PSU/R5/Weaver
Things Fall Apart/ Chinua Achebe
Section 1
Pages 3 – 25
Before class, read the assigned pages above. Then answer the questions below. Bring
this paper to class.
Part I: Comprehension
1. Okonkwo (Oh-kawn-kwoh) is the novel’s central character. Describe him.
2. Achebe writes that Unoka (Oo-no-kah), Okonkwo’s father, was an “ill-fated man”
who had bad chi (p 18). How does Okonkwo feel about Unoka? Why?
3. Who is Ikemefuna (Ee-keh-meh-foo-nah)from? Why is he taken to
Okonkwo’s village?
4. Unoka consults the Oracle, Agbala (Ah-bah-lah), through the priestess, Chika, to
find out why he always has miserable harvests. What does Chika tell him?
PSU/R5/Weaver
5. How does Unoka die? Why can’t he be buried in his house?
6. What is share-cropping? What happens to Okonkwo’s first harvest?
Part II: Literary techniques
A simile is a figure of speech comparing two unlike things that is often introduced by like
or as. Example: “My love is like a red, red rose.” – Robert Burns
Look for similes in Section 1. Write your examples and the page numbers below:
Simile
page number
Part III. Vocabulary
In a notebook, make a list of 5 new vocabulary words from Section 1. Note their
definitions, part of speech, word families. Are these words listed in the Academic Word
list? http://www.academicvocabularyexercises.com/
PSU/R5/Weaver
Things Fall Apart/ Chinua Achebe
Section 2
Pages 26 – 51
Before class, read the assigned pages above. Then answer the questions below. Bring
this paper to class.
Part I: Comprehension
1. On page 28 Achebe writes that Okonkwo views the expression of any emotion
except anger as “a sign of weakness.” Do you agree with this idea? Why do you
think Okonkwo finds it acceptable to express anger?
2. The Earth Goddess, Ani, is introduced on page 30. How do the villagers honor her
during the Week of Peace? How does Okonkwo break the peace? How is he
punished?
3. Who are Ekwefi (Eh-kweh-fee) and Ezinma (Eh-zeen- mah)?
4.
In chapter 6 Ekwefi has a conversation with Chielo about Ezinma while they are
watching the village wrestling match. What does Ekwefi mean when she says,
“Perhaps she has come to stay”?
PSU/R5/Weaver
Part II: Literary techniques
A character is a fictional person who inhabits a story.
Write the name of the central character of Things Fall Apart in the largest circle below.
Then write the names of other characters in the smaller circles. Draw lines to show
relationships between the characters. Add more circles if necessary.
Part III. Vocabulary
In a notebook, make a list of 5 new vocabulary words from Section 1. Note their
definitions, part of speech, word families. Are these words listed in the Academic Word
list? http://www.academicvocabularyexercises.com/
PSU/R5/Weaver
Things Fall Apart/ Chinua Achebe
Section 3
Pages 52-74
Before class, read the assigned pages above. Then answer the questions below. Bring
this paper to class.
Part I: Comprehension
1. Describe the inner conflict that Nwoye experiences on page 54. Do you agree
with Okonkwo that violence and bloodshed are attributes?
2. Foreshadowing is literary technique where future events in a story are suggested
by the author before they happen. How do both the author’s explanation of
Okonkwo’s values on pages 53-54 and the dark cloud of locusts foreshadow
what is to happen at the end of the chapter?
3. What causes Okonkwo to strike Ikemefuma down? In your opinion what
characteristics constitute strength? What characteristics constitute weakness?
PSU/R5/Weaver
4. Okonkwo’s friend, Obierika (Oh-bee-air-ee-kah), is the “effeminate” man who
was laughed about on page 58. What does Obierika mean when he tells
Okonkwo on page 67 that if he were him, “he would have stayed home”?
Part II: Literary techniques
Setting is the time and place where a story occurs. The setting can be specific (e.g.,
San Francisco, California in 1969), or ambiguous (e.g., a small, rural town during the
1930’s). A thorough analysis of setting includes a discussion of its overall impact on
the story and characters.
Okonkwo’s compound is described on page 14. Draw all of its components in the
space below. In your opinion, how would the setting of the compound impact the
characters who live there?
Part III. Vocabulary
In a notebook, make a list of 5 new vocabulary words from Section 1. Note their
definitions, part of speech, word families. Are these words listed in the Academic Word
list? http://www.academicvocabularyexercises.com
PSU/R5/Weaver
Things Fall Apart/ Chinua Achebe
Section 4
Pages 75-94
Before class, read the assigned pages above. Then answer the questions below. Bring
this paper to class.
Part I: Comprehension
USE THE GLOSSARY OF IBO WORDS ON PAGES 211-212 TO ANSWER QUESTIONS 1-3 BELOW.
1. Ezinma is an ogbanje. What does this mean?
2.
