Abstract
The present paper makes an attempt to examine how George Herbert Meade’s theory explains people’s use of symbols as a sense-making tool to elucidate the socialization process, role performance, identity, and meaning formation within the Igbo society for explaining various aspects of human life in the novel Things Fall Apart. This study is significant as it deals with character analysis of Okonkwo, to see how different roles of son, warrior, husband, father and a clansman are defined in Igbo culture during various phases of family and social life to clarify how Symbolic Interactionism has given a new impetus to see society, culture, psychology and relationships. It argues that the physical setting is significant to human behavior and human actions can be interpreted with the critical analysis of cultural symbols and the way they are deployed. It concludes that human behavior is based upon assigning meanings and their symbolic interpretations of the objects that surround them. The Symbolic Interactionist analysis of the novel clearly indicates that Okonkwo’s self and meaning formation is built on perceptions of the reactions of his clansman and his self-concept functions to direct his behavior. The development of different roles changes role and behavior patterns. The internal and external happenings influence role performance, conflict, struggle, and affect the nature, attitude, and self-image of Okonkwo. Moreover, it also affirms that the cultural symbols for honor, respect, and manliness etc. are not fixed naturally rather these are the constructions of the mind and are given meaning through interaction of the people.
Highlights
1.1 Language and CultureHuman language plays an important role in human life and it supports the emergence of the culture
As a means of communication, language enables a person to form and express his feelings and thoughts and meet needs by a system which is arbitrary and has public symbols (Keraf, 1980). Based on these notions one can say that language has symbols which contain meaning or concepts but has no direct relationship with the symbolized as it is based on the conventions in particular culture provides meaning to all human business and actions
According to Sapir (1921), “language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions, and desire by means of voluntarily produced symbols.”. They believe that the world we are live and breathe in is a linguistic construct; language describes this world and molds the perception of reality. Another important study in the field is by George Herbert Meade (2005) who in his symbolic interactionism theory explains people’s use of symbols as a meaning-making tool to describe the role of communication in different areas of human experience and explains society, culture, psychology and human relationships
Summary
Human language plays an important role in human life and it supports the emergence of the culture. They believe that the world we are live and breathe in is a linguistic construct; language describes this world and molds the perception of reality Another important study in the field is by George Herbert Meade (2005) who in his symbolic interactionism theory explains people’s use of symbols as a meaning-making tool to describe the role of communication in different areas of human experience and explains society, culture, psychology and human relationships. He believes Symbols are social objects which are derived culturally from creating, conveying and maintaining shared meanings in social interaction. The researchers analyze the work Things Fall Apart with its focus on cultural symbols and its role on identity and meaning formation to explain how Okonkwo develops his sense of self and connects to the social actions to acquire and use symbols and shape and reshape implications for objects and himself in communal context including his own experiences
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