Doc Yoder's Notes
Please note that these notes are in progress. Page numbers are keyed to the African Writers Series Expanded edition with Notes (1996). The lines of asterisks indicate sections of more or less continuous action. If you have any suggestions or corrections, please email Doc Yoder at rpyoder@ualr.edu.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (1958)
Part I
Ch. 1:
Ch. 2:
- Okonkwo & his father, Unoka (the failure);
- intro / foreshadow the fate of Ikemefuna
Ch. 3:
- How Ikemefuna came to Umuofia;
- intro Okonkwo's household & Nwoye, his son by his first wife
Ch. 4:
- Okonkwo's start in life:
- his father's failure;
- Nwakibie as Okonkwo's benefactor;
- Okonkwo's horrible first year as a share-cropper;
- Unoka's advice on failure: "A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone" (18).
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- Okonkwo's pride & arrogance;
- increasing feeling between Ikemefuna & Okonkwo's family;
- Okonkwo breaks the peace in the Week of Peace by beating his youngest wife, Ojiugo, for not having dinner ready on time
Ch. 5:
Ch. 6:
- Feast of the New Yam;
- Okonkwo's temper -- he doesn't like holidays because he has to be idle; finally he finds on outlet for his frustration, and beats and shoots at his second wife, Ekwefi, for "killing" a banana tree, when in fact she had only taken a few leaves; prep for the wrestling match;
- insight into Ekwefi and Ezinma (second wife and her daughter)
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- The wrestling match;
- intro Obierika (friend of Okonkwo) and Chielo (friend of Ekwefi, and priestess of Agbala)
Ch. 7:
Ch. 8:
- Ikemefuna's influence on Nwoye;
- Locusts; death of Ikemefuna: Okonkwo's participation, impact on Nwoye, compared to killing of twins
Ch. 9:
- Okonkwo's binge after Ikemefuna's death
- Okonkwo and Obierika discuss children and disagree about OK's participation in Ikemefuna's death
- News of the death of Ndulue and his wife
- Okonkwo's insistence on the law of the land
- Bride price negotiations for Obierika's daugher w/ more discussion of customs
- First mention of a white man -- who may simply be a leper (51-52)
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- Ezinma's illness
- History of Ekwefi's dead children and the ogbanje
- Retrieving Ezinma's iyi-uwa
- Okonkwo's herbal steam treatment for Ezinma's iba fever
Ch. 10:
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- Ibo forensics: the egwugwu resolve the case of the abusive husband (Uzowulu) and his wife (Mgbafo)
Ch. 11:
Ch. 12:
- Agbala calls for Ezinma
- Evening life in the village
- Women's folk tales -- interrupted by Chielo calling for Ezinma
- Ekwefi follows on a long night journey to the farthest village and back to the shrine
- Ezinma is returned unharmed
- What is the point here? Power of priestess? Relationship of Okonkwo and Ekwefi?
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- Village involvement in the un of Akueke (a sort of bridal shower for Obierika's daughter)
- Interrupted by escaped cow
- Feasting and girls dancing
Ch. 13:
Part II
- Death of Ezeudu and funeral
- Okonkwo is banished after accidently killing Ezeudu's 16-yr-old Oberika questions tradition but abides anyway
Ch. 14:
Ch. 15:
- Okonkwo in his mother's village; his uncle Uchendu
- Okonkwo is incorporated into the life of the village -- Amikwu's (Uchendu's youngest son) wedding ceremony
- Uchendu lectures Okonkwo and others on the philosophic view of life
Ch. 16:
- Okonkwo's second year of exile
- Obierika comes to visit, brings money from Okonkwo's yams and news of the destruction of the Abame clan by the whites
- Obierika is handling Okonkwo's business in Umuofia while he is away
Ch. 17:
- 2 more years pass; Obierika visits again with news that Nwoye has joined the Christian mission in Umuofia
- Okonkwo won't discuss it, but Obierika pieces together the story from Nwoye's mother:
- Christians initially met with ridicule, but there was an attraction for Nwoye: "It was not the mad logic of the trinity that captivated him. He did not understand it. It was the poetry of the new religion, something felt in the marrow. The hymn about t he brothers who sat in darkness and in fear seemed to answer a vague and persistent question that haunted his young soul -- the question of the twins crying in the bush and the question of Ikemefuna who was killed. He felt a relief within as the hymn poured into his parched soul" (104).
Ch. 18:
- Missionaries build a church in the "Evil Forest" of Mbanta Nwoye decides to go to the mission school in Umuofia
- Okonkwo's pride and intolerance -- he compares Nwoye to Unoka
Ch. 19:
- Mounting tensions about the Christians
- They bring government as well as religion
- They rescue twins, accept outcasts; one kills a sacred serpent
Okonkwo's impatience with Mbanta's tolerance of the Christians and inaction about getting rid of them
Part III
- Okonkwo's last year in Mbanta; he throws a huge feast Emphasis on kinship and relationships
- Anxiety about loss of tradition among the young, especially in the face of the new religion
Ch. 20:
Ch. 21:
- Okonkwo returns to Umuofia with big plans, but much has changed Native converts complicate the issue because the clan still treats them as members, but their allegiance has changed
- Europeans have also brought new government & laws
Ch. 22:
- Mr. Brown's church in Umuofia: his conversations with Akunna; religion and education are bound together
- Okonkwo barely recognizes his home
Ch. 23:
- Increasing conflict: Mr. Brown is replaced by Rev. Smith
- Enoch unmasks an egwugwu; in response the others burn down the church of Umuofia
Ch. 24:
- 6 leaders of Umuofia are taken captive; a stiff fine is imposed, w/ corruption of the messengers
- Village life is stifled
Ch. 25:
- the leaders are released after the fine is paid, but things are not the same The villagers meet to discuss what to do; Okonkwo wants to fight The villagers are deciding to fight when the meeting is broken up by the Europeans; in the face-off of the fatal moment, Okonkwo kills the "head messenger"; the villagers broke into "tumult instead of action"
- When the Europeans arrive to arrest Okonkwo, Obierika asks them for help. Okonkwo has hanged himself, and it is taboo for the villagers to touch the Body
- The District Commissioner thinks that Okonkwo's life might make a good paragraph in his book, The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger
- Obierika sums up the effect of the European influence: "That man was one of the greatest me of Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog. . ." (147).
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