Answers to some study guide questions
From chapter four:
Twice in this chapter Okonkwo's intolerance causes him to break the rules of his culture. Explain each incident. How do such actions endanger the community of the village?
The first incident in which Okonkwo breaks the rules of his culture is at a “kindred” meeting. The meeting is held to discuss the next ancestral feast. At the meeting, Okonkwo insults a man who contradicts him. He responds to the man by saying, “’This meeting is for men.’” (Achebe 26). In Okonkwo’s opinion, since the man has no titles, he is not really a man. Unoka, Okonkwo’s father, is also a man with no titles. Okonkwo held a deep animosity towards his father because of his social standing and that feeling carries on to others who remind him of that. The second incident is during peace week. In Umuofia, peace week is a week “in which a man does not say a harsh word to his neighbor.” (Achebe 30). This peace in the village is supposed to honor the earth goddess and bring plentiful crops. During this week, Okonkwo beats his wife, Ojiugo, for not cooking his meal and instead going to get her hair done. Okonkwo’s actions put the entire village at risk. Breaking the tradition of peace week jeopardizes the entire clan’s crops for the upcoming season.
From chapter sixteen:
How do Uchendu and Okonkwo account differently for the “foolishness” of the Abame? Whose reaction seems wiser in responding to new challenges to old ways of living?
Uchendu talks about the foolishness the Abame people showed when they killed the silent white man. He talks about how you never kill anyone or anything that is silent for silence is more ominous than the noise. Uchendu tells a fable to secure his argument about silence. The fable is about a mother kite telling the young kite to return a duckling to its mother because the mother said nothing, but when the young kite returns with a chick instead, whose mother cried and raved, the mother kite said, “’Then we can eat the chick… There is nothing to fear from someone who shouts.’”(Achebe 140). Okonkwo talks about how the Abame people were foolish for not arming themselves at all times after they had killed the mysterious white man, “They should have armed themselves with their guns and their machetes even when they went to the market.” (Achebe 140). Uchendu’s reaction seems wiser because he talks about the foolishness which caused the massacre of the Abame people. Prevention is the only way the people can face the new challenges and come out with their old ways of living. Okonkwo does not understand this, and it will eventually lead to his downfall.
