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1. To admit defeat and commit suicide is weakness. 2. It is okay to escape from life when you’re in trouble. 3. It’s wrong to use Christianity to colonize a region. 4. It is okay for someone to leave their family to convert to another religion. 5. Bravery leads to greatness. 6. When insulted, it is okay to retaliate strongly. 7. A good child does everything their parent’s ask and more. 8. Toughness can always be proven through physical actions. 9. People need to leave their families in order to save themselves. 10. Imperialism almost always leads to destruction.

Things Fall Apart

**__ Characters: __** __Amalinze:__ Great Wrestler, undefeated for 7 years

__ Okonkwo: __ Well known for achievements, 18 years old. He beat Amalinze and threw him in wrestling. He is also impatient, swift, and violent/beast. Emissary of war. Knows how to kill a man’s spirit. //Similar to Lady Macbeth.//

__Unoka__: Okonkwo’s father. An alcoholic and in great debt and owes his neighbors large sums of money. He is very good playing the flute. He was honored to be able to break the Kola.

__Okoye__: successful musician. Has a large barn full of yams, three wives, etc. He is going to take the Lamilli title, the 3rd highest title in the land.

__Ikemetuna__: the doomed lad for which the village of Umotia is sacrificing to avoid war and bloodshed. He at first was terribly afraid of his new life, but after he once was sick, this fear subsided. He is very intelligent and gained the respect of many and his father. Later, Okonkwo began to even show affection to him and started treating him with a heavy hand like the rest of his family.

__Agbala__- name for a woman or a man without a title. Also

__Obuefi Udo__- husband of Ezuedo

__Obuefi Ezuedo__- wife that had been killed in the marketplace.

__Ani__- owner of all land, earth goddess, and source of all fertility. Ultimate judge of conduct and morality.

__Evil Forest__- people go there to die

__Nwakibie__- “beast,” huge barns (3), nine wives, thirty kids

__Obi__- living room

__Obiako__- palm wine tapper suddenly gives up trade and believed that Oracle said he’d fall off a tree and die.

__Yams__- a man’s crop

__Palm Kernel__-

__Nwoye__- Oldest son of Okonkwo.

__Ezeani__- the priest of the earth goddess

__Ojiugo__- went to get her hair braided, and she was beaten for not making dinner.

__Week of peace__- time period a week before the start of growing crops. Its purpose is to attain the God’s blessings for the crops. If a man dies during the week of peace they are casted into the evil forest and their spirits come back to haunt the whole tribe and it will end up being cursed. These evil spirits are mad because of a lack of burial and can even come back and harm the living.

__Cowries__- shells that are used as currency.

__Nso-Ani__- religious offense of a kind scorned upon by everyone. (Earth’s taboo)

__Obodoani__- nearby village to Umuofia.

__Amadiora__- one of Gods, may have a special relation when dealing with the weather.

__Rain Maker__- individual who uses the God’s to try to start and stop the rain.

__New Yam Festival__- annual event in which people celebrate the harvest and new crops. People should dispose of the old yams of the previous year. Similar to our new year.

__Ekwefi__- second wife of Okonkwo who was nearly shot. She ran away from her own husband to live with Okonkwo when he became wealthy and able to pay her bride price many years later. Had ten kids but nine of those died.

__Ezinma__- the only daughter of Ekwefi. Ten years.

__Ezigba__- means good woman

__Ilo__- the village playground __Obiagali__- Nwoye’s sister.

__Nkeche__- Okonkwo’s third wife’s daughter.

__Big Ancient Silk Cotton Tree:__ sacred tree behind the playground, very sacred.

__Maduka__- the son of Obierika

__Obierika__- a wrestler and the father of Maduka.

__Chielo__- the mother with whom Ekwefi talked during the wrestling matches, the priestess of Agbala, the oracle of the hills and caves. She is also the mother of Ezinma.

__The Ozo dance__- means that somebody has taken the title of his clan.

__Chukwu__- God’s house

__Snuff Bottle__- like dip unless you snort it.

__Jigida__- string of waist beads

__Uli__- dies used by woman for drawing patterns on the skin

__Ukegbu__- the father of Ibe

__Ibe__- the good tapper and (possibly the guy she marries)

__Akueke__- she is the girl the men examine and the half sister of Maduka/also Obierika’s daughter.

__Amadi__- white guy who has leprosy

__The White Skin__- the polite name for one with leprosy

__Machi__- some guy heard in the obi

__Eggs__- considered delicacies

__Iyi-Vwa__- special stone that connects Ogbawye to the spirit world, and the stone has to be found and destroyed to the child will live.

__Nwayieke__- woman who is notorious for cooking late and lives four compounds away.

__Uchendu__- Okonkwo’s uncle. He has a family of 22.

Njide- his eldest daugter of Uchendu.

