Things Fall Apart

Chapter 1

Okonkwo is a well-known man in Umuofia, his name is known throughout his village and the other nine villages. Okonkwo's fame started more than twenty years ago when he defeated Amaline the Cat in a wrestling match. Amaline hadn’t been defeated for seven years before Okonkwo beat him, and that's how Okonkwo's fame started. Okonkwo is a mean-looking man who is known for communicating with his fists and not his words.

Chapter 2

Okonkwo had just gone to bed when he heard a townsman announcing that all men should meet in the market in the morning.

The next morning thousands of men from all the villages of Umuofia gathered in the market, and Ogbuefi Ezuego told the men that a Umuofia woman had been killed when she went to the market in Mbaino. It was decided that before they began war, Okonkwo would go and get one virgin and one boy from the Mbaino tribe. Okonkwo was treated respectfully when he traveled to Mbaino to bring back the human offerings. The virgin was given to the husband of the murdered woman and the boy, Ikemefuna, was sent to live with Okonkwo.

Chapter 3

Unoka had gone to talk to Agbala, the Oracle, to find out why his crops were always bad. She told Unoka that his crop failure was due to his own laziness in tending to the yams. Because Unoka was so lazy, Okonkwo knew early on that in order to be a successful man in his village, he would have to seek help from someone other than his father. So he went to Nwakibie, a villager with three barns, nine wives, thirty children, and all but the highest title in the clan. After the kola nut and palm-wine ceremonies, Okonkwo asked Nwakibie for four hundred seed yams so that he could start his crops. Nwakibie gave Okonkwo eight hundred seed yams because he knew that Okonkwo would work hard to make a great crop. Okonkwo shared a third of the crop that he kept for himself with his parents and sisters because his father didn’t do it.

Chapter 4

Ikemefuna was afraid when he first came to live with Okonkwo and his family but he got used to it. He and Nwoye grew close, and Okonkwo was proud of the way that Nwoye followed the older boy's example. Although Okonkwo could never show emotion because that would be a sign of weakness, he liked Ikemefuna and the boy began calling Okonkwo his father.

Ikemefuna had come to join Okonkwo's family at the end of the season of planting. It is a ritual in Umuofia that the week before planting begins is called the Week of Peace and the year that Ikemefuna came to Umuofia, Okonkwo broke the peace. One day during that festive week Okonkwo's youngest wife went to comb her hair and forgot to return to Okonkwo's to fix her part of his afternoon meal. When she did return, he beat her and violated the sacred week. The priest of the earth goddess came to Okonkwo's house before dark to dole out the punishment for such a violation. When Okonkwo took the goat, hen, cloth, and cowries to the shrine of the earth god the next day, he was felt he was a mistake.

Chapter 5

The New Yam Festival celebration brought the wrestling that Umuofia so enjoyed. People of the village invited their family’s and friends from other villages to come to the celebration. Before any of the harvested yams could be eaten, an offering had to be made to the ancestors. Three days before the festival, Okonkwo had beat Ekwefi, his second wife. When he was done abusing her, he decided to go hunting and got his rusty, old gun that he had never used. Ekwefi made the mistake of saying Okonkwo couldn’t hunt well, and he shot the gun at her but missed. The second day of the new year was when the wrestling took place.

Chapter 6

At the wrestling match where the entire village stood to watch, Ekwefi ran into Chielo, the priestess of Agbala. When she was not overcome with the spirit of Agbala, she was a woman just like any other, and she and Ekwefi were friends. Chielo had heard about how Okonkwo shot at Ekwefi and then she asked about Ezinma. Knowing Ekwefi's fear of losing her child, Chielo assured her that now that Ezinma was ten years old, she would most likely live.

Chapter 7

Ikemefuna stayed with Okonkwo's family for three years and Okonkwo saw that Nwoye was turning into a tough young man with Ikemefuna's teachings. He hoped that with Ikemefuna's influence, Nwoye would grow into a strong man who could control his women