The sacrificial Egg Essay -- essays research papers

Chinua Achebe’s short story â€Å"The sacrificial Egg† illustrates the life of a young African native Julius Obi, and the arising conflicts between two cultures. This short story takes place in a very small village in Africa, called Umuru in the mid 1900’s. This young African Native, although no native of Umuru finds himself trapped between his own culture, beliefs and the westernized culture. Although Julius has embraced the western culture, after certain events he eventually finds himself coming back to his own beliefs. Achebe, uses these two very different cultures to demonstrate the clash it produces in this young men’s life and, how no matter how hard he has embraced the western culture he was always going to go back to his own beliefs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The small African village in this story has being taken over by the western culture. Westernization is shown in the beginning of the story. â€Å"Julius Obi sat gazing at his typewriter.† â€Å"There was an empty basket on the giant weighing machine.† In these two quotes the typewriter and the weighing machine, odd objects for the African native of this village show perfectly how this town has being westernized. â€Å"Julius Obi was not a native of Umuru. He had come like countless others from some bush village island. Having passed his Standard Six in a mission school he had come to Umuru to work as a clerk in the offices of the powerful European trading company †¦Ã¢â‚¬ This quote shows how Julius has himself being westernized. Westernization wasn’t welcomed by many of the Umuru natives. The natives had long prayed for their town to prosper and grow. â€Å"The strangers who came to Umuru came for the trade and money, not in search of duties to perform†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This shows that people who now came to town, came strictly for business and money, which tells the reader how the town isn’t what it used to be. â€Å"And as if it did not suffice, the young sons and daughters of Umuru soil, encouraged by schools and churches were behaving no better than the strangers. They neglected all their old tasks and kept only the revelries.† This show how even the young ones of this village have being westernized to the point, where they completely neglect their own traditions and beliefs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The small African village located on the bank of the river Niger has a story of its own, that only the old and wise are able to des... .... â€Å"He immediately set out for home, half-walking and half-running, for night-masks were not matter of superstition; they were real.† This shows how suddenly Julius, although westernized finds himself face to face with this culture he had decided to put aside. While running, Julius finds himself stepping on to something and realizes that he has stepped onto this egg, this egg that was brought for offering. Soon enough Julius finds himself onto the ground hiding from these night-masks fearing for the worst. You can see that Julius who had tried to run away from his old beliefs had finally come back to them and knew that by stepping onto the egg he had wronged Kitikpa.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This story in general shows how people more often than we think forget about their origin, where they came from, and what their cultures and traditions are. â€Å"The trouble was that the disobedient youths had never yet experienced the power of Kitikpa themselves; they had only heard of it.† Julius being there that night had experienced the power of Kitikpa himself. He knew his life would now be forever changed. Julius was now going to respect these beliefs he had long forgotten about.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare Essay

