pov: cramming things fall apart

okonkwo

- protagonist
-well-respected man in Umuofia,
- 3 wives, 2 barns full of yams
- banished after killing Ogbuefi Ezeudu's son
- hangs himself and kills messenger, "roaring flame"
- doesn't like his father
- rules by fear
- hard worker.

unoka

- okonkwo's father
- lazy, gentle, and idle
- good flute player
- scared of blood
- failure
- dies of swelling and in debt
- is left to rot in the evil forest

nwoye

- okonwo's first wife's son
- converts to christianity after loving christian "poetry"
- renamed isaac

ekwefi

- okonkwo's second wife
- ezinma's mother

ezinma

- ekwefi's daughter
- an ogbanje (child who repeatedly dies and reenters the womb to be reborn)
- okonkwo's favorite child
- called "salt" by obiageli
- "crystal of beauty"

obierika

- okonkwo's friend
- sells okonkwo's yams when he is gone
- maduka's father

amalinze the cat

famous wrestler who okonkwo defeated at the age of 18

ogbuefi ezeudu

- oldest man in umuofia
- tells news from the oracle about ikemefuna
- suddenly dies
- had three of the four titles
- well respected
- large funeral

mbaino

- umuofia's neighboring hostile village
- ikemefuna's village
- woman was killed at the marketplace, and an ultimatum was given to this town asking for a virgin

ibo

name of okonkwo's tribal people

iyi uwa

- sacred stone which links ogbanje to spirit world
- solves recurring deaths

chi

personal god

egwugwu

- impersonate ancestral spirits
- elders of the village

obi

living quarters of the head of the family

agbala

- goddess of the oracle of the hills and the caves
- also means woman or man without a title

chielo

current priestess

yam

king of all crops

ikemefuna

- given to umuofia by mbaino
- okonkwo takes care of him
- establishes a strong relationship with nwoye
- oracle says he must die and okonkwo kills him

ani

earth goddess, most important deity

mbanta

- village of okonkwo's mother
- he is exiled there for 7 years

obiageli

- nwoye's arrogant sister who breaks her pot
- friends with Ezinma

locusts

- rare occurence
- come once a year for 7 years then go away for lifetime

uchendu

okonkwo's uncle who receives him into mbanta

district commissioner

- calls 6 umuofian men to umuru for a meeting, instead he puts them in handcuffs and locks them up
- talks to obierika about okonkwo's death
- decides to write a book which dehumanizes africans to a paragraph in a book
takes over justice system for umuofia

royal python

- clan's most respected animal
- allowed to go wherever it wanted
- addressed as "our father."

enoch

- fanatical Christian convert
- rips off the mask of an egwugwu
- father is priest of the snake cult
- umuofia burns his house

akunna

- free man of umuofia
- son was taught in mr. brown's school
- discusses umuofian religion with mr. brown

ogbuefi ugonna

respected man of Umuofia with 2 titles who joins church

reverend james smith

- very strict christian
- took over for the missionary mr. brown

proverb

- popular saying meant to express something wise/true
- ex: story of the turtle and the birds

ibo

name of okonkwo's tribal people and their language

oracle

woman who tells villagers what to do after communicating with gods

religion

- what europeans used as a weapon against africans
- attracted outcasts of society to cause division

female ochu

- unintentional crime
- punished with seven years of exile

male ochu

intentional crime punishable by death

why were the foreigners allowed to build a church in the evil forest?

- ibo people thought the gods would destroy them
- when this did not happen, they started to doubt their gods and think that maybe the white man's god was more powerful.

what do anklets represent?

- rank of the men in the village.
- district commissioner cut them off okonkwo and the others who were arrested for attacking the church

egwuwu

men of the clan dress as the ancestral spirits of the village at trials and ceremonies

what happens to twins born into the tribe?

put into pot and sent into evil forest.

obanje

a changeling; a child who repeatedly dies and returns to its mother to be reborn

who is the protagonist of "things fall apart?"

okonkwo

abomination

something that causes great horror or disgust

iron horse

what the villagers called the missionaries' bikes

chinua achebe

author of things fall apart

palm wine

drink tribesmen tap from trees

kola nuts

food always broken and shared among visiting friends

examples of masculinity

- control over household
- tough
- title
- prosperous
- provider
- violence
- bloodshed

examples of femininity

- stories
- domesticity
- children

how many children did ekwefi have?

