Education
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe - Episode 2 - The Clash Of Cultures, Foreshadowing, Irony And Rage! Hi, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. This is our second episode in our four part series discussing the great Nigerian work Things Fall Apart and its author, Chinua Achebe. Last week, we looked at the historical context of Nigerian history- pre-colonial up to the colonial period. We looked, albeit briefly at the life of Achebe himself, how the book got published, and a little bit about the poem that inspired the title. We also introduced the great tragic hero of the novel, Okonkwo. Today, we are going to continue exploring Igboland as we look at some of the cultural traditions that are important to the story, we are going to look at little bit at the structure of the book and hopefully, we will discuss all the way through chapter 7. Did I miss anything, Christy? I think that’s it, but you never know, we may go down a tangent. There are so many things we could talk about that would be culturally relevant to understanding this work. I heard Dr. Achebe do a question and answer session for the BBC one time and a girl asked a question that stood out to me. She said something like this, I am an aspiring writer and it is obvious that you have written a story about the unique particulars of your culture, but you also write about universal things that apply to all people. I think I know how to write about my own experiences, but how do I write about the universal? His answer was interesting to me because I thought- oooh, I need to write down this tip, maybe I could also write a great world renowned novel. He said this and I paraphrase, “You can’t. You can only write about your reality, and if it take on universal qualities it is because the work took on a life of its own.” The poor little girl was likely disappointed in the answer because he couldn’t give her a formula. I’m sure she was, but haven’t we talked about this so often before? And of course musicians are the same way, a writer writes about what he knows and somehow I as a reader or a listener can identify with him/her- their reality touches me, although the setting may be totally different, somehow their world is also my reality. This is what Achebe wanted to communicate more than anything- the story of the Igbo is a human story- the reality of us all is present in Igboland. The relationships in the fictional Igbo community of Umuofia and Mbanta between groups with different pigmentation, between genders and between individuals are complex. And that is really one of the great advantages of novels as opposed to just lectures on culture or history, through novelistic discourse the author is not just telling us information, or explaining rules or models of social and political orders, we are getting someone’s unique perspective on them- an understanding of them. One example that makes me wonder is- What is it like to live in a polygamous society? The gender politics in this book are unapologetically masculine. Achebe doesn’t apologize for that; he isn’t sanctioning it really either as a preferred mode of existence. It’s just the reality. The story is told in the third person omniscient perspective. Things were the way they were. Well, in the case of the Igbo people specifically, it was important to Achebe for the world to understand the unique and deep cultural roots inherent in the way of life in this part of the the world. This is what the Europeans refused to see and understand when they arrived in Africa. The people of this land were not savages simply because they didn’t live or speak like European peoples. There was a culture, a deep culture, with a complex religious tradition, moral values, social structures, political structures, and meaningful recorded histories. As is so often the case with highly educated people even today, there was an arrogance of superiority to which Achebe responds- Just because you don’t see or understand something, doesn’t mean you are not looking straight at it. Goodness, I totally understand that. My very first teaching job right after college was teaching English to business men in Japan. I worked for a company called Interac in the town of Shizuoka. Anyway, after I first moved there, I looked around and saw a Kentucky Fried Chicken, a mall, a Denny’s restaurant, and I remember thinking. wow- well this place is just like the US just in a different language. A year later, I remembering that thought and thinking about how foolish it was. The culture of the United States and the culture of Japan are extremely different and the differences are historical, deep and multi-faceted. When I left Japan after living there only one year, I remember thinking, the only thing I really knew about Japan is that I don’t know almost anything about Japan. The main lesson I had learned over the year was humility. I had learned that so often did not understand what I was looking at. When I had entered classrooms at Mitsubishi or Pioneer and saw men and women interact with each other, I had misjudged the dynamics of the groups. When I had bowed to elders, I had done it all wrong. When I spoke, I had misused words, often accidentally disrespecting people I was trying to honor. I was seeing things and people, but I had often lacked the lens of cultural understanding to know what I was seeing and engage appropriately. And this is what Achebe wanted to do for Nigeria in particular, but in some sense for all of Africa. He wanted to give us a lens of cultural understanding- the metaphor would be a good pair of glasses so we can see clearer and understand what it is we’re looking