TOK Type Essay: What distinguishes a good justification from a bad one?

Justifications are facts, explanations, maybe reasons or circumstances that are able to defend a statement or a theory.  All of these factors are only created because of human nature and their will power to achieve knowledge, a justified true belief. In the novel “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe one is able to recognize a relevant number of situations where beliefs, theories and overall knowledge are put into controversy between two different groups of persons: the Igbo culture and the white men. These misunderstandings are mostly created due to several differences of opinions towards factors like religion and culture traditions. Nevertheless, one has to take into account that justification is never infallible; in fact reliability is what distinguishes a good justification from a bad one. With this in mind, taking Chinua Achebe’s novel as an example, what would distinguish a good justification from a bad one?

It is true that in order for someone to state that they know something, they must be able to justify their beliefs, which is exactly what is going to be explored throughout this essay. There is a big line between knowledge and belief, it is important for a human being to be able to recognize that believing something does not make it specifically true; truth is an independent factor from what anyone believes. The Igbo culture, as well as the white men culture used to be great believers of faith; they both had very concise ideas about their gods and in what they actually believed in. The difference between these two communities was that the Christian missionaries from the white men believed that they were morally superior to the Ibo people. They consistently tried to transform a completely different culture into something more “European”, in other words they entirely overlooked the cultural richness of the African’s. For them, Africa had always been and was still going to be the Dark Continent unless somebody came to “save” them.  What they didn’t take into account is that there was value in the African civilization right before the white men created a common belief that stated that its entire people needed to be “saved”. With this in mind, a question arises that states weather or not the white men were right, in what ways were their justifications true? The majority doesn’t change anything, even if everyone believes something to be true, it may still be false. This statement creates a lot of controversy around the world till these days because religion is really about having faith, nobody can either proof their beliefs in those contexts to be right or wrong. When one is able to believe in something, like the Christians in God or the Ibo people in the Oracle, they are accepting that it is true, that it exists. But the truth is, belief can only be categorized as knowledge if the belief is true and it has a reliable justification. Taking this into account, none of the cultures were either right or wrong, a none had the power of categorizing themselves as “better”.

In “Things Fall Apart” one can recognize two different beliefs about religion; the Ibo people believe that "there is one supreme god who made heaven and earth...[they]...call him Chukwu. He made all the world and the other gods" (Achebe Pg. 179) and although this may sound very similar to the Christian belief about the creation of the world, the missionaries still state that "the Ibo people worship false gods, gods of wood and stone" (Achebe Pg. 120).  The main issue with this types of prejudiced statements is that they are subjective; along with facts the white men is putting personal feelings and opinions into an argument, which ends up making the argument biased and not justifiable. Again, this justification is required when it comes to presenting true knowledge, the real difference between a good and a bad justification is mostly based on reliability. Achebe allows the reader to view the story from a slightly biased point of view supporting the African culture, one can tend to choose the Ibo culture as the victims and innocent’s of the story making an individual believe that they may justify their beliefs better than the white men. The truth is that this is not verifiable in any way, both communities have the same probability of being wrong or right regarding their cultural beliefs and there is always the possibility of every information being false no matter how reliable the source is. An important factor that must be taken into consideration in this specific case is that both claims are being justified mainly through perception. The problem with its reliability is that knowledge that is acquired from perception is only based by ones personal experiences and senses.  There is no difference of quality when comparing both of the cultures beliefs; religion will always be a non-justifiable type of knowledge, a factor based on faith rather than reliability.

More contrasts about how the people used to classify communities as the “good” and the “bad” ones in those times is shown through Reverend James Smith mentioning an extremely cold view about the Ibo people, “he saw things as black and white. And black was evil” (Achebe Pg. 184). Once again, one is able to see how the white man faithfully believes that he is for sure superior to the Ibo people and that their entire culture should be erased and finally rebuilt in order to achieve the Christian model. The missionaries especially enjoyed mentioning the benefits they were bringing to the foreign nation, the District Commissioner had also “already chosen the title of his book… The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger” (Achebe Pg. 209). This only makes the reader question weather or not their actions were in fact benevolent and with the purpose of helping the country, or if they were just trying to colonize territory and gain resources.  With this in mind, from an analytical point of view the reader can recognize that by doing this, the white men is claiming their priorities and beliefs to have the best justifications. In contrast, from the point of view of Unoka, one is able to see how inclusively characters that appear very absent throughout the novel also show how important their beliefs in religion were, “he said sadly, “before I put any crop in the earth, I sacrifice a cock to Ani, the owner of all land. It is the law of our fathers. I also kill a cock at the shrine of Ifejioku, the god of yams. I clear the bush and set fire to it when it is dry. I sow the yams when the first rain has fallen, and stake them when the young tendrils appear…” (Achebe 3.6) This ritual is used to communicate respect to the gods of the earth, who have control and power over the success of the plantings, especially yams. Once again one is able to see to what extent they believe in some things although they cannot justify them to be truth, the Ibo culture as well as the missionaries build their beliefs up on two important factors: faith and trust.

