What was obierikas reaction to the story

They also cannot see how God can have a son and not a wife. The missionaries then burst into evangelical song. Okonkwo thinks that these newcomers must be insane, but Nwoye is instantly captivated. He remains unwilling to admit to, or come to terms with, the feminine side of his personality.

Like Unoka, Uchendu reminds Okonkwo that he does not suffer alone. Uchendu laments the loss of five of his wives, openly expressing his strong attachment to the women who have shared his life and borne his children. Uchendu also values wisdom, intelligence, and experience in a wife. Each and every death has caused him pain.

Although we would not know it from Okonkwo, a father grieves for lost children just as a mother does. The introduction of the European missionaries is not presented as a tragic event—it even contains some comical elements. And the missionaries do not forcibly thrust Christianity on the villagers. Throughout Things Fall Apart, Igbo customs and social institutions emphasize the wisdom of seeking a peaceful solution to conflict before a violent solution. Achebe sets up, from the beginning of the novel, a system of images that accentuate both the dry land and the tense atmosphere in the village.

It begins to quench his thirst for answers that Igbo religion has not been able to provide him. Ace your assignments with our guide to Things Fall Apart! They did so and survived and became strong proponents of the faith. Describe the incident with the sacred python.

It was thought to be the emanation of the god of water. No one had ever even thought of killing it. One of the former outcasts now a Christian had allegedly killed the sacred python, although it was never proved. The elders decided to ostracize the Christians. Soon after this decision, the alleged killer died, and the clan agreed not to bother the other Christians.

What did Okonkwo do before he left Mbanta when his exile was ended? He was concered because they had let this strange religion start to break apart their clans. How did Okonkwo feel about his return to the clan?

What message did Okonkwo give to his sons and daughters after Nwoye left the family? He told his sons if they were going to be weak and follow Nwoye, they should do it while he was alive. If they turned against him after he died, he would return and break their necks.

He asked his daughters to wait until they returned to Umuofia to marry. Describe the changes that had come to Umuofia in the seven years that Okonkwo was in exile. The Christian church had many converts. The white men had brought a government and built a court.

Okonkwo asked Obierika why the people had lost their power to fight. He said that too many of their people had joined with the white men in their religion and in upholding their laws. The white men managed to divide the clans and they were falling apart.

How did many of the other villagers feel about these changes the white men brought? They liked the trading store and the resultant money that was coming into Umuofia. They were also starting to think that the religion had some substance. What was Mr. How did he act to gain converts? He decided a frontal attack would not work.

The elders of Abame consulted their Oracle, which told them that the white man would destroy their clan, and others were on their way, coming like locusts. Confronting the villagers, the white man seemed only to repeat a word like "Mbaino," perhaps the name of the village he was looking for.

They killed the white man and tied his bicycle to their sacred tree. Weeks later, three other white men and a group of natives — "ordinary men like us" — came to the village while most villagers were tending their farms.

After the visitors saw the bicycle on the tree, they left. Many weeks later, the whole clan was gathered at the Abame market and then surrounded by a large group of men; they shot and killed almost everyone. The village is now deserted. Okonkwo and Uchendu agree that the Abame villagers were foolish to kill a man about whom they knew nothing. They have heard stories about white men coming with guns and strong drink and taking slaves away across the sea, but they never believed the stories.

After their meal together, Obierika gives Okonkwo the money that he received for selling some of Okonkwo's yams and seed-yams. He promises to continue giving Okonkwo the profits until he returns to Umuofia — or until "green men [come] to our clan and shoot us.