Chapter 10

Chapter ten is a very random chapter because it went from talking about Ezinma’s sickness in the last chapter then straight into a ceremony. It was a ceremony for men so the women just looked in from the outside. There seemed to be a lot of drum beating and flute playing going on in this ceremony. The Umuofia’s seem to be big on playing music before events and during times of the day. They have gathered at the ceremony to get the evil forest wisdoms on a problem going on between Uzowulu and his wife. He basically beat her so she moved back in with her parents so now her parents want their offerings back, but Uzowulu does not want to give them back. It is kind of like a Jerry Springer episode in a weird way. The spirit decided that Uzowulu has to go beg for his wife back then be watched by his neighbors so he does not beat her anymore. So Uzowulu basically gets his way and the in-laws still do not get their offering back. I kind of liked this chapter it was pretty cool. It portrayed a Umuofia ceremony very well and was interesting. It reminded me of like a court room and the evil forest is like the judge.

Chapter 9

In Chapter 9 we learn a lot about Ekwefi. Okonkwo seems to have forgotten about Ikemefuna’s death, which did not take him very long at all only like three nights. It should have haunted him for life but no now he is thinking about mosquitoes before he goes to bed. I found the mosquito story very strange. I had not really thought about it in that way before, which really it makes sense why the mosquito torments the ear.
I cannot believe Ekwefi went through that many children and they all died on her. That would be very devastating and heart breaking. I could not imagine how she felt. That would be very mean of the child to agonize the mother like that being an ogbanje, someone who dies repeatedly and returns to the mother to be reborn. Ekwefi has a lot of courage I must say for having that many children and then losing them all in just a few weeks or months, plus she never gave up and had hope every single time a new child was born. Then finally she was blessed with having Ezinma and she has lived for ten years. Now she is sick though and needs medicine. I really hope she does not die I have become very fond of her and I feel like I know her the best so far in this book beside Okonkwo. She cannot die for Ekwefi’s sake it will kill her inside to lose another child especially since she has become so close to Ezinma. I see now what that lady meant at the wrestling match about her staying that makes sense now. The whole iyi-uwa stone is very weird like that is the stone that connects the child to the evil spirits. What did they do with it once Okonkwo and the medicine man dug it up it did not really say? Did they destroy it or just hide it again? I just really hope Ezinma does not die everyone loves her in this story so she cannot die.

Chapter 8

This chapter deals with Okonkwo dealing with Ikemefuna’s death and the marriage of Obierika’s daughter. I was happy to see that Okonkwo did have trouble getting over Okonkwo’s death. He had no right going with the tribe to kill him let alone finish him off. They told him he should not go but his pride took over him. He is so annoying sometimes. Ikemefuna should haunt his dreams forever and make him feel very guilty.
It is very weird how Okonkwo keeps saying Ezinma should be a boy. I am kind of thinking this may have something to do with her in the next few chapters. He needs to get over the fact that she is not a boy and accept who she is. Just because his other sons are not that strong yet he should not neglect them and actually treat them right maybe. I found it irritating how he bragged about Obierika’s sons and he seemed so proud of him just because he won that wrestling match, but yet he does not see a good future for his own sons. There culture is so much different than ours. Nwoye is only sixteen and it says he is old enough to get someone pregnant, which is true but he is not old enough to fend for himself he is not even an adult yet in our society. Okonkwo just needs to relax and trust his sons.
I found it intriguing how they have a bride price in exchange for their daughters. It is pretty much like they are selling their daughters. I do not know exactly how I would feel if my family traded me off for better belongings. Then in this chapter it talked about the oldest man in the tribe had died and then he could not be buried until his wife has been buried. I found this kind of like a love story in a way because as soon as the woman found out her husband died she went to him and then later on she died as well and they said they only had one mind, which for some reason reminded me of the Notebook. So does this mean Obiericka’s daughter is now married and that is the only ceremony they get for a wedding? That is a very interesting wedding if so, because the women went and cooked while the men settled things out and now they are husband and wife. That does not seem like too hard of a process I guess, but then the wives do not even get to know their husbands before hand, which would really stink. I would want to be a woman living in this tribe.