Nneka, means mother is supreme.

Nneka(character)- first woman convert to the join the new church. She also has a child that is soon due.

Osu- outcasts

Okoli- the man who killed the sacred python.

__Ogbuefi Ugonna__- higher status man who becomes a Christian.

__Rev. James Smith__**-** Mr. Brown’s successor who has messed up Theology. He is obsessed with rules, rituals, and numbers.

__Enoch__**-** son of the snake priest who allowed himself to be controlled under the Reverend’s rules to make it to the top. He was suspected to eat the holy python.

Additionally, to break the Kola is high honor, very religious, and symbolistic. Proverbs is mentioned in the book as well. The village of Umotia is sacrificing a young man’s life, Ikemetuna, to avoid war and bloodshed.
 * __Chapter One__**: Introduction to book and description of main characters and events.


 * __Chapter Two__**: Discusses the town crier’s part in the village on nights without a moon and goes on to describe the fear of darkness held by the people of the village


 * __Chapter Three:__** Discussion is held into why the crops are continually failing. Okonkwo goes to Nwakibie and brings kola. He asked Nwak for a favor. He calls on the wives and ana is the first one. She goes down on one knee to drink it/the palm wine. Okonkwo ask for yams and Nwak accepts. Eight hundred seeds support mother and two sisters and pops. Okonkwo’s yams died, too much sun, then too much rain. One man also hung himself because of this failing of crops.


 * __Chapter Four__**: Discusses the new life of Ikemetuna and how he begins to overcome his fear and loneliness. He is very intelligent and became friends with many of his neighbors. Wife Ojiugo was beaten for not making dinner. This happened during the week of peace, when Okonkwo beat her he was punished for breaking the week’s rules. Okonkwo committed a great evil, he insulted the earth goddess. Had to bring to the shrine of Ani, one she-goat, one hen, a length of cloth, and a hundred cowries as a punishment and to bring back blessings back from the Gods. The villagers complain about the minimal amount of punishment for breaking the rules of the Week of Peace. Okonkwo complains about the efforts and the way the two kids, Nwoye and Ikemefuna, are cutting up the yams. He tries to make them be perfect in the way they prepare crops to make them successful, but he is insulting them without knowing it . Old school way of farming, where everybody helps out with the preparations and the eventual sowing of the crops and then the harvest. Discusses the rain maker. Ikemefuna and Nwoye are beginning to get incredibly close as step-siblings. The relationship is getting close to brotherhood and possibly to a father/son relationship for Ikemefuna to Nwoye.

Chapter 4 Questions: In trying to avoid a life like his father’s, is Okonkwo becoming exactly what he doesn’t want to be?


 * __Chapter Five:__** Discussing the New Yam Festival and Okonkwo’s attitude towards the festival and eating. Okonkwo beats his second wife for cutting leaves off of a tree when he thought it was dead. Shows the cruelty of Okonkwo very well. This event occurred during the yam festival, not the week of peace. In his anger he shot at his wife . He is a bad hunter and was angered to. Obiagali drops and breaks her pot and makes up a sob story and starts crying when she nears her hut.


 * __Chapter Six:__** the center of the chapter is around the events on day two of the yam festival, which include the cooking of the wives and primarily the wrestling match. The match starts with the younger kids and then progresses to the older individuals and headliner matches. Drums accompany the event and it was Okofu who throws his opponent and is deemed heroic in the village. Predictions include the possibility that Okonkwo will wrestle again versus Okofu to once again try to prove himself.


 * __Chapter Seven__**: Nwoye appears to be growing up and especially into more of a man. He prefers to sit in his father’s Obi and do masculine/ grueling tasks. This growth is due to Ikemefuna’s presence in the household. Childish story of the vulture, sky, and earth is told. Okonkwo and the boys worked on the hut. The locusts descend upon Umuofia and the people gather them the next day and the locusts are very good to eat. The village of Umuofia has decided to kill Ikemefuna. It is recorded earlier that the oracle predicted his death, the oracle of the hills and caves. Predictions- Okonkwo is going to sacrifice his reputation and possibly his life for Ikemefuna. Ikemefuna might not die. The Ozo dance means that somebody has taken the title of his clan. Ikemefuna gets hit at first by a machete from two men, but then Okonkwo finishes him off. Cultures will throw the baby’s into the forest in pots. //Predictions after finishing chapter seven: The chapter does not leave the reader hanging, but settles many occurrences instead. 1. Okonkwo was wrong in killing Ikemefuna. 2. Okonkwo’s life will be changed by this event. 3. Nwoye will not forgive his father for what he did to his friend/brother.//


