Things Fall Apart In Class Notes

Cultural Values:

• They value accomplishment over age and/or family legacy: seen with difference between Okonkwo and his father
• They value the ability to provide for a family: this is seen with the mention of a barn full of yams and having multiple wives
• They value physical strength: seen with Okonkwo’s fame as a wrestler
• They value fighting in wars/being a warrior: seen with Okonkwo’s fame fighting in inter-tribal wars
• They value the art of communication in the form of proverbs
• They do not value debt: seen when Unoka dies with debt and how he was regarded because of the pileup

Oracle:

• An oracle is someone who predicts the future.
• In this case he is called the Oracle of the Hills and Caves, and he is a god to whom people come to seek knowledge
• People go when they encounter misfortune, they have disputes with neighbors, or they need to consult with a deceased ancestor
• To get there they crawl into a small cave and consult with a priestess who accesses the Oracle
  • She is always a woman which is interesting considering Umuofia’s strict patriarchy and the manner of how women are treated

Chapter 2:

• When Ikemefuna comes it’s because his father was the one who murdered the woman of Umuofia but it’s ironic because the village’s customs are supposed to judge on someones own accomplishments not those of their father but yet Ikemefuna has to pay for his father’s wrongdoings
• Ononkwo accepts Ikemefuna because he is not as idle as Nwoye and that’s why he accepted him as a son as he grew a soft spot for him

Chapter 3:

• Okonwo’s first harvest is very bad because it was a bad year for farming in general as the weather was bad and everyone’s timing was off
• He later reflects on his dark time and he uses it to gather strength because he justifies that if he made it through that rough year then he can make it through anything

Chapter 4:

• Okonkwo’s behavior at the meeting: he called a man a woman and he knew how to killl a man’s spirit
  • everybody took the insulted man’s side which shows how they frown upon his behavior and only respect him because of his accomplishments and not how he acts
• Okonkwo has two sides with a difference between how he feels and what he does on the outside (Inwardly feels vs what he outwardly does)
• Okonkwo knew the boys were too young to understand the practice of seed yams but still threatened them. This shows he’s soft on the inside but hard on the outside because of his fear of becoming like his father
• Violation of the week of peace:
  • what is it?:
  • when his wife doesn’t blah blah blah
  • why is it taboo? he is punished and many don’t beleive the punishment is severe enough and beliebe he has no respect for the gods of the clan and is a ding to his reputation
  • stupid because they justified beating his wife just not during this sacred time

Chapter 5:

• Ani: Associated with fertility so thatś why they have the yam festival to celebrate her. also the judge of morality and conduct cough cough interesting. she has access to her ancestors
• Feast of The New Yam: families come from out of town every year before the harvest began and cleebrate for a couple days.
  • like our New Years
  • They have wrestling matches as a source of entertainment
• gender roles: lots of patriarchy
  • men are respobsible for providing for family and they farm yams and they are the head of household
  • women do cooking and cleaning typically
  • This matter is very complicated
  • Ex: The Oracle is a male deity but can only be accessed through a female priestess
  • Ex: Ani because they have to beg a female deity for yams which stood for manliness

Chapter 6:

• This chapter just decribes the wrestling match
  • The match gives a sense of community like how college football does for us
• It shows the humanity of the members of the tribe and to paint a picture of what life is like in Umoufia

Chapter 7:

• Gender roles: Nwoye’s preferene for his stories. As he is learning what it is to be a man by his father he finds himself still wanting the stories his mother told and those ways. He does realize that there is peace between him and his father as he starts to act like “a man” even if he is feigning interest in the “manliness”
• Decision to kill ikemfuma:
  • The Oracle decides to kill Ikefeuma but don’t want Okonkwo to participate because considered the father
  • He doesn’t folllow the waring to avoid because he didn’t want to seem weak in front of everybody
• Biblical Allusions: The plague of locosts and God’s testing of Abraham
  • The locusts are very negative in The Bible but the village in TFA are wanting to party because it’s a new type of food interesting that it’s opposite
  • Allusion to Abraham when the Oracle tells Oknokwo to sacrifice his son like how God tells Abraham to sacrifice him. Interesting because Abraham was supposed to particpate and Okonkwo wasn’t
• Nwoye’s Coming of Age
  • devastated by Ikefuma’s death and something inside of him snaps…this is like him coming of age in a negative way because he’s only 12 and goes through this traumatic event and he begins to question his culture when he discovers certain traditions that cause this violence of “manhood” like when he encounters the twins when they were thrown into the forest

Chapter 8:

• Okonkwo is not handling well as he doesn’t eat or sleep for a few nights and he’s drinking all of the night and seems to regret how he is behaving after but not actually killing his adopted son
• Okonkwo and Ezinma: “She should have been a boy” “has the right spirit” she opens him up a little more and makes him have some emotional connection and he wants that with his kids
• Okonkwo and Obierka: Obierka doens’t participate in Ikemefuna’s killing because he “did not want to” and “had something better to do”
  • Okonkwo accues Oberika of questioning the Oracle’s authroirty and decision, he psuehs back and say he doesn’t but is that true? He seems to believe that it’s the wrong decision
  • He also questions how titled men can’t tap palm wine and must have somebody do it for them. This moment shows how Okonwo doesn’t question the law and just accepts it, but Obierka disagrees by mentioning other clans and then Okonkwo pushes back and talks about how lowly they are.
  • This moment shows the contrast between cultures like reader and culture in book or Europeans and Africans with the contrast of cultures in their villages
• Ndulue and Ozoemena: a couple who died within hours of each other and said to have mind together so Ozoemena died of heartbreak following her husband’s passing
  • Okonkwo believes that Ndulue was weak becuase he was loving with his first wife and was nice to her but the other men pushed back against Okonkwo
  • shows that okonwos perception of masculinty is not neccesarily in line with the rst of the villlage
• Bride price: gesture of willingness to marry her sign of man’s commitment to take care of his wife and seen as symbolic act and a part of culture. Thanks the family for bringing their daughter up but the bride is not legit being sold.
• First mention of the white men at the end of chapter 8. Umoufians have heard of them but have not seen them.

Chapter 9:

• Ekwefi had borne ten children and nine had died an infant before 3
• Enzima is identitfied as an ogbanje: wicked child who dies and re-enters the mother’s womb to be born again and cannot be moourned. will be mutilated and buried in the evil forest to discourage it from returning and the child will hide an iyi-uwa binds the world of ogbanje and the child and must be destroyed to break the cycle of rebirth
• Enzima hadn’t been sick since they found the iyi-uwa but gets sick again in CH 9

Chapter 10:

• Trial of Mgbafo and Uzowulu:
  • Egwugwu:
  • spirits of the ancestors represeting the nine villages
  • led by evil forest
  • Okonkwo is the second egqugqu
  • both sides of a dispute argue their case to the egquqgqu
  • witnesses can be called
  • they settle the dispute but their “duty is not to blame this man or praise that” (93).
• How do the clansmen and women respons to the egqugu?
  • they fear them and they act scared even though it’s kind of pretend but they do respect the rulings and the egwugu
  • they pretend to not know that Okonkwo is one of the Egwugu

Chapter 11:

• Parable of the Turtle:
  • ekwei tells tells enzima a story about a turtle and the brids feast in the sky
  • it’s an example of Ibo Folklore
  • Tortoise convinces the birsd to allow him to come to their feast even though he doesn’t beling and then he takes all of their food
  • They take their wings back and the parrot outsmarts him
  • tortoise shell is destroyed and reassembled
  • don’t take advantage of kindness: tortoise’s perspective
  • don’t trust outsiders: bird’s persepctive
• Chielo and Enzima
  • chielo says that agabala wants to see ezinma
  • eqwefi is scared and so is okonkwo
  • neither wanters her to go, okonwko pleaders with chielo to wait until morrning
  • chielo carries eznima on her back to the cave
  • ekwefi followes and is ready to go into the cave and oknoonwko shows up with his marchet to protect his wife and child. he gets there first…
• Female Strength and Resilience
  • Chielo stands up to Okonkwo (101)
  • almost take Chielo more seriosuly than they took the Egwugu
  • Chielo shows physcial strength when she carries Ezinma on her back to the cave
  • Ekwefi defies Agbala and follows Ezinma and Chielo the cave
• Family Structure
  • Okonkwo family works together to jelp eqwii when chielo arrives
  • Okonkwo shows up to protect Ekwefi and Ezinma and was wiliing to disregard tradition to save his daughter in his show of love

Chapter 12:

• Okonkwo was gravely worried after the night with Ekwefi and Enzima as he made four round trips to and from his house and the cave to take care of them
• Escaped cow incident
  • everybody works together to catch him
  • shows people are held accountable for their duties: the man who let his cow out and the people who didn’t show up to help
• Wedding: How is it similar and different to our culture?
  • Everyone is invited to a party/feast
  • The narrator tells ius that this party is mostly about the bride and mother
  • people bring gifts but they are actually for the mother of the bride who cooks for the entire village
  • bride’s faily provides the meal but the groom’s family contributes the palm wine
  • people get dressed up
  • Obierka gives a toast but to the men for the “retired women”
  • the bride performs a dance but not a first dance bc by herself

Chapter 13:

• Ezuedo’s Funeral
  • It’s a celebration of life
  • Shooting off guns to celebrate and Okonkowos guns explodes killing exuedo 16 year old son
  • has to be exiled for seven years
• Okonkwo’s punishment
  • they burn his huts and kill his animals to cleanse the village of his sins
  • Obierka questions it again and doesn’t think someone should suffer for an accident
  • also regrets throwing away his twins he had when he was forced to get rid of them and he regrets it
  • continues to question the morals and culture of his people

Chapter 14:

• Following his banishment Okonkwo goes to live with his mother’s people in Mbanta
• she is dead but her brother uchendu is still alive
  • Uchendu takes Okonkwo in and helps him get settled
• He’s so depressed after he moves to Mbanta
  • Uchendu notices that his nephew is depressed and he intervenes and he gives a speech on pages 133-135
  • Offers several examples of people who have suffered way more than Okonkwo

Chapter 15:

• Obierka’s visit:
  • How does Obierka show his friendship to Okonkwo during his banishment?
  • sold his yams and is bringing him the mone they brought and he will continue to offer seedyams as sharecrops to keep bringing him cowries
• White Man on the Iron Horse:
  • the village Abame was massacred after they killed the white man
  • the white men were considered locusts which kind of contradcits their belief of locusts being good
  • Abame killed the white man and they tie the bicycle to a tree which shows other white men that someone was taken/killed so the white men open fire on a open market and massacre them
• The men’s reaction to Abame:
  • Uchendu blames the people of Abame bc he believes people need a jsut reason plus the man said nothing
  • he iuese a parable to illutrate his point
  • poponent of peace
  • Okonkwo believes the men were dumb for not arming themselves
  • Obierka says the men were foolish and they paid for their foolishness but doesn’t take a side

Chapter 16:

• Two years go by, Obierka visits again as missinoaries arrive
  • the people who converted were “weak” and usually did not have any titles
  • the new religion appealed to them because it offered equality as they were all “Children of God” so equality yay!
  • offers different empoweremnent in a new culture
  • They didn’t agree with: afraid their gods would be mad if they left their religion
  • had trouble with the fact that God had a son but no wife
  • they were confused that he said their was only one God but their was a holy trinity so that makes no sense
• Nwoye converts
  • pg 147 paragraph describing what captured his mind
  • Goes to the missionaries and leaves with them
  • that’s why Obierka goes back to see Okonkwo to find out what happened but Okonkwo didn’t talk….he had to get pieces from Nwoye’s mother

Chapter 17:

• The clan gives the missionaries the evil Forest for them to build their land: means they don’t like them because it should kill them
  • they don’t die so it makes some clan members question whether maybe God is strong and powerful and real
• Importance of Nneka conversion to the church: converts because she has had so many twins and they all get thrown away so she goes to save her new kids. Nobody cared because she was kind of cast out from the clan because she was considered weak for giving twins all the time and it creates a space for missionaries to come in an convert some members
• When Okonkow first finds out Nwoye is with teh Christians he ebats him and chokes him and Uchendu stops him…beating him made Nwoye go straight back to the church to leave his dad behind

Chapter 18:

• The congregation is composed of:
  • Osu/outcasts: lower class used as sacrifices
  • twins: they save the crying babies and take care of them
  • Efulefu: weak untitled memebrs
• What esle is going on?
  • creating a government
  • kill a missionary to hold justice
• What crises does the church face it its early days?
  • one of the Osu killed a sacred python snake
  • leads to debates
  • they plan to go burn the gods’ shrines
  • the clanmen beat them
• What are the differing opinions on what to do about the snake?
  • the clan elders don’t want to fight the Christians
  • Okonkwo wants to physically punish the Christians typical
  • he believes that once he goes home things will be better too
  • they decide to ostracize the Christians
  • Okonkwo still doesn’t believe it’s enough
• Ooutcome of ostracization
  • The women are barred from the stream and quarry
  • resolved when Okoli the man who killed the snake dies a few days later
  • ibo take this to mean the gods can take care of themselves so they don’t need to do anything anymore

Chapter 19:

• Farewell to the motherland:
  • shows his gratitude to his mother’s people and seems sincere
  • maybe banishment changed him a little??
  • the clan elder’s goodbye speech is significant:
  • he says that he fears for the younger generation because he feels the clan is divided because they don’t value kinmanship which will leave room for the outsiders to come in and take over

Chapter 20:

• Return to Uofomia
• Okonkwo’s warning to his other sons after Nwoye leaves
  • he wants them to take the title of ozo and it’s one of the four titles of the clan
  • he wants to use his children to gain status
• Wants his daughters to wait for marriage until after the exile
  • gain attention by returning with several beaiftul and marriagable daughters
  • he wants that to gain attention as well
• Christinaity has spread beyond the outcasts in his fatherland
• Colonial government:
  • district commisoner was an englishman appointed by the Queen and he served as the judge in the court they established and judge cases of the umuofian culture and rituals
  • the DC appointed kotma who are basically police officers
  • if you vioalted the white man’s law you got thrown in prison
  • some of these were laws that were Umuofian culture and got punished for it
    • made to basically be slaves and beaten in the prison
• According to Ovierak why don’t they fight the colonists?:
  • many were there own brothers who converted and went against their culture and religion and their kinsmen so as the missionaries built the trust they convert
  • they can’t kill a clansmen and they probably have real love for the clansmen even if they are on different sides

Chapter 21:

• What parts do some of the Igbo people appreciate from the white people?
  • they like the tradiing store because they can sell palm oil and kernel which makes them money
  • they also tlike the hospital
• Mr Brown strengthens the church?
  • has schools and tries to compromise with education
  • he preached against fights and “zeal”
  • he respected their religion even as he was trying to convert them
  • he never insulted theirs he tried to understand theirs just as he taught them his
  • Interaction with Akunna strengthenes his place in the community
  • Akunna is respected and Akunna respects Mr Brown which is like ethos
  • neither could convert the other but they learned more about each others beliefs
• Similarities between the societies beliefs:
  • Church hierarchy: Chukwu is the highest God and they don’t bother him so they sacrifice a lot to the minor gods which is simlar to the priests, etc in the Christian church
• School impacted the situation:
  • he convinces the people to send their school by saying that their kids need to be literate or else some stronger people will come who are literate and take over the Igbo
  • ironically it’s what they are already doing
  • he kind of comes from the side to convert rather than full frontal because he knows it won’t suceed that way
• Nwoye becomes Isaac
  • Biblical name from the Old Testament
  • means he who laughs or he who has joy
  • alludes to the story of Abraham and Isaac
  • Okonkwo tried to kill him, and then “God” saved him when Uchendu stopped Okonkwo from choking him to death

Chapter 22:

• Mr. Smith believes in black or white and black is all evil (184)
  • racist
  • believes only a certain kind of people can get into heaven so he doesn’t want to waste time on lesser people who he has no faith they will convert
  • he also let the zealous converts run wild and free like enoch
• Enoch: his role and outcome of behavior
  • example of a name change in the old testament enoch walked with god and was buddy buddy with God
  • means trained and devoted to Christianity/Mr. Smith since he empowers him

Chapter 23:

• Okonkwo’s reaction to the burning church?
  • he’s happy because they finally took some action to push back and protect their culture
• Distruct commisoner do in reaciton to the church burning?
  • asks for a meeting to talk but ends up taking them in as prisoners
  • they have their ehads shaven and are beaten until the tribes come up with a lot of money
• The Umuofian’s went so that they didn’t seem cowardly and because it was normal to talk to the DC
• Okonkwo has hatred building up and he can’t even talk about it

Chapter 24:

• Okonkow is happy because he believes they will go to war now that the leaders were taken hostage
  • he’s afraid that Egonwannne will try to stop the war by talking them out of it
• Okonkwo’s big moment:
  • he beheaded a messenger that showed up during the meeting
  • when his people don’t follow him here in this moment, he realizes his people won’t go to war with him

Chapter 25:

• The DC and an armed guard have come to apprehend Okonkwo
  • Obierka meets them and at first he seems to be protecting him
  • turns out Okonkwo was already dead because he hung himself
  • in their culture it’s an abomination for someone to commit suicide and he won’t be buried with the people he’s looked up to and fellow leaders
  • this is a sad moment because it’s so taboo compared to everything he has done to be different from his father
• Shift to DC POV:
  • last page
  • Most powerful sentence: Perhaps not a whole chapter bus a reasonable paragraph (209)
  • he dwindled his life down to one paragraph and that’s it

Where does the title Things Fall Apart come from?

• Second Comings

How does Achebe overturn European depictions of the Ibo as savages?

• they have families
• they speak English
• they have rules, culture, and hierarchies
• they are big about hospitality
• proverbs suggest that people learn from the past and value wisdom

Why does Achebe have such a controversial main character?

• he wanted to show civilization and how these people were human. People make mistakes and I think by showing the flaws in his book, he points out the flaws as a sign of humanity