Things Fall Apart

Unoka and his son Okonkwo appear to be polar opposites. Unoka was an ineffectual, dreamy man who achieved little. He loved music and drinking, was poor and lazy, took no titles, and died heavily in...

Published in 1958, Things Fall Apart is a novel by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe. It details life in southeast Nigeria prior to and in the aftermath of the arrival of white European colonists in...

The lessons of Things Fall Apart are not generally uplifting or optimistic. It is, after all, a book about the degeneration and destruction of a society. One of its grimmest lessons is that force,...

This quote comes in chapter 1. Okoye has come to collect his debt of two hundred cowries from his friend, Unoka. As he tells Unoka the purpose for his visit, Unoka begins to laugh. "Look at that...

The story of the tortoise is a fable, one of two traditional Nigerian stories presented by Achebe in the novel (the other being the story of the mosquito). On the surface, it fulfills a standard...

Even though Okonkwo loves Ikemefuna and in some ways thinks more highly of him than of his own son, Okonkwo participates in the death of Ikemefuna because it has been decreed by the oracle, and he...

In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo's youngest wife Ojiugo decides to have her hair braided during the Week of Peace. She decides to have her hair braided instead of cooking dinner. Okonkwo is furious...

Okonkwo: Okonkwo is an ambitious, tenacious, and flamboyant man. He revels in brute strength and is focused on projecting an image of male virility. Okonkwo is most afraid of mediocrity and...

In Umuofia, the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves is also revered for her clairvoyance or supernatural insight into the future. She is a kind of prophet, foretelling what Umuofia's future will...

One could argue that Okonkwo's downfall is directly related to his fear of being viewed as weak or becoming like his inept father Unoka. As a young man, Okonkwo was determined to become a...

Okonkwo's exile is ironic in that Okonkwo leaves and everything in his village changes. While Okonkwo is away, the white man comes in and begins converting more men from Umuofia to Christianity. It...

When analyzing wrestling in the novel, we can look at two distinct questions. How does Things Fall Apart use wrestling as a means of exposition (to establish character)? And what significance does...

The egwugwu are masked dancers that represent the nine ancestral spirits of Umuofia. These masked ancestral spirits are enigmatic in nature and comprise of nine revered village elders, who...

The stories in Things Fall Apart are myths. They often have metaphorical significance as well, but their primary purpose within the tribe is explanatory. For the reader, they demonstrate the...

One could argue that Okonkwo doesn't really change all that much over the course of Things Fall Apart, and therein lies the problem. The society around Okonkwo is changing rapidly on account of...

This quote from Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart comes at the end of chapter 17 as the warrior Okonkwo reflects on his son Nwoye. The quote represents Okonkwo's thoughts on his son, with the fire...

In Things Fall Part, father-son relationships play a significant part in the narrative. The first chapter discusses the ways in which Okonkwo’s entire persona is shaped as a response to his father,...

In chapter 7, Okonkwo receives the bad news that Ikemefuna will be sacrificed, according to the will of Agbala. He is also warned by Ogbuefi Ezeudu to not have a hand in Ikemefuna's death, because...

As was mentioned in the previous post, Okonkwo had recently called a man with no titles a woman during a meeting. Okonkwo's callous nature and harsh response upset the other elders at the meeting....

In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo represents the best part of the tribal values in various ways. At the same time, he represents the worst part of tribal life according to what the tribe values. Truly,...

In Things Fall Apart, the main character Okonkwo is exiled from his tribe. Even though he is a successful man in accruing wealth from his yam farm, Okonkwo has trouble balancing his emotions and he...

Okonkwo's father, Unoka, was a debtor and alcoholic, who spent the majority of his days playing his flute, borrowing money, and drinking palm wine. Unoka was not respected by his community members,...

Quite understandably, both Okonkwo and Nwoye reacted to Ikemefuna’s death with feelings of heartbreak and devastation. It was an event that would set lifelong changes into motion for both of them....

The title of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe derives from a line in a poem by William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming." The third and fourth lines of the poem are: Things fall apart; the...

Okonkwo doesn't truly change during the novel. He is rigid in his ways and unaccepting of new ways of life in his village with the introduction of imperialism. As others in the village drift toward...

