Comparative Perspectives (DP IB English A: Language and Literature: HL): Revision Note

• Okonkwo, the protagonist, rails against colonial infiltration in his Igbo village

• He fights to prove his success in a changing society 

• Winston, the protagonist, has to relinquish the past and previous versions of truth and reality in an oppressive totalitarian society

• Achebe examines Igbo traditions, rituals, customs, and expectations particularly in terms of gender roles

• He explores pressures on the individual resulting from British colonialism and the expansion of Christianity

• In the context of 1984, the “Party” of Oceania uses fear to restructure the way people think and behave in the totalitarian world

• The citizens of Oceania are indoctrinated into an alternative version of history

• Masculine ideals prioritise physical strength, agricultural skills, and wealth:

  • Status is determined by a man having several wives

• Females are generally restricted to domestic roles,  including continuing oral storytelling traditions

• Sexual and romantic relationships are allowed only as a means for procreation

• Female sexuality is taboo

• Okonkwo’s rigid beliefs in his cultural heritage are tested

• His inflexibility creates conflicts with his own community and family, leading to exile and the loss of his son

• His violent struggles to defend his culture against colonial power lead to his death 

• Winston Smith’s paranoia comes from living in a world of constant surveillance via telescreens, the “Thought Police” and a network of spies

• His psychological struggles stem from the government’s reduction of language to “Newspeak” and propaganda

• Okonkwo’s resistance to advice from the elders (and his exile and guilt) comes from his extreme beliefs in Igbo tradition and hyper-masculinity

• He resorts to violence to defy British colonialists and missionaries 

• Winston seeks out information and objects from the past to resist the rewriting of history

• Winston attempts to rebel by joining the “Brotherhood” and engaging in a complex and outlawed romantic relationship

• The protagonist’s judgements on his father lead to extreme beliefs

• He struggles to accept what he considers to be a dilution of culture

• Winston Smith’s intelligence is perceived as a threat in a world in which free thought is outlawed

• He struggles to maintain his identity under an oppressive authoritarian regime

• Achebe depicts the collapse of the Igbo culture as a result of colonial influence

• Achebe draws attention to the tensions between Igbo belief systems and Christianity

• The novel warns against rigid attitudes and excessive pride

• Orwell’s 1984 can be considered a warning about the dangers of authoritarianism 

• He offers a critique on unchecked technological advances and the manipulation of truth to control a population

• Things Fall Apart was a departure from novels about Africa written from European and Western perspectives 

• While many critics praised Achebe's writing style, some were unsettled by his portrayal of missionaries and British colonialism

• The novel achieved global acclaim and remains a seminal work in universities and schools worldwide

• While some critics considered it a dull polemic, 1984 received immediate acclaim

• Contemporary dystopian author Aldous Huxley praised the novel but considered its vision of the future naive:

  • Huxley believed future authoritarianism would be carried out in a more effective way

• It has become synonymous with warnings about the danger of restricted free speech

• Achebe’s omniscient narrator reflects the African oral tradition

• Narration presents the significance of proverbs 

• The narrator gives the British district commissioner’s response to the Igbo people, offering alternative perspectives

• Through the third-person narrative, the reader has access to broad perspectives

• The limited narrative perspective serves to reflect Winston’s sense of isolation and paranoia

• The limited perspective conveys Winston’s claustrophobic environment

• The novel is set in the 1890s in Umuofia, a fictional Nigerian village

• Achebe details the significance of farming in the agricultural village

• To reflect real historic events, neighbouring villages are massacred by colonial forces

• Okonkwo’s exile to his motherland illustrates Igbo justice

• Orwell’s novel is set in a fictionalised London and was published in the context of the post-war period of the 1940s

• The fictional nation of Oceania is a surveillance state, characterised as machine-led and colourless to reflect a dystopian society

• Winston’s apartment “Victory Mansions” is claustrophobic, dominated by posters of “Big Brother” and poorly maintained

• Okonkwo is described as breathing “heavily”, tall, large, and “severe” looking to reflect his intimidating presence

• Dialogue between characters conveys Okonkwo’s rigid beliefs and attitudes

• The district commissioner’s book, “The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger” offers insight into colonial attitudes

• Winston’s hard life is described through his appearance:

  • “his skin” is “roughened by coarse soap and blunt razor blades”: He has a “varicose ulcer” on his leg

