MAIN THEMES Flashcards
(14 cards)
Authority / Respect
“Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond.”
“He had a slight stammer and whenever he was angry and could not get his words out quickly enough, he would use his fists.”
“Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand.”
“His whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.”
Gender
“No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children, he was not really a man.”
“Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper.”
“Yam, the king of crops, was a man’s crop.”
Tradition
Suicide
Yams
“It was an abomination for a man to take his own life.”
“Yam, the king of crops, was a man’s crop.”
Change
“He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.”
“The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers.”
Masculinity
“His whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.”
“Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through, not even for fear of a goddess.”
“No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children, he was not really a man.”
“Yam, the king of crops, was a man’s crop.”
Fate vs Free Will
“His whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.”
“A man could not rise beyond the destiny of his chi.”
Culture Clash / Colonialism
“The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion.”
“He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.”
“The clan can no longer act like one.”
Mr Brown ‘trod softly on his faith. He neither attacked nor condemned the religion of the clan’
“Smith saw things as black and white. And black was evil’
Generational Divide
“Living fire begets cold, impotent ash.”
(Okonkwo reactions to Nwoye conversion)
“Your father, my child, was a great man. You have a duty to be like him.”
The egwugwu and justice system
“Our duty is not to blame this man or to
praise that, but to settle the dispute”
‘One of the greatest crimes a man could commit was to unmask an egwugwu’
Oracle
“Umuofia […] never went to war unless its case was clear and just and
was accepted as such by its Oracle”
“there were indeed occasions when the
oracle has forbidden Umuofia to wage a
war.”
“Chielo was the priestess of Agbala, the Oracle of the Hills and the
Caves. In ordinary life Chielo was a widow with two children.”
Ikemefuna death
“dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his
machete and cut him down”
“he was afraid of being thought weak”
Nwoye conversion
“Answer me,” roared Okonkwo, “Before
I kill you!” he seized a heavy stick that
lay on the dwarf wall and hit him two or
three savage blows
Unoka
Weakness
“He was ruled by one passion – to
hate everything that his father Unoka
had loved.”
“He [Okonkwo] was a man of action, a man of war. Unlike his father he could stand the look of blood.”
“But it was really not true that Okonkwo’s palm-kernels had been cracked for him by a benevolent spirit. He had cracked them himself. “ -Unoka gave nothing to Okonkwo so Okonkwo worked hard
“Among these people a man was judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of his father.”
“No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children, he was not really a man.”