10

okonkwo's greatest fear and great passion

- fear: he would resemble his father
- passion: hate everything his father loved.

why are yams so important in igbo culture?

- they represent manliness and prosperity
- staple food of the igbo people

who struck the last blow to ikemefuna, and why?

okonkwo because he was afraid of being weak

what did okonkwo do whenever the thought of his father's weaknesss and failure?

he thought of his own strength and success

who was okonkwo's favorite child, and what did he often say about the child?

ezinma was, and okonkwo often said that she should have been a boy

what did enzinma's parents do when chielo took enzinma to agbala?

okonkwo and ekwefi followed chielo

(t or f) the narrator describes a man's life as a series of transition rites which brought him closer to death and his ancestors

t

what happened when okonkwo's gun went off at ezeudu's funeral?

ezeudu's 16 year-old son died

who came to visit okonkwo during his exile and why?

obierika came to bring okonkwo money and news of the village

(t or f) one of the changes that had come to umuofia while okonkwo was away was the villagers had to pay taxes of kola nuts and palm wine to the white men

f

(t or f) one of the changes that had come to umuofia while okonkwo was away was the christian church had many converts

t

(t or f) one of the changes that had come to umuofia while okonkwo was away was the new prison was full of men who had broken the white man's law

t

(t or f) one change that came to umuofia while okonkwo was away was the white men had brought a government and built a court

t

(t or f) villagers who were considered efulefu, which means "worthless, " according to ibgo tradition, converted to christianity.

t

(t or f) a woman who had had many sets of twins converted to christianity

t

how did the villagers feel about the coming of locusts, and what did they do about it?

the villagers feel joyful about the coming of the locusts, and prayed for the locusts to camp in umuofia for the night

what did the village decide to do with ikemefuna?

the village decided to take ikemefuna outside umuofia as custom and killed him there

what did okonkwo tell himself about his part in ikemefuna's death?

he said he was becoming a woman. a man who had killed five men in battle should not fall to pieces over the death of a boy

what did the obierika tell okonkwo about his part in ikemefuna's death?

obierika said it was the kind of action that would not please the earth; that the goddess would wipe out an entire family for such an action

describe the meeting to determine obierika's daughter's bride price

the suitor, ibe, his father, ukegbu, and uncle met with obierika, his brothers, his son, and okonkwo. they ate kola nuts and drank palm wine. then obierika gave ukegbu thirty short broomsticks. ukegbu and his clan took the sticks outside. when they returned they gave a bundle of fifteen sticks to obierika. he added ten more sticks and gave the bundleback. the two groups finally agreed at a bride-price of twenty bags of cowries.

who did the men (the men of the clan) think the white men were?

the men thought the white men were lepers. "The white skin" is a polite name for lepers

describe the relationship between ekwefi and ezinma

ekwefi and ezinma are close because ezinma is an only child and she calls her mother by her name.

describe ekwefi's difficulties getting pregnant

she has borne 10 children, but 9 of them had died in infancy. she began giving them names like "death, i implore you" and "may it not happen again".

what did the medicine man tell okonkwo after the death of ekwefi's second child?

he said there was an ogbanje, a wicked child who, when it died, re-entered its mother's womb to be borne again. he said ekwefi should go and stay with her people when she became pregnant again.

describe the burial of ekwefi's third child, and the reason for it

the medicine man ordered that there be no mourning or funeral. he mutilated the dead child and buried it in the evil forest. he said this would make the ogbanje think before it came back again.

how did okonkwo cure ezinma's iba illness?

he brewed a potion made of leaves and herbs, then put her over the steam.

what was the purpose of the ceremony described in chapter 10?

a woman's birth family was having a dispute with her husband because he was mistreating her. the only decision the man would accept in the case was that of the symbolic meeting of the clan spirits.

where did okonkwo take his family to live?

how did okonkwo feel about his circumstances?

