Lecture on Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Introduction

• Main Character: Okonkwo
  • Gained fame by winning a wrestling match
  • Became wealthy
  • Married three wives
  • Fathered ten children
• Setting: Umuofia, one of nine villages in his clan
• Contrast: Okonkwo's successes vs. his father's failures
  • Father: gentle musician, in debt
  • Okonkwo: driven to be fierce and hyper-masculine

Rising Action

• Guardian of Ikemefuna
  • Ikemefuna: a boy from a neighboring clan
  • Okonkwo becomes his guardian
  • Ikemefuna views Okonkwo as a father
  • Nwoye (Okonkwo's son) grows fond of Ikemefuna
• Oracle's Order: Ikemefuna to be killed
  • Village elder Ezeudu warns Okonkwo not to partake
  • Okonkwo participates to avoid losing respect
  • Nwoye is devastated

Key Events

• Illness of Ezinma
  • Daughter of Okonkwo's second wife, Ekwefi
  • Becomes extremely ill
  • Ekwefi is terrified
• Death of Ezeudu
  • During the funeral, Okonkwo's gun accidentally kills Ezeudu's son
  • Punishment: seven years of exile
• Exile in Mbanta
  • Okonkwo and family settle with his mother's clan
  • Friend Obierika describes the destruction caused by white men

Arrival of Missionaries

• Oracle's Prophecy: White men will destroy them like locusts
• Missionaries' Impact: Build a church, villagers attend services
  • Nwoye joins missionaries, leaves Okonkwo

Return to Umuofia

• Changes: Missionaries well-established
  • Okonkwo wants to fight them
  • Obierika warns it's too late
  • British officials set up a government and judicial process
• Enoch's Crime: Unmasks an egwugwu (clan leader)
• Climax: Villagers destroy Enoch's compound and the church

Falling Action

• Jailing of Leaders: District commissioner jails six leaders, including Okonkwo
  • They are humiliated and tortured
• Okonkwo's Vow: Vows vengeance
  • Kills a court messenger

Resolution

• Okonkwo's Fate: Hangs himself
• District Commissioner's Reflection: Considers including Okonkwo's story in his book The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger