Things Fall Apart: Chapter 10

This chapter to me seemed very strange. Although once again this chapter shows a lot about the African culture. This chapter starts out with a ceremonial gathering which seemed to me have something to do with their justice system. Anyway this ceremony is basically about their ancestors, known as the "egwugwu"(lol, egwugwu, what a funny word haha). This ceremony is where the ancestors come back as masked men. For some reason this instills fear into the women and children even though, I think that they know its just ordinary men. The first case that came before the edwugwu, is a man who was beating his wife. Because he was beating his wife, her brothers came and laid down the law (lol, how he had that comin). After the brothers gave Uzowulu a taste of his own medicine, they took away his wife and children. If Uzowulu was ever to get back his wife he had to promise to never beat her again, and if he did he was going to lose his manhood. The ancestors vote on behalf of Mgbafo (Uzowulu's wife). After I read this chapter I felt bad for Mgbafo and Uzowulu. The only reason I feel bad for Uzowulu is because of his punishment if it ever happens again, I mean thats just low, and how they singled him out. Overall this chapter basically just showed African culture.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 9

This chapter starts out with Ekwefi running in and telling Okonkwo that Ezinma is dying. Of course this is just an exaggeration she only has a fever (well atleast that is all I think it is). The reason Ekwefi is so scared is because she lost nine other children during childbirth, and Ezinma means the whole world to Ekwefi. I believe that if this is more than just a fever, that Ekwefi will not recover and could actually take her own life because of all the grief. Okonkwo once again shows some emotion and goes to find a medicine man. Now this is the weird part, the medicine man tells Okonkwo that their problem is a "ogbanje". A ogbanje is a "evil" child that enters the mother's womb only to die over and over, so the "ogbanje" cause a great deal of emotional stress. Of course, this "ogbanje" theory is just completely ridiculous, but in a way its shows the reader a great deal of how they thought back then. Instead of thinking that it is just a cold or something they think that it is a spirit of some kind. The most disturbing thing about this chapter is when the medicine man mutilates Ekwefi's third child to ward off the spirit. I think that whole step just completely skipped the good part and went to the bad. That was just completely uncalled for. If Ezinma would happen to die, I believe that their whole family would fall apart.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 8

This is the most shocking chapter that I have read so far. I never could of guessed that Okonkwo would be so affected by Ikemefuna's death as he was. Okonkwo could not stop thinking about Ikemefuna. It even gets to the point where he has not eaten in two days, and he also starts to question when he became a like a woman. The one thing that I think made it so hard for Okonkwo was that it was the season of rest. So he has absolutely nothing to do that could possible take his mind off Ikemefuna. To help Okonkwo he goes and talks to his friend Obierika and their meeting helps Okonkwo greatly. One thing that I found interesting was the whole bride thing. I just thought that it was really weird that they would trade broomsticks or cowaries. So at the end of this chapter I believe that Okonkwo is feeling much better about the whole Ikemefuna situation.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 7

In this chapter Okonkwo for the first time in the whole novel shows emotion!!!!!! He shows a lot of the emotion through his boys which I have never seen yet. He likes having them around much more than what he used to. Okonkwo tells them manly stories about war and things like that. I believe that Okonkwo is finally starting to let the boys see that he does have a little bit of a softer side to him, and he is just not all rough and tough. Even though this is a huge step for Okonkwo, of course something has to ruin it because it is a tradegy type of novel. The village elders finally decide to have Ikemefuna killed. When ever they killed him it said that Okonkwo showed some type of fear. I also believe that Ikemefuna's death will greatly effect Okonkwo and Nwoye, especially Nwoye. I also think that it is weird that the people of the tribe believe that the locusts like hide in this cave guarded by stunted men until it is time to let them go. The people of the tribe also view the locusts as a special dish which I also find very weird ( I just do not see how that would be any good). In this chapter it also shows how much Nwoye has grown. He now does not believe a lot of the stories that his mother tells him, and he now likes to listen to his father's stories. This also triggers some emotion in Okonkwo.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 6

Chapter six is all about the wrestling matches, and says almost virtually nothing about Okonkwo and his family. This chapter goes into great detail about how these wrestling matches were held. These drums start playing at about noon and continue until the wrestling matches are over. The wrestling matches do not begin until about evening. Everyone attends these wrestling matches. The matches start out with younger wrestlers (ages 15-16), and then rise to the older fighters. The older fighters are what the people are most interested in. The fighter would dance over to the other team and choose an opponent and then dance back to the middle are wrestle. Since this chapter is just basically about the wrestling it was hard think about things that I questioned because the chapter was basically self-explanatory. The only thing that I was curious about was if Okonkwo would maybe join in on a wrestling match to still prove that he is strong and able to fight. Though at the end of the chapter it had not mentioned anything about it.

Things Fall Apart: Chapter 5

Chapter fives starts out with the coming of the New Yam, which is like a new year where they celebrate and honor the earth goddess Ani. Even though this is a time of celebration, Okonkwo seems like he hates this time. He says he dislikes it because of how there is no farming, its all just preparing for the big party. When Okonkwo sees this tree that has a couple of leaves missing he basically looses control once a again (what a surprise lol) and starts yelling at his wife and children. Okonkwo also gets in an argument with his second wife about the tree and beats her. He walks away and says he is going to go hunting. Okonkwo's second wife mutters something about guns that do not shoot and then Okonkwo shoots at his second wife but luckily misses. Talk about crazy. I do not understand why Okonkwo has all of this negative anger built up in him. I believe that he is going to do something stupid one of these times and it is going to knock him down the social ladder. And then all of that stuff that he worked so hard for is going to mean nothing all because he can not control his anger. At least there is one thing that will make Okonkwo happy and that is the wrestling matches.