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 and his children. Okonkwo believed that, "No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children he was not really a man." Ikemefuna was not meant to teach Nwoye that, because that year Umuofia finally decided Ikemefuna is under the direction of Agbala. Ogbuefi Ezeudu came to Okonkwo's house to warn him against having a hand in killing the boy because he called Okonkwo father.

The elders came to take Ikemefuna away and Okonkwo told the boy that he was going home. Ikemefuna was sad to leave the new family he had found, but he went with Okonkwo and the elders. Once the group was outside Umuofia, one of the men raised his machete and struck Ikemefuna down. The boy, ran toward Okonkwo saying, "My father, they have killed me!'" Afraid of being thought weak, Okonkwo raised his own machete and finished the boy off.

Chapter 8

For two days after Ikemefuna died, Okonkwo did not eat. He was sad about killing the boy, but he tried to ignore it because it wouldn't be manly to do otherwise.

In an effort to divert his thoughts, Okonkwo went to visit his friend, Obierika. While they are talking, Okonkwo asks why Obierika did not go with the elders to kill Ikemefuna, and Obierika says that although he respected the Oracle's instruction to kill the boy, he did not want to take part in it. He points out that Okonkwo would have done well to stay out of it, because killing someone who considers you his father will displease the Earth. While they were arguing about it, a neighbor comes in to tell them of the death of an elder in another village.

Chapter 9

Okonkwo was finally able to sleep for the first time in three nights when Ekwefi woke him because Ezinma was sick. She had a fever and so Okonkwo went out to find the herbs that would help her. Ekwefi was afraid that