1. TFA Part 3
2019 honors

2. Take out your journal! Agenda:
Check off Journal #30 / Read Chapter 20 (Part 3)
Discuss Journal #30 and Chapter 20
Journal #29
Read and discuss chapter 21
Homework: read chapters 22 to 24.

3. Tragedy and Tragic Heroes
What is the genre of tragedy? What is catharsis?
What are the requirements for the tragic hero archetype?
What are the common tragic flaws?
Which aspects of this archetype can we see in Okonkwo so far?
How does the opening of chapter 20 show one of Okonkwo’s tragic flaws?
Why would Achebe use this literary tradition for his anti-imperialist purposes?
What questions do you have?

4. Chapter 20
What is the "tragedy of [Okonkwo's] first son" and how does he try to prevent its recurrence?
How does Okonkwo plan to use his daughters' marital readiness as a tool upon his return to Umofia?
Obierika tells Okonkwo that the white men "have put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart." What things held them together, and what has ‘fallen apart’?
What should be added to our Journal #29 chart?

5. Why is it too late for Okonkwo to lead his people against the Europeans in Umuofia?
How has the white man “put a knife on the things that held us together”? (172).

6. Use Mr. Brown and Akunna’s conversation in chapter 21 of Things Fall Apart to fill out a venn diagram with your table. Use 8 quotes.
Christian God
Chukwu
Why would Achebe have written their conversation the way he did? What effect does this create?

7. How does the ending of Chapter 21 show one of the tragic hero traits?
“Okonkwo was deeply grieved. And it was not just a personal grief. He mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart, and he mourned for the warlike men of Umuofia, who had so unaccountably become soft like women.” (Achebe 183).

8. “… the white man’s medicine was quick in working.” (Achebe 181).
What does the quote mean, both literally and figuratively?
On a micro-scale, how does Achebe describe the process of Europeans gaining power in Umuofia? What do the steps look like?
List 6 ‘examples’ from part 2 and part 3 (so far) where “… the white man’s medicine was quick in working.” (Achebe 181).
Figurative?
Literal?
Figurative?

9. Chapter 21
Why do you think "Mr. Brown preached against an excess of zeal”?
What, in addition to religion, did the outsiders bring into Umuofia? How were these other things received?
How did Mr. Brown use education to indoctrinate young Umofians?
In what ways have the Umofians become "soft like women" during Okonkwo's exile?

10. Things Fall Apart Essay Prompts
1. Analyze the use of Igbo proverbs in the novel as cultural communication.
2. Choose one of the following characters from the book and analyze them in terms of the gender norms/roles in Igbo culture: Okonkwo, Chielo Nwoye, Enzima, or Ekwefi.
a. Analyze the relationship between men and women in the African culture as Achebe presents it. Explain how this relationship is similar or dissimilar to the Western view of the relationships between men and women. Focus on both the positive and negative aspects of the relationship. What comment is Achebe trying to make about the dynamics of the relationship in his culture?
b. How does Okonkwo stack up as a member of his Igbo culture? To what extent is he a good Igbo man? How does the oral tradition of the Igbo support your argument?
3. Defend the life of Okonkwo as a tale based upon the story structure of a tragic hero. Or Things Fall Apart as a tragedy. Why does Achebe utilize these literary traditions?
4. What techniques and theme development go into the three parts of Things Fall Apart? What is the purpose of each section of the novel?

11. Things Fall Apart Essay Prompts
5. How and to what effect does Achebe use different types of irony in Things Fall Apart?
6. How does Achebe use the motif of (1) the weather; (2) twins; (3) chi; or (4) sound/silence to effect the novel?
a. Throughout the novel, drums, music, and the town crier’s voice punctuate the narrative at key moments. When does silence occur and what does it mean? Is there more than one type of silence? Can silence be characterized as a positive or negative occurrence? What are the implications of the fact that Unoka takes his flute with him to the Evil Forest when he dies? Okonkwo’s silence (death) at the end?
7. The title of Achebe’s novel alludes to a famous poem and one of the themes in the novel. Read the poem “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats. Note how the theme falling apart is developed throughout the novel. Explain how the title develops as a theme and what techniques contribute to it. What falls apart? How?
a. Argue how the author foreshadows the demise of the Igbo tribe and its way of life. What comes after the Igbo culture falls apart?

