Things Fall Apart Chapter 5 Summary

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Recommended: Uniqueness of Nigerian culture

Chapter five provides important information on Ekwefi’s past and a tradition (the yam festival) that has been going on for decades. The chapter begins with it being three days before the Feast of the New Yam in which basically means everyone is excited. Okonkwo and his family are preparing for the holiday feast, and Okonkwo is going to invite the families of his three wives. He doesn’t feel excited, he wants to be working on his farm, this is saying he is a workaholic. Okonkwo’s three wives prepare for the festival and feast by cleaning, repainting, and spend time making minor adjustments to themselves and the children with paint and hairdos. Okonkwo can not deal his bad mood and takes it out on his second wife, Ekwefi, he accuses her of killing a banana tree, although the tree is not dead. Okonkwo beats her then tries to shoot her after she makes a comment about his shooting skills. No one else says anything since they are all scared. Although Okonkwo scares everyone the feast for the first day they have goes okay. On the second day is the wrestling match, readers also learn a bit about Ekwefi’s past. Ekwefi enjoys wrestling, she fell in love with Okonkwo during the opening match of the book, when he threw the …show more content…

Ikemefuna and the first wife’s other children come marching in with dinner pots, but Obiageli has no pot and is crying, she broke her pot while showing off to the other children. She did this while trying to pretend she was a grown woman and carry the pot on her head. Although, the young girl creates a fib that turns out to be a sad story to tell Okonkwo’s first wife. Ezinma brings Okonkwo the dinner dish that Ekwefi made. Obiageli brings food that her mother prepared, and finally Nkechi (a daughter of Okonkwo’s third wife) brings another dish. Chapter 5 is important since it provides deeper information on the village’s

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