Andrew Ghobrial 12/23/08

English Essay C

"A chronological sequence is only one way of telling a story," is a quote that many novels support; however, there are novels that are not told in chronological order. Telling a story in chronological order is a powerful way to show the meaning of the story. I read throughout this school year a few novels that were told in chronological sequence and a couple that were not, but the stories that were told in chronological order had a greater affect on me than those that were not.

An example of a novel that that is told in chronological sequence is Things Fall Apart and a novel that is not narrated in chronological sequence is The House of the Spirits.

In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo, the main character, was a great man in his home of Umuofia, a group of nine villages in Nigeria. Okonkwo despised his father and did everything he can to be nothing like the man. As a young man, Okonkwo began building his social status by defeating a great wrestler, pushing him into society's eye. He was hard working and showed no weakness, emotional or otherwise, to anyone. He was wealthy, courageous, and powerful among his village. He was a leader of his village, and this place in society is what he has struggled for his entire life.
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Okonkwo was then selected by the elders to be the guardian of Ikemefuna, a boy taken prisoner by the tribe as a peace settlement between two villages. Ikemefuna stayed with Okonkwo until the Oracle instructs the elders on what to do with the boy. For three years the boy lived with Okonkwo's family and they grew fond of him, he even considered Okonkwo his father. Then the elders decided that the boy must be killed, and the oldest man in the village warned Okonkwo to have nothing to do with the murder because it would be like killing ...

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