Chapter 7

I cannot believe they killed Ikemefuna! That is terrible and not right. He was a poor innocent boy that did not do anything wrong accept adapt to what life threw at him. It made it even worse that Okonkwo finished him off. The boy thought he was his father and really admired him. It crushed me to know Okonkwo is that much of a horrible person. What honestly gave him the nerve to give him that last blow, now the boy’s last image will be of the person he looked up to these last 3 years kill him. I cannot stand Okonkwo he is a terrifying person. Then Okonkwo’s son Nwoye really loved Ikemefuna they were brothers. I cannot image how devastated he must have been. I wonder if he knows his own father killed his role model? Why did the tribe kill him; he was not doing any harm to them at all. Just because some spirit told them too that is a pretty pathetic excuse if you ask me. Okonkwo should really regret what he did. Before this tragedy even happen it talked about how the locust were coming this year. I remember one year when they came here at least I think they were locust. They were really ugly and kind of creepy looking. Well when they came to Umuofia they ate them! That is really disgusting. They dried them out and then ate them for like a treat, which is sickening. It is so much different than our society. They were delighted to see the locust come. I personally could not wait till they were gone; they were so big, nasty, and loud with their wings rubbing together. As the chapters go on I am beginning to see a lot of their customs and things, which is very interesting compared to ours.

Chapter 6

Chapter 6 was a very short chapter and not a whole lot happen in it. It mainly described the wrestling match in it. One thing I found interesting was the sacred tree where good children spirits were resting. I found it fascinating how young women would sit under them hoping for good children. It was pretty sweet how the entire village gathered around to watch the wrestling match. That would be very interesting to watch kind of like the sporting events we have now a days. I found it very weird that the one lady that talked to Ekwefi called her daughter “my daughter”. If I was the girl’s mother I do not know how I would react to that. Is this lady some kind of goddess or something? It was entertaining reading about the wrestlers and who won. I was glad they had a winner this year that would be a very boring match if it ended in a tie. The chant at the end of the chapter was cool. I can visual the village people lifting the winner up and singing that song; good times.

Chapter 5

Umuofia was in a festive mood because the Feast of the New Yams was approaching. It seems to be a lot like our Thanksgiving, were there is a lot of eating and family time. There was a lot of preparing that went into this feast. Okonkwo of course could not get into a partying mood because he is such a workaholic and does not want to waste his time. It would be a lot of fun painting my stomach and back like they did to prepare themselves for the feast. It would be very exciting preparing and celebrating this feast.
The one part in this chapter that really surprised me was when Okonkwo asked who took the leaves off the banana tree. It ended up being his wife so of course he beat her again. He is so mean to his wives I cannot believe they put up with that crap. So then it only got worse when she made some smart comment to him so then he went and got his gun and shot at her. This really made my heart skip a beat when this happen. I thought she was dead I was so depressed, but it was a good thing he missed.
After the in-laws come for the feast and go home the second day begins and they have a great wrestling match going on. The wrestling sounds like a lot of fun, it would be amusing to actually participate in it and watch it happen.
We also got to know Okonkwo’s daughters in this chapter. It was really confusing keeping straight who is who and who is their mothers. Each daughter from his three wives brought Okonkwo a plate and they had to sit there and watch him eat it. This would be very annoying and that is an awful lot for one person to eat; he seems to be a little bit of a hog if you ask me. The last sentence it says “In the distance the drums continued to beat.” Are the drums some kind of symbol or something they seem to mention them a lot? I also think Ezinma is going to be an important character here sooner or later…

Chapter 4

In this chapter Ikemefuna is introduce and we learn more about him. In the beginning of the chapter Okonkwo is at a meeting with all the other men. He insults one of the men and called him a woman. Nobody took his side, which I found very amusing. When Ikemefuna came into Okonkwo’s household he was very home sick for his mother and three year old sister and he was very afraid of what was going to happen to him. Then he did not want to eat anything so Okonkwo practically shoved it down his throat, which made Ikemefuna sick for three weeks. I felt that was very terrible of Okonkwo to do that too the poor boy he was already scared to death as it is. After the three terrible weeks were over though he seemed to be adapted to Okonkwo’s family. I found it very sweet how Ikemefuna ended up calling Okonkwo his father and they seemed to always be bonding together.
It was absurd how much Okonkwo flipped out when one of his wives were not home to make him his meal. He would not let it go and he got terribly angry. He beat her for goodness sakes just because she did not make his meal. The men depend on women for so much, but yet they treat them like slaves. She was over at plaiting her hair. What exactly does plait her hair mean? Is it like getting it cut or something? Okonkwo deserved getting in trouble for beating his wife during the peace week. Numerous people yelled him at for his evil deeds, which was very relieving that he got punished for it. It seems they do a lot of clearing brush for new farms in this book, which is pretty much how they make their living though I guess. Planting all them yams seems to be a lot of work. That would be a hard job to do every day. It would get so boring. I found it very humorous when Ikemefuna was talking about a few pieces of corn on the cob they called it "the teeth of an old woman." I had never really thought of it that way before, it is very amusing.

