Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe

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Things Fall Apart is a post-colonial novel written by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe in 1958. The fictional novel of Things Fall Apart refers to the protagonist Okonkwo and how the Igbo culture collapsed. The novel paints a poignant portrait of a wellfunctioning African society that undergoes tremendous change (Hartman) Okonkwo is a respected and motivational leader within the Igbo community of Umuofia located in Eastern Nigeria. He earns fame, power, and respect when he defeats Amalinze the Cat in a wrestling contest. This particular Cat was the most feared man in the village he was undefeated in wrestling for seven years. Once Okonkwo defeated Amalinze, his entire mentality changed. Okonkwo is determine to gain the title for himself and become …show more content…
Okonkwo was a feared man who is known to take advantage of situations. During the annual Week of Peace just before harvest season, tradition in the village permits to speak a harsh word to another person this is called the week of peace. One day during this week, Okonkwo’s youngest wife, Ojiugo, goes to a friend’s house to braid her hair. she forgets to prepare Okonkwo’s meal and feed her children as well. Everyone knows a hungry man is an angry man. When Ojiugo returns, Okonkwo beats her severely. Even when he is reminded of the week of Peace, he doesn’t stop the beating to show his power over her. Because Okonkwo’s violation of peace can jeopardize the whole village’s crops, the priest of the earth goddess orders to make offerings at his shrine. He sacrifices a nanny goat, a hen, pay a fine of one length of cloth, and one hundred cowries. Okonkwo uses his superority over his wives frequently. After the week of Peace its the feast of new yams. During this week the village eat, clean, and cook Yams; they also have wrestling match during this week. Okonkwo calls his wives and children to help prepare, towards the end of the preparation Okonkwo notices all the leave are missing from his banana tree. He now thinks someone killed his tree purposely, his second wife Ekwefi admits to wrapping the remaining food in the leaves. Okonkwo beats her because of this he also try to shoot her but misses gladly. Okonkwo was skillful with guns, in fact not handling a gun properly got okonkwo and his family exiled for seven years. It was the funeral of one of the villages great warriors Ezeudu, he held three of the four village titles. During the funeral men play drums and fire their guns. Okonkwo “accidentally” shoots and kills Ezeudud 's sixteen years old son. Killing a clansman is a crime against the earth goddess resulting in exile for him and his family. We are told that the custom

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