Analysis of Things Fall Apart Based on Chapters 11-25

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Recommended: Religion and its impact on society

Ekwefi and Ezinma relationship is more like one between sisters rather than between mother and daughter. Ekwefi receives a great deal of comfort and companionship from her daughter. Ekwefi loves and respects her daughter for lots women’s having a child is the crown achievement of their life, this is not a attitude of a savage women. It’s a universal trait that can be relative around the word regardless of ones social label placed on them. The mutually supportive between Okonkwo’s wives the kinship; female bonding and protecting each other from Okonkwo’s wrath is present like it would be to this day in modern society. This is taken to the extreme when Chielo takes Ezinma sickness into her own hands by taken her from Ekwefi to the medicine doctor in the caves to find a lasting cure for Ekwefi life long health problems. Both Ekwefi and Okonkwo do not stop Chielo’s authority to take Ekwefi. Chielo is the only woman that can stand up against Okonkwo knows he has to obey her words. Okonkwo shows that his ancestry customs trump his personal views, even if it’s a women carrying out those roles. It also shows that when it comes to maternal love Ekwefi is braver than Okonkwo but he makes up an excuse why he did not follow after Chielo from the beginning as being the defender of his family.
The decision to follow Chielo is a hard one for Ekwefi, whose fear of the possible repercussions of disobeying her shows that Chielo’s role as a priestess is taken seriously—it is not just ceremonial. But the love Ekwefi and Okonkwo have for their only child together Ezinma is strong enough that they are willing to defy religious authority. Although Ekwefi has lost children in the past, she has been made stronger by the suffering, and when she fol...

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...to make a decision about the next step towards war with the white men they are approached again they are challenged. Okonkwo’s temper gets the best of him and kills the three men and allows the rest to escape. He flees the area and is found hanging in his compound. I find it ironic that he ends up the same way his father did, a rejected figure of his clan to be left in the jungle unburied and disgraced among his people. He did not think before he acted and tried to force a war that might have destroyed everyone in his clan. I a twisted way I believe that he saved them by hanging himself, this way all the blame could be placed on Okonkwo and not on the clan. I ask myself what will happen to his wives and their children? Okonkwo compound and his crop of yam will most likely be destroyed.

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor Books, 1994.

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