• Winston's journal entries build characterisation as readers hear his thoughts

• Orwell adopts a gloomy narrative tone when describing Winston 

• The narrator describes O’Brien’s mean-spiritedness: he has a “coarse, humorous, brutal face”

• Allusions to the Queen of England and Christianity reflect colonial influence in Nigeria

• Allusions to locusts present the British invasion as a plague

• Literary references reflect the destruction of art and culture:

  • Winston wakes up with “Shakespeare on his lips”

• Allusions to the Garden of Eden are made when Winston describes a beautiful landscape called the “Golden Country”

• Symbolic references to drums present the Igbo tradition:

  • This highlights barriers of communication between colonialists and the tribe

• Blood is symbolic of the violence in the village, both as part of Igbo traditions and British control by violence 

• The “Telescreen” symbolises  futuristic technological surveillance

• References to metal and the “iron voice” symbolise the unnatural dystopian world

• This contrasts with the “glass paperweight”, a symbol of intellectualism and the beauty of the past

• The clash of cultures (between the British and the Igbo) is illustrated in narration: “One of the greatest crimes a man could commit was to unmask an egwugwu in public”

• Okonkwo believes the village’s response to the British is too passive (“womanly”), which loses him his son and his clan’s respect

• Winston is aware of the futility of his rebellion, yet he struggles against oppression to maintain his integrity: “In this game that we’re playing, we can’t win. Some kinds of failure are better than other kinds, that’s all”

• Winston tells Julia of his aims to keep truth alive for future generations: “small groups of people banding themselves together, and gradually growing, and even leaving a few records behind”

• Okonkwo, as Achebe’s tragic hero, wishes to be the perfect Igbo man

• He wishes to be unlike his father and prove his worth

• His fight to maintain cultural traditions against Christian influence and British imperialism test his moral ethics 

• Othello, previously a slave, achieves a high-ranking position in the Venetian military 

• His ethical challenges result from preconceptions about his race and his need to be accepted within the Venetian military

• While the play is set in Nigeria at the time of British imperialism, Things Fall Apart follows a tragic structure

• Okonkwo, the tragic hero, is introduced as a popular and wealthy farmer

• His hamartia is excessive pride and resistance to advice from the elders:

  • In this way, his misguided attempts to be true to Igbo culture fails

• The tragedy ends with his dishonourable suicide and the destruction of Igbo culture under British rule

• The play, typical of classical tragedies, follows a five-part structure

• The tragic hero Othello is introduced as an outsider who is met with suspicion and prejudice 

• In the rising action, Shakespeare reveals Othello’s hamartia: his trust in Iago

• In the denouement, Othello’s masculine pride and desire to be accepted leads to his dishonourable death

Othello

• Okonkwo’s rigid beliefs in his cultural heritage are tested

• His pride as an Igbo warrior leads to violence

• His inflexibility and strong-mindedness create violent conflicts with his own community and with colonial powers 

• Shakespeare’s Othello desires acceptance and reputation

• As a Moor he is considered an outsider (the “Other”)

• He experiences moral dilemma as he attempts to maintain his reputation and pride in a patriarchal society

• Othello transforms from a rational and loving husband to a jealous murderer

• Achebe depicts the collapse of the Igbo culture as a result of British colonial influence

• Achebe draws attention to the way Igbo belief systems change as a result of Christian missionaries

• Shakespeare exposes the discriminatory and patriarchal attitudes of 17th-century Venice

• He illustrates the impact on the “Other” as individuals attempting to belong

• Things Fall Apart was a departure from novels about Africa written from European and Western perspectives 

• Many critics praised Achebe's writing style

• Others were unsettled by his portrayal of missionaries and British colonialism

• The novel went on to sell over ten million copies and was translated into over fifty languages

• It remains a seminal work in universities and schools worldwide

• As a Renaissance play, audiences are presented with the complexity of human morality, still relevant today:

  • Some critics found issue with Shakespeare’s Moor protagonist

• In the 17th century, Othello was primarily viewed as a revenge tragedy:

  • The audience bears witness to Iago’s jealousy and his manipulation of Othello, a higher-ranking Moor 

• Achebe’s omniscient narrator presents different characters’ ethical and cultural attitudes to reveal tensions