Chapter 3

The third chapter deals with the Umuofia religion and we get to know Okonkwo a little better. It begins talking about the Oracle called Agbala. To visit Agbala the person had to crawl through a round whole that was only a little bigger than a hen house. If I would of had to crawl through something like that I would be a little spooked out especially if I was visiting a god. I would feel very claustrophobic. It was a little sad how Unoka could not grow any crops but I guess he did not really try that hard. I was a little confused on how Unoka died though. Did he have some kind of evil spirit fallowing him or something and then tied to a tree to die? I did not understand that part very good.
It would be very hard for Okonkwo to start a life when he did not have anything to inherit. He seems to have survived all right though, considering his circumstances. He even had the trust of Nwakibie to plant his yams for him. That seemed to be a very big honor. Nwakibie did seem to be a little selfish though. I really liked the one quote on page 19 “Let the kite perch and let the eagle perch too. If one says no to the other, let his wing break.” It was a really neat quote and made me pause and think about it for a minute. After Nwakibie trusted him though the season was all mixed up and he ended up ruining all the yams he had planted. I felt really bad for Okonkwo after all that hard work it was such shame. On top of that he was the one supporting his father as well. Okonkwo has a lot of patience for sure. One thing I noticed that seemed to be somewhat different than what we are use to is that they drank out of horns. I found this extremely unique and different. I think I will stick to my plastic cups. Also while they were drinking out of these horns Nwakibie’s wives had to take turns until it was there time to drink. It is ridiculous how they treat women in this book. They had to kneel down to their man while they drank, which is crazy. I cannot believe how low people use to think women were.

Chapter 2

In Chapter 2 of Things Fall Apart it is starting up the story line of the book. We start to get to know Okonkwo and the city of Umumofia. The wife of Ogbuefi was killed by the people of Mbaino and the Umumofia want revenge. There choice is either go to war or they offer a young man and a virgin as compensation. I thought this was a very unique kinda of trading and wonder what good these two people will really do for the Umumofias. That is the path they decided to follow so a young man and girl now joined the tribe. The girl went and lived with the man that lost his wife and the boy went with Okonkwo. I am a little confused on why Okonkwo had to take him in, but I guess it is all part of the story. I felt really bad for the boy and girl because they didn't do anything wrong so why should they suffer. They had no idea what was going on and they had to leave their families at such a young age. That would be very depressing to be either one of them. We also got to know what Okonkwo was like personally he seems like a jerk, but he has good intentions for the most part. He really wants to not be like his father so he tries so hard to work as much as he can. He does not really see that he is working his 8 children and 3 wives to death. He really in a way is no different than his father. I think it is going to end up bring him down in the end even though he feels he is succeeding now. The poor boy has to suffer through all of Okonkwo's hard work. He has no idea what is going on. I wonder if we will here of the girl again even though he never sees her again...

Chapter 1 of Things Fall Apart

I have finished reading the first chapter of Things Fall Apart. I do not really know what to think of it so far, it is a little weird. Okonkwo is a main character and he defeated Amalinze the Cat. at first I thought they ment a real cat which really confused me, but realized it was some famous wrestler. The names are all very similar so far, which kinda of mixed me all up in the beginning but now that i am getting use to them they are not as bad. I really do not think i will be able to pronounce them though. Okonkwo's father, surprized me a little. I could not believe one man could be in so much debt. That is crazy, it really goes to show how lazy he really was. I can not imagine being so poor having barely enough to eat especially for his wife and kids. I would feel so guilty if i was Unoka. It was obvious that he would never pay anyone back that he borrowed from. Even his neighbor Okoye had to come asking for his mony back. That would be very embarassing for Unoka, but he didnt seem to care. I found it interesting that both Okoye and Unoka were musicians I think that may come into play in the future of the book maybe. I was also surprised that they marry more than one wife. That seem very disloyal and did not know people actually do that in Africa. This books seems like a book that will be about succeeding in life, especially for Okonkwo since he was so ashamed of his father. He will be doing "great things" in the next chapters.