‘Things Fall Apart’

by Chinua Achebe
Part 1 (1) Chapters 1 and 2

Component 1 Poetry and Modern Prose Resources created by Michael Flynn

flynnseducationalgrotto@gmail.com
(examined) Section C Modern Prose
 Learning Objectives
Our Intentions for Today
In this lesson we are going to be analytically
reading part 1: chapters 1 and 2, and
responding to summary and analysis questions.
We will also be exploring the concept of family
and how this relates to the overall text.
Remember: Essential Tips
(i) Ask questions to check your understanding.
(ii) Answer all questions fully.
(iii) Annotate your texts.
(iv) Keep your notes organised and safe. These notes will become
invaluable revision materials.
Information Task: Remembering how we are
assessed
Where does this text fit into the IGCSE course?
Component 1: Poetry and Modern Prose
Section C – Modern Prose: one 40-mark essay
question from a choice of two on each of the set
texts.
Closed book: texts are not allowed in the
examination.

A01: Demonstrate a close knowledge and understanding of texts,

maintaining a critical style and presenting an informed personal
engagement.
A02: Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to
create meanings and effects.
A03: Explore links and connections between texts.
A04: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the
contexts in which they were written.
 The Big Questions
The Rationale and Ideas Attached to this Lesson
In creating this lesson, I considered the following questions:

In what ways is Okonkwo different to other protagonists you may have

come across in other texts?
In what ways does his toxic masculinity foreshadow future events?
Why does Okonkwo seemed so dissatisfied in the state of his success?
Starter Activity: Family
Let’s Begin

Our parents/guardians are responsible

for providing our primary education to
the world. They socialise us, imbed their
values within our emerging personalities
and shape our behaviour.
Before we attend school we are
sheltered from other views of learning
and knowledge. We assimilate and
replicate what we had been taught
within the family.
 Starter Activity: Family
Let’s Begin
(i) Sometimes, certain people are
considered the ‘head of the family’.
What does this mean? How is an
individual appointed to this position of
respect?
(ii) Who is the head of your family and
why?
(iii) Some families are defined by a
particular job or career in which many of
the members participate, such as
firefighting or working for the police.
Does your family have a career which
defines it? If so explain why.
Task: Let’s Read Part 1 Chapter 1
Ask Questions, Take Notes, Annotate
 Summary and Analysis Questions Notable Quotes:
Understanding Language and its Devices His fame rested on solid personal
achievements.
A04: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and
the contexts in which they were written.
At eighteen years of age, Okonkwo wins public recognition as the strongest wrestler in
nine villages, by defeating ‘Amalinze the Cat’ who had been unbeaten for the last seven
years. Okonkwo's fame continues to grow over the next decade, he marries several wives
and has children. However, Okonkwo lacks patience and is easily drawn into aggression,
preferring to use his fists instead of words. He grows ever more impatient with
unsuccessful men like his father.

In what ways does Okonkwo follow the

conventions of masculinity?
What does Okonkwo believe to be the most important
quality in a man? What does this illuminate within his
characterisation?
 Notable Quotes: Summary and Analysis Questions
If any money came his way, and it seldom did, he Understanding Language and its Devices
immediately bought gourds of palm-wine, called
A04: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and
round his neighbors and made merry.
the contexts in which they were written.
Unoka (Okonkwo’s father), has died ten years earlier, and was known for his laziness and irresponsible
nature, owing all his neighbors money. Unoka had loved music, typically playing the flute with the other
village musicians after harvest. He had lived a stress-free existence as a young man, traveling to different
markets to play his music and feast freely. His hedonistic life was not seen favorably by the community.
Unoka had been seen as a failure, with his wife and children having barely enough food to eat. Even
though he had been regarded untrustworthy, Unoka had succeeded in borrowing more and more money
and piling up his debts.

In what ways is Okonkwo contrasted to his father? What

is the writer trying to illuminate for the audience?
Why does Okonkwo strive to be the opposite of his
father? Is it possible for a son to change his father’s
legacy?
 Notable Quotes: Summary and Analysis Questions
He was reclining on a mud bed in his hut playing Understanding Language and its Devices
on the flute. A04: Show understanding of the relationships between texts
and the contexts in which they were written.
The narrator recounts a day when Unoka’s neighbor Okoye visited, bringing a goatskin to sit on. Unoka
produced a kola nut for his guest. Then Unoka and Okoye argued about who should break the nut, and
then talk about health, harvest, and war. The last subject of war makes Unoka uncomfortable, so he
changes the subject to music. Okoye confesses to the point of his visit: he has come to collect Unoka's debt
of 200 cowries. Okoye approaches the subject in lengthy proverbs and wordy ways, when Unoka finally
comes to understand, he bursts out laughing. Unoka points to a set of chalk lines on his wall - a record of
all his debts. He tells Okoye that he will pay his big debts first. Okoye rolls up his goatskin and leaves.