at. Yes, we mentioned that Joseph Conrad was the one who really inspired him to write his first book, if inspiration is really the right word. A good place to start today, before we get into the text, I think is to start with Conrad’s famous book Heart of Darkness as Achebe’s piece, “An Image of Africa; Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness” in some ways is a rebuttal to it. I’m familiar with Conrad’s book, as many of us are, but I haven’t read it myself…yet. Sure, So in 1899, Joseph Conrad wrote a book that has since been considered one of the greatest works in the Western Canon. It has inspired great artists, like Ernest Hemingway, Francis Ford Coppola and it is even alluded to in popular tv series like Lost. Pretty much everyone who is serious about reading English language literature reads it. It explores colonization and imperialism for sure, but it’s not just a political book, it explores alienation and ultimately moral corruption. The reason it caught Achebe’s attention is because it takes place in the Belgian Congo. I do want to point out that the Belgium Congo is generally considered to be the most notorious European colony in Africa, known particularly for the colonizers immense greed and brutal treatment of native people. Exactly, and in the book, Conrad, just like Tolkien, uses the genre of a quest- but it’s kind of an ironic take on the quest – the idea is, and this is a total oversimplification, that “civilization” as the Europeans thought of themselves wasn’t as civilized as they fooled themselves into thinking. People are, in their essence, savage and cruel, as are the most “civilized” cultures- the idea being that at the individual level, the heart of man is deceitful, dark, and unknowable- hence the title- heart of darkness. It doesn’t seem that any of those ideas you just mentioned conflict with anything Achebe believes, and honestly, are similar to ideas in Things Fall Apart. True, it’s not those ideas that offended Achebe. It was the idea of making the native Africans the outward representation of savagery that he found offensive. Achebe’s passion-filled perspective is very interesting to read in its full context. I’ll put a link to Achebe’s essay on Conrad on our website with the Things Fall Apart listening guides if anyone wants to read the full essay. IAchebe often spoke his experience with reading Conrad’s book. It was his epiphany really that inspired his entire career. When he read the book the first time as a young student, he identified with the colonizers and saw himself as the man on the boat. He references it as the the seductive power of Conrad’s writing ability. However, when he read it again as an adult, he read it differently- by that point in his life he was a more developed scholar, a more critical thinker really, and that’s when it struck him- wait- I’m not on the boat, I’m one of the savages. I’m an African. I’m black. That’s when he made the controversial statement that the book is- and I quote- “an offensive and totally deplorable book where Conrad adopted the role of purveyor of comforting myths.”= those are his words. Well, I can certainly see where he’s coming from. For sure, When. Achebe reads Conrad, he is offended that native people are never given a voice- literally, they just grunt. He sees that local populations are dehumanized and degraded. They are seen as grotesque, howling mobs with no culture, no organizational systems, no human feelings of any kind really. And, of course, when I read Heart of Darkness, it’s really not deniable that what he says is absolutely the case. But the way you are phrasing all that, it makes me think you want to defend Conrad. Well, not me personally- and I’m not sure anyone disagrees with Achebe because his point in some ways isn’t arguable , but it’s also possible not the whole of it- I’ve also read other perspectives that also make sense and bring up other issues. Lewis Nkosi, another black playwright and critic is another interesting voice. He says this, “The conquest of the earth, which mostly means taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves is not a pretty thing when you look into it.” In other words, it’s a deeper, older and wider spread problem than just colonialism-human conquest is the story of humanity at large, which is also of course true. In 1899, when Heart of Darkness was published the world was a different place than in the 1950s when Achebe was reading it or even now in 2022. In 1899 barbaric conquests of people was more visible than how people conquer and control others today, but it’s naïve to think we’ve moved passed any of this. In general humans just relabel everything using words that we consider more progressive and palatable. No doubt, although there is a lot of evidence to support Conrad thought of himself as progressive and liberal. Today he doesn’t look that way. He would be called a racist, an anti-Semite nevermind a chauvinist- if we just want to name-call- and Achebe did want to. He called Conrad a “bloody racist.” Well, as I’ve said many times it is the arrogance of the present that dares us to think we are any different or especially more evolved than people of the past- it’s certainly self-righteous to try to censor others as morally inferior. But what’s so great about Achebe’s name-calling is that it serves a larger purpose- he’s not asserting personal superiority- he name-calls to draw attention to a conversation he wants to have- and feels the world should have. He is no way wants to cancel Conrad. He’s trying to do exactly the opposite- engage him directly. Achebe’s famous essay about Conrad sparked an amazing historical conversation- one