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The type of questions you will be asked on
the next Critical Reading Assessment:
Multiple choice options will be provided
for these or such questions introduced below.
The wailing of the women would not be heard beyond the village, but the ekwe carried the news to all the nine villages and even beyond. It began by naming the clan: Umuofia obodo dike, "the land of the brave." Umuofia obodo dikel Umuofia obodo dikel It said this over and over again, and as it dwelt on it, anxiety mounted in every heart that heaved on a bamboo bed that night. Then it went nearer and named the village: "Iguedo of the yellow grinding-stond' It was Okonkwo's village. Again and again Iguedo was called and men waited breathlessly in all the nine villages. At last the man was named and people sighed "E-u-u, Ezeudu is dead." A cold shiver ran down Okonkwo's back as he remembered the last time the old man had visited him. "That boy calls you father," he had said. "Bear no hand in his death." (Things Fall Apart)
Which boy?
How was Okonkwo implicated in his death?
Where did the boy come from?
Obierika was a man who thought about things. Where the will of the goddess had been done, he sat down in his obi and mourned his friend's calamity. Why should a man suffer so grievously for an offense he had committed inadvertently:
But although he thought for a long time he found no answer He was merely led into greater complexities. He remembered his wife's twin children, whom he had thrown away. What crime had they committed? The Earth had decreed that they were an offense on the land and must be destroyed. And if the clan did not exact punishment for an offense against the great goddess, her wrath was loosed on all the land and not just on the offender. As the elders said, if one finger brought oil it soiled the others. (Things Fall Apart)
What offense was committed, inadvertently?
Who committed said offense?
What was the *sentence* for such an offense?
From the Achebe Critique of Conrad:
“Africa [is portrayed] as setting and backdrop which eliminates the African as a human factor. Africa [is depicted] as a metaphysical battlefield, devoid of all recognizable humanity, into which the wandering European enters at his peril. Can nobody see the preposterous and perverse arrogance in thus reducing Africa to the role of props for the break-up of one petty European mind ! But that is not even the point. The real question is the dehumanization of Africa and Africans which this age-long attitude has fostered and continues to foster in the world. And the question is whether a novel which celebrates this dehumanization, which depersonalizes a portion of the human race, can he called a great work of art. My answer is: No, it cannot. I do not doubt Conrad's great talents. Even Heart of Darkness has its memorably good passages and moments…”
“Eliminates the African” means?
Dehumanization of Africa means?
One “petty European mind” refers to whom, in particular?
“Conrad saw and condemned the evil of imperial exploitation but was strangely unaware of the racism on which it sharpened its iron tooth. But the victims of racist slander who for centuries have had to live with the inhumanity it makes them heir to have always known better than any casual visitor even when he comes loaded with the gifts of a Conrad.”
Was Conrad: a) unaware of the offenses Achebe mentions?
Or was Conrad: b) justifiably using the language and convention of his times to ingratiate the target audience (towards some more noble purpose)?
Who were the victims of racist slander?
What was the inhumanity these victims were made heir to?
What were the gifts of a Conrad?
Passages will be provided, as shown above.
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