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Contents
Summary: Chapter 5 With nothing to do, Okonkwo becomes angry, and he finally comes up with an excuse to beat his second wife, Ekwefi. He then decides to go hunting with his gun.
During this time, however, Okonkwo breaks the peace. He beats his third wife, Ojiugo, for not arriving home in time to cook his midday meal. By beating his wife, he breaks the law of the Week of Peace. Ezeani, the priest of the earth goddess, comes to punish him.
61) Although Okonkwo loved Ikemefuna and had much affection for him, Okonkwo was forced to leave all of his emotions behind in order to kill Ikemefuna and not be seen as a weak man who could not kill another man.
During Peace Week, Okonkwo commits a crime against the earth by beating Ekwefi for coming home too late to make his dinner on time. While preparing for the New Year Yam Festival, Okonkwo accuses Ekwefi of killing a banana tree.
As an uncompromising man’s man, Okonkwo’s relationship towards his family is one of complete dictatorship. His three wives are there to serve him his food and raise his children. By seeing them as his subjects, Okonkwo can justify his brutal behavior against them. He can beat his wives without guilt.
Ekwefi is Okonkwo’s second wife. Once a village beauty, she ran away from her home and husband to marry Okonkwo. She was smitten with Okonkwo when he beat the notorious Cat in a legendary wrestling match. Though it’s kind of romantic that Ekwefi ran away and eloped with Okonkwo, it turns out he’s not Prince Charming.
In the fifth chapter of Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo once again shows how he is different from his father Unoka; he beats and then nearly shoots his wife because of his own insecurity and anxiousness about not working during the Feast of the New Yam.
This is a legend as it takes about a time in the past and is passed down orally. In what ways do you think Okonkwo’s second wife both respects and dislikes her husband? She left her previous husband for Okonkwo, for his muscles and strongness. But he beats her and attempts to shoot her.
As the two leaders, Ikezue and Okafu, struggle, it looks like they will be evenly matched again this year—until Ikezue grows desperate and makes a mistake, and Okafu wins the match. Everyone carries him off, singing a song celebrating the strength and fighting prowess of Okafu.
Summary and Analysis Part 2: Chapter 14. Okonkwo arrives in Mbanta to begin his seven-year exile.
Analysis: Chapters 7–8. Okonkwo disobeys the authority and advice of a clan elder in killing Ikemefuna. … In fact, Nwoye loves women’s stories and is pleased when his mother or Okonkwo’s other wives ask him to do things for them. He also seeks comfort in his mother’s hut after Ikemefuna’s death.
Summary and Analysis Part 1: Chapter 13. In the dead of night, the sound of a drum and a cannon announce the death of Ezeudu, an important man in the village.
Ojiugo. Okonkwo’s third and youngest wife, and the mother of Nkechi. Okonkwo beats Ojiugo during the Week of Peace.
When his second wife, Ekwefi, admits to taking the leaves, Okonkwo beats her severely to release his pent-up anger.
Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal achievements. As a young man of eighteen he had brought honor to his village by throwing Amalinze the Cat. Amalinze was the great wrestler who for seven years was unbeaten, from Umuofia to Mbaino.
But Ekwefi and Okonkwo’s love for their child is strong enough that they are willing to defy religious authority. Although she has lost nine children, Ekwefi has been made strong by suffering, and when she follows Chielo, she chooses her daughter over the gods.
Okonkwo -The protagonist Okonkwo has a warrior complex and is a leader of the Igbo community of Umuofia. He despises his father Unoka because he sees his as lazy and weak. He has three wives and many children. Ekwefi – She’s the second wife to Okonkwo and the mother to his daughter Ezinma.
Okonkwo’s three wives seem to get along fairly well. They support each other and fulfill their respective roles as first, second, and third wife.
What do you think Okonkwo’s second wife means when she says that her daughter “will stay”? Enzimma is going to stay alive. Ekwefi had 9 children who all died before the age of 6. … Oguefi Ezeudu comes to Okonkwo and says Ikemefuna must die, don’t be unset because he’s not Okonkwo’s real son.
Nwoye is Okonkwo’s eldest son who Okonkwo considers unforgivably emasculate and very much like his father, Unoka. As a child, Nwoye usually receives the brunt of his father’s criticism and remains feeling unwanted.
