Preview

Plot of Things Fall Apart

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
4049 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Plot of Things Fall Apart
Plot of Each Chapter of Things Fall Apart
Chapter One
The story takes place within the Igbo community of Umuofia in eastern Nigeria. In this chapter, the characters are introduced.
The main character, Okonkwo is a great man among the Igbo tribe and is well known throughout the nine villages and beyond. Okonkwo’s father, Unoka was a lazy and wasteful man who often borrowed money from neighbors and he was considered a failure and a laughing stock within the community. Since Okonkwo’s father wasn’t an ambitious and respected man, Okonkwo despised and resented anything his father did and liked. He did everything he could to not be like his father. Okonkwo as a young eighteen old, began to build his social status by defeating a wrestler who was undefeated for seven years. Okonkwo is the leader of his village, he is hardworking and he shows no weakness.
Chapter Two This chapter focuses on the differences between the two villages, Mbaino and Umuofia.
Okonkwo supports three wives and eight children, a barn full of yams, a shrine for his ancestors, a hut for himself, and a hut for each wife. When an Umofian citizen is murdered in Mbaino and Okonkwo goes as an emissary to demand reparations, Mbaino is faced with the choice of either sacrificing a virgin and a young man to Umofia in compensation, or going to war against Umofia. Since the magic of Umofia is powerful and greatly feared by its neighbours, they agree to the compensation.
Okonkwo goes and is treated with respect, and he returns with the young boy and the virgin girl. The girl was sent to the man whose wife was murdered as for the boy, the village was in no hurry to decide his fate. His name is Ikemefuna. And he went to live with Okonkwo and his family. The boy is homesick and does not understand why he has been taken from his family.

Chapter Three
This chapter is basically about Unoka’s life, how he lived and how Okonkwo struggles to survive and tries his best not to live like his father.
Unlike

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Okonkwo- An influential clan leader in Umuofia. Since early childhood, Okonkwo’s embarrassment about his lazy, squandering, and effeminate father, Unoka, has driven him to succeed. Okonkwo’s hard work and prowess in war have earned him a position of high status in his clan, and he attains wealth sufficient to support three wives and their children. Okonkwo’s tragic flaw is that he is terrified of looking weak like his father. As a result, he behaves rashly, bringing a great deal of trouble and sorrow upon himself and his family.…

    • 1227 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the characteristics that is common amongst tragic heroes is how valued and respected they are. In the village of Umoufia, Okonkwo is one of the most respected men who has gained his fame and respect from his own personal achievements. The narrator introduces this fact in the beginning of the book, stating: “Okonkwo…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shortly after this, locusts swarmed Umuofia. The people of the Ibo community were very excited by this because it was a source of food for them. Okonkwo has a talk with Ogbuefi Ezeudu, the oldest man in the Ibo community, in which Ezeudu warns Okonkwo of the repercussions of taking part in the killing of Ikemefuna. Though when the time comes, Okonkwo ignores the advice in order to maintain his masculine image. Three days after Ikemefuna’s death, Ezinma has been struck ill. Okonkwo gathers medicine for her and she is restored to normal. At the funeral of Ezeudu, Okonkwo’s gun explodes, accidentally killing Exeudu’s sixteen year old son. For this, Okonkwo is exiled to his “motherland” of Mbanta for seven years, in which he lives with his uncle, Uchendu. In Okonkwo’s absence, Obierika watches over his yams and sells them when they are finished growing, and brings the product of these yams to Okonkwo. While Okonkwo is in exile, many changes occur in Umuofia. White missionaries have come to Umuofia, setting up churches and converting…

    • 405 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the week of peace, “He walked back to his obi to await Ojiugo’s return. And when she returned he beat her very heavily. In his anger he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace. His first two wives ran out in great alarm pleading with him that it was the sacred week. But Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through, not even for fear of a goddess”(29-30). Okonkwo rampages during the week of peace and beats his wife painfully. He does not want to appear weak in front of the other men and so he beats his wives and acts impulsively. Due to his fear of being seen as weak, Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna "Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak." (61). The way he kills Ikemefuna shows that reputation is more important than a child’s life. Okonkwo's actions depict how anxiety has overtaken him. Rather than coping with his fear, he allows it to dominate him and drive his actions. Okonkwo's apprehension permits him to acquire respect from the Igbo society, simply because it persuades him to show improvement over any other…

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Okonkwo beats her savagely during the Week of Peace, and must pay a heavy fine to the earth goddess. Ekwefi Okonkwo's second wife. In her youth, she was one of the great beauties of Umuofia. She has had ten children, but only one has survived. She is a formidable and brave woman, devoted to her surviving daughter, Ezinma.…

