Inflicting Pain on Ourselves

           We judge the Underground Man because he is contradictory to himself, and he inflicts suffering on himself, but we do not realize that we do the same things to ourselves in more subtle ways.

In the novel Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky, the Underground man continuously calls himself a spiteful and contradicts most of the things that he initially states. He says “I am educated enough not to be superstitious, but I am,” and “I am educated enough not to be superstitious, but I am” (3). These are just a few of the contradictions that he states in the first chapter of the novel. We need these contractions and judge him harshly for being conflicting with himself, but we unknowingly do this constantly throughout our lives.

There are weeks when I am swamped with homework and things to do. I have a lot of assignments, tests, and quizzes, and I know that I am going to struggle because there is so much to do, and not enough time to do it. Even though I know how much work that I have and how I really need to focus and do my work, I still waste time by watching television or listening to music or doing something with my friends. In the end, I end up having to stay up extremely late to finish my work and prepare for the tests or quizzes that I have during the week. This is just one of the ways that I unknowingly contradict myself.

Another way that we initially judge the Underground Man is we trace the different ways that he inflicts suffering on himself, yet we also unknowingly do this constantly throughout our lives without knowing or even realizing what we are doing. One of the ways that the Underground Man inflicts suffering on himself is because he does not consult doctors about his liver, but he believes that his liver is diseased. He says, “I am perfectly well aware that I cannot ‘get even’ with the doctors by not consulting them” (4). He talks about his liver pain and how he thinks that there is a problem with his liver, but he refuses to go talk to a doctor and figure out a solution to the problem.

The most constant example of how I inflict suffering upon myself is when I procrastinate on my schoolwork. Like I said, there are many times throughout the year when I procrastinate on my work. I am inflicting suffering on myself because I would not suffer at all if I did my homework ahead of a time, but instead, I inflict suffering on myself by waiting to do my homework.

Things Fall Apart Essay

            Both the tribes in Africa and Christianity have apparent single stories. Many people make assumptions about the traits, beliefs, and actions of a Christian and mistake the intents and mentality that a Christian has. Many people commonly label and categorize the Ibo people in Africa as deprived, uncivilized, and destitute. In the book Things Fall Apart and the poem “When I Say, I am a Christian,” Chinua Achebe and Carol Wimmer go against the single stories of these two focuses and try to give them a more accurate and complete description.

Carol Wimmer depicts a more accurate illustration of what it means to be a Christian through her poem, “When I Say, I am a Christian.” Hi-Call Gospel Magazine and Chicken Soup for the Christian Family Soul by Health Communications have published her poem. In the poem, Wimmer expresses her view of Christianity. She shows that Christians do no think that they are superior or more able than any other race. One of the significant lines in the poem, “When I say, I am a Christian / I’m not trying to be strong / I’m professing that I’m weak / and pray for strength to carry on.” This line demonstrates that being Christian doesn’t correspond to thinking they have more skills and abilities than anyone or that they are more competent than anyone. It means that Christians understand that they are going to struggle and have difficulties throughout life. The goal of a Christian is not to strive to believe that they are better than anyone. According to Wimmer, Christians understand that they will struggle and there will be many moments of weakness in their lives, but they look to God when they are in these situations. They admit that they are weak, but settle these problems by praying to God for the strength to carry on throughout life.

            Carol Wimmer shows that there are different perspectives of what it means to be a Christian. There is no one perfect definition of what actions a Christian can or cannot do. According the Bible, it is a sin to get divorced, but around fifty percent of Christians have experienced a divorce. Just because these people have been divorced, that does not mean that they are no longer Christians. Christians believe that there is one God and believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If a person believes in this, but has experienced a divorce, that does not mean that they are any less of a Christian than any other Christian. There are obviously going to be people that believe that they are a “better Christian” than another because they think that they are a more successful “follower of God.” Carol Wimmer expresses a more complete story of Christianity in the same way that Chinua Achebe expresses his perspective of a more complete story of Africa.

            Chinua Achebe provides a more complete and full story of Africa, and specifically Nigeria with his novel Things Fall Apart. In the poem, Wimmer shows that Christianity isn’t some perfect religion where everything in life works out. That is not anywhere close to what being a Christian means. Being Christian means making mistakes and a life with just as many struggles and challenges as there are in any other life. Christianity doesn’t prevent problems from entering and taking over your life. It changes the effect that it has on the person and how the person chooses to respond to the issue. Achebe uses a similar method in his novel Things Fall Apart. Achebe creates a protagonist Okonkwo who clearly has many issues and flaws. This is a similar method to Wimmer’s because he is demonstrating that Nigerians are not perfect. He traces the good and bad sides that Okonkwo has throughout the story. This is important because he is actively showing that Okonkwo is nowhere near perfect, which relates to the same view that Wimmer has on Christians.

            Both Achebe and Wimmer stray from the single story of Africa by showing a more complete story of what they believe presented in a very straightforward manner. Achebe creates the characters and group in Nigeria the way that he thinks that it is. He does not create a perfect Nigerian culture where everything is perfect. He had no intention of writing a book about a perfect Nigerian civilization. He wrote this book to show his view of Africa from the way that he sees it. He does not depict Okonkwo as a flawless man, and he does depict Umuofia as a perfect and sophisticated civilization. There is no doubt that the Ibo people are much more civilized than they are given credit for because of the single story that people have about Africans in general, but there are many flaws and problems with their society.

There is an excessive amount of religion, violence, and injustice in their civilization. Achebe does not ignore these factors to make it seem like a perfect tribe. He uses these flaws to strengthen the story of the Ibo people because people can relate to the problems and injustice occurring throughout the book. Wimmer uses this same method to show a more complete story of Christianity. In her poem, she does not describe a perfect Christian who is strong and powerful. She depicts the Christians in her poem by showing their strength but also their weakness. She does not deny the fact that Christians, just like anyone else, have their moments of weakness, vulnerability, and doubt. Christians are normal people whose lives are sometimes full of hesitation and challenges they must overcome. Like Achebe, Wimmer does not display a perfect Christian with a perfect life and no problems. She admits that “When I say, I am a Christian / I’m not claiming to be perfect / My flaws are far too visible / but God believes I’m worth it.” She does not want people to read her poem and conclude that Christians are better and any more significant than anyone. She wants people to understand that when she says that she is a Christian, it means that she is equal to everyone else in the problems that occur in her life but she has a different way of coping with them, which is by relying on the strength and her belief of God.

            Like Achebe, Wimmer traces the beliefs of Christians throughout her poem and provides a more accurate story than the typical and single story of what it means to be a Christian. Because many people do not look further in Christianity and base their thoughts solely on the single story, many people think that certain things make someone less of a Christian than someone else. Like Wimmer points out in her poem, there is no single and “right” description of a Christian because all Christians have a different extent and belief as to what it means to be Christian. Because many people do not understand this concept, they automatically make assumptions about people or assume that they are not Christian because they go off of what is typically known about a Christian.

This applies to Achebe’s depiction of the Ibo people in his book because before reading the book and gaining knowledge of the true story of Africa, many people would judge them based on things that they think are uncivilized in the same way a person would judge someone based on things that seem “un-Christian-like.” An example in Things Fall Apart is that they harvest crops throughout the year as a main source of food and economy. Many people automatically assume a civilization is uncivilized because they are gathering crops, but in the book, the harvest measures a man’s respect and success. "Yams stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a great man indeed." (33) Both Achebe and Wimmer make these points to add detail to the single and incomplete story of Christianity and Africa.

            By creating flawed people and concepts, Achebe and Wimmer are able to demonstrate a more truthful and genuine portrayal of Nigerian people and Christianity. They show how assumptions can be extremely far off from the actual matter being discussed in the single story. Both Achebe and Wimmer show the different sides of the civilization, character, or religion to the point where people understand both sides of the situation. If Achebe or Wimmer had written a poem about how perfect Umuofia or Christianity was, then they would just be creating another single story, instead of defending the single story already being told about the topic, but instead, he creates an imperfect civilization to help show his more complete depiction of the Ibo people.