 * __Chapter Eight__**: Okonkwo doesn’t taste any food for two days after Ike’s death. He is feeling the pain of his death. He talks to himself and calls himself a woman because of the death. Additionally, the death of Ike has made him go crazy. He keeps wishing that his daughter Ezinma was a boy. He says that she has the work ethic and effort to be a boy that Nwoye will never be and he constantly says this. Okonkwo claims that the Oracle told him that the boy should be sacrificed, but that he shouldn’t kill one of his own bloods. In an attempt to be tough and prove that toughness, Okonkwo will virtually do anything. People are starting to die. Ogbuefi Ndulue has died, along with his wife, they are incredibly close and he is drummer and main drum person in the village. People of higher status can’t climb the tall trees because it is deemed unsafe. Obierika’s daughter is soon to get married. She is dressed up and walks into the Obi, the men check her out to make sure she is beautiful and ripe.


 * __Chapter Nine__**: Ekwefi is really disrespectful to Okonkwo and bangs on door. Iba has a fever and Ezinma is dying. As a health related ritual for one being sick, Okonkwo gathers leaves, birbers, and grasses for Iba to try and save her. Third child of Ekwefi is Onwumbiko, and she went to another village to save the child, but it died. Because he has to, the medicine man cuts child and drags him through the evil forest to drive out the spirits and prevent the bad spirits. Ezima goes to break the stone and Okonkwo starts to beat her because she didn’t listen to him and she claims it is by the orange tree. The medicine man digs for the stone and they find it and break it.


 * __Chapter Ten__**: There is a ceremony because of a man beating his wife and bride price discussion and refusal to pay it. and Uzuedu is a bad person and he beats his wife, Odukwe. The groups take the wife back and they have a hearing and Uduku has to pay the bride price and he has to bring wine to the in-laws to pay them back.


 * __Chapter Eleven__**: (During the summertime) Discuss Nwayieke’s late cooking to start. The story of the tortoise and the birds of the sky are told. See Connection section. Chielo wanted to take Ezinma away to the oracle of the hills and caves. Ekwefi is going to follow Chielo because Chielo took here daughter away. Ekwefi is chasing Chielo and her daughter and preventing them from getting them from getting to the Oracle of the caves. But she realizes that the priestess is not taking her daughter, Ezinma, to the oracle, but rather to the village of Umuachi, the farthest village in the clan. Soon the Priestess turns around and begins to go back and to the caves chanting as she goes. Ekwefi continues to follow her. She waits outside the cave and soon hears someone behind her. She sees Okonkwo with a machete that has come to help her protect her daughter if something goes wrong. Surprised by the fact that Okonkwo has come to help rather than hurt her.


 * __Chapter Twelve-__** Umeirika’s daughter is getting married and a ceremony is getting set up for her.


 * __Chapter Thirteen__**- Ezeudu is dead and there is a ceremony for him. His son then died because of Okonkwo’s accidental shooting him and then Okonkwo and his family had to move away.


 * __Chapter Fourteen__**- Uchendu is Okonkwo’s uncle. People at hail during the rainy farming season. Anika, Unchendu’s son, is marrying a new wife. Unchedu’s oldest daughter is from Obodo. There are 22 people in his family. The story of the word Nneka/Mother is supreme, is told. How people will leave their mother’s and appear tough, but the comfort always lies with their mothers.


 * __Chapter Fifteen__**- Obierika comes to visit Okonkwo in the new village. They have dinner, drink palm wine, and tell stories. Obierika tells Okonkwo of the story of one village who killed a white man who said nothing, then their village was wiped out one day by the white man’s friends at the market later. He warns and tells the story also of the kite and getting food, and how it is better to kill or take from one when they speak or are talking, but warns against taking or killing one who doesn’t say a word, such as the white man in the story. Something on this accord might happen to Okonkwo or his old village.


 * __Chapter Sixteen__**- Two years later when the missionaries come to Umuofia they change it drastically. Sending evangelists everywhere and changing the total culture of the town. Nwoye is the only one that chooses to go with the missionaries. It is the story of the twins crying in the bush that related to Ikemefuna’s death that captivated him and made him want to join him. His father however, was incredibly mad and Obierika had to hear about it from the wives.


 * __Chapter Seventeen__**- the story of Nwoye’s leaving of his father and the Chi faith is continued . It also states that Nwoye will then go on to convert his mother and siblings of the faith.


 * __Chapter Eighteen__**- Description of the missionary impact continued. Governments formed so much so that a man was even hanged in Umuofia for killing a missionary. The discussion of the Osu is held in church and an argument is held. Talking about offending the Gods and killing the snake. The clan, led by Okonkwo, decides to Ostracize the Christians. The women are whipped and hurt for doing the work of the church. The death of Okoli showed the village that the God’s could fight their own battles. Therefore, the village didn’t have to outlaw the Christians.