- he thought his chi was not meant for great things
- he was feeling despair.

why did uchendu talk to okonkwo about the mother supreme?

he wanted okonkwo to realize that his despair was, comparatively, not that great, and that heowed it to his family to comfort and support them. he told okonkwo not to refuse comfort in his mother's homeland, or he would displease the dead.

who came to visit Okonkwo during the second year of exile?

obierika came to bring okonkwo news of the village and money from the yam crop he wastending until okonkwo returned home.

retell the story of the destruction of abame

a white man riding an iron horse had come to the village. the elders killed the man and tied his iron horse to their sacred tree. a few months later, three white men came, saw the iron horse, and left again. a few weeks later, on market day, the white men surrounded the market and killed all of the people there

what was obierika's reaction to the story?

he said he was afraid, because he had heard other stories about white men with powerful guns who took men away as slaves.

what event did obierika describe on his next visit, two years later?

the missionaries had come to umuofia. they had built a church, won converts, and were sending evangelists to surrounding villages.

who had obierika found among the missionaries?

he had found okonkwo's son, nwoye.

what was the iron horse?

it was a bicycle.

where did the missionaries in mbanta build their church? why were they given that land, and what happened to them?

the villagers gave the missionaries land in the evil forest because they didn't want them, and they thought the missionaries would decline the offer. when the missionaries were alive and the villagers expected them to be dead, they won more converts.

what was it about nwoye's actions that disturbed okonkwo so much?

he was concerned that nwoye and his other male children would abandon their ancestors. he pictured himself and his fathers waiting in vain for worship and sacrifice.

what group wanted to be admitted to church, and what happened?

the osu (outcasts) wanted to be admitted. mr. kiaga agreed, on the condition that they shave their long hair. they did so, and survived, and became strong proponents of the faith.

describe the incident with the sacred python

the sacred python was the most revered animal in the area. it was thought to be the emanation of the god of water. no one had ever even thought of killing it. one of the former outcasts, now a christian, had alledgedly killed the sacred python, although it was neverproved. the elders decided to ostracize the christians. soon after this decision, the alleged killer died, and the clan agreed not to bother the other christians.

what did okonkwo do before he left mbanta when his exile ended?

he held a great feast to thank his mother's kinsmen for their hospitality.

what was the one elder's message to those at the feast?

he told them he feared for their generation because they didn't understand how strong the bonds of kinship should be. he was concerned because they had let this strange religion start to break apart their clans.

how did okonkwo feel about his return to the clan?

he knew that he had lost a lot of ground, but he was determined to return with a flourish, and regain the lost time.

what message did okonkwo give after nwoye left the family?

he told his sons if they were going to be weak and follow nwoye, they should do it while he was alive. if they turned against him after he died, he would return and break their necks. he asked his daughters to wait until they returned to umuofia to marry.

describe the changes that had come to umofia in the 7 years that okonkwo was in exile

the church had many converts. the white men had brought a government and built a court. the new prison was full of men who had broken the white men's laws.

okonkwo asked obierika why the people had lost their power to fight. what was obierika's reply?

he said that too many of their people had joined with the white men in their religion and in upholding their laws. the white men managed to divide the clans and they were falling apart.

how did many of the other villagers feel about these changes?

they liked the trading store and the resultant money coming into umuofia. they were also starting to think that religion had some substance.

what was mr. brown's conclusion about the religion of the clan? how did he act to gain converts?

he decided a frontal attack would not work. instead, he built a school and a hospital. when the people began seeing results from their schooling and had illnesses healed, they began converting.

what was Okonkwo grieving about?

he mourned for the clan because it was falling apart. he also mourned for the men, because he thought they were getting soft, like women.

describe the conflict started by enoch

enoch publicly unmasked one of the egwugwu, thus killing an ancestral spirit. the rest of the masked egwugwu destroyed enoch's compound, then headed for the church. they destroyed the church, but let mr. smith and the others live.

what was the result of the action taken by the egwuguw?

okonkwo and 5 of the leaders were imprisoned by the district commissioner. the village of umuofia was fined 200 bags of cowries.