What is an iyi-uwa? Where is Ezinma’s hidden?
3.
What is an egwugwu? What ceremony takes place in Chapter 10?
4.
What are the two sides of the case presented to the nine egwugwu?
PSU/R5/Weaver
Part II: Literary techniques
Tragic flaw refers to a character’s negative personality trait that causes his/her downfall.
In your opinion, what is Okonkwo’s fatal flaw? Why do you think Achebe chose such a
flawed character to be the protagonist of his novel?
Part III. Vocabulary
In a notebook, make a list of 5 new vocabulary words from Section 1. Note their
definitions, part of speech, word families. Are these words listed in the Academic Word
list? http://www.academicvocabularyexercises.com/
PSU/R5/Weaver
Things Fall Apart/ Chinua Achebe
Section 5
Pages 95-119
Before class, read the assigned pages above. Then answer the questions below. Bring
this paper to class.
Part I: Comprehension
1. According to the folk tale that Ekwefi tells Ezinma, how does the tortoise get its
rough shell?
2. Who is Chielo? Why does she take Ezinma away from Okonkwo’s compound?
3. What does Okonkwo do that night? What new aspect of his character does this
reveal?
PSU/R5/Weaver
Part II: Literary techniques
Conflict, climax, and resolution refer to a plot structure that depicts a struggle between
opposing forces, a turning point at which the result becomes the resolution of the
conflict. Diagram the events of pages 101-108 according to the Freytag pyramid below.
Gustav Freytag was a Nineteenth Century German novelist who saw common patterns in the plots of
stories and novels and developed a diagram to analyze them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatic_structure
Part III. Vocabulary
In a notebook, make a list of 5 new vocabulary words from Section 1. Note their
definitions, part of speech, word families. Are these words listed in the Academic Word
list? http://www.academicvocabularyexercises.com/
PSU/R5/Weaver
Things Fall Apart/ Chinua Achebe
Section 6
Pages 120-142
Before class, read the assigned pages above. Then answer the questions below. Bring
this paper to class.
Part I: Comprehension
1. What type of ceremony takes place at the beginning of chapter 13?
2.
What did Ezeudu tell Okonkwo on page 57? Why does Okonkwo remember this on
page 121?
3.
What accident occurs? What happens to Okonkwo as a result of this at the end of
Part 1?
4. When Obierika comes to visit his friend Okonkwo in Mbanta, he tells him about a
white man who has appeared in the village riding an iron horse. What is the iron
horse? What can we infer about Obierika and the Ibo people from this description?
PSU/R5/Weaver
Things Fall Apart/ Chinua Achebe
Section 7
Pages 143 – 177
Before class, read the assigned pages above. Then answer the questions below. Bring
this paper to class.
Part I: Comprehension
1. What are missionaries? Where do they come from? What does it mean to
evangelize? What does it mean to convert?
2. Who are efulefu?
3. Where do the rulers of Mbanta allow the missionaries to build a church? Why do
they allow this church to be built there?
4. At the end of chapter 17, Okonkwo ponders why his oldest son, Nwoye, should be so
different from himself. He comes to the realization that “living fire begets cold,
impotent, ash.” What are fire and ash are metaphors for?
PSU/R5/Weaver
5. What strategies do the missionaries use to destroy Ibo culture?
Part II: Literary techniques
Theme is the main idea or message of a story. At the bottom of page 176, Obierika
explains to Okonkwo that the white man has conquered the clan by gaining their
acceptance. “…our clan can no longer act like one. [The white man] has put a knife on
the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” In your opinion, what is the
theme of the story? Write it in a complete sentence on the lines provided:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Explain your answer here:
________________________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________________________
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Part III. Vocabulary
In a notebook, make a list of 5 new vocabulary words from Section 1. Note their
definitions, part of speech, word families. Are these words listed in the Academic Word
list? http://www.academicvocabularyexercises.com/
PSU/R5/Weaver
Things Fall Apart/ Chinua Achebe
Section 8
Pages 178-209
Before class, read the assigned pages above. Then answer the questions below. Bring
this paper to class.
Part I: Comprehension
1. Akunna, a great and respected man of the village, talked often with the white
missionary, Mr. Brown about religion. According to Mr. Brown, how is the Christian’s
idea of God different from the Ibo’s?
2. Nwoye’s Christian name is Isaac. In Christianity , Isaac was the son of Abraham. God
told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.. In your opinion, why did Achebe choose Isaac as the
Christian name for Nwoye?
3. Compare/contrast Mr. Brown and Reverend James Smith.
.
PSU/R5/Weaver
4. Why does Okonkwo kill himself?
5.Consider the title that Achebe gave his book: Things Fall Apart. Compare this to the
title the Commissioner chose to tell the same story: The Pacification of the Primitive
Tribes of the Lower Niger. Why are the two titles so different?
Related links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Coming (poem)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igbo_culture
http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4467