Going back to the question about what really distinguishes a good justification from a bad one based on the Chinua Achebe’s novel and the interaction of the characters within “Things Fall Apart”, one has to always keep in mind that beliefs, claims, theories and even emotions can all be justified. The controversy comes when comparing whether or not it is a good or bad justification, which mainly depends on the reliability and the context of the topic.   

Reflection & Stimulation

·      What did you learn about your character and other characters from participating in the role play?

What I learned during this activity about my character is that Unoka has actually a very absent and silent role during the entire novel. It is true that he may have build the character and nature of Okonkwo in the present in a total different way than he would have expected his son to be, but one is never really able to recognize Unoka’s true values and beliefs. This happens because we can never listen to his own words, through which he would express his ideas, opinions and beliefs directly to the reader. This character’s actions are only being explained through the narrators voice and point of view, which doesn’t make his personality a hundred percent clear. Because of this during the activity one is not able to be sure about how Unoka’s reaction towards any of the situations would be, one is only able to predict an idea.

• Why did certain characters act the way they did during our experience in the Village of Umuofia?

The way all the characters behaved during the activity depended mostly on who they where and with this in mind, in what situation they found themselves. There was a lot of agree-and disagreement when a variety of situations were planted, in other words; controversy was a factor that couldn’t be avoided. Of course they behaved the way the did because they have different beliefs taking into account the roles of each character e.g if you were a woman or if you were a foreigner.

• How was your experience similar to and different from the novel?

Before doing this activity, I had never taken to much attention to the role of Unoka in the novel because of his absence during it. I used to have an indifferent point of view towards this character (and others) until we made this activity, where I finally realized how relevant they actually were for the development of the story. Unoka is the one who build his son as a person, maybe not in a positive neither negative way, but Okonkwo wanted to make sure that he was never going to be like his father. In a way, I realized that Unoka is actually present during the entire novel, haunting the past of his son, reminding him always to not end like him. I can now recognize Unoka as one of the main instigators of the story because he was the one who made Okonkwo the man he was.

• How has your experience in the Village of Umuofia “virtual reality” changed or enhanced your understanding of the novel and the historical events on which it is based?

This activity has helped me comprehend not only mine, but all the character’s intentions during the novel better. I especially feel very confident knowing exactly how every character would react towards any situation because I now have a better understanding about their beliefs and opinions towards different factors like religion or overall culture. It definetly has enhanced my understanding of the novel when we talk about the context and the different points of view of every single character. 

Characterization “Things Fall Apart” : Unoka

Key quotes and analysis

“Unoka was like that in his last days. His love of talk had grown with age and sickness. It tried Okonkwo’s patience beyond words.”(3.36-37)

Analysis:

Unoka became inclusively less to a role model when he was sick and in his last days. Okwonkwo could not handle him before because of his regular laziness, but now it was more extreme and it was ending with his patience. As we know, Okonkwo wasnt a man of words, he preferred actions, and that was exactly what his father could not give him especially at this stage of his life.

“Every year,” he [Unoka] said sadly, “before I put any crop in the earth, I sacrifice a cock to Ani, the owner of all land. It is the law of our fathers. I also kill a cock at the shrine of Ifejioku, the god of yams. I clear the bush and set fire to it when it is dry. I sow the yams when the first rain has fallen, and stake them when the young tendrils appear…” (3.6)

Analysis:

Unoka was also a man who shared beliefs within his culture. As you can see he also made animal sacrifices to the earth goddess when planting crops, as he believed that the harvest was going to be more successful if he followed those steps. It was also a way Unoka used to express respect through this ritual to the mother earth and goddess.

Visual representation of your character (clothing/objects..)

When thinking about the visual appearence of Unoka, one is able to recognize a thin and tall man with “a slight stop” that sometimes appeared, as the novel cites "haggard and mournful . . . except when he was drinking or playing his flute." This character has a “different” passion tan the other members of the Igbu culture, he is extremely passionate about music. Unoka finds his greatest joy when he i sable top lay his flute and perform music for the people that surround him e.g in festivals. This character’s priorities were focused on living a peaceful life and enjoying it to the fullest, which he was able to achieve when he had the opportunity of playing his flute with the village musicians after the harvest. Although he seemed like a person who’s worries were far from noticed, sometimes one was able to notice the grief and sadness in his music. Overall, Unoka was represented as a different individual between the chauvinistic culture that he was part of, most of the time we could catalogate him as an optimistic dreamer.

