General Musing

        If there was one characteristic to tell someone about how people in Indonesia speak, it’s their willingness and ability to shorten the amount words they have to communicate. Indonesians believe that by shortening the amount of words they have to say in person, 

1. They gain more time to chat with people on their phones as opposed to the people around them
2. They type less words when they chat 

Upon my annual return to my home country, I have only recently noticed that Indonesians tend to form portmanteau words and utilise them in daily conversations. For those of you that do not know what a portmanteau word is, it is basically a combination of two words to form a new word, usually but not always by adjoining the first part of the first word and the last part of the second. Some common examples from the english language would be brainiac from the words brain and maniac and also bromance from brother and romance.   

Indonesia is a country comprised of more than 17,000 of islands with a population of more than 255 million people, it is one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world with more than 700 languages being spoken to this day. While the official language of Indonesia is Bahasa, Javanese remains more widely spoken since it is the largest and most politically dominant ethnic group in Indonesia. 

         Although the portmanteau frenzy emerged in the capital city, the case was the same in my hometown as I continued my travel to the villages on a separate island up north called Sulawesi. I believe that because the portmanteaus were used in local Television, the villagers started to use pick up these words and as a result started to develop their own words within their surroundings and the community.  

        Based on my observations during my time in Indonesia, Indonesian portmanteaus are often either nouns or adjectives. To be frank I rarely make full observations on particular languages and draw comparisons, so this is definitely not my field of expertise. As a result looking at the use of portmanteaus in Bahasa Indonesia and its origins is a first of many firsts for me. 

*note

I am fully aware that “shortening words in casual speech” is a key characteristic that is not specific to Indonesian only but this post is only a general musing of mine based on my experience

Paper 2

Show how and to what effect Achebe makes use of myth, legend or other stories and tales.

        

         Things Fall Apart is Achebe’s fictional but realistic narrative on the Igbo culture. Written in a post-colonial perspective, Achebe decided to include certain myths, legends, stories and tales. These elements add certain effects to the narrative and explores the Igbo culture in greater detail while exposing the culture’s values and unique ideologies. So, how and to what effect Achebe makes use of myth, legend or other stories and tales? 

First and foremost, Achebe’s way of conveying these stories are in great detail and clarity, as if he was telling the stories to little kids in primary school. This parallels the purpose behind the characters in the text when they were telling the stories. In the text, the stories were being told to children. This was to show them that the Igbo culture knows the answer questions they would ask about life and their environment, to show the children that Igbo is love and Igbo is life. One story in particular that correlates to this claim was the story about The Tortoise flying to the sky; told by Ezinma’s mother to her.  The outcome of the story explains why the tortoise’s shell is not smooth . Stories like these somehow restricts the childrens’ curiosity to explore beyond their realms. However, it can also be argued that these stories are told for educational purposes because they teach about the values of their ancestors about how actions can lead to consequences and these stories can also teach the readers a lesson or two. 

As the audience learns more and more about the Igbo culture and their values, they form an intimacy with not only the book but also the culture, but then these cultural values are suddenly forgotten by their own people and left behind and Achebe makes this clear in the second part of the novel where no more stories, or tales are being told, where everything starts falling apart. So we can also say that the inclusion of these elements add more dramatical effect in the fall of Umofia. 

Oberika Memoir

It is now over, our beliefs, customs and traditions have all been taken away by the white men. More Importantly our children, our future, our youth have been brainwashed under the influence of these people with rather strange beliefs. They made us questions our own beliefs and brought curiosity within our community. Our people were drawn away from our belief system and started to convert to their religion in order to follow them. They were able to expose our faults through manipulation and this tore the Igbo people apart from one another. They even did so in a non-forceful manner nor did they do it through violence, they did it in a peaceful manner and this perhaps signified the attraction of the Igbo people, especially our youth.

