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Things Fall Apart Quotes

Terms in this set (16)

"Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal achievements."
This quote from Chinua Achebe shows the fame Okonkwo won himself and without the help of anyone else
"He had a slight stammer and whenever he was angry and could not get his words out quickly enough, he would use his fists. He had no patience with unsuccessful men."
This quote from Chinua Achebe shows that Okonkwo was strong and a angry men that talked with his temper and also only like people with strength like him
"Fortunately, among these people a man was judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of his father"
This quote from Chinua Achebe shows that someone can be come famous and a hero themselves, their worth is not inherited
Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper
This quote from Chinua Achebe shows how the fire and fiery of Okonkwo scares ever hisfamily members
Even as a little boy he had resented his father's failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was agbala. That was how Okonkwo first came to know that agbala was not only another name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken to title.
This quote from Chinua Achebe shows Okonkwo's hatred for his father embarrassing him as a child for being called weak and a nobody
"I will not have a son who cannot hold up his head in the gathering of the clan. I would sooner strangle him with my own hands."
This quote from Chinua Achebe shows Okonkwo wants his son to take after him and be nothing like his father
Without further argument, Okonkwo gave her a sound beating and left her and her only daughter weeping. Neither of the other wives dared to interfere beyond an occasional and tentative, "It is enough, Okonkwo," pleaded from a reasonable distance.
This quote from Chinua Achebe shows Okonkwo has not sympathy for his wives and will beat them for not doing as he says
Whenever the thought of his father's weakness and failure troubled him he expelled it by thinking about his own strength and success.
This quote from Chinua Achebe shows how Okonkwo is proud of himself and his accomplishments
Ikemefuna had begun to feel like a member of Okonkwo's family. He still thought about his mother and his three-year-old sister, and he had moments of sadness and depression. But he and Nwoye had become so deeply attached to each other that such moments became less frequent and less poignant
This quote from Chinua Achebe shows how Lkemefuna knew he was not apart of the family bloodly but felt that he was becoming a member
He who brings kola brings life
Shows the ritual
"That boy calls you father. Do not bear a hand in his death.
This quote from Chinua Achebe shows that the man warns him to not kill him because you cannot kill a family member
Okonkwo did not taste any food for two days after the death of Ikemefuna.
This quote from Chinua Achebe shows how the death of the boy did have a strong affect on Okonkwo
He was a man of action, a man of war. Unlike his father he could stand the look of blood. In Umuofia's latest war he was the first to bring home a human head
This quote from Chinua Achebe shows how much stronger and more for war Okonkwo was than his father
Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.
This quote from Chinua Achebe shows how the fear of being weak took over Okonkwo's ability to be kind
And so Okonkwo was ruled by one passion - to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved
This quote from Chinua Achebe shows how he wanted nothing in common with his father because that would be weak
But Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through, not even for fear of a goddess.
This quote by Chinua Achebe shows how even in a time of peace Okonkwo beats his wife which is a sin but he wont stop till he is completely done
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