There is a good description of the Feast of the New Yam in Chapter Five. This feast is meant to thank and praise the goddess of the earth, Ani, who is responsible for "all fertility" (36). The...

The egwugwu are the masked ancestral spirits of Umuofia, who are comprised of the clan's most revered men. The nine masked egwugwu act as the village judges and preside over disputes throughout the...

Chapter Seven makes it clear that the arrival of Ikemefuna into Okonkwo's household has been very positive for Nwoye. At the beginning of the novel, Nwoye is depicted as a rather feminine young boy...

In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Achebe places emphasis on the importance of yams to Okonkwo's Igbo clan within Umuofia. Yams are the essential crop within Umuofia; the yam is a crucial staple...

Ikemefuna comes to Okonkwo's compound to live. Because a daughter of the Umuofian tribe had been killed by the Mbaino tribe, there had to be some sort of compensatory agreement made in regards to...

This achievement is amazing for two reasons. First, Amalinze the Cat was the greatest wrestler in Umuofia, who "for seven years was unbeaten, from Umuofia to Mbaino." So in all the neighboring...

Ekwefi was the village beauty. She left her husband to become the wife of Okonkwo. No doubt, this boosted Oknokwo's ego. He won Ekwefi's heart when he wrestled Amalinze the Cat and won the...

We can look at the role of family relationships in Achebe's Things Fall Apart in a couple of different ways. For one, there is the respect and homage paid to ancestors and to tradition. On another...

Achebe foreshadows Ikemefuna's fate in the first two chapters of the novel through specific language. At the end of chapter 1, Ikemefuna is immediately introduced as a "doomed lad who was...

In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the District Commissioner is the reigning symbol of Western imperialism, an ignorant, condescending administrator who is brought to the area to mete out...

It is certainly true that palm oil is a highly-valued staple among the Igbo. It is used as lamp oil and for religious sacrifices, as well as for cooking. Food is both cooked in palm-oil and served...

I agree with other editors in suggesting that Okonkwo's death is symbolic both externally and internally, if I can use these distinctions. Firstly, it represents the death of his own high standards...

To answer this question you neeed to consider how Okonkwo is presented and his actions in the novel. It is clear from the way that he easily loses his temper that he is an easily irritated man who...

Uzowulu is a man of Umuofia who claims that his brothers-in-law beat him and took away his wife and children and that they refuse to return his wife's bride price. His wife's brothers argue that...

Okonkwo is a good father in that he is an extremely hard-working man that is able to financially provide for his family. He is a respected member of the community, and he embraces his leadership...

The proverb a man who pays respect to the great paves the way for his own greatness has a twofold meaning in Things Fall Apart. The first meaning is the literal one, where we witness Okonkwo...

Okonkwo's strength is his fatal flaw, upholding life as it has been with no room for change or compromise. To quote a poster I once saw, "if you always do what always did, you will always get...

When Obierika first mentions a white man to Okonkwo in chapter 15, Okonkwo asks if he means an albino, making it clear that Okonkwo is not familiar with white people. Obierika goes on to describe...

Mr. Brown and Mr. Smith are apparently similar in their backgrounds and beliefs, as well as their common English names, though their methods of spreading the faith are quite different. Mr. Brown is...

Probably Okonkwo’s most notable positive characteristic is diligence. He applies himself and follows through with almost everything that comes his way. This is seen in his application of his...

The whole village turns out to watch the wrestling matches, "Men, women, and children." Everyone stands in a huge circle around an open space near the "ancient silk-cotton tree which (is) sacred."...

At the end of the novel, Okonkwo kills two British messengers and realizes that Umuofia will not go to war. In the last chapter, the District Commissioner arrives at Okonkwo's compound to discover...

In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo has a tragic flaw. His tragic flaw is his fear of becoming like his father. Unoka, Oknokwo's father, is lazy and loves a life of leisure. Okonkwo deals with his fear...

In Things Fall Apart, part of Okonkwo’s rise to prominence is his ability to dominate others physically. His first claim to fame as a young man came from a win in a wrestling bout. The text says,...

The locusts arrive at the village in Chapter 7 of this text, and are greeted with unequivocal joy and enthusiasm. The narrator reveals that the locusts have not come for many years, so only the...