Okonkwo would’ve regarded those young, converted individuals as the less masculine members of the Igbo people who are drawn away through affection and new ideology. Only his pride, courage and determination to withstand change would have stood a chance to resist these influences. These traits that my great friend, Okonkwo possessed, separated him from the rest of the population. However, certain factors in his life restrained him from playing out his heroic actions to bring back his unique ideology in our community and implement it. He was the last beacon of hope the Igbo people had to fight these outside penetrations but it was also our fault to not see this in him, which resulted in things falling apart.

Okonkwo

In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, whilst being the protagonist, Okonkwo’s failure to become a hero in the story and let alone his tragic flaw, classifies him as a tragic hero. However, Achebe claims that he does not have much to do with the hero’s downfall. This is because the character is based on an Igbo Proverb “The thought that led a man to truncate his own existence was not conceived in a day." So the overall meaning behind this was that Okonkwo’s downfall was that it was determined by himself; by his views of the Igbo culture and his father’s shadow that slowly overcomes him had influenced his actions throughout the novel but making Okonkwo a tragic hero was a must.

As we all know at this stage, What Achebe was trying to achieve in this novel was portraying the Igbo people, culture and traditions in order to fully express his views of the culture in a creative yet authentic manner. In the story, Okonkwo (as the protagonist) went through lots of trouble in his life such as the death of his “son” Ikemefuna, his exile from Umofia that prolonged his title holding and most significantly the coming of the missionaries. This is the most significant factor for the readers of things falling apart and for Okonkwo, because in relation to other African countries at the time, colonization was a massive problem too and as a result, the audience can then connect with the story and become engaged because as a writer, that is your goal.  However by making Okonkwo ( the protagonist) the tragic hero, the effect on the reader is developed as the reader follows how things fall a part and how it again would hook the reader’s attention.

More importantly, Achebe does this in order to portray the effects of colonization on individuals like Okonkwo. Although it is right to say that Okonkwo was already facing problems himself and the coming of the missionaries only sparked the tip of the wire in order to trigger the fire inside Okonkwo. As a whole, making Okonkwo’s death a tragic hero’s death would draw connections between the effects of colonization and the effects on readers.

Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat

Paper One Textual Analysis – Political Speech

The text “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat” takes the form of a speech as it follows the stylistic conventions of a speech, with the use of rhetorical devices to further the speaker’s appeal. It was delivered by the, at the time, newly elected British Prime Minister (Winston Churchill) on his first entrance to the House of Commons with the presence of the outgoing one (Neville Chamberlain). 

            The target audience of the speech is primarily the British population as they were the ones who selected Churchill as their new prime minister and Churchill returning the favor by opening the speech with n insight on the work he has done so far as the new prime minister. However, the main purpose of the text is to rally up the British people’s support for Britain in the earlier stages of the war as Churchill emphasizes on how victory is their main aim, as well as to build up the people’s confidence in having Churchill as their prime minister.

            Churchill starts the speech by highlighting what he has done since being in office, this includes the forming of a new war cabinet, the appointment of individuals in key positions within the government. Churchill then states how the forming of the new administration was necessary and how he did it in a nick of time and he also addressed the public to have confidence in the new government. At this stage, Churchill transitions to his main part of the speech as he emphasizes on how vital victory in the war is to Britain and sticks with this subject till the end of his speech. Based on the speech, Churchill sees himself as an influential individual that will motivate Britain to its victory and he wants the public to see this as well. So it can be deduced that Churchill’s words of motivation is the theme of the speech.

            There are different elements in the text that affects the overall tone of the text. The sudden shift in tone halfway through the speech was resulted by a change atmosphere within the speech. At the beginning, the tone was rather terse. For the most part, Churchill was only listing what he has done and what is to be done by the parliament in chronological order. As opposed to the tone being preachy with lines like “Friend below the Gangway, have to be made here at home” and charismatic as Churchill starts using the word “we” more frequently in order to signify unity in Britain and get his message across on the second half of the speech. There is also a lot of repetition of the word “victory” and how important it was for Britain’s survival towards the end of the speech. As a whole, Churchill was often straight to the point in both parts so the overall tone would be urgent and the mood of the text would be empowering since this theme of victory is the overall basis of the speech.

