Things Fall Apart: Quotes Flashcards
Quote about Okonkwo’s fame
‘Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal achievements’
This shows the Igbo value of success
Quote about Okonkwo’s wrestling feats
‘He had brought honour to his village by throwing Amalinze the cat’
This shows how in Igbo society violence and strength is valued
Quote about Okonkwo’s wealth and status
‘He was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams, and had just married his third wife. To crown it all he had taken two titles’
- Shows how he lives in an agrarian society where your ability to produce and provide is valued greatly
- Shows how he lives in a polygamous society where a man’s worth and status is often based on his number of wives
Quote about Okonkwo’s strength
‘He was a strong man and rarely felt fatigue’
Quote about how Okonkwo started from nothing
‘Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young men usually had. He did not inherit a barn from his father. There was no barn to inherent’
Quote about Okonkwo’s willingness to work
‘He had begun even in his father’s lifetime to lay the foundations of a prosperous future. It was slow and painful. But he threw himself into it like one possessed’
Quote about Okonkwo’s deservedness for success
‘If a man ever deserved his success, that man was Okonkwo’
Quote about Okonkwo’s influence due to his success
‘He was a very successful man, and when he spoke, his words were mighty’
Quote about how Igbo society value people’s achivement
‘Age was respected among his people, but achievement was revered’
Quote about how Igbo society allows people to rise in reputation and status due to their work even if they do not come from much
‘As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with the kings’
Quote about yams
‘Yam stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed’
Quote about Okonkwo’s stammer and subsequent violence
‘He had a slight stammer and whenever he was angry and could not get his words out fast enough, he would use his fists’
Quotes about Okonkwo, words and action
‘Okonkwo was a man of action, not of words’
Quote about Okonkwo and how he ruled his house
‘Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand’
Quote about Okonkwo and blood
‘He was a man of action. A man of war. Unlike his father he could stand the look of blood’
Quote about Okonkwo and showing outward emotion
‘Okonkwo never showed any emotion openly, unless it be the emotion of anger. To show affection was a sign of weakness, the only thing worth demonstrating was strength.’
Quote about Okonkwo’s repetance
‘Inwardly, he was repetant. But he was not the man to go about telling his neighbour he was in error’
Quote about how a man should treat his women
‘No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man’
This is free indirect discourse and represents Okonkwo’s views
Quote about Okonkwo beating his wife during the week of peace
‘And when she returned he beat her very heavily. In his anger he had forgotten that it was the Week of Peace’
Quote about Nwoye’s laziness and Okonkwo’s reaction
‘Okonkwo’s first son, Nwoye, was then twelve years old but was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness, and he sought to correct it through constant nagging and beating’
Quote about Okonkwo’s commandment to Ezinma to be more feminine
‘Sit like a woman!’
Quote about Unoka’s negative traits
‘In his day he was lazy and improvident’
Quote about Okonkwo’s hate for Unoka
‘Even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness’
Quote about Okonkwo’s fear of becoming like his father
‘It was the fear of himself, lest he should become like his father’
Quote about Okonkwo’s fear of failure and weakness
‘His whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw’
Quote about Okonkwo’s household’s fear of him
‘His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children’
Quote about Okonkwo’s crime of beating during the week of peace
‘The Earth Goddess whom you have insulted may refuse to give us her increase, and we shall all perish’
Quote about Ezeudu’s advice regarding Ikemefuna
‘That boy calls you father, do not bear a hand in his death’
Quote about Okonkwo cutting down Ikemefuna
‘Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his matchet and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought weak’
Quote about Okonkwo’s resentment of the clan’s response to the missionaries
‘He mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart, and he mourned for the warlike men of Umofia, who had so unaccountably become soft like women’
Quote about how Okonkwo wished to deal with the missionaries
‘Okonkwo said that until the abominable gang was chased out of the village with whips, there would be no peace’
Quote about how Umofia would not stand with him after he killed the messenger (because they are able to adapt unlike him)
‘Okonkwo stood looking at the dead man. He knew that Umofia would not go to war’
Quote about Nwoye and which stories he preferred
‘Nwoye knew that it was right to be masculine and to be violent, but somehow he still preferred the stories that his mother used to tell’
Quote about Nwoye overhearing Ikemefuna’s depature
‘Nwoye overheard him and burst into tears, whereupon his father beat him heavily’
Quote about Nwoye’s captivation of the missionaries
‘But there was a young lad who had been captivated’
Quote about the missionaries answering Nwoye’s questions
‘The hymn about brothers who sat in darkness and in fear seemed to answer a vague and persistent question that haunted his young soul - the question of the twins crying in the bush and the question of Ikemefuna who was killed’
Quote about how the Christian hymn made Nwoye feel
‘The words of the hymn were like the drops of frozen rain melting on the dry plate of the panting earth’
Quote about how Okonkwo felt he had been cursed with Nwoye
‘Why, he cried in his heart, should he, Okonkwo, of all people, be cursed with such a son?’
Quote about what Okonkwo would do if all his children worshipped the white man’s God after he died
‘If such a thing were ever to happen, he, Okonkwo, would wipe them off the face of the earth’
Quote about how Nwoye felt after having the presentiment that Ikemefuna had died
‘Something seemed to give way inside of him’
Quote about Ikemefuna’s initial fear
‘At first Ikemefuna was very afraid’
Quote about how Okonkwo threatened and intimidated Ikemefuna
‘When Okonko heard that he would not eat any food he came into the hut with a big stick in his hand and stood over him while he swallowed his yams’
Quote about how Okonkwo started to like Ikemefuna after he had overcome his fear and had proven to be knowledgeable and lively
‘Even Okonkwo himself became very fond of the boy - inwardly of course’
Quote about how Okonkwo was pleased at Ikemefuna due to him developing his son
‘Okonkwo was inwardly pleased at his son’s development, and he knew it was due to Ikemefuna’
Quote about Nwoye and Ikemefuna’s friendship
‘But he and Nwoye had become so deeply attached to eachother that such moments became less frequent and less poignant’
Quote about how Ikemefuna developed
‘He grew rapidly like a yam tendril in the rainy season, and was full of the sap of life’
