Things Fall Apart

Question 1

Okonkwo as a symbol of tradition

Answer 1

1. ‘He had no patience with unsuccessful men. He had no patience with his father’
2. ‘Okonkwo was deeply troubled he felt he had lost his manliness’
3. ‘That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself’

Question 2

Okonkwo’s internal conflict resulting in his death

Answer 2

1. ‘His whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness’
2. ‘Dangling’
3. ‘Okonkwo’s machete descended twice and the man’s head lay by his uniformed body’
4. ‘He will be buried like a dog’

Question 3

Final paragraph from POV of colonisers

Answer 3

1. ‘Perhaps not a whole chapter. But a reasonable paragraph’
2. ‘One must be firm in cutting out details’
3. ‘The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger’

Question 4

Division within the clan - rifts between generations

Answer 4

1. ‘He has put a knife on the things that held us together, and we have fallen apart’
2. ‘Our clan can no longer act as one’
3. ‘He was captivated’

Question 5

Death of Igbo society - mirrored Okonkwo’s death

Answer 5

1. ‘It seemed the very soul of the tribe wept for the great evil that was coming - its own death’
2. ‘That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself’
3. ‘Dangling’

Question 6

Tragic consequences of resistance - without adaptation (Okonkwo)

Answer 6

1. ‘The man’s head lay by his uniformed body’
2. ‘He knew Umuofia would not go to war’ - Igbo adapted
3. ‘The hole would not let a man through’

Question 7

Character development and Personal conflict

Answer 7

1. ‘Fear of failure and weakness’
2. ‘Nwoye had felt for the first time a snapping inside of him’ - initial rejection of Igbo culture
3. ‘Captivated’ - colinisers not all bad

Question 8

Loss of power of religious practices

Answer 8

1. ‘And their clan believed it too’
2. ‘The band of egwugwu moved like a furious whirlwind to Enoch’s compound and tore it apart’
3. ‘It is not our custom to fight for our gods’

Question 9

Religious contrasts

Answer 9

1. ‘You say there is one supreme God who made heaven and earth’ - challenge to Igbo religious hierarchy
2. ‘He has put a knife…’ - acceptance of osu converts emphasises divisive force of Christianity
3. ‘It seemed the very soul of the tribe wept…’

Question 10

Okonkwo’s conflict with change

Answer 10

1. ‘Okonkwo was not a man of thought’ - ‘fighting’ nature was his hamartia
2. ‘Okonkwo was deeply troubled. He felt he had lost his manliness’
3. ‘The earth had no more to give him’ - marks an end to an era with men like him in power?

Question 11

Being feminine/a woman is looked down upon

Answer 11

1. ‘There is much of his mother in him’
2. ‘Do what you are told, woman’
3. ‘Nine wives’ - seen as property /less than men