that’s important to have. It never called for censorship of Conrad at all, and today the books are read together. Which is an incredible difference than the social media exchanges we see today, But that’s another conversation. There’s another reason I want to consider Achebe’s perspective on Heart of Darkness, and where I want us to start when we engage this book today. No matter Conrad’s personal attitudes towards native people- whether he was or wasn’t “a bloody racist’ to use Achebe’s term , what Conrad writes as he describes what his characters thought as they floated down the Congo river is most definitely an entirely plausible understanding of what a British traveler to the Congo would see and think in the year 1890. The descriptions ARE realistic. The Europeans DID see and interpret Africa through a European lens. What Conrad inspired Achebe to do is to give voices to those natives in Conrad’s book who were grunting and howling. The Europeans didn’t understand their words, so they interpreted them as grunts. The Europeans didn’t understand the rites of passages of the culture, the societal organizations that existed in Africa, so they assumed there were none. What Achebe does in Things Fall Apart is demonstrate the cultural equivalencies. And that is what I want us to notice as we read the book. Achebe is saying, you know how Europeans conduct justice; this is how we conduct justice. You know how Europeans arrange marriages, this is how we arrange marriages. You know how Europeans live in community, this is how we live in community. You know how Europeans worship God, this is how we worship God. What Achebe wants to do is open the eyes of the Europeans and really to the entire world to the complexity and order of the rural societies that seemed so mysterious. It’s also important that Achebe does NOT reduce Africa and Europe to a binary opposition. He never tries to make the case that Africa is all good, Europe is all bad. There are men who beat their wives in Africa just like there are in Britain. There are men who get depressed when their lives unravel in Africa just like there are in England. There are corrupt Europeans; there are corrupt Africans. There are missionaries that are good people- there are others that are ignorant; there are Africans that are wise people- but there are fools as well. Exactly- I like that- he doesn’t construct binaries- like Tolkien does. We don’t have orcs versus hobbits- one evil, the other good. Okonkwo as a character is extremely complex. He’s great but flawed. Things Fall Apart is not a parable. I would argue that both Heart of Darkness and TFA are paradoxical and in some of the same ways and make a lot of the same arguments. In Heart of Darkness, Mr. Kurtz, the white colonizer is actually a genius. He could have been a great musician or a political leader, but in the jungle by the end of the book, we see sheer inhumanity as he screams out, “Exterminate all the brutes.” He’s both hollow and full. He has no moral backbone and he disintegrates. In TFA, Okonkwo is a brave warrior, but he’s driven by fear. He could have a been a revered leader in his tribe. That’s what he wanted. But he’s unable to adapt- he’s also hollow and full but in a different way. We can admire him, but we can also pity him. He wants so much to be the epitome of manliness, but ironically he commits a female crime. What Conrad does is show how European values are subverted by African energies; Achebe shows how Africa is subverted by European energies. Both writers talk about about man’s inhumanity to man. I’m not sure I’d recommend either book for elementary or middle school children to read because they lay out some complicated moral issues that are further complicated one) because they cross-cultures but two) also because no culture is morally perfect in any sort of universally accepted sense- not even murder is universally wrong in all instances. True, and so Achebe introduces to us some of the complexities of Igbo culture. One of the fun parts of the book is learning about the culture. In this story, we’re Igbo- we’re inside the culture even if we are seeing it from the first time. His narrative style with this ambiguous third person narrator positions us inside the clan and not as an outsider- So, let’s get into some Igbo culture. Well, in terms of culture, I thought it was fun that Achebe starts with sports, the competitive Missouri boy in me liked that. Wrestling is to Igboland what football is to the West- be it American football or traditional football. How much manhood and hierarchy is established through sports? But more importantly than that- we should notice that unlike Conrad’s European observer who couldn’t understand anything he saw, we should immediately observe and understand that in Igbo society, there is also a very defined social structure. The village of Umuofia is one of nine villages in a clan. The clan lives in a state of equilibrium and relative harmony because of a governance code members follow and enforce. There are conflicts with other clans, but they are relatively small-scale- Okonkwo boasts at one point that they lost two men in a war but the other side lost twelve. These clashes however are important. How a man performs in these wars gives him prestige. In Okonkwo’s case he has taken several human heads in his career and even drinks from one of them. This gives him respect as a warrior, and village life is run by a merit-based system- not an inheritance-based system. The book states early on that in Igbo culture you are not judged by your family but by your own accomplishments. This, of course, is very different than the class system