    • 3934 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    "Okonkwo's machete descended twice and the man's head lay beside his uniformed body" (146). Okonkwo, the son of the effeminate and lazy Unoka, strives to make his way in a world that seems to value manliness. In so doing, he rejects everything for which he believes his father stood. Unoka was idle, poor, profligate, cowardly, gentle, and interested in music and conversation. Okonkwo consciously adopts opposite ideals and becomes productive, wealthy, thrifty, brave, violent, and adamantly opposed to music and anything else that he perceives to be "soft," such as conversation and emotion. He is gruff, at times, and usually unable to express his feelings, but his emotions and motivations are quite complex. Despite his overall image as a violent brute, Achebe shows Okonkwo as a tender, worried father and a hard worker, who had "cracked [his palm-kernels] himself" (19).…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    5. Describe the setting (time, place, culture) of the novel. Discuss Achebe’s presentation of the details of everyday village life in Umuofia, the values and beliefs of the Igbo people, and the importance of ritual, ceremony, social hierarchy, and personal achievement in Igbo culture. How is social life organized? What are the important celebrations? What is the role of war, of religion, and of the arts? What is the role of the individual in relation to the community of Umuofia? Compare /contrast Igbo ways of life, customs, perspectives, beliefs, and values to those of your own culture.…

    • 1433 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the essay Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, there are five meaningful quotes that revolve around Okonkwos status during his life. In the beginning of the novel Okonkwo became an important part of his village early in his life when he defeated Amaline the Cat in a wrestling match. His victory made him a celebrity among the nine villages of Umuofia because Amaline had been undefeated for seven years. At this point, Okonkwo began on the path to high social status among his village, which was his goal throughout his life.…

    • 1607 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    At the gathering, Ogbuefi Ezeugo, a noted orator, announces that someone from the village of Mbaino murdered the wife of an Umuofia tribesman while she was in their market. The crowd expresses anger and indignation, and Okonkwo travels to Mbaino to deliver the message that they must hand over to Umuofia a virgin and a young man. Should Mbaino refuse to do so, the two villages must go to war, and Umuofia has a fierce reputation for its skill in war and magic. Okonkwo is chosen to represent his clan because he is its fiercest warrior. Earlier in the chapter, as he remembers his past victories, we learn about the five human heads that he has taken in battle. On important occasions, he drinks palm-wine from the first head that he captured. Not surprisingly, Mbaino agrees to Umuofia's terms. The elders give the virgin to Ogbuefi Udo as his wife but are not sure what to do with the fifteen-year-old boy, Ikemefuna. The elders decide to turn him over to Okonkwo for safekeeping and instruction. Okonkwo, in turn, instructs his first wife to care for…

    • 2194 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Okonkwo Research Paper

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Okonkwo is a well-respected man and warrior of Umuofia who rose from poverty and descended to destitution. As a boy Okonkwo was able to work hard and gain status, at his height he was progressively disgraced by a series of his own actions and banished from the tribe for several years. After returning Okonkwo gained some traction in his village but was imprisoned and died disgracefully through suicide. The most harmful event in his personal tragedy is the accidental murder of a clansman which led to his exile.…

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Things Fall Apart

    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Chapters 17-19 chronicle the last years of Okonkwo’s exile and his eventual return home. Identify three key events and explain their importance. Use textual evidence. 1 ½ pg. Min.…

    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Things Fall Apart 6

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In another part of the story, Okonkwo is banished from his fatherland. This incident is the first where he is punished greatly for his actions. It marks a turning point in Okonkwo’s downfall, and therefore the downfall of the traditional culture that he stands for. His hopes and aspirations are almost forgotten while he is away from Umuofia, and he desperately tries to regain his status when he returns. During this period of time, Okonkwo also discovers that his son has converted to his enemy’s ways and beliefs. He abandons his son, and doesn’t want to be his father any longer. This shows that his relationships with family and…

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    He returns home, after the seven years, to find his tribe has adopted new beliefs, customs, culture and religion that have been brought over by the white European missionaries. From this moment on Okonkwo sees no more success in his life. He tries to rally his people to fight against these “invaders” but no one seems to want to follow him. In Okonkwo's mind it was better to take his own life than to allow the missionaries to change the way he lived it. He was so blinded to his own faults that it magnified the faults of others. This did not allow Okonkwo to see what was coming on his return and how he could have protected himself against the changed Umuofia tribe.…

    • 1381 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Okonkwo Flaws

    • 1533 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In doing this, he disrespects everything that his father, Unoka, believed in and stood for before he passed away. Unoka was cowardly, idle, gentle, lazy, always borrowing money and never repaying it back and a skilled flute player who was interested in music. In light of this, “Okonkwo consciously adopts opposite ideals and becomes productive, wealthy, thrifty, brave, violent, and adamantly opposed to music and anything else that he perceives to be ‘soft’, such as conversation and emotion” (SparkNotes ,web). Okonkwo becomes a well known person around the villages because of being a great warrior who was feared by many. He is one that possesses great strength and courage, especially as a warrior. He is described “as a young man of eighteen who had brought honour to his village by throwing the Amalinze the Cat,” who was a great warrior and was undefeated for seven years from Umofia to Mbaino. (Achebe 1.) Okonkwo has three wives and several children. He had the capacity to decide for others in the village and achieved a sense of authority in the village, even though it was only temporary. He was determined and resolute with regards his eminent willpower and was determined to not be like his lazy father. However, just as Okonkwo’s father was at odds with the values of his community, so too does Okonkwo find himself unable to adapt to the colonial transformation of his…

    • 1533 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Okonkwo Sympathy

    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Okonkwo has a deep love for his daughter Ezinma and his second wife Ekwefi. After Ekwefi had born nine children that had all died she finally had Ezinma who lived past what was expected. Ezinma is where Ekwefi had put all her love, Ekwefi would…

    • 507 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays