Achebe and Fontana

Here is the final essay for the "Lion Project". Refer to my teacher's blog (Hawkinsanity.blogspot.com) for a prompt and background on the essay.

Stereotypes and Single Stories

Stereotypes of Jewish Athletes are depicted in the article “The Return of the Jewish Athlete” By David Fontana. Likewise, the single story of African people is portrayed in the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Through the triumphant despair of the protagonist, Okonkwo, Achebe seeks to dispel the stereotype and single story of Africans, which are typecaste to be savage, uncivilized, animalistic, and thus cannot function on their own. On the same note, Fontana disproves the stereotype of Jewish Athletes being horrible at sports in his article where he writes about Jewish Athletes and their success in the sports world .Fontana and Achebe write about both the preconceived characteristics and the unknown commendable traits of each group,  in order to provide a more complete picture

Directly challenging the stereotype of Africans, Achebe writes about the positive aspects of Okonkwo and his village. Achebe portrays the protagonist as a hard worker, a trait unexpected by the European imperialists, who thought of the native Africans as primordial and undeveloped. Achebe proclaims that “Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men usually had. He did not inherit a barn from his father. There was no barn to inherit.”(Achebe, 16) Okonkwo is determined and hard working so that others can see his, “prosperity [that] was visible in his household.”(14). Inheriting nothing, Okonkwo achieves wealth and titles through his strong-minded and purposeful personality. Achebe emphasizes the  notable characteristics, such as the ones Okonkwo possesses, in order to augment the crude perception of African people.   

Achebe includes how the village of Umuofia is organized and at times very sophisticated. European colonials, who subscribe to the single story, think of African villages as uncivilized and uninhabitable. However, Achebe refutes by containing information about how the village operates. Mentioned in the novel that, “the nine villages of Umuofia had grown out of the nine sons of the first father of the clan. Evil Forest represented the village of Umueru, or the children of Eru, who was the eldest of the nine sons.”(Achebe, 89) The villages of Umuofia operate under a set of local, tribal rules. They even have set consequences for particular acts. Okonkwo, after accidently killing a boy, is to “flee from the clan” and “could return to the clan after seven years” (124). According to the village and the laws they have organized, if a man inadvertently kills a boy he must be exiled from the clan for seven years. By creating these laws, not only is the clan structured, but they are self-sufficiently governed.

However, no single story is completely false. Achebe highlights the unattractive features of his characters, which are more aligned with the beliefs of the Europeans. He includes the unappealing characteristics of Okonkwo and of his community, so that people are not skeptical if Achebe only provides the positive account of African people. By supporting the stereotype, Achebe is more able to effectively complete the single story. . During a week when “a man does not say a harsh word to his neighbor,” (Achebe, 30) Okonkwo beats his wife aggressively. The fault that led Okonkwo to beat Ojiguo, his wife, during a sacred week is that she did not cook an afternoon meal, as the women were supposed to do.  Full of anger, “he beat her very heavily”(29) and did not stop “even for fear of a goddess.”(30) Okonkwo’s savage and impulsive nature is outlined through his repulsive action. Even though he beat his wife harshly, there is an explanation and repercussions for his action. The deed and his ruthless character did not go unnoticed.. Achebe supports the single story of Africans by characterizing Okonkwo with savage and animalistic attributes. By creating a flawed protagonist, Achebe provides a more realistic account of the single story.

Parallel to the way Achebe is completing the single story of Africa, Fontana does the same by including both the achievements and the atrophy of Jewish athletes. Fontana introduces the article, just as Achebe started his novel, by stating the positive aspects of the group and thus challenging the stereotype. Writing, “when professional basketball was organized in the 1930s and 1940s, for instance, it was widely known as "Jew ball" because of the large and important role of Jewish players,” (Fontana, “The Return of the Jewish Athlete”) Fontana accentuates Jewish athletes’ successes, therefore contradicting the stereotype. He adds how “it was common to see Jewish boxers winning all of the major awards.” (Fontana, “The Return of the Jewish Athlete”)

In the same way that Achebe provides the negative, Fontana presents context that supports the single story. Fontana offers factual evidence to explain the absence of Jewish athletes, which is in support of the stereotype.  He states that “when disadvantaged urban communities and immigrant communities became home to smaller Jewish populations, the number of Jewish professional athletes fell.” (Fontana, “The Return of the Jewish Athlete”) Fontana believes that sports legends will come from “disadvantaged urban communities or from immigrant communities.” (Fontana, “The Return of the Jewish Athlete”) However, the destitute communities that house the professional athletes, of which many were Jewish, were diminishing and consequently the amount of Jewish athletes were too.

Both authors seek to complete the single story through the losses and the triumphs. Even though the effort to inform the masses is legitimate and substantial, Achebe concludes the novel by adding the stubbornness of the Europeans who are too ignorant to learn the whole story. . The Commissioner, an imperialist from Britain who knows little about Africa other than about the abundant resources, thinks about a “book which he planned to write” (Achebe, 208) that will be about Okonkwo’s death. In an effort to show how ignorant the Commissioner is, Achebe notes that Okonkwo’s life and death would be “a reasonable paragraph” (209) in the Commissioner’s book aptly named “The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger” (209).

By including the Commissioner’s story, Achebe notes how fragile a single story is and how quickly it can be reformed. Fontana also notices the fragility and adaptability of a stereotype through his article, “The Jewish community in the United States has been changing, and who takes the court and the field has started to change in response.”(Fontana, “The Return of the Jewish Athlete”) Achebe and Fontana, through their works set forth a complete stereotype, ultimately trying to create a permanent set of stories to represent a group.