Things Fall Apart
Chapters 14-16
Chapter 14
• Okonkwo’s uncle, Uchendu, the oldest
surviving member of Okonkwo’s mother’s
family, welcomes Okonkwo warmly.
• Okonkwo is given plot of land to build a new
compound. His kin also gives land and 300
seed-yams to plant.
• Okonkwo installs his personal god, and “the
symbols of his departed fathers.” Finally the
rains come, signaling the planting season.
Chapter 14
• Although Okonkwo works hard he is not as enthusiastic
as he once was. He recalls how he worked hard all his
life “to become one of the lords of the clan,” and now
he is cast out; all he had worked is gone.
• Amikwu, Uchendu’s youngest son, marries a new wife.
Everyone attends the ceremony including Okonkwo.
Although the ceremony is finished the family members
stay for days.
• Traditionally Igbo marriage favors having more than
one wife as long as the husband can support them.
Chapter 14
• After the ceremony, Uchendu calls his sons and
Okonkwo together. Uchendu talks of the most
common name given to their children – Nneka,
“Mother is Supreme,” and of its meaning.
• Uchendu tells Oknkwo to put away his sorrow
and embrace his new kinsmen. He warns
Okonkwo that if he allows his sorrow to weigh
him down it will kill him, and his family will die in
exile.
Chapter 14
• Uchendu reminds Okonkwo that he has
known sorrow as all but one of his six wives
have died,and has buried twenty-two of his
children.
• Uchendu tells Oknkwo that, even in all this
sorrow, “I did not hang myself, and I am still
alive.”
Chapter 15
• Obierika visits Okonkwo in his second year of
exile and brings bags of cowries. Everyone is
happy to see him and the cousins insist he visits
Uchendu.
• Obierika tells them that the village, Abame, has
been wiped out. He tells them of a white man
who was seen in the village riding an “iron horse.”
• Frightened, the Abame elders consulted their
oracle, who tells them that the white man brings
destruction and that more would come.
Chapter 15
• The villagers killed the white man and tied his
“iron horse” to their sacred tree.
• Later, three white men came to Abame and saw
the “iron horse” tied to the tree. Weeks later,
three white men came to the market and shot
everybody in the village but the old and sick.
• Curious, Uchendu asks if the first white man said
anything to the villagers. Obierika tells him that
he said things, but the villager did not understand
him. Uchendu thinks that the villagers were
“fools” to kill a man who said nothing.
Chapter 15
• Obierika explains the bags of cowries he
brought, telling Okonkwo that they are from
the sale of the yams Okonkwo left behind. The
other seed-yams Obierika gave to other
farmers and promises to bring Okonkwo the
money.
• This is true friendship. Even while Okonkwo is
in exile, Obierika is tending to Okonkwo’s land.
Chapter 15
• Okonkwo tells Obierika that he does not know
how to thank him. Obierika replies, “I can tell
you. Kill one of your sons.” “That will not be
enough,” said Okonkwo. “Then kill yourself,”
said Obierika. “Forgive me,” said Okonkwo,
smiling. “I shall not talk to you about thanking
you anymore.”
• The author is foreshadowing coming events…
Chapter 16
• Two years later Obierika brings Okonkwo news;
missionaries have come to Umuofia and converted
many of their people. Obierika tells Okonkwo his son,
Nwoye, has been seen with the missionaries. Nwoye
tells Obierika that he is one of them.
• Nwoye is converted when the white man speaks to the
villagers of the one, true God. They explain that their
gods are made of stone, and ask the vilalgers to leave
their false gods and accept their one true God, Jesu
Kristi.
• The white man uses an interpreter to speak to the
villagers. The interpreter is Mr. Kiaga.
Chapter 16
• Many of the villagers, laugh and leave, but
Nwoye is fascinated. The new religion speaks
to him and helps to answer his questions
about the death of the crying twins in the
bush, and of Ikemefuna. It makes him feel
“like the drops of frozen rain melting on the
dry palate of the panting earth.”