What does Unoka and Okoye's meeting

demonstrate about the traditions of Umuofia
society here?
What meaning can we draw from the
‘breaking of the nut’ – what could it
symbolise and why?
 Summary and Analysis Questions Notable Quotes:
Fortunately, among these people a man was
Understanding Language and its Devices judged according to his worth and not
A04: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and according to the worth of his father.
the contexts in which they were written.
When Unoka passed away, he held no titles and was still heavily in debt. Okonkwo is
ashamed of his father’s legacy, but combats this by winning fame as a champion wrestler
in the nine villages, and gains further regards as a wealthy farmer. He marries three
wives, has two barns full of yams, and two titles. Although still young, Okonkwo is seen
as a great man. As a result, he comes to look after Ikemefuna (a doomed boy) as his legal
guardian.

How has the young Ikemefuna come to be doomed?

What does this ‘doom’ illuminate about law justice
within this society?

Is a state of shame and embarrassment the

typical motivators for success?
 Mini-Plenary
Check your understanding of the narrative
(i) How does eighteen-year-old, Okonkwo, bring honor to his village?
(ii) When Okonkwo is angry and cannot speak because of his stutter, how does he get his point across?
(iii) Who is Okonkwo's father?
(iv) Why doesn't Okonkwo have any patience with his father?
(v) When is the only time that Unoka is not haggard and mournful?
(vi) Why does Unoka's neighbor, Okoye, visit him?
(vii) Why does Unoka change the subject to music when he and Oybe are discussing the impending war
with the village of Mbaino?
(viii) While talking with Okoye about the war, Unoka changes the subject to which topic?
(ix) Why does Okoye need to collect a past debt from Unoka?
(x) The Ibo people consider conversation to be very important. What form of conversation do they regard
the most highly?
(xi) How does Unoka react when Okoye asks him to repay the two hundred cowries owed to him?
(xii) Why is Okonkwo considered one of the greatest men of his time?
 Okay: Take a brief relaxed breath … about 5 seconds
The sometimes illusion of kindness
On the following slide you are going to be tasked with writing two academic paragraphs.
I have provided the POINT (in black) to help direct your analysis.
You will complete the written tasks in red to create PETAL paragraphs.
Completing this type of task regularly shapes your academic writing in a structured way.
 Academic Writing Task: Complete the tasks in red to create PETAL paragraphs
A01: Demonstrate a close knowledge and A02: Analyse the language, form and A04: Show understanding of the A03: Explore links and
understanding of texts, maintaining a critical style structure used by a writer to create meanings relationships between texts and connections between texts.
and presenting an informed personal engagement. and effects. the contexts in which they were
written.

Point Evidence Technique Analysis Link

Okonkwo is Provide a How do the audience gain • Explain your POINT in • Summarise your
ashamed of his more detail. ideas and link them
father. quote to meaning and understanding • Explore a different back to the POINT.
from the quote? How does the view of your POINT. • Can you ‘link’ this
support writing device(s) illuminate • What contexts have POINT to other texts
the further meaning or you considered in you have studied?
POINT. making your POINT.
significance?

Okonkwo conforms Provide a How do the audience gain • Explain your POINT in • Summarise your
to the conventions more detail. ideas and link them
of masculinity. quote to meaning and understanding • Explore a different back to the POINT.
from the quote? How does the view of your POINT. • Can you ‘link’ this
support writing device(s) illuminate • What contexts have POINT to other texts
the further meaning or you considered in you have studied?
POINT. making your POINT.
significance?
Task: Let’s Read Part 1 Chapter 2
Ask Questions, Take Notes, Annotate
 Summary and Analysis Questions Notable Quotes:
Then the crier gave his message, and at the end of it
Understanding Language and its Devices beat his instrument again. And this was the message.
A01: Demonstrate a close knowledge and understanding of texts.

As Okonkwo settles into slumber one night, he hears the ogene (the town crier), summons
all the men of Umuofia to the marketplace the next morning for a meeting. Okonkwo
hears an overtone of tragedy in the crier's voice and wonders what might be wrong.

How does the presence of a town crier illuminate the

importance of speech in Umuofia society?
The Ogene summons all the ‘men’ to the marketplace
the following morning – What does the absence of a
female summons tell us about Umuofia society?
 Summary and Analysis Questions Notable Quotes:
Okonkwo on his bamboo bed tried to figure out the nature
Understanding Language and its Devices of the emergency war with a neighboring clan? That
A04: Show understanding of the relationships between texts seemed the most likely reason, and he was not afraid of
and the contexts in which they were written. war. He was a man of action, a man of war.

