In chapter eleven, Ekwefi recounts the story of the tortoise to her daughter Ezinma. What is the purpose of this story? In other words, why did Achebe include it in this chapter? What value--either symbolic or metaphorical--might it possess? Write a short response--think informal SPA paragraph--to illustrate your thoughts.
This response is due Thursday, at the start of class.
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Chinua Achebe
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The reason why the story was told in chapter eleven was that you should always make the right decisions. Later on in the chapter, Chielo recalls how she ran a way from her future husband for Okonkwo. ‘“Don’t be foolish,” said Okonkwo’s voice. I thought you were going into the shine with Chielo,” he mocked”(p108) This quote shows that maybe Chielo chose a bad decision to go and live with Okonkwo.
The reason why the story was told in chapter eleven was that you should always make the right decisions. Later on in the chapter, Chielo recalls how she ran a way from her future husband for Okonkwo. ‘“Don’t be foolish,” said Okonkwo’s voice. I thought you were going into the shine with Chielo,” he mocked”(p108) This quote shows that maybe Chielo chose a bad decision to go and live with Okonkwo.
The basic idea of this kind of stories for little kids is always that bad guys got bad ending. Parents tell stories in order to have positive effects on children. Also the main purpose of this story is to tell us that men should not want too much over their ability and potential, or they will fail eventually. In this story, the tortoise represents the tricky people who always are looking for advantages over other people. In the story, “Tortoise had a sweet tongue, and within a short time all the birds agreed that he was a changed man, and they each gave him a feather, with which he made two wings”.(97) With his eloquence, the tortoise got what he wanted, but in the end, the birds all realize what happen. They took back their feather and eventually the tortoise fell from the sky and broke its shell. In the book, Okonkwo forced himself to be successful, to be totally different from his father. But what is for him in the end is failure.
The purpose of this story is to send the young listener, Ezinma, a message. Through the story she is taught that a harmful trick will not go unnoticed. Tortoise got the birds to give him enough fethers to fly and then tricked them into letting him eat their feast. When tortoise asked for help no one wanted to help him, but the parrot was cunning enough to say he would help toroise. Parrot told tortoise's wife to put everything hard out side so that her husband would fall from the sky and hurt himself. No mean deed will go without bunishment was one lesson that Ezinma learned from the tale.
--Charlotte M
In chapter eleven the story of the Tortoise is told by Ekwefi to her daughter Ezinma. The story is about a Tortoise that has not eaten anything in a very long time and hears birds talking about a feast. The sly Tortoise talks his way into getting in to the feast. The birds then give him wings to fly to the feast and when the Tortoise gets closer to the feast the Tortoise says, “When people are invited to a great feast like this, they take new names for the occasion…When they had all taken, Tortoise also took one. He was to be called All of you.” (Page 97). When the feast begins, the Tortoise asks who the feast is for a bird say “It’s for all of you” so then the Tortoise eat everything and they birds get very mad. When the tortoise is done he wants to leave and so he asks a parrot to tell his wife to bring out all of the soft things so that he can land but she brings out all of the hard stuff and when the Tortoise lands he breaks his shell and then a medicine man put’s the shell back together and that’s why the Tortoise shell is rough. Ekwefi tells Ezinma this story is because it’s a life lesson about not tricking people. I believe that Ekwefi has learned this lesson in her life. I also believe that this might be a foreshadow of Okonkwo tricking someone to keep his title.
The purpose of the story that Ekewfi tells Ezinma about Tortoise and the birds is to tell the reader that the arrogance can bring a failure. Tortoise convinces the birds to allow him to come with them even though tortoise does not belong. However, when tortoise asks the host that for whom he prepared this feast, he says “all of you”. Tortoise says “you remember my name is All of you. The custom here is to serve the spokesman first and the other later. They will serve you when I have eaten.”(98). This quotation shows us that the tortoise does not appreciate what the birds give him and thinks he is better than anyone else. However, eventually the birds defeat him by not lending the feathers and telling a lie to his wife. Therefore, tortoise becomes unable to overpower the birds because of his hubris.
The purpose of the story of the tortoise was to teach about karma and how doing wrong unto others only leads wrong doing unto you. Achebe included this story in the chapter to introduce the reader to the ways that children are/were taught good morals and values in some African cultures. This story shows how the tortoise got such a bumpy shell possessed a great metaphorical value because it is a great explanation of how doing wrong unto others only pilot the same thing unto you. "Parrot promised to deliver the message, and then flew away. But when he reached Tortoise's house he told his wife to bring out all the hard things in the house." (p99) Because tortoise tricked the birds after they kindly invited him to feast in the sky his bad karma came back to him causing the misfortune of his cracked shell.
Ekewefi tells the tortoise story to her daughter Ezinma. Story is basically about sly tortoise tricking the birds and so in the end, he ends up breaking his shells. The reason why Achebe including this story may be that he is trying to make connections between the tortoise and Okonkwo. Tortoise symbolizes Okonkwo. Even more, the author might be foreshadowing Okonkwo’s future. "You are full of cunning and you are ungrateful. If we allow you to come with us you will soon begin your mischief."(p.97). In this tale, tortoise was so ungrateful that he made a plan to eat all the foods by himself. Likewise, Okonkwo was at first a hungry man so he starts out with nothing but his own body and sweet tongue. In the end, he achieves some success. However, he kills Ikemefuna and still tries to believe that he did nothing wrong. This is an arrogant behavior to mother earth.
The reason for this story in this chapter is to learn to not to be greedy. Because that feeling or gift you might get from being greedy will eventually go away and you will be left with nothing. It’s also called karma. The tortoise did something greedy and he ended up getting hurt at the end. If he had not been greedy he would have not had his feathers taken away. It also says think before you do your actions.
The reason the story is told is because it has a moral and tells little children to do the right thing. Morals are part of the reason that kids know the right thing to do. They make kids think that if they do something wrong, then what they will think that what happened in the story will happen to them and they dont want that. So they just dont do it.
The point behind this story is to teach a lesson. That lesson is treat others the way you would want to be treated. That it what he means by, "I am a changed man. I have learned that a man who makes trouble for others is also making trouble for himself." (pg. 97) He knows that this is a true statement however, he is still a greedy person. The birds offer to do something nice and he takes advantage of them. That is why they get angry and leave. Even the parrot is upset and decides to get him back. Thats is why the tortoise's wife puts out the hard things so when he falls he breaks his shell.
Shawn Bennett
the reason for this story was because achebe felt the need to express a lesson to the world. this story taught me a "mini" lesson to not take advantage of what you are given. when the tortoise was given the food and the wine, he took advantage of it. this resulted in major conflict with the birds. they took their feathers back and flew away. the tortoise didnt have his feathers anymore. when he tried to fly, he failed. he jumped off the wall and broke his shell. some of the characters learned to defend eachother, even if it means to help out against their gods willingness.
In chapter eleven Ekwefi tells the story of the tortoise to her daughter Ezinma. She tells this to her daughter to help have a more interesting influence on Ezinma, to help create morals. “Tortoise had a sweet tongue, and within a short time all the birds agreed that he was a changed man, and they each gave him a feather, with which he made two wings”.(p.97) The Tortoise learned that what he did was wrong when he fell to the ground. The message sent in this story was that when you commit a bad or mean action you will realized what you do after word and in some way get a consequence.
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