• Okonkwo’s attitudes to his father, and his son’s own judgements on his father, reveal moral ambiguities 

• The narrator offers the British district commissioner’s response to the Igbo people, highlighting varying ethical and cultural standpoints

• Othello’s dialogue reveals his pride and his obsession with reputation

• Othello’s soliloquies depict an individual struggling to maintain his integrity

• Dialogue reveals both Iago and Othello’s inner turmoil and ethics:

  • Iago’s sense of betrayal leads to a need for vengeance

  • So, too, Othello’s sense of betrayal leads to his vengeful act

• Umuofia, the novel’s traditional Igbo village in Nigeria, faces destruction by colonial powers

• Achebe illustrates the importance of Igbo borders and spiritual places to highlight tensions with Christian missionaries and colonists

• The setting depicts corruption in 17th-century Venice:

  • Othello’s race and heritage as a slave  makes him as an outsider in a wealthy, merchant-class European society

• The final scene in Desdemona’s bedroom depicts Othello’s moral failure

• Religious clashes are revealed in dialogue between the missionaries and natives 

• Dialogue between characters such as the elders highlights the significance of the “Oracle” as a source of wisdom and justice:

  • When Okonkwo ignores this, he is punished

• Dialogue presents Brabantio and Iago’s discriminatory attitudes

• Othello’s articulate dialogue presents his understanding of European cultural attitudes 

• His moral dilemma is juxtaposed with the characterisation of Desdemona as innocent and “heavenly”

• The novel’s title alludes to the W.B. Yeat’s poem The Second Coming, representing colonialism as a source of chaotic change

• Biblical allusions often represent the tensions between Christian missionaries and the Igbo belief system

• Reverend Smith compares Igbo spiritual beliefs to the pagan worship of “Baal”

• To elevate his speech, Othello refers to the Odyssey and Greek heroes

• Allusions to the devil present discriminatory attitudes to Othello’s race:

  • Iago tells Brabantio: “the devil will make a grandsire of you”

  • He questions Desdemona’s love for Othello: “what delight shall she have to look on the devil?”

• When the village Abame is massacred, the narrator implies spiritual destruction: “Even the sacred fish in their mysterious lake have fled and the lake has turned the color of blood”

• Blood symbolises Okonkwo’s attitude to masculinity and its connection to violence:

  • Okonkwo is described as a “man of action, a man of war” who “Unlike his father” could “stand the look of blood”

• Animal symbolism (directed towards Othello) highlights discriminatory attitudes to the “Other”:

  • Iago presents him as lesser than a human resonant of the Great Chain of Being, suggesting Othello disrupts natural order

  • He is referred to as a "Barbary horse" and “old black ram”  

• Othello’s pride and rage is is symbolised by "toads"

•  The clash of cultures (between the British and the Igbo) is illustrated in narration: “The elders consulted their Oracle and it told them that the strange man would break their clan and spread destruction among them”

• The narrator describes Okonkwo’s moral ethics: “And not only his chi but his clan too, because it judged a man by the work of his hands”

• Desdemona praises Othello’s goodness in terms of his race and heritage: “I think the sun where he was born / Drew all such humours from him”

• In contrast, Iago believes the relationship is unnatural: “Of her own clime, complexion, and degree, / Whereto we see in all things nature tends”

• Othello connects his love to the idea of damnation: “Perdition catch my soul / but I do love thee! And when I love thee not / Chaos is come again”

The conflict between the individual and their environment

A Streetcar Named Desire

Both protagonists are alienated by their societies 

While Okonkwo destroys himself, Blanche’s destruction is forced upon her

Achebe reflects the changes in colonial Nigeria 

The Handmaid’s Tale

Both writers present societies that are controlled by powerful forces

While Achebe describes Nigeria’s colonial history, Atwood depicts a futuristic society

Achebe uses a tragedy to present the doomed fate of an individual 

Hamlet

Both writers employ protagonists who experience inner turmoil as a result of their fatal flaw and external pressures 

Achebe depicts the destruction of a culture by colonial presence, while Shakespeare depicts the instability of a corrupted court

Achebe’s novel has become a seminal text that is taught in schools

The Great Gatsby 

Both texts were considered ground-breaking, though they were met with doubt upon publication 

Achebe’s novel is considered a critique of the Western literary and cultural tradition, while 

The Great Gatsby is considered a Great American Novel