The night is quiet and without moonlight. Children avoid making noise to
awaken the evil spirits. Night is a time of dangerous animals, a time where
snakes are not referred to by name in case they hear. Okonkwo is troubled by
the meeting, wondering if a war in on the horizon with a neighboring clan. He
remembers his own prowess in war, being the first to bring home a human head
- his fifth head.
Why does the narrator describe the traditions and superstitions of Umuofia
society?
How does Okonkwo display his fierce and warlike nature at important occasions in the
village? What meaning can we draw from these public displays?

How is the importance of language is emphasized, by the clan belief one

can summon a snake just by speaking its name?
 Notable Quotes: Summary and Analysis Questions
Then there was perfect silence. Ogbuefi Ezeugo
was a powerful orator and was always chosen to
Understanding Language and its Devices
speak on such occasions. A04: Show understanding of the relationships between texts
and the contexts in which they were written.
The following morning, the market place is full. Ogbuefi Ezeugo shouts, ‘Umuofia
kwenu’ four times to gather the clan's silence. He bellows the words a fifth time, and
then points in the direction of Mbaino. Now he recounts how the sons of Mbaino have
dared to murder a daughter of Umuofia - the wife of Ogbuefi Udo. The crowd jeer in
anger. Together they decide that Mbaino will either choose war or offer a young man
and a virgin as compensation for their crimes.

How would you describe the system of law and

justice in the village? It what ways is it fair and in
what ways is it flawed?
How does Ogbuefi get everyone’s attention? What
comment is the writer making about the
importance of language within the clan?
 Summary and Analysis Questions Notable Quotes:
Umuofia was feared by all its neighbors. It was powerful
Understanding Language and its Devices in war and in magic, and its priests and medicine men
A02: Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer were feared in all the surrounding country.
to create meanings and effects.
Umuofia’s is feared as a powerful clan, all try to avoid wars with
Umuofia. However, the Umuofia only enter a war when their
Oracle accepts it. Okonkwo arrives at Mbaino as an emissary of
war, he is treated with respect and dignity. He returns two days
later with a 15-year-old boy and a virgin. The boy's name is
Ikemefuna, and his story is still told in Umuofia today.

What do Mabaino children given to Umuofia symbolise and why?

Why are these children destined to come to a tragic end?
How and why is the ‘Oracle’ so important to Umuofia
society? Who or what does the ‘Oracle’ represent?
 Summary and Analysis Questions
Understanding Language and its Devices
A02: Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer
to create meanings and effects.
Notable Quotes:
As for the boy, he belonged to the clan as a whole,
and there was no hurry to decide his fate. Okonkwo
was, therefore, asked on behalf of the clan to look
after him in the interim.

The elders (ndichie), decide that the girl should be gifted

to Ogbuefi Udo, replacing his murdered wife. And the boy?
The clan decide that Okonkwo will be his guardian until the
elders decide his fate later. For the next three years,
Ikemefuna lives in Okonkwo's household.

Why is Okonkwo chosen to become Ikemefuna’s

guardian? How is this appointment a measure of
the clan’s respect for him?
How does Okonkwo treat Ikemefuna? How
would you describe their relationship?
 Notable Quotes: Summary and Analysis Questions
It was the fear of himself, lest he should be Understanding Language and its Devices
found to resemble his father.
A01: Demonstrate a close knowledge and understanding of texts.
Okonkwo rules a strict unforgiving home. He has a short temper and an easily willingness
to physically abuse members of his family, instilling fear in his wives and children. The
narrator comments that Okonkwo may act in a cruel way from time to time, but that didn’t
make him a cruel man. Okonkwo’s strict rules are driven by the fear of failure and of
weakness, like the rest of his life. Okonkwo remembers a time when he’d been told that
his father was agbala, and Okonkwo came to know that agbala was not only another
name for a woman, but also the name for a man with no titles. After this, Okonkwo vowed
to despise everything that his father Unoka had loved, including gentleness and idleness.

How does Okonkwo’s intimidating and abusive

behaviour impact the atmosphere of the household?
How does Okonkwo’s ‘strict unforgiving home’
further alienate him and exacerbate his fears of
failure and weakness
 Notable Quotes:
During the planting season Okonkwo worked daily
Summary and Analysis Questions on his farms from cock-crow until the chickens
Understanding Language and its Devices went to roost. He was a very strong man and
rarely felt fatigue. But his wives and young
A01: Demonstrate a close knowledge and understanding of texts. children were not as strong, and so they suffered.
During the planting season, Okonkwo works long days on the
farm denying himself the luxury of fatigue. His wives and young
children suffer the family workload, but are too afraid to
complain openly. Okonkwo's first son, Nwoye, is twelve years old
and already displaying signs of laziness. This panics Okonkwo
who corrects it with nagging and physical abuse.

