1. February 9-10 Entry Task: Which symbols are used in the text?
Objective: SWBAT interpret the figurative language used in the text.
February 9-10

2. Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

3. Analyze the Symbols in the Text
Select a symbol you will teach us about.
Create a visual that represents the meaning of the symbol.
It should include pictures and three- quotes.
Fire
Ash
Yams
Palm wine
Egwugwu
Kola nut
Earth Goddess
Chi
Analyze the Symbols in the Text

4. Gallery Walk Post your visuals around the room.
Walk around with your group and analyze the visuals.
Write POSITIVE questions, responses (makes me think of…), and additions (this on post-it notes beside the visuals.
Gallery Walk

5. Exit Task In your own words, what is a symbol?
Which symbol is the most important symbol? What impact does it have on the events of the story?
Why is a symbol more effective than a literal statement?
Exit Task

6. Egwugwu What is their role in Umuofia? What do the egwugwu symbolize?
How is the role of the egwugwu changed by the colonial government?
Egwugwu
The egwugwu are a symbol of the culture and independence of the Umuofia. The egwugwu are seen as ancestral gods, though in actuality they are masked Umuofia elders. The egwugwu serve as respected judges in the community, listening to complaints and prescribing punishments and deciding conflicts. Just as the egwugwu are superstitiously thought to be the spirits of the Umuofia ancestors, for the sake of the novel, they are symbolically the spirit of the clan. When the egwugwu lose power in the community and are replaced by a white court, the clan’s culture and independence is lost.

7. Fire and Ash Why does Okonkwo have the nickname “Roaring Flame?”
What does fire symbolize for Okonkwo?
How do you interpret Okonkwo’s thought, “Living fire begets cold, impotent ash?”
Who is the fire and who is the ash?
Fire and Ash
The narrator and characters often compare Okonkwo to fire, he even has the nickname around town as the “Roaring Flame.” For Okonkwo, fire is a symbol of boundless potency, life, and masculinity. However on realizing his complete disappointment in his son Nwoye, Okonkwo has the realization that “Living fire begets cold, impotent ash.” Like fire, Okonkwo sees his own progeny as impotent.
As you might guess, ash is seen as impotent, cold, and lifeless. Okonkwo links ash to emasculation. Not only does Okonkwo compare his own son, Nwoye, to ash, but the court messengers are also called “Ashy-Buttocks” – a comment about the color of their shorts but also about their masculinity.

8. Yams How do the yams impact the lives of the people?
What do the represent for the men?
Yams
Yams are a crop grown exclusively by men. Growing yams is labor intensive, and the size of a man’s fields and harvest say much about his work ethic. Yams are grown to gain wealth and also to feed one’s family. They are a symbol of masculinity and ability as a provider.

9. Locusts What do they make you think of?
What other references to locusts exist in other stories?
What happens after the locusts come?
Locusts
Achebe depicts the locusts that descend upon the village in highly allegorical terms that prefigure the arrival of the white settlers, who will feast on and exploit the resources of the Igbo. The fact that the Igbo eat these locusts highlights how innocuous they take them to be. Similarly, those who convert to Christianity fail to realize the damage that the culture of the colonizer does to the culture of the colonized.
The language that Achebe uses to describe the locusts indicates their symbolic status. The repetition of words like “settled” and “every” emphasizes the suddenly ubiquitous presence of these insects and hints at the way in which the arrival of the white settlers takes the Igbo off guard. Furthermore, the locusts are so heavy they break the tree branches, which symbolizes the fracturing of Igbo traditions and culture under the onslaught of colonialism and white settlement. Perhaps the most explicit clue that the locusts symbolize the colonists is Obierika’s comment in Chapter 15: “the Oracle said that other white men were on their way. They were locusts ”

10. Drums What do drums make you think of?
What happens when they sound the drums in the story?
Drums
Drums and ogene as metaphors for the “heart” of the people – “The drums were still beating, persistent and unchanging. Their sound was no longer a separate thing from the living village. It was like the pulsation of its heart”