study abroad in the U.S.A. “ Papa did not even bother to counter Mama’s arguments , he did not expect her to understand the importance of sending Arun abroad to study” or “ The value of a foreign degree, the openings this would create later in life, opportunities.”All of these show Papa’s acceptance of colonizer’s culture.Another example of the value of English education is seen through Anamika, Uma’s cousin. She got a scholarship from Oxford. This raises her quality and provides her a chance to bargain for a suitable match. Anamika’s parents always proudly show the letter of acceptance. “The letter from Oxford was locked in a steel cupboard, and whenever visitors came, it would be taken out and show around with pride.” However, there is a difference that I’d like to point out here .That is the outcomes of the cultural clash, the clash of native culture and colonizer’s culture. After the invasion of England, India can maintain its culture, especially religion or Hinduism. As can be noticed clearly from Mira-masi, she had a firm belief in the Lord Shiva. She took a pilgrimage to pay homage to the Lord and when her brass Shiva idol was stolen, she had a strong intention to travel around to find her stolen idol. “I will find Him .You wait and see. I will not stop traveling from one city to another from temple to temple, ashram, till I find him.” But Igbo tends to lose all their cultures and identity. We can predict from a foreshadowing from many sayings of the characters as “Okonkwo was deeply grieved. And it was not just a personal grief. He mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart, or “Now he (English) has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” More apparently, we can foresee that the Igbo society can no longer hold its culture from the symbol of locust. The flock of locusts descends upon the village foreshadow the arrival of the Whites or the colonizer. The language used to describe the locusts like “settled” indicates their symbolic status. Moreover, the locusts are so heavy they break a tree branches, which symbolizes the shattering of Igbo traditions and culture under colonialism. And the oracle “…said that other white men were on their way. They were locusts it said,…” Form the texts, Things Fall Apart seems to directly attack the colonizer but Fasting, Feasting mainly attacks the Indian culture itself ,especially life of women in patriarchal society. In this paragraph, I’m going to discuss about life of women in India and in Igbo tribe in Africa comparing with male counterparts through two aspects, the role expectation and marriage in reflecting female status. In India, where male-dominated idea is widely practiced, women are inferior to men in all respects. Firstly, women are only expected to give birth to male baby .Only when she fulfills this duty, she can receive a full respect. For example, after Mama had given birth to Arun, “she began to relax and broaden into long-suffering pride.” Or “He (papa) had not only made her his wife, he had made her the mother of his son. What an honor, what status! Mama’s chin lifted a little into the air, she looked around her to make sure everyone saw and noticed.” And a satire here “She might have been wearing a medal.” While Anamika, Uma’s cousin, for the flaw that she can’t bear anymore baby, she was believed to be murdered by her in-laws. Although giving birth is very important to women, it’s men who decide that his wife should or shouldn’t bear a child. Up to this point, you can see that female status in India is far lower than men. So it’s not strange that when Arun was born Uma was forced to quit her studies to take care of him because he as the first male child, deserves “ Proper Attention” For the reason that pride, authority and responsibility are passed on patrilineally. Thus, male children are preferable to female. What is more, when Mama ordered Uma to serve fruit to Papa restates the superior of men and it is clear that wives are subservient to male-dominated society. “She (Uma) picks out the largest orange in the bowl and hands it to Mama who peels it in strips till only the perfect globules of juice are left, and then passes , one by one, to the edge of Papa’s plate…” “The ceremony is over. She [Mama] has performed it. Everyone is satisfied.” This phrase means that women can only be satisfied when they serve their husbands well. Assault on wife seems to be normal thing and no woman dares to speak for herself. They just silently face their misfortune. For example, Anamika miscarried because she was beaten by her husband. Besides, women weren’t allowed to do job so when Dr. Dutt offered Uma a job, Papa and Mama tried to make excuses to refuse Dr. Dutt’s offer. But Arun had to study hard to get acceptance from a university in U.S.A. and in order to bring back pride to the family. Like Indian women, Igbo women are expected to give birth, especially male baby because children are the symbol of prosperity and power in Igbo culture. Similarly, authority and responsibility passed through male line. As can be noticed from Okonkwo’ saying “… If he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man.” As for women who delivered three sons would receive a gift and honor from their husbands. Like when Mama gives birth to Arun, she was given honor. “When she (Okonkwo’s first wife) has borne her third son in succession, Okonkwo had slaughter a goat for her, as was the custom.” And Okonkwo always wishes that Ezinma, his favorite daughter were a boy for he can’t pass on his authority and duty to female child.
While Indian women were barred from a job, Igbo women were barred from growing Yam, which is a sacred plant that only men could grow. Women could grow only plants which classified as women’s crops. “His mother and sisters worked hard enough, but they grew women’s crops like coco-yam, beans and cassava. Yam, the king of crops, was a man’s crop.” Similar to Indian women, Igbo female main duty is to serve her husband or else she will be severely punished. For example, Okonkwo’s youngest wife went to her friend’s hut and didn’t prepare food for afternoon meal for Okonkwo and when she returne,“He beat her very heavily.” Or when Ekwefi made banana tree died,“ Okonkwo gave her a sound beating…Neither of the other wives dared to interfere beyond an occasional and tentative,…” The marriage also epitomizes the inferior status of women in both societies. In India, conventionally, women have to give dowry to men so women are seen as financial liability. Also women are risky to be murdered, often in cooking accident or known as “dowry death” so men can find another women and with another dowry. Moreover, when women get married, she has to live with her in-laws and is under total control of her mother in-law. She will be the least important in her husband’s family. For example, she has to veil her face when talking to other members. Almost all marriages in India are arranged marriage. Unlike Indian tradition, Igbo tradition asks men to give dowry to women. And after marriage, women live with her husband compound separated from her in-laws. Probably, because Igbo matrimonial tradition allows men to have more than one wife at a time but Indian doesn’t so one household is predictably very large. For this reason Igbo couple has to separate to build their own family to provide for new wives and children. However, most of marriages are arranged marriage like in India. Although women in both cultures are inferior to men as we can see from role expectation and marriage described above, Igbo culture still has a distinguish point from Indian culture that is the belief that “Mother is Supreme.” If we see from wife and daughter status, it’s true that women are below men but if we look from mother status, we will see that Igbo places mother in high status. Although they take children as their father’s, they think children should always respect their mothers because “A man belongs to his father land when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland…And that why we say that mother is Supreme.”And the name Okonkwo gave to his first son who were born during his exile is “Nneka” or “Mother is supreme” to show deep gratitude to his mother. On the other hand, mother status in India is quite inferior to her son. For after her husband died, Indian women have to obey her own son instead.
In short, there are a lot of similarities and differences in “Things Fall Apart” and
“Fasting, Feasting”. In this essay, I’ve focused mainly on 2 main points which are the attitudes of native towards the colonizer and female life comparing to male’s in patriarchal societies. Both are major subjects that these novels depict obviously and strongly. I can say nothing but these two books are really subtle and worth reading.