 * __Chapter Nineteen__**- Okonkwo’s seven years of exile are winding down, and it is close to the time for him to return to Umuofia. Talks about the rainbow, called the python in the sky. Ezinma and her mother Ekwefi harvest and prepare the tubers. Okonkwo is calling a going away feast to show his gratitude to the village. Uchendu breaks the feast’s Kola nut and prays to the ancestors for health and kinsmen. Kinsmen define the wealth of an individual. The leader thanks Okonkwo for having the meal and thanks him for upholding the older traditions.


 * __Chapter Twenty__** – Okonkwo plans his return starting with the first year in exile. The clan he knew would flourish and be fine without him as he would ultimately lose his place in the society. He had been making the plans to build bigger barns, huts, and obis. He would put his sons through the Ozo, which is a honor and a tough act, only a man of high status would be able to do. He threatens his sons that if they do anything against him, such as Nwoye did, do it while he’s alive so he can curse them. He claims he will break their neck as a spirit if he does it while he’s dead. Father told her not to marry in Mbanta because he wanted her to marry in Umuofia. So she refused every marriage offer she received. Okonkwo wanted her husband to be a strong man, with authority. In Umuofia, one of the higher status men, Ogbuefi Ugonna, had converted to the Christian faith. The Christian leaders made prisons run by arrogant court messengers, also hated in Umuofia, called Kotma. They treated the prisoners like slaves and beat them when the prisoners called them, Ashy buttocks. **Imperialism led by Christianity begins to dominate the region.**


 * __Chapter Twenty-One__**- People in Umuofia are beginning to warm up to the white man’s ways and Mr. Brown, who is the leader missionary and highly respected. This is seen when he was presented with an Elephant tusk, showing great dignity and rank. He starts by only building a church and hospital, then he gets people to come learn and practice the faith. They only send their slaves and lower class people first, but then everybody warms up to him and starts to go. People become teachers which results in more schools and churches being built. Mr. Brown sends Nwoye to a training college for teachers. Okonkwo also doesn’t care about Nwoye and he senses that the clan had gone soft.


 * __Chapter Twenty-Two__**- Mr. Brown is successed by the Reverend James Smith. The reverend has a messed up sense of Theology. During the annual ceremony committed to mother earth, Enoch commits the greatest crime by unmasking an Egwugwu. This sends the village into turmoil and forces all the masked Egwugwu to have a meeting in the marketplace the next day when they would go Enoch’s compounds to punish him. Mr. Smith prays to the Lord for protection and decides to hide Enoch in the parsonage. The masked Egwugwu burn down Enoch’s compound and go to the church. The leader of the clan, Ajofia, tells them that they do not want to harm Enoch or Mr. Smith, but they do end up burning the church.


 * __Chapter Twenty-Three__**- The district commissioner calls a meeting at the courthouse with six of the leaders of Umuofia. He ends up handcuffing the six and warning them to prevent it from happening again. He also tell them to pay a fine of 200 cowries to make amends. The court messengers shaved the leader’s heads and are terribly cruel to them and often beat them. The village people eventually give in to the requests of now 250 bags of cowries and concede.

Ch. 6- Their New Yam Festival is similar to our New Year’s and celebration. Drums signal the year’s wrestling match.
 * //__ Connection Section: __//**

Ch. 7- The babies going down the hill into the forest in the pots are similar to abortions, and the author is criticizing this method for getting rid of the babies.

Ch. 8- Okonkwo drinks palm wine from morning till night like an alcoholic or person suffering from a death will commonly drink to relieve the pain. Snuff bottle similar to dip, except you snort it. The earth is made angry by Okonkwo’s actions, and he tries to justify them by saying the Oracle/messenger, told him to kill Ike. It is possible that the messenger and the earth expected common sense from Okonkwo. The main goal of the meeting in Obierika’s obi is to set the bride price for Akueke, which was set at 20 cowries.

Ch. 9- Ekwefi’s children’s names are very significant and all relate to death in one way or another. The First child, //Onwumniko// means death, I implore you. //Osomena// means, may it not happen again. //Onwuma// means death may please himself. //Okwonko goes to medicine man and dinner with the Alfa oracle.// 2nd man is Okagbue Uyanwa.

Ch. 18- By putting their fingers in their ears and acting like the man never hurt/killed the Python, it is like acting like nothing happens in society today and hoping it will go away if you just close your eyes.

Ch. 20- Imperialism led by Christianity begins to dominate the region.

Ch. 22- Mr. Brown’s faith can be compared to both the Catholic and Baptist church’s because: 1. Rule Orientated. 2. Broken rules/rituals=unworthiness, wrong faith, and damnation.
 * No child or wife in my family can do anything outside the home without a parents approval. **