In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, ambition, strength, and insanity play major roles in how the characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth behave and react. In this twisted story about man slaughter and the thirst for power both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth represent all 3 of these behaviors at some point. However, their behaviors progress in very different ways. Throughout the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth gradually evolve into each other bringing out opposite personality traits from their previous opinions. It is well known that simply wanting something is not enough to actually get it. One must have the desire, the ambition and must work towards obtaining a certain goal. In the beginning of the play Macbeth has the desire to become king, but lacks the motivation and ambition to work for it. He doesn’t have the violent drive that Lady Macbeth possesses and is frankly just a moral man with moral values. He acquires the ability to see right from wrong and shows that he has a very strong conscience when he says, â€Å"I am Thane of Cawdor. / If good, why do I yield to that suggestion/[thought of killing Duncan] whose horrid image doth unfix my hair/ and make my seated heart knock at my ribs/ against the use of nature? â€Å"(1. 3. 146-150). Here Macbeth shows that the thought of killing Duncan makes him uneasy, nervous and frightened. Already his senses are warning him that what he is thinking is wrong, but unfortunately enough for Macbeth he is mentally weak and easily convinced. Lady Macbeth on the other hand has all the strength, ambition, motivation and desire to become royalty. She knows her husband well and knows that he will not take action against Duncan, so she decides to take matters into her own hands. Lady Macbeth calls upon the forces of evil to â€Å"unsex [her] here, / and fill [her] from the crown to the toe top- full/ of direst cruelty. Make thick [her] blood, / stop the passage to remorse† (1. 5. 48-51). In this speech there is no perplexity that Lady Macbeth is clearly willing to do whatever necessary to take hold of the throne. Her strength of purpose is contrasted with her husband’s tendency to waver and it will be her ambition and strength that questions his manhood, which will drive him forward to a life of misery and violence. Macbeth is a mentally weak character that undergoes a drastic mental change after committing cold blooded murder. He is progressively becoming more evil as his inhuman deeds allow his evil nature to take control of his thoughts and actions. Macbeth becomes paranoid about losing power and obsessed with proving his manhood. He associates manhood with fighting and bloodshed when he says, â€Å"What man dare, I dare. / Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,/ The armed rhinoceros, or th’ Nyrean tiger,/Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves/ Shall never tremble. † (3. 4. 121-125) Just as Lady Macbeth was, Macbeth becomes a manipulative mastermind who is so power thirsty and driven by violence that he would kill anyone, even his best friend, to get what he wants. As Macbeth’s mind relocates to a state of paranoia and violence, Lady Macbeth’s conscience slowly starts to eat her away forcing her to resort to a life of misery, insanity, and eventually death. Her guilt is so strong that she is haunted in her sleep by the image of blood. Lady Macbeth could not rest peacefully without trying to wash all the blood off of her hands, â€Å"Out, damned spot; out, I say†(5. 1. 30) she would mutter as she wandered around the castle carrying a candlestick for light and rubbing her hands together trying to rub off all of the guilt. Shakespeare makes a valid point in this play that the future of your life does not depend on someone else, but is in entirely your hands. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth could have avoided their own misery and downfall if only they did things differently. Don’t get too caught up in yourself but be patient and be grateful for what you have because a lot of people would love to be in your position than their own. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth gradually become different people, one for the better and one for the worse.

Hardships of Slavery in the 1800s Free Essay Example, 1250 words

Causes of slavery There are numerous factors attributed to the sprouting of slavery. Among the various factors is poverty. Low living standards and the harsh economy in the 1800s fuelled the emergency of slavery as people struggled to survive. Poor people, especially from Africa and Asia, were pressured by poverty to work for rich people under unfavorable condition to get food. They also accepted or were compelled to accept low payment. Industrial revolution in Europe and discovery of new land (America) brought a need for more work forces. The industries required raw materials and labor force in the production process. A lot of people were required to work in the plantation. The only way to acquire cheap labor was through slavery (Harris 12). Therefore, the west took African slaves to acquire cheap labor force. The slaves were take unwillingly and forced to work. The issue of overpopulation triggered slavery as well. The overpopulated communities sold some of their people to work in the plantations. Consequently, overpopulation is associated with depletion of resources and excess labor. As a result people from the overpopulated areas, for instance, western Africa were left with no option other than working as slaves to earn a living. We will write a custom essay sample on Hardships of Slavery in the 1800s or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Ignorance and lack of education is yet another vector for slavery. In the 1800s education was not very popular in Africa and Asia. Therefore, nationals from these continents had little or no knowledge of their freedom and rights as human beings. In fact, in the 1800s there were limited association to fight for human rights and freedom. The lack of education for Africans and Asians limited their chances of acquiring skilled labor to work in executive post. Therefore, they were to work as slaves. Effects of slavery Slavery had both negative and positive impact on social, political and economical fields. For instance, slavery resulted in separation of families. Strong men were taken to work in the plantations leaving behind their family (Dunaway 63). Additionally, children were separated from their parents and this brought misery and social suffering. Additionally, Slavery led to emergence of social classes. The plantation owners emerged to be very rich and were perceived to be of high status. Consequently they became of the upper social class. Those who worked in the plantation and had less money become of the lower social class. Slavery led to hatred, rivalry and insecurity between societies. For instance, in western Africa the Europeans supplied the African with firearms to facilitate raiding of the slaves.