of Britain or other places in Europe, and something European readers would be quick to pay attention to. This is actually a highly sophisticated way of developing a social structure. To many of us today it seems way more fair than some people being positioned in society higher than others because of birth status or other forms of unmerited privilege. Another thing I notice pretty early on is the role of gender. Okonkwo assesses his own worth through a comparison of his masculinity with his father. A childhood friend told him his father was “agbala” another name for a woman- and that is meant to be a bad thing. Prestige and manliness seem to be the same thing- at least for Okonkwo. For Okonkwo, that becomes the entire basis of his fear- he doesn’t want to look like a girl- and this hyper-masculinism turns out not be a strength at all. It will lead him to behave in ways we, as readers, may find to be immoral, but also it is going to divide him and his son who isn’t interested in this kind of masculinity. It’s also important that Achebe leads us to understand that Okonkwo’s drive for extreme masculinity isn’t necessarily a value endorsed by the Igbo culture. One of Okonkwo’s friend’s, Obierika, who is very likable and wise, repeatedly counsels Okonkwo to be more balanced and later on when Okonkwo is exiled back to his mother’s homeland this lack of feminine balance is referenced specifically addressing him. Another very important cultural trait in the Igbo culture that is highlighted is the importance of titles. It becomes obvious over course of the book how important titles are. They are actually things you purchase- I have read one article that in some ways it redistributes wealth. But the idea is, as you get wealthier and wealthier you can afford to pay for them. You wear ankle bracelets to show that you have them, and they give you prestige. And of course, we have all these same things in Western culture as well, we pay for titles, we work for them, and the whole point of them is to give us prestige. The titles in this book seem strange to us because we are unfamiliar with them, but things like he’s the CEO or she’s a Dr. confer status in our world as well. Even things like, she’s verified on TikTok, or has a check mark on Twitter are all status symbols in our world that would seem very strange and insignificant to an outsider. And of course, we wear our titles in the forms of overpriced purses, overpriced cars, overpriced watches- all of these are ways to denote status. In Umuofia, there are only four, but they fourth one is so expensive it’s very rare for someone to have all of them. Just to give you a little context of how much a title costs, today, one of the titles mentioned in the book is the Ozo title. I am not an expert in Igbo culture in any way, but I thought I would Google how much that costs today- I saw a couple of figures but one was that a lower title can cost over $25,000. The point I want to make is that, ranking and status in Igbo society is something that you have control over if you work hard and establish yourself. It is not arbitrary, and we will see that in many ways as we go through the book. And of course, we understand that Okonkwo has to start at the bottom. He is born with no privilege of birth. The fact that Okonkwo’s father dies heavily in debt and has no titles is a source of shame, and building up status is a noble goal. Okonkwo, for the entire book, tries to build himself up in the most honorable way possible- following the norms of his society. Another big culture idea in chapter one is the important of the kola nut. I honestly didn’t realize kola as I read about it in the story is the same as cola as in coca-cola. Kola nuts are important among all Nigerian people even among Nigerian people who live in other parts of the world. Wherever the Igbo gather, the kola-nut is always used as a symbol of brotherhood and togetherness. Kola, of course is the fruit of the kola tree which is native to the tropical rainforest of Africa. But, as most of us know, one great thing about kola is the caffeine. Achebe points out very quickly the role of the kola in Igbo life- the Igbo believe that kola is life. For the Igbo Kola symbolizes peace. That’s why an Igbo man welcomes others in his home with a kola nut and a phrase which translates into English as, “he who brings kola, brings peace.” There are actually more than one types of kola, but that’s getting into the weeds maybe a little more than we have time for, but the important idea is that the kola has a social and even a ceremonial function in the culture and Achebe demonstrates this throughout the book. The breaking and eating of the kola nut is something we want to notice as we go through the story. The last big culture point I want to talk about before we talk story- because it shows up in many places is the importance of yams- the king of the crops. You can see, even if you know nothing about yams, that it serves as a sign of a man’s capability as a provider and manhood. Unoka, Okonkwo’s father is a bad yam farmer as well as lazy human being as we learn when the priestess tells him to “go home and work like a man.” We can also see that it’s a path to wealth, but what exactly is a yam? Are the ones here like sweet potatoes here in the US? Well, not exactly. Yams are a tuber kind of like a potato or a sweet potato but they have a different texture and are different in other ways as well, but that’s a good way to think of them if you have never seen one. They are a primary agricultural commodity across a lot of West and Central Africa, but honestly, and you can see this in the story as well, they are very labor intensive to cultivate- even to this day. They are planted between February and April and harvested 180 to 270 days later in August or September. They can get very large, and the stages of their growth actually mark the calendar. If you look at pictures from various Yam festivals across Africa, you’ll see some that can weigh over 100 lbs. Yam Festivals, like we see in Things Fall Apart, are also still a big part of Nigerian culture today. Christy, if you don’t mind, read this quote from Things Fall Apart. I think it demonstrates the celebratory nature of the festival and kind of reminds me of what we do around here on Thanksgiving and Christmas. “The pounded yam dish placed in front of the partakers of the festival was as big as a mountain. People had to eat their way through it all night and it was only during the following day when the pounded yam “mountain” had gone down that people on one side recognized and greeted their family members on the other side of the dish for the first time." You can see a lot of effort and energy associated with the festival. Children go through cleaning rituals, the streets are fixed up, guests come in, dances are prepared. It’s religious because it’s purpose is spiritual, but the spirituality is just one part of it. It does serve to thank the gods for the harvest, but it’s also designed to express gratitude to all of society for their part: friends, family as well as ancestors. It is also important to note that the goddess Ani, who is the earth goddess is also the judge of morality and conduct. Again, if we want to make a cultural comparsion to try to understand, here in our religious communities we do this same thing at Christmas- we thank God who also administers moral authority over our lives, but it’s also about family and friends. And of course in TFA, yams clearly symbolize success- wealth- power. The more barns you have containing yams, the richer you are as well. If you were a great man, you could feed your family from harvest to the next on yams. Okonkwo wanted to be a great man, so when his father died, he went to this man for a job. Let’s read this part. Now that we understand a little about yams and about the kola nuts, maybe we can understand a little more of the cultural context of this exchange. They drink palm wine too, but drinking wine together as a way of bonding is something most of us no matter where you live in the world understands. Read pages 18-22. And that is how he started out his career. To quote an Igbo proverb, “if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings.’ In other words, if a person works hard he can be successful. One of the core values of Igbo culture is definitely hard work. Another value of Igbo culture that we see is the art of conversation. I think it’s interesting that Achebe, even though he writes a short book, spends three pages on this one conversation. “Yes- and to quote another Igbo proverb- “Proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.” The art of conversation and then later on of oratory are extremely important in this society- ironically something Joseph Conrad’s characters completely misunderstood. Achebe once said in an interview that proverbs are both utilitarian as well as vignettes of art. This novel puts that on display pretty much on every page. Achebe tries to write in English but uses a lot of the writing phrases and ways that people express themselves using the Igbo speech patterns. This is super-complicated to do. What he is trying to do is use the English language, but strip it away of the entire cultural context of British or American cultures- take away the idioms or anything that would be foreign to Africa. How is that possible and still create meaning? It’s a challenge for sure, but using African idioms and proverbs was one important tool. By using a lot of proverbs in the text of the story, not only does it move along the story, but it makes Igbo logic easier for those of us who only speak English. It’s pretty incredible- although it feels so simple when you read it. You might not understand how intentional you would have to be to write like this. Another thing the proverbs do for me is help me to understand why things are important to the Igbo. It’s through the proverbs that we see that for the Igbo people- the most important values are things like generosity, duality, reciprocity, humility, industry and tolerance. They have little proverbs for all of those things. I know we’re going to talk about this when we talk about the colonists, but it’s interesting that because I’ve read so many proverbs at the beginning of the novel, I totally understand how these clashes in values leave the Igbo people at a disadvantage when dealing later with the British who in many ways take advantage of these values without reciprocating them. True- There is a lot more we could say about culture, and obviously we’re going to get into it every episode. We definitely want to feature religion as well as polygamy, but let’s shift gears and talk about Okonkwo again He definitely dominates the novel. Yes- Okonkwo IS the story and he’s such a complex human. Okonkwo isn’t a superhero or exceptional really. Okonkwo isn’t even a likeable person. Okonkwo is a flawed hero. He wrestles with issues with his father. He wrestles with being a father. He’s entirely relatable- all of us have something to identify with in this character. Maybe we know him. Maybe we are him- at least part of him. Okonkwo is such an interesting person- and it’s kind of surprising that Achebe was bold enough to make his hero so flawed when in some ways he wanted to demonstrate what was good about his home culture. I