Life

Meena Singh English II HP1 Mrs. Taylor 24 February 2012
Things Fall Apart: Study Guide
1. Make a list of the incidents that foreshadow the demise of Okonkwo and the Ibo tribe. Explain what you believe is the effect of the foreshadowing on the reader’s interpretation of events. • The fact that Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was not a leader • Ikemefuna’s death • Ezinma’s sickness • Nwoye’s lack of leadership • Nwoye’s betrayal to Okonkwo • The continuous miscarriages • Okonkwo’s exile • Accidental killing of the boy at the wedding

I think that these events foreshadowed Okonkwo’s and the Ibo tribe’s demise because every single one of the events affected Okonkwo negatively and led to some of change in his life. It starts with Okonkwo’s father being a bum in the tribe and neglecting his responsibility to his family. His death was also degrading because his body was thrown in the forbidden forest and Okonkwo always worked towards not becoming someone like him. However, at the end Okonkwo’s “burial” is the same and he becomes the failure he tried to avoid. He considered himself a failure because he was unable to rid the tribe of the colonists because he could see that the culture was diminishing but he failed to bring the tribe to fight after his exile. He was exiled because he killed a boy at the wedding which he was invited to after he killed Ikemefuna so that he could clear his mind with a distraction. Overall, every event led to something which foreshadowed Okonkwo’s demise as well as the tribe’s.

13. How does the last chapter of the book differ from the other chapters? Why do you think Achebe chooses to narrate the last chapter from the point of view of someone who has yet to be introduced in the novel?

The last chapter of the book is different from the rest because Achebe allows the colonists to have the last words which were, “The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger,” the name of another book that would be in the perspective of the colonists which degraded the Africans as uneducated and barbaric individuals who lacked the basic understanding of religion and government. The title refers to the killing of numerous Africans to take their resources and “pacifying” the people because they were savage and didn’t know the ways of civil life. The pacification is not peace, but it the ruin of the culture and tradition set forth so long ago and trampled on by the colonists. Achebe’s focus throughout the novel was to debate the colonist’s view on his people and the reader can see that the colonists were people who took over and negatively impacted some tribes with the biased viewpoint from Achebe which is good and bad. The positive aspect is that we get to see how many Africans felt about the colonists and how power-hungry they might’ve been. On the other hand, the negative part is that we do not know the colonists’ perspectives on the same events that Okonkwo sees such as the killing of the messenger. Achebe wants to change the focal point of the last chapter to other novels written by the white men who he wrote about because he wants to leave a biased impact on the reader. The reader can see how the commissioner is “evil” when Obierika gets mad which is weird for him because he is usually so neutral/calm. He blames him for Okonkwo’s death and praises his friend’s greatness. The commissioner decides to honor the group’s request, but he leaves and orders his messengers to do the work. As he departs, he congratulates himself for having added to his store of knowledge of African customs. Achebe makes the colonists seem like the villains with this biased view and the reader feels resentment towards them and sympathy towards the tribes. We do not know the colonists’ point of view on everything just from this chapter. It is true that the colonists brought change upon the tribes but they brought both good and bad, however, Achebe chose to focus on the bad.