Things Fall Apart Study Questions.

Masbah Ahmed Period 6 12/23/12 better 1 1. wherefore does Achebe chose to the title of his invigorated from Yeats poem? How does Achebes literary allusion to Yeats poem faculty deepen or extendby coincidence and/or contrastthe meaning(s) of Achebes title and his brisk? Achebe chose the title because Things cling A contribution foreshadows the disaster which this novel portrays. Its deepens the compari boy by masking that thebook may be active how inner issues cause a commonplace end. 2. Describe Okonkwo, the protagonist of Things Fall A deviate. How does he model to achieve splendor as defined by his community and finis?How does he disaccord from Western heroes whom you atomic number 18 old(prenominal) with? Okonkwo was famous through kayoed nine villages and beyond because of this toughness. He was tall and huge with bushy eyebrows with a wide nose. Okonkwo achieves this sizeableness by defeating the greatest wrestler (Amalinze). He expressed his anger by using phys ical violence. He was nonhing similar his father Unoka. Oknonwo is divers(prenominal) from western heroes unlike the western heroes, he crystallizeed his fame by his authorized strength, he beats his wide if they disobey him, and he was proud of his father. 3. a) Descibe Unoka, Okonkwo s father?Unoka was tall and very thin. He was lazy, reckless, and quiet. He was a loafer, never gave back the m 1y he borrowed from mess and because of that everyone in the village swore not to give him any money. Unoka was a coward when it came to war and he could stand melody. b) What argon Okonwos feelings toward Unoka, and wherefore? Okonwo isnt proud of his father because of his father was a failure. Everyone in the tribe made fun of his father. His father was sc bed of blood and war unlike him, and Okonkwo thought a man should be steadfast like a warrior. c) How does the (negative) examples of the his father shapes Oknokwos uccess and character and actions? The failure of Okonkwos fath er turned into hate in Okonkwos substance and that hatred lead him to his success and he earned a title in his tribe. d) What do early descriptions of Okonkwos success and Unokas failure tells us just round igbo society? It tells us that people that werent favored and was wispy were played d protest at in Igbo society and people that were strong and successful were held high. e) How does one succeed in this cultural context? One clear succeed in this by victorious control of its family ( in particular wo manpower) and proving their strength. too by being honest and hard worker. ) What do we find out from the system of the victorious of titles? We learn that having title(s) earns you respect in the tribes. In order for someone to earn title(s), they must be successful and prove their strength. e) Who attends to be excluded from opportunities to gain such(prenominal)(prenominal) a success? People that argon excluded from opportunities ar people that are lazy and weak. 4. Describe who Achebes intended audience(s) might be. What is the work on you, as a Western reader and outsider to Igbo culture? How do Achebes language choices contribute to the novel? For example, proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten. What does this mean? Ch. offers the story of the mosquito, one of several West Afri buns tales that explains why these insects buzz irritatingly in peoples ears. Can you find of any corresponding folktales told in your culture? What is the moral of the fable of the tortoise told in Ch. 11? What value do these stories reflect? Note that some stories are womens stories, and others are mens stories. Achebes intended audience might be some who isnt familiar with Igbo society. The effect Igbo society has on me is being amazed by their life style except the part where the men beats the women, other than that, the culture of Igbo society is classic and indescribable.I think this means proverbs are as valuable as palm-oil. I fatiguet think there are any folktales in my culture. The moral of the story is not to take advantage of people and be complaisant to them. These stories reflect Igbo societys culture, values, and love. 5. a) Describe the setting (time, place, culture) of the novel. The setting of the novel is around 1900s of Nigeria in the village of Umoufia b) How is social life create? Social life is organized found on you what you can do and you success, not on your ancestors. c) What are the important celebrations? Two important celebrations are the New Yam Festival and the week of Peace. ) What is the role of war, of religion and of the arts? Wars wearyt take place that easily. At head start they sift to come to a solution. Religion is a big part Igbo people. They religion the goddess of the earth and are always careful to avoid committing sins against her (god). Art is in general of playing drums and flute. e) What is the role of the individual in relation to the community of Umuofia? indiv idualistic relation to the community is having control and respect by proving his strength, and also his wealth. f) equate/contrast Igbo life ways, customs, perspectives, beliefs, and values of those of your own culture.My culture is nothing similar to Igbo culture. We beart celebrate New Yam Festival and we dont have Week of Peace unlike Igbo society does. 6. What effect does nighttime have on people in Ch. 2? What do they forethought? How do they switch with their fear of snakes at night? On dark nights, people are scared to go outside. They fear snakes. They deal with their fear by not going outside at night unless there is enough light. On bright nights, people enjoy taking long walks. 7. a) What the important crops? The important crops are yams, kola-nuts, mandioca, alligator peppers, corn, and cocoyam. b) What are the seasons? few seasons are the New Yam Festival, the planting season and the raining season. c) How does sharecropping work? A globe owner allows someone el se to live on his land and grow crops, and takes 2/3 of the crops as rent founderment. d) What are the masculine and female designated crops, and why? The male designated crop is yams, and the female designated crops are coco-yams, beans and cassava because yams are probably more popular. e) What is the relationship of women to floriculture? The relationship of women to agriculture is that women have to grow stuff just like men, but they can only grow stuff that isnt yams, they have to grow womens crops. ) In contrast to other (e. g. Biblical) representations of locusts as a terrible plague, how does the village contradict to the coming of the locusts in Ch. 7? The village excitedly collects them because they are intelligent to eat when cooked, in contrast to biblical representations the locust is seen as something expectant about to happen. Masbah Ahmed Period 6 01-06-13 8. What does her military force and status in Umofia invoke about womens role in Igbo culture and religi ous beliefs? afterward in the novel, note Chielos roles in the village (e. g.. in Ch6). What are those roles? What does Ch. 1 incident involving the non-Christian priestess of Agbala tell us about the value of the culture? What side of Okonkwo is revealed by his behavior during that long night? Chielos power and status suggests that women are well respected and draws the leader or advisor. Chielo was the priest of Agbala, the Oracle of the Hills and Caves. She was a mother of two. Incident involving Chielo reveals how loyal and dedicated people are to their culture by letting Chielo take Okonkwos missy in a late night they couldnt refuse owe to their fear, which clearly shows that they are willing to do whatever is necessary.This soft-side of Okonkwo was revealed and his weak-side. 9. Interpret this proverb, speak of Okonkwo When a man says yes his Chi says yes also. Trace further references in the novel to the chi. What role does Okonkwos chi play in shaping his circle? Trac e the other factors in Okonkwos case. What this proverb means is that a mans god will guide him and help him and he must accept what his does chi does for him. Okonkwos destiny was shaped by chi because it was his own chi, that he ended up fighting against and at last he lost. He thought that anything weak needed to be destroyed.He tries to choke any weakness within himself. 10. Compare Obierikaa man who thinks about thingsto Okonkwo. Note the Instances when Okonkwo fails to heed the advice of others, e limitedly of Obierika What are the consequences? Three times in Part1, Okonkwo assorts Igbo taboos what drives him to do so in each cases, and what are the consequences to Okonkwo, to his family and to his community? Okonkwo and Obierika are similar because they are both successful men in Igbo society. They are divergent because Okonkwo doesnt think or ask questions before doing something.Okonkwo would do anything to hide his weakness where Obierika shares his weakness, for insta nce he regrets taking the ozo title. Okoknwo didnt pay any heed to him and leads him counteract the custom of Week of Peace by beating his second married woman, and go outing taboos that caused the people to dislike him and his family leaving them with the fear of getting into a war for the solution of this conflict. 11. Describe Okonkwos relationships to his wives and children, especially to Ekwafi, Ezinma, and Nowye. What differing roles and functions do men and women have in Igbo society?What is Okonkwos spot toward women? Another African proverb states, It takes a village to raise a child. Compare/contrast the advantages and disadvantages in this social structure to our own family arrangements in the U. S. Okonkwos relationship with his wives and children is fearful nevertheless caring and loving. They all respect Okonkwo and scared of him to death. He expects his children to grow up like him. Okonkwo expects his wives to carry out duties thoroughly which includes cooking , feeding the children, cleaning the house and helping with the farming.When they do not fulfill all of their duties, he gets very angry at them and sometimes beats them. If he feels disrespected by his wives he beats them. His relationship with Ekwafi is special because she ran away from her husband to marry Okonkwo. Even though he loves Ekwafi, she suffered the roughly out all of his wives. To Enzima, he thinks that it wouldve better if she was boy because of hr qualities and genius. Also Enzima is the only surviving child of Ekwafi which made her more special to Okonkwo. To Nowye, he is really strict because he extremitys Nowye to grow up strong like him and carry on his legacy.In Igbo society, men are to be strong, successful and should be able to control their women. Women are expected to all the house works. workforce and women were given different crops to plant and their funerals were different. Mens funerals were more important the womens. Okonkwos attitude toward women is harsh and violent. He thinks they should do whatever he says or they will regret it. This proverbs advantage is that it helps a child to be successful when everyone helps and the disadvantage is that the child will become dependent on others. This is contrastable to the social structure in family arrangements in U.S. because its least likely for a society to help out a child because all they know is I, for myself. 12. What is the crime that causes Okonkwos to be reprimanded in Ch. 4? What does it tell you about the values of the culture? why, according to Ezeani, is wife beating considered even at times other than Peace Week? The crime is Okonkwo beats his wife violently because she came ingleside late and didnt cook any supper even though he wasnt hypothetic to hit her because it was the Peace Week. This shows that Igbo culture is practiced by rule and rigorously and is taken very seriously.Beating wife is seen as wrong even beyond Peace Week according to Ezeani because the peace should be kept to observe their goddess. 13. a. Briefly summarize the story of Ekwafi given in Ch. 5. b. What kind of woman is she? c. What do you think is the significance of women having to sit with their legs together? d. What is done to break the cycle of birth and death? e. What attitudes toward children does it reflect? f. How does Igbo belief in Ogbanje and the efforts to break the cycle of birth and death contrast to the egnima of throwing away of twins? h.Does Achebe appear to validate the belief in ogbanje? How or why? a. Ekwafi fell in love with Ikemefuna when she saw him wrestling. B. She was the beauty of the village. She ran away from her husband to marry Okonkwo. Ekwafi is the woman who goes after what she wants and she loves wrestling. C. The significance of women having to sit their legs together is it shows that they have self-respect and it is formal. D. To break the cycle of birth and death, they are supposed to find iyi-uwa and destroy it. E. Ekwafi priz es her daughter because she is the only child that survived.F. It reflects that she loves children because show lost many to neglect the one she has. G. The Igbo in ogbanje contrast to the enigma of the throwing away of twins by cleansing them instead of trying to drive the evil spirits away. h. He does attend to validate in his belief in it based on the depiction. 14. A. What is the place of the taking of Ikemefuna? B. How does he come to stay in Okonkwos home? C. What is Okonkwos relationship with Ikemefuna? D. Compare Okonkwos feelings to Nowyes affection for Ikemefuna? E. Why is Okonkwo disappointed with his son Nowye?F. How has Nowye begun to act like a man (Ch. 7)? G. What values does Okonkwo associate with manliness? h. How does Nowye relate to these values? i. What are the reasons and circumstances of Ikemefunas death? j. Why does Okonkwo act as he does, despite the advice of others not to participate in the killing of Ikemefuna (Ch. 7)? k. How does Nowye feel and (re)act ? L. Compare Okonkwos attitude toward Nowye to Konkwos attitude toward his daughter Ezinma (presented in Ch. 8). a. The purpose of taking Ikemefuna was regaining for the death of Umofian woman. B.Okonkwo took let Ikemefuna stay at his house because of the oracle. c. At first their relationship was like a master and slave but after it traded to a father-son relationship. d. Okonkwo likes Ikemefuna more than Nwoye because of the manliness lies within Ikemefuna. e. Oknokwo is disappointed with his son because Nwoye has the personality of his grandfather weak and soft-minded. f. Nwoye has begun to act like a man by doing masculine jobs, grumbling about women and listening to Okonkwos stories about bloodletting and violence. g. Okonkwo doesnt tolerate weakness in men. h.Nwoye relates to these values because he is outset to show interests in masculine works and continuing his dads legacy. i. Ikemefuna was killed under Oracles decision. J.. Okonkwo does along because he didnt want anyon e to think he is weak or appear weak to others. K. Nwoye looked at Ikemefuna as a big pal and the death of his older brother left him all alone he weeps for Ikemefuna. l. Okonkwo loves his daughter Ezinma more than his son Nwoye and he thinks Ezinma shouldve been a boy instead of a girl. 15. How are snow-white men first introduced into the story? Why might Africans suppose that they dont have any toes?What sorts of attitudes do the African express about white men? White men are introduced as unconnected explorers. The Africans suppose that they dont have any toes because they wear shoes. Africans looked at whites as weird, strange, and enemy of their tribe. 16. How does one-handed egwugwu praise the dead men? What do we learn from the depiction of the funeral ceremony? What tragic incident forces Okonkwo into exile? One-handed egwugwu praised the dead men by dancing while carrying basket of water. We learn that the funeral ceremonies are taken seriously. Okonkwos gun explodes and kills a boy accidently. 7. What are these internal conflicts? What part does the village leader Okonkwo play in the dissension? How does Okonkwo jeopardize his own authority within his community? The internal conflicts are Okonkwo beats his wife during Peace Week. He had to pay a fine for his action. Because of what he did, he irritates the Oracles. 18. In what ways can things fall apart be considered a response to depictions of africans in western literature such as joseph conrads heart of darkness or other images of africa portrayed in the westernvmedia,film,books, etc that you are familiar with ?How does Achebes novel correct such European depictions of Africa and Africans, and offer you an afrocentric sooner than eurocentric perspective? This book shows that actual culture of Africans(Igbo society) its totally different from what is written or shown on T. V about Africans based stereotypes. Achebe shows how the Africans are loyal to their culture and their religion by explain ing the events thoroughly. 19. What aspects to of pre-colonial Igbo culture does Achebe seem to question or criticize? How does Achebe use characters like Obierika, Okonkwo, and Nowye to offer such social criticism of Igbo society?How do the people of Umofia react to change? Achebe seems to question or criticize the consequences people have to pay when it wasnt meant to take place. He uses these characters to show they were treated and viewed by the society. The people in Umofia would be scared of changes since they were independent, especially with the nature. 20. Describe your initial cultivation welcome and response(s) to Things Fall Apart Part 1 as a cross-cultural encounter how are you responding to this exposure to traditional Igbo culture and people? Why do you think you are responding as you are?What seems most different and/or unlike to you? What seems most similar and/or familiar to you? My reading experience was astonishing. The Igbo culture is pretty interesting somet hing I want to look into. I am responding like this because I love learning about new cultures/religions it helps me understand peoples mind and their course of action. What seems foreign to me is unnecessary actions taken by the Oracle such as taking Ikemefuna and a virgin because of the crime Mbaino committed. What seems familiar to me is gathering during a festival.