Reading Questions
Part Three Chapters 2025 Chapter 20
1. Why, according to Obierika, did the village not resist the white man’s initial encroachment?
Why won’t he agree to fight now that Okonkwo has returned?
2. Okonkwo and Obierika seem to disagree a great deal throughout the novel. What does each person represent? Chapter 21
1. What turns out to be the real underlying reason for the white man’s success in Umuofia?
● The biggest reason the "white man" is successful is that he's brought a trade center to the community, and the people of Umuofia begin to profit from selling local products.
2. Explain Mr. Brown’s methods of conversion and why he is successful?
● Mr. Brown is a wise and patient man; he befriends many of the local great men, and earns their affection. He spends a good deal of time with Akunna; they speak through an interpreter on the subject of religion.
3. How does Umuofia respond to Okonkwo’s return? Why?
● The white man brings his destructive religion and the yoke of his laws, but he also brings a trade center. The people of Umuofia begin to profit from selling local products, and so not all of the people of Umuofia oppose the whites as much as Okonkwo.
4. What does Mr.Brown’s visit to Okonkwo emphasize about relations between the Ibo and the
Europeans.
● Soon after Okonkwo's return, Mr. Brown pays him a visit. He has sent Nwoye, now called
Isaac, to the teacher's college at Umaru; Mr. Brown hopes Okonkwo will be pleased by the news. Okonkwo chases Mr. Brown away from his house, threatening the man with violence.
Mr Brown's visit not only emphasizes his place in the community, but also the way he has been accepted amongst the people of the clan. Chapter 22
1. How does Mr. Smith’s arrival suggest trouble for the clan?
● Mr. Brown's replacement is the Reverend James Smith, and he is not the tolerant and wise man that Mr. Brown was. Mr. Smith is fanatic and uncompromising, seeing the world entirely in terms of black and white.
2. How does Enoch create the conflict between the church and the clan?
● The festival of the earth goddess comes, when the egwugwu roam around the villages. It falls on a Sunday, and so the main passages are blocked by the ceremonies, especially for women, who have to maintain their distance from the masked spirits.
3. How are Enoch and Okonkwo similar?
● Enoch and Okonkwo are two very similar characters with very different belief systems. Their temperaments are comparable, they both rebel against their fathers, and they both believe themselves to be above their contemporaries.
Chapter 23
1. How does the District Commissioner break faith with the leaders of Umuofia?
2. What punishment does the District Commissioner impose of the men? What is the men’s reaction? Chapter 24
1. What kind of opportunity would a war offer to Okonkwo?
2. How does Okonkwo’s statement about not caring what the group does predict his fall as a tragic hero? Chapter 25
1. Why has Okonkwo committed suicide?
2. Given his role as the tragic hero in the novel, is it inevitable that Okonkwo commit suicide?
● Yes, Okonkwo's humiliation when he loses his place in the community, and his ultimate decision to take his own life rather than surrender it to the "weak" white man dictate his suicide. 3. On what kind of note doe the novel end?
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
Gary Nash author of Red, White, and Black purpose to their readers is describing the early colonists, but also the relationships toward Europeans, the Indians, and the Africans. Nash successfully analyzes the impact of the colliding three cultures and interprets them to give an overall theme about the relationships between those who made America what it is today. He has shown another point of view to his reader that we grew up and was raise in a white people land; learning only the White people point of view through history. His purpose of writing Red, White & Black was to prove that Native Americans and Africans were not victims, but played as a active role to American history.…
- 421 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The novel begins by introducing a young Okonkwo and his triumph over “Amalinze the Cat” in a fight, immediately identifying his strength and respect in the Ibo community. The narrator then delves into the topic of Okonkwo’s lazy and cowardly father, Unoka, whom Okonkwo wants to be the complete opposite of. Okonkwo’s fame, respect among the community, and hard work granted him a successful farm, three wives, and multiple children. Though with this greatness came the responsibility of looking after Ikemefuna, the boy who was a sacrifice to maintain peace between Umuofia and Mbaino. For three years, Ikemefuna made himself a part of Okonkwo’s family. Okonkwo had taken a special liking to Ikemefuna, he began to see him as a son more so than his own blood son. It is true that, “Ruled…
- 405 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The book Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois and the Struggle for Racial Uplift was affectively written by Jacqueline M. Moore and published in 2003. This book review will look at the following themes, Washington being a gradualist while Du Bois wanting confrontational immediacy, and the idiom, “if you can’t beat them join them.” What is also great about the book is that it starts with telling us about both philanthropist’s childhood to effectively reveal where each got their philosophies and unique characteristics and traits.…
- 968 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Whenever Ezeudu, a regarded senior in Umuofia, educated Okonkwo that the town Oracle required the slaughtering of Okonkwo's received child Ikemefuna, he requested that Okonkwo not partake. Be that as it may, Okonkwo went with them, as well as he struck the murdering blow as Ikemefuna gotten out for his insurance. At the point when Okonkwo is later addressed by his companion, Obierika, about not taking an interest, Okonkwo wound up noticeably guarded saying, " You sound as if you question the authority and decision of the Oracle, who said he should…
- 1573 Words
- 7 Pages
Better Essays -