Things Fall Apart ends with two related tragedies. The first tragedy is Okonkwo’s death. Following an outburst of unsanctioned violence in which he kills a European messenger who tries to stop a meeting among clan elders, Okonkwo realizes that he is no longer in sync with his society.
This quote from chapter 15 describes what it was like when the locusts were eating away at the village. The earth was covered in locusts, making it hard to see the ground, and the force that the locusts carries was big enough to break branches.
Okonkwo’s gun accidentally goes off and kills Ezeudu’s sixteen-year-old son. Killing a clansman is a crime against the earth goddess, so Okonkwo must atone by taking his family into exile for seven years.
An old man uses the following proverb to describe him: “Looking at a king’s mouth, one would think he never sucked at his mother’s breast.” A week earlier, a man with no titles contradicted Okonkwo at a meeting, and Okonkwo responded that the meeting was for men.
Okonkwo’s relationship with Ekwefi is different than the relationships he has with his other wives. Ekwefi is more independent and strong-willed than the other women and she is not afraid to stand up to Okonkwo. Because of this she suffers severe beating from him.
As the Ibo say: “When the moon is shining the cripple becomes hungry for a walk.” But this particular night was dark and silent. And in all the nine villages of Umuofia a town crier with his ogene asked every man to be present tomorrow morning.
Ekwefi repeatedly talks back to her husband and treats him like her equal, despite violent punishments. Ekwefi never talks to Okonkwo, choosing to ignore him. Ekwefi leaves Okonkwo for another man halfway through the novel. Ekwefi bears Okonkwo no children, and hates the children of his other wives.
Ekwefi: She is about ten years old.
Ezinma’s Iba Okonkwo is sleeping when Ekwefi, Okonkwo’s second wife, calls out to him because Ezinma, Ekwefi and Okonkwo’s daughter, is very ill. Ezinma has iba – a fever – and Okonkwo leaves to cut some plants in the nearby bush for medicine.
Chapter 3 of Things Fall Apart recounts Okonkwo’s attempts to become financially and socially successful. Unlike with most men in his village, his father Unoka died in debt and did not leave him with title, barn, or wife.
Okonkwo is a respected leader within the Igbo (formerly spelled Ibo) community of Umuofia in eastern Nigeria. About twenty years ago, Okonkwo distinguished himself and brought honor to his village when he wrestled and threw to the ground Amalinze the Cat, a man who had not been defeated for seven years.
In the middle of the speech, five court messengers approach the crowd. Their leader orders the meeting to end. No sooner have the words left the messenger’s mouth than Okonkwo kills him with two strokes of his machete.
After being exiled from Umuofia, Okonkwo seeks refuge among his mother’s kinsmen in Mbanta, a neighboring village. During this time, the British begin colonizing the surrounding areas, and this begins a vicious cycle of mutual confrontation as the two cultures clash.
Ikemefuna cries for Okonkwo, running towards him, and Okonkwo strikes the killing blow, afraid that other will find him weak. Ikemefuna’s fate is finally carried out in this passage, and he’s killed by none other than Okonkwo, who deals the killing blow because he’s afraid of seeming feminine and weak.
Things Fall Apart Chapter 8 Summary. In Chapter 8 of Chinua Achebe’s novel ”Things Fall Apart,” Okonkwo deals with the death of young Ikemefuna. He tries to move forward by involving himself in the customs of the village, which Achebe describes.
Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.
He beats her for her negligence, shamefully breaking the peace of the sacred week in a transgression known as nso-ani. The priest demands that Okonkwo sacrifice a nanny goat and a hen and pay a fine of one length of cloth and one hundred cowries (shells used as currency).
Which did NOT happen during Ezeudu’s funeral? The men and boys had wrestling matches. How did Okonkwo kill the boy? He accidentally shot him.
The offending gun is Okonkwo’s. The Umuofia consider killing a clansman a horrible crime, one that offends the earth goddess. But, since the boy’s death was clearly an accident (considered female because it was unintentional), Okonkwo only receives the punishment of exile from the Umuofia villages for seven years.
This kind of strength and boldness has something masculine about it, which emerges even more strongly in her daughter, Ezinma. Though not explicitly stated, we think Ekwefi might be Okonkwo’s favorite wife, just like Ezinma is his favorite daughter.