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Chapter Twelve

Note: Notice the traditional attitudes of all small villagers toward large marketplaces like Umuike. Notice that the song sung at the end of the chapter is a new one. Achebe often reminds us that this is not a frozen, timeless culture, but a constantly changing one.

Chapter Thirteen

Having shown us an engagement ceremony, Achebe now depicts a funeral. We are being systematically introduced to the major rituals of Ibo life.

1. How does the one-handed egwugwu praise the dead man? Okonkwo has killed people before this. What makes this incident so serious, though it would be treated as a mere accident under our law?

Chapter Fourteen

Note: In Part One we were introduced to an intact and functioning culture. It may have had its faults, and it accommodated deviants like Okonkwo with some difficulty, but it still worked as an organic whole. It is in Part Two that things begin to fall apart. Okonkwo's exile in Mbanta is not only a personal disaster, but it removes him from his home village at a crucial time so that he returns to a changed world which can no longer adapt to him.

Note the value placed on premarital chastity in the engagement ceremony. In many African cultures virginity is not an absolute requirement for marriage but it is highly desirable and normally greatly enhances the value of the bride-price that may be paid. Thus families are prone to assert a good deal of authority over their unmarried daughters to prevent early love affairs.

1. What is the significance of comparing Okonkwo to a fish out of water?

1. How does Okonkwo's lack of understanding of the importance of women reflect on him?

Chapter Fifteen

Note: Although the people of Abame acted rashly, they had a good deal of insight into the significance of the arrival of the whites. Note how the Africans treat the white man's language as mere noise; a mirror of how white colonizers treated African languages.

1. How does the story of the destruction of Abame summarize the experience of colonization?

1. Movie Indians call a train engine an "iron horse," but the term here refers to a bicycle. What sorts of stories had Okonkwo heard about white men before?