If they had not competed with each other to colonize the world, the world would not be in the shambles of systematic oppression. If the white man did not set off to Asia for spices, china, perfume and the silk of Asia, if the white man did not seek to minister their religion onto others, if the white man did not seek free labor from Africa, if the white man did not rape the indigenous people of Southern America the world would not be run by the white man. The effect of the white man’s venture into another people’s home still lingers today. I hear it when my family yells at me for not being tall, skinny, or fair skinned. I see it in the school to prison pipeline of brown people. I smell it in the mixture of aromas from my motherland in the bustling city of Worcester, Massachusetts. I feel it with each step of concrete I take in the city. I taste it when I take a bite into immigrant mother’s attempt at…
- 492 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
-After Nwoye is lured into the Christian religion and abandons his culture and family, Okonkwo is ashamed and states, "you have all see the great abomination of your brother. Now he is no longer my son or your brother. I will only have a son who is a man, who will hold his head up among my people" (172). Nwoye's father disowns him only because he chooses a path untraditional to his culture. The serious, frustrated, and unhappy mood that is created in Okonkwo's statement gives the reader an idea of how much the Ibo culture values tradition, choice, and family.…
- 1595 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
4. What do the early descriptions of Okonkwo’s success and Unoka’s failure tell us about Igbo society? How does one succeed in this cultural context? In the system of the taking of titles who seems to be excluded from opportunities to gain such success?…
- 1433 Words
- 6 Pages
Powerful Essays -
This relates to Things Fall Apart, in Chapter 2 because you can see that Okonkwo pressures his son, Nwoye, to be just like him. Okonkwo then finds Nwoye, to be very lazy and starts to beat him to “man him up” and make him tough like a man should be. Nwoye then becomes more attached to Ikemefuna, who shows care and comfort and becomes very distant and shows no interest in his father Okonkwo anymore.…
- 397 Words
- 12 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Although America’s ideals have radically changed over the decades, white privilege still runs rampant. As a general rule, in society, whites are still regarded as the most powerful and most successful. When the average U.S. citizen thinks of the “typical American man”, the image of a white, forty-something, financially well-off business executive may come to their mind; in other words, a man of high rank and superiority. It isn’t that they don’t believe in another race’s success, it’s the fact that most times, when another race gains power, whites find ways to patronize that power or shut it down. In the past, whites have been huge culprits behind discrimination and oppression, and that power alone keeps the success cycle going. Through every generation, equality has rapidly grown, but the fact that it wasn’t established as a basic human right in the first place shows the complete egotistical arrogance whites have shown and still, to a certain extent, show today. I believe that no man or woman should ever feel powerless or repressed under the control of another, no matter the race. Respect for another human being should never be a far away desire; rather, an unyielding expectation.…
- 736 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
“I have done my best to make Nwoye grow into a man, but there is too much of his mother in him." (48) Okonkwo does not like the fact that…
- 689 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Rather than being crushed by his father’s legacy, Okonkwo followed a single “passion - to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved” (Achebe 13). Thus, Okonkwo gained the desire and mindset to maintain the rendition of an ideal successful Igbo man. Even though “It was slow and painful…he threw himself into it like one possessed.” (Achebe 18). Through the motivation of…
- 831 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
“ We cannot leave the matter in his hands because he doesn’t not understand our customs, just as we do not understand his. We say he is foolish because he does not know our ways, and perhaps he says we are foolish because we do not know his. Let him go away” (*1). This quote shows the major theme of the book which is change vs tradition. The quote shows the theme perfectly; basically it shows the ignorance of most of the Umuofia clan and their fear of the white peoples culture taking over theirs. They are dealing with the question of whether change should be privileged over tradition. The people of Umuofia want a little change but at the same time they have fear of completely losing their way of life, the people are divided on the subject at hand at what the right and wrong thing to do is, and how much is to much change.…
- 2183 Words
- 9 Pages
Better Essays -
alleged exaltations. Chinua Achebe starts by telling of all Okonkwo’s achievements and of his manly…
- 555 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
The myth that "all men are equal" has created false hopes for the people of color, who continually seek opportunities to excel, that just aren't there. They have been led to believe that intelligence and ambitions are key contributors to one's success. Even if they do possess ambition and intelligence, the dominant majority of the white population oppresses them. This type of oppression points out that new methods of struggle are needed, such as whose employed by Martin Luther King, Jr., Franz Fanon and W.E.B. Du Bois.…
- 818 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
In Chinua Achebe's No Longer at ease Obi Okonkwo is a Nigerian man who gains a scholarship from the U.P.U to study in England. Upon his return to Africa he is confronted with the corruption that exist within the Nigerian government. In this essay I will look at the conflict that exist within Obi after he accepts his first bribe. Also there will be looked at how the guilt that Obi experiences because he is caught between two worlds, impacts said conflict within him. Furthermore I with look at how his relationship with Clara impacts and causes further trouble with the ultimatum his mother poses for him. Lastly I with look at how the West represent by his studies in England and his native home land of Nigeria collide and how it creates turmoil for him.…
- 1106 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays