Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Study Questions
1. What is the role of the esoteric language of the ekwe, or the drum?

2. What is the name of the clan, and what villages are part of the clan?

3. What is the name of Okonkwo’s village?

4. How do the men express their anguish at Ezeudu’s death?

5. What does the one-handed spirit mean when he asks Ezeudu to come again the way he came before?

6. How does Okonkwo accidentally kill Ezeudu’s son during the farewell dance?

7. Why do Okonkwo and his family leave their homestead?

8. Where do Okonkwo and his family go?

9. Why does Obierika begin to wonder about the justice of the Earth goddess?

10. What do the elders mean when they say “If one finger brought oil it soiled the others”? (p. 88)

Answers
1. The esoteric language of the ekwe, or the drum, carries the news of Ezeudu’s death to all nine villages of Umuofia and beyond.

2. The name of the clan is Umuofia. The clan includes all the members of the nine villages of Umuofia.

3. Okonkwo’s village is Iguedo.

4. The men dash around in a frenzy, cutting down trees and animals, jumping over walls, and dancing on the roof.

5. Ezeudu is lacking nothing. He is rich, brave, and he lived a long life. The one-handed spirit asks Ezeudu to come back to Earth this way again.

6. Okonkwo accidentally kills Ezeudu’s son when his gun goes off by mistake as the men are clashing their machetes.

7. Okonkwo and his family are banished from the village for seven years because Okonkwo accidentally kills a clansman.

8. Okonkwo and his family flee to Okonkwo’s mother’s village.

9. Obierika wonders about the justice of the Earth goddess because Okonkwo is banished for seven years for a crime he committed by mistake. Obierika also wonders about the justice of abandoning twins in the forest.

10. The elders mean if one person in the clan commits a crime, they bring the wrath of the Earth goddess upon all the members of the clan.