Discuss your character and its relationship with others in the novel

This character plays the role of Okonkwo’s father in the novel. In comparison of other stories where fathers are seen as a role model, Okonkwo was actually ashamed of his father since he was a child.  This happened due to the fact that Unoka used to be irresponsible and lazy in a lot of ways, and although he was a talented musician, he seemed to reject everything that did not have anything to do with festivities and leisure. Unoka was never willing to work hard for his family, which brought them to the close line of starvation and to many owing debts. All of these actions brought shame upon his family, who could not find a way of feeling proud of their father or husband. Okonko seems to be continuesly hunted by the presence of his dead father in everything he does for his people; he went to bloddy encounters and harvested triple tan the others just to proof that he was not at a lower level like his father. Despite the shame he brought to his family, Unoka used to be a loved man, he was gentle and generally a good person with a unique musical talent, characteristics that made him more appealing. Unoka believed in the Oracle as his son did, but he did not follow the oracles instructions and neither did he take its advice.

Discuss character in relation to major events in the novel

One does not experience Unoka alive in the novel due to the fact that it starts ten years after his death.  Still, one can recognize a prototype of Unoka along the novel build by actions like he never going to war or becoming a warrior because of his fear to blood. Characteristics like this throughout the novel build a less masculine image of Unoka to Okwonko’s eyes as his son. When Unoka died, he left a big amount of debts due to his laziness and cowordy to his family and Okwonkwo, who ended up paying them. Once again we can see how Unoka’s priorities were not the wellbeing of his family. This character died of illness above ground in the Evil Forest, he suffered from a swelling of stomach and limbs .

Establish your character within the setting of the novel

Unoka is very present throughout the novel, taking into account how his presence is always there following his son Okonkwo in everything he does for his community.  The major fact haunting Okonkwo is the irresponsibility and lazyness of his father, which he is now trying to reverse and proof that he is nothing like that. Although one is not able to say that Unoka had a bad reputation because he was appreciated for other things, one can recognize that he was indeed irresponsible by never taking the time and effort to take a title in his life. Due to this, he was never able to gain respect or higher standards from his community, in fact he was called the loafer of the village. Instead of helpings his family out whenever he received money for any effort, he spend it in something of less importance like palm wine. A character like him showed a contradiction to the typical and traditional Igbo individual; brave and hard-worker, characteristics that he did not show at any time throughout the novel.

Toni Morrison reads "English and the African Writer," by Chinua Achebe: Writing Frame:

In his essay, "English and the African Writer" Chinua Achebe reflects on the role of language and power, focusing on the influence of other cultures on the African  (Nigerian) literature and culture.

Achebe's main purpose was to communicate the idea that all countries are independent and they should promote their own culture, especially when it comes to language and sharing it instead of include foreign languages.

Achebe view of the British/English language is that is a powerful language that is most likely going to finish covering the world’s toung. He asserts, “Yet the fact remains that Nigeria was created by the British—for their own ends.” Also, he referred to _______________________ which created the emotion/reaction of guilt within the reader.

Achebe believes that the justification for using English as a means of communication in his novel is not an excuse or a bad thing because using such a powerful language gives the opportunity to share their literature to a wider extent.  

The influence of the British led to a high socio-political change, including, change of of language and culture within the smallest communities. Achebe points to the irony at work when presented with work by authors such as Shabaan Robert, the Swahili poet of Tanganyika, as he could not understand his work, and would not, until she learned Swahili or other African languages that are not English or French, or until the works would be translated.

Writers who choose to publish in the colonial languages of English and French, are not, Achebe believes, "unpatriotic smart-alecs," they are in fact, " by-products of the same process that made the new nation-states of Africa."

Achebe draws to a conclusion by referring to the work of James Baldwin. He draws a parallel between this work and his own ideas by comparing the similar problem that both of them were facing; the different ways of applying the inheritance of the English language in literature.

Quote bank: please add to this/highlight key quotes within your copy of this extract.

 "If it didn't give them a song, it gave them a tongue."

“Where am I to find the time to learn the half dozen or so Nigerian languages, each of which can sustain a literature?”

“Let us not in rejecting the evil throw out the good within.”

“I do not see African literature as one unit but as a group of associated units—in fact the sum total of all the national and ethnic literatures of Africa.”

“Yet the fact remains that Nigeria was created by the British—for their own ends.”

“Today, for good or ill, that language is English. Tomorrow it may be something else, although I very much doubt it.”