(Chpt 2) In what ways does Okonkwo over compensate for his father’s weaknesses?

1. (Chpt 2) In what ways does Okonkwo over compensate for his father’s weaknesses? • His whole life is dominated by fear, fear of failure and weakness. • This fear was deeper than fear of evil, gods and magic, forest, forces of nature. • It was a fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father. • He resented his father’s failure and weakness. • He was ruled by one passion – to hate everything his father Unoka had loved. One of these things was gentleness and another was idleness.

2. (Chpt 2) How is he presented? • As a result, he works very hard – from dawn to dusk. • He works to take titles and to be prosperous. • He has three wives and a well laid-out compound. • He ruled the household with a heavy hand and with fear. • Women and children cowered with in reaction to his quick and hot temper.

3. Why does he dislike Nwoye so much? • Afraid that Nwoye would show the ‘incipient laziness’ that he so abhorred. • Afraid that Nwoye may show signs of the weakness and gentleness of his grandfather, Unoka.

4. How does share-cropping work? • Farmer approaches another to get seeds. • Farmer gets one third of the harvest. • The rest of the harvest returns to the other farmer. • Gives farmers who have no seeds/ or poor a chance to start building up their own barn. • The other farmer gets to profit from the farmer’s toil. But may lose his seeds if the farmer does not produce a harvest.

5. What are the important crops?What are the male and female designated crops? Why? • Yam was the king of crops and was a man’s crop. • Yam took a lot of hard work “three to four moons” of hard work. • It required constant attention from dawn to dusk. Need to protect from earth-heat with rings of sisal leaves. Then they were staked with little sticks, then tall, big tree branches. Three times at definite times, the farm was weeded by the women. • Female designated crops were coco-yams, beans, maize and melons.

6. What does Chika’s power and status in Umuofia suggest about women’s roles in Igbo culture and religious beliefs? • While women are seen as the weaker sex, they are not above superstitious or religious beliefs. • Agbala’s priests have always been women. Chika in Unoka’s time, and Chielo in Okonkwo’s time. • These priestesses have ordinary lives but once in the caves of the Oracle, they are feared and their words are trusted as that of the Oracle.

7. How is awareness of rank observed in the drinking of the palm-wine? • Youngest in the group of men will pour the palm-wine for others. • The first cup must go to the one who brought the wine. • Then the group drinks, eldest man first. • Then the women drink, First wife first, then in order of rank.

8. What do we learn about the status of women from the ceremony of drinking palm-wine? • Women drink after men. In all things, women are second to men in rank. (except in the role of the priestess of Agbala). • There are ranks within the groups of women as well. Age is respected. First wives are of the highest rank.

9. How important was Agbala to the people of Umuofia? • Its advice / counsel was consulted in all matters of everyday living. • People came from near and far to consult it. • They came when they suffered misfortune, or had a dispute with neighbours, they came to discover their future or consult spirits of their dead fathers which they sometimes saw vaguely in the darkness of the cave. • Anyone who visited the shrine came out with ‘fear of his power’

10. What do we learn about burial customs in Umuofia? • Those who are afflicted with abdominal swelling is seen as an abomination to the earth goddess. • When a man is afflicted with swelling in the stomach and limbs, he is not allowed to die in the house. He is carried to the Evil Forest and left there to die. • Because the illness is an abomination to the earth, the afflicted person cannot be buried in the earth. He died and rotted above the earth and not given first nor second burial.

11. Why do you think Achebe introduces but does not fully explain Igbo customs, rituals and ceremonies? • He lays down the facts, in a non-judgmental way. • These are part and parcel of Igbo life and just as Western writers don’t fully explain western customs and ceremonies, Achebe does not do so for his novel.

12. What do we learn about Okonkwo from his visit to Nwakibie • He is determined and willing to work hard, as share-cropping is a slow way to build wealth. • He is self-aware and self-confident. He knows what he is capable of. • He is eloquent in asking for help from Nwakibie. • He already has the reputation and looks of someone who can succeed which is why Nwakibie gives him 800 yams, 400 more than Okonkwo had expected.

13. What do we learn about Okonkwo in how he reacts to the drought and flood? • Perseveres through it all and never gives up. • Works hard to protect the yams with sisal leaves. • He knew he had an ‘inflexible will’.

14. He is lazy. He is known for his weakness of ‘matchet’ and ‘hoe’. He sows his yams ‘on exhausted farms that take no labour to clear’; he stays at home and offers sacrifices to a reluctant soil while others cross seven rivers to make their farms. What was the reason for Unoka’s lack of success in farming?

15. What is the significance of Unoka’s words to Okonkwo at the end of the chapter? “A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone.” Foreshadows Okonkwo’s sad end where he felt he alone was holding up the traditions of Umuofia against the tide of the white man’s conquest.