            As previously mentioned, the overall purpose of the speech was to appeal to the audience and build up credibility towards the author in order to influence Britain to victory. Churchill builds up credibility in the beginning of the text as he describes the work he has done for the parliament as quoted “A number of other positions, key positions, were filled yesterday, and I am submitting a further list to His Majesty to-night.” and this appeals to the reader otherwise classified as ethos. Moving on with the persuasive technique, Churchill starts to include rhetorical devices with different effects. For example, Churchill uses an anaphora alongside a climax and parallelism, “but it must be remembered that we are in the preliminary stage of one of the greatest battles in history, that we are in action at many other points in Norway and in Holland, that we have to be prepared in the Mediterranean, that the air battle is continuous and that many preparations, such as have been indicated by my hon.” The use of climax was to emphasize the importance of the events going on at that instant in order of importance and therefore making it more appealing to the reader in order to engage them with the reader. Churchill does this over and over again, this time with the inclusion of a rhetorical question. “You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny,” the effects of the rhetorical device and question is the same as the previous indication.  As previously mentioned as the theme of the text, the word victory is often repeated. “You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.” it is implemented inside an anadiplosis in order to again emphasize the importance of victory for the Brits.

            Throughout the text, it is clear that Churchill wanted to emphasize victory and inspire the British people to glory as indicated in the previous paragraphs, starting with ethos to build credibility, then further developing the message with rhetorical devices and engaging the reader with rhetorical questions. Churchill was very successful in getting his message across and very appealing as the new British prime minister.

Meaningful Takeaway (An African Voice)

    Within the class discussion quite a number of points were raised, however the most relevant point was the effect Things Fall Apart had on other cultures and individuals. The group spent a fair bit amount of time discussing these points as they arise mainly due to the fact that almost everyone in the group had opinions on that specific part of the interview in An African Voice. As a whole, Things Fall Apart, for the readers, was somewhat relatable especially in the eyes of the colonized. Chinua  Achebe was surprised by this as he initially had no idea how the book was relatable to individuals in Korea and how the Korean readers were able mirror the colonization of Igboland to how the Japanese colonized Korea. The fact that Chinua Achebe was utterly surprised by his audience was also a topic raised in the discussion, however not the most meaningful takeaway.

IOC Commentary

Link to commentary

The Tempest

Act 3 scene 1

Line

1           There be some sports are painful, and their labour

Delight in them sets off: some kinds of baseness

Are nobly undergone and most poor matters

Point to rich ends. This my mean task

Would be as heavy to me as odious, but

The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead

And makes my labours pleasures: O, she is

Ten times more gentle than her father's crabbed,

And he's composed of harshness. I must remove

Some thousands of these logs and pile them up,

Upon a sore injunction: my sweet mistress

Weeps when she sees me work, and says, such baseness

Had never like executor. I forget:

But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours,

Most busy lest, when I do it.

37        Admired Miranda!

Indeed the top of admiration! worth

What's dearest to the world! Full many a lady

I have eyed with best regard and many a time

The harmony of their tongues hath into bondage

Brought my too diligent ear: for several virtues

Have I liked several women; never any

With so fun soul, but some defect in her

Did quarrel with the noblest grace she owed

And put it to the foil: but you, O you,

So perfect and so peerless, are created

Of every creature's best!

37         Miranda.--O my father,

I have broke your hest to say so!

61         The very instant that I saw you, did

My heart fly to your service; there resides,

To make me slave to it;

77         At mine unworthiness that dare not offer

What I desire to give, and much less take

What I shall die to want. But this is trifling;

And all the more it seeks to hide itself,

The bigger bulk it shows. Hence, bashful cunning!

And prompt me, plain and holy innocence!

83         I am your wife, if you will marry me;

If not, I'll die your maid: to be your fellow

You may deny me; but I'll be your servant,

Whether you will or no.