like understanding that Okonkwo is not held up as this archetypal image of what a perfect Igbo man is supposed to be. Achebe painted the portrait of a flawed man- not an ideal one. Although in some important ways, he does meet criteria of being great man. He’s self-made; he’s a warrior. He’s very dutiful to his community. He has integrity. There is certainly no one more hardworking than Okonkwo. But it’s the other things about him which of course ultimately make the story tragic. Okonkwo is rash. He’s impulsive- excessive. For a culture that is so bent on balance- there isn’t a lot balance about Okonkwo. He’s over the top in many ways- not just one. True and a lot of what he’s over the top about is negative- at least to me. He’s too rageful. This comes out of chapter 2, “Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand….page 13-resemble his father”. Then again in chapter 4 look what he does to his youngest wife…page 29…Okonkwo was provoked to justifiable anger…it was the sacred peace.”and then again in chapter 5…”and then the storm burst…he heaved a heavy sigh and went away with the gun.” Okonkwo flaws would get you in trouble in any culture. He is a warmonger; he’s a bully; he worries too much about what other people think of him. He’s haunted by fear. The characteristic that stands out more than all of these others is that he lives in mortal fear of being feminine. So true, this is one man that doesn’t want to be in tune with his feminine side at all. And, this may be the thing- more than any other thing- that dooms him. Although I know that’s debateable. At the beginning of chapter one, we find out about an ill-fated character named Ikemefuna. Ikemefuna is a hostage taken from a neighboring clan because of a death his father was directly involved with. He is sent to live in Umuofia and the clan has designated Okonkwo to be his guard. For three years he lives as one of the family; Okonkwo treats him as a son and raises him with his own son, Nwoye, who is two years younger than Ikemefuna. Nwoye and Ikemefuna became best friends. Okonkwo who never shows any emotion except anger likes him. The text says that Ikemefuna called Okonkwo father. Ikemefuna blends well with the family and the village, and it seems like this is how life would go for him until one year the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves pronounced that they should kill Ikemefuna. Ezeudu, the oldest man in that part of Umuofia was the one who approached Okonkwo and broke the news that the clan was going to kill the boy, but he told him that Okonkwo himself should have nothing to do with the killing because of his close relationship with the boy. The next day a group of elders from all nine villages that made up the clan came to Okonkwo. When Nwoye and Ikenefuna woke up Okonkwo lied to them and told them Ikemefuma was going home. Garry let’s read what happens as the men take Ikemefuma away to be murdered. Page 59- “Thus the men of Umuofia pursued their way, armed with sheathed machetes,…’ to the end of the chapter. It’s so sad. From a narrative perspective it’s interesting for a lot of ways- for one, as you can see Achebe cleverly shifts the perspective and instead of an outside objective observer, we get to see the world from inside Ikemefuna’s head. This technique helps build this emotional climax. The death of Ikemefuna is a turning point in the novel. The guardianship of Ikemefuna was a mark of Okonkwo’s high position in society- his rise to power. But his involvement in his killing is the beginning of the decline. I want to point out here is that we are led to empathize with Ikemefuna- we see his emotions something we haven’t seen much of before this part of the book. Why did Okonkwo murder a child he loved? One reason might be respect for the gods, but we just read where he beat his wife during the week of peace in defiance of the gods. So that doesn’t seem likely. What do we know about Okonkwo? He's rash and solves every problem with brute force. That’s really his go-to. You don’t see him engaging in a lot of dialogue. He’s unfeeling- even towards people he loves. For Okonkwo, words don’t matter, thinking almost doesn’t matter, violent action solves everything. Exactly, this murder scene is set up in direct opposition to this feast of the locust which Achebe cleverly uses as a way to mark an ironic change- let me show you how it’s working here . In the book of Exodus in the Bible, locusts are a plague and come down and destroy the land of the Egyptians, but that’s not what we have here. In this culture, it’s a good thing- although Achebe being raised a Christian and knowing he’s writing to a Western audience, deliberately plays around with this dual meaning of locust- the locust to the reader can foreshadow future descent of destruction and the irony is that the people don’t know it yet. The locust have descended on Umuofia and it’s a joyful thing. It’s free food. Everyone’s excited, drinking wine- and then all of a sudden we have this awful murder. Okonkwo’s rash action is set up against the Igbo culture of great rhetoric and festivity. . How important is dialogue in this culture- extremely. Proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten. Umuofia prides itself on its great rhetoric but not Okonkwo- he doesn’t solve things with words. Next episode, we’ll pick up here beginning in chapter 8 and discuss the after math of this death-filled action. Okonkwo has asserted his manliness, but at what cost? We’ll answer that question in the next episode as well as explore more of the culture and faith of the Igbo people as it clashes with the outside forces of Christianity and colonialism.