12. Things Fall Apart Essay Prompts
8. What is Achebe’s purpose with Ikemefuna in the novel? How does he develop his character?
a. Write an essay about Achebe’s Things Fall Apart with a focus on the character of Ikemefuna. This character is illustrative of some of the advanced character of the tribe as well as some of it’s mad logic as far as the oracle goes. He has a profound effect on the character of Nwoye, and at least temporarily, on Okonkwo. His brief stay among Okonkwo’s people showed him to be a person whose character might achieve the elusive balance that many other characters lack. Focusing on one or two attributes or issues surrounding Ikemefuna, discuss the ways that Achebe uses him as a character to illuminate central concerns in the novel.
9. Discuss the different perspectives and narrators present throughout the novel. Why does Achebe choose to use different points of view? What is the effect?
10. How does Achebe use foils? Make sure to focus on Obierika and his purpose within the novel and for readers analyzing the changing of Igbo culture.
11. How and why does Achebe use allusions to Hamlet (last paragraph of chapter 17) and “The Second Coming”?

13. Things Fall Apart Essay Prompts
12. How does the symbol of locusts relate to Europeans and Achebe’s comments: “The Igbo culture was not destroyed by Europe. It was disturbed. It was disturbed very seriously, but this is nothing new in the world. Cultures are constantly influenced, challenged, pushed about by other cultures that may have some kind of advantage at a particular time But as I said initially, a culture which is healthy will often survive. It will not survive exactly in the form in which it was met by the invading culture, but it will modify itself and move on So there is a need for a culture to be alive and active and ready to adjust, ready to take challenges. A culture that fails to take challenges will die.”

14. Chapter 22 A SCANDLE in UMUOFIA?!
“It was Enoch who touched off the great conflict between church and clan… which been gathering since Mr. Brown left.” (Achebe 186).

15. Color Motif in Chapter 22
Reverend Smith “saw things as black and white. And black was evil. He saw the world as a battlefield in which the children of light were locked in a mortal conflict with the sons of darkness. He spoke in his sermons about sheep and goats and about wheat and tares*. He believed in slaying the prophets of Baal**.” (Achebe 184).
*wheat and tares= allusion to biblical separation of good people (wheat) from evil ones (tares or weeds). Interestingly, some interpretations of this passage conclude that part of the point is that it can be hard to tell the two plants apart.
**Baal= new testament word for evil/false god, literally means “lord” or “master”

16. Color Motif in Chapter 22 [Figurative Thinking]
What is Achebe implicitly telling us about Reverend Smith/Imperialism through the use of the motif? How does this relate to the invention of race and racism we talked about at the beginning of the novel?
What could Achebe be foreshadowing here?
How could some of this fit into Achebe’s desire to paint the Igbo people as relatable, complicated, and civilized?*
*think back to the comparison making God look similar in both religions and the possible interpretation of the wheat and tares line?

17. Chapter 23 to 24 What brings Okonkwo happiness in chapter 23?
What elements of corruption exist in the European’s government? Who are the kotma?
How has Okonkwo decided to react towards the Europeans no matter what Umuofia decides?
What compelling argument does the first speaker make against fighting the Christians?
How does the chapter end and develop Okonkwo as a tragic hero?

18. Chapter 25 Big Perspective shift!
Did the white men drive Okonkwo to kill himself as Obierika claims? Why?
What is situationally ironic at the end of the novel?
Was there any foreshadowing for this?
Is Okonkwo a tragic hero? Why would Achebe use this literary tradition?

19. What does the District Commissioner mean?
“The Commissioner went away, taking three or four of the soldiers with him. In the many years in which he had toiled to bring civilization to different parts of Africa he had learned a number of things. One of them was that a District Commissioner must never attend to such undignified details as cutting a hanged man from the tree. Such attention would give the natives a poor opinion of him. In the book which he planned to write he would stress that point. As he walked back to the court he thought about that book. Every day brought him some new material. The story of this man who had killed a messenger and hanged himself would make interesting reading. One could almost write a whole chapter on him. Perhaps not a whole chapter but a reasonable paragraph, at any rate. There was so much else to include, and one must be firm in cutting out details. He had already chosen the title of the book, after much thought: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.” Toil = work hard for something worthless Pacification = defeat someone to bring about peace

20. Thesis: The verbal irony of the D. C
Thesis: The verbal irony of the D.C. writing a “paragraph” about Okonkwo creates the D.C. as an allegory for imperialist literature; and develops Achebe’s purpose in Things Fall Apart as a response to the European perspective on the imperialism of Africa.

21. What does the District Commissioner mean?
Africa is uncivilized: “he had toiled to bring civilization to different parts of Africa” and calling the people “Primitive”
Okonkwo’s , and the Igbo’s, life and deaths are not worthy of him: “a District Commissioner must never attend to such undignified details”
Okonkwo’s entire life was worth a measly paragraph: “One could almost write a whole chapter on him. Perhaps not a whole chapter but a reasonable paragraph” because a good writer needs to get rid of unnecessary details “one must be firm in cutting out details”
The Igbo people’s lives are unnecessary: “one must be firm in cutting out details”
The Igbo culture and people are already defeated, by naming his book “The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger” the commissioner shows that Europeans have defeated the “primitive” Igbo for the better.