Which one of Okonkwo’s wives is the most afraid of him and why?

In what ways does Nwoye fail to embrace the masculine

expectations of Okonkwo?
How could Okonkwo’s concerns over Nwoye’s laziness be
driven by the memory of his own father?
 Notable Quotes: Summary and Analysis Questions
He worshipped them with sacrifices of kola nut, food and
palm-wine, and offered prayers to them on behalf of Understanding Language and its Devices
himself, his three wives and eight children. A04: Show understanding of the relationships between texts
and the contexts in which they were written.
Okonkwo’s wealth and success is made clearly visible in his own household: Okonkwo has
his own hut (obi), and behind the obi, his three wives each have a hut of their own. He
also owns a barn with healthy supplies of yam, a shed for goats, and a ‘medicine house’
(shrine) where he holds the wooden symbols of his personal god and ancestral spirits.

How is Okonkwo’s success regarded by

other members of the community?
How does Okonkwo measure his own success?
Being as driven as he is, will Okonkwo ever reach a
point of contentment?
 Summary and Analysis Questions Notable Quotes:
"Do what you are told, woman," Okonkwo thundered,
Understanding Language and its Devices and stammered. "When did you become one of the
A04: Show understanding of the relationships between texts ndicbie of Umuofia?"
and the contexts in which they were written.
When Ikemefuna joins Okonkwo’s household
under his guardianship, Okonkwo delegates the
responsibility over to his most senior wife.
Unhappy with the extra responsibility, she asks if
he'll be staying long. Okonkwo cannot answer her
question and orders her to do as she's told.

Is Ikemefuna justified in being afraid?

What doesn’t Ikemefuna understand?
What does Ikemefuna symbolise or
represent?
 Task: Tracking the Prevalence of Theme
Exploring Structure and Form
(i) What themes are explored in the chapters contained within
this PowerPoint lesson?
(ii) What symbols and motifs are used to establish, develop and
sustain these themes?
(iii) How does the behaviour, dialogue and personal choices of
the key characters support these themes?
(iv) List two quotes from each chapter studied within this
PowerPoint lesson, as tangible evidence to support the
prevalence of an established theme.
(v) In what ways does the expression of these themes within
the chapters studied bear relevance to the post-modern world?
 Extension Task: Check Your Understanding of the Narrative
Final Academic Sprint
(i) What is used to inform all the men of the Umuofia to meet in the market place the following morning?
(ii) What do the people of Umuofia fear in the night?
(iii) Okonkwo does not fear war. In the last war he fought, he brought home a souvenir which he drank palm-wine out of. What
is this souvenir?
(iv) Who is the powerful orator that informs the ten thousand men of the emergency facing the nine villages of Umuofia?
(v) What is the emergency that the great orator announces at the meeting in the marketplace?
(vi) What ultimatum is dispatched to Mbaino as a consequence of the murder of the woman from Umuofia?
(vii) Why is Umuofia feared by all its neighbors?
(viii) Okonkwo of Umuofia is the emissary of war to Mbaino. What does Mbaino give him as an offering for the murder of the
woman from Umuofia?
(ix) What are the things that Okonkwo fears most?
(x) What is the one passion that rules Okonkwo's life?
(xi) Why is Okonkwo's twelve-year-old son, Nwoye, causing him great anxiety?
(xii) Okonkwo is very prosperous, owning a large compound with many huts, and an abundance of food. Ikemefuna is given to
Okonkwo to live with him until the clan decides Ikemefuna's fate. How does Ikemefuna react to living with Okonkwo?
Homework Assignment:
Independent Learning
Before reading any work of
literature, it is useful to know certain
information regarding the author
and his background.
Answer the … questions, providing
both your response and your source
of information (website, book etc,)
Only three questions may be
answered by a single source.
(i) Who wrote Things Fall Apart?
Answer:
Source:
(ii) When and where was the author born?
(iii) What influenced the author’s decision to
write this novel?
(iv) What is the author’s educational
background?
(v) What was Achebe’s original name and why
did he change it?
(vi) List three of the author’s works.
(vii) What literary awards has the author
received?
(viii) How has politics influenced the author’s
writings?
Plenary
What questions are we left with?
• How are the key characters further
revealed in the chapters contained within
this lesson?
• What key events unfolded within these
chapters? How are these events regarded
by the audience?
• What language devices or meaningful
quotes provided deeper insight to the
characters or the narrative?
• What enigmas are left unsolved or
outstanding? – How does this create
suspense and intrigue?