Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Chunk 1)

In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Unoka, Okonkwo's father, is introduced as a trifling debtor who dies with a horrible reputation of an effeminate musician and a coward who frowned upon the sight of bloodshed from war. He also loved and respected the art of language. In attempt to rid himself of the embarassment his father's life invoked, Okonkwo marks his personality by engaging in wrestling matches and being the most respected warrior in the village. In the second chapter, Ogbuefi Ezeugo hosts a ceremony in which he informs the clan that the wife of a tribesman was murdered by a Mbaino villager and something needed to be done about it. Due to the fact that Okonkwo was the clan's strongest fighter, he is sent over to force the opposing tribe to trade a virgin woman and a young boy for peace between the two villages. When he returns, the virgin he brings is deliberated upon and the elders decide to give her to Ogbuefi Zeugo for a wife; and the boy is given to Okonkwo as a child to be protected and corrected. In this chapter the audience finds that Okonkwo is surely nothing like his father. He is so wealthy that he is financially stable enough to support eight children and three wives in three different huts. The audience also learns that Okonkwo's main fear is weakness. He believes his father was a weak man, and strongly wants to disassociate himself from anything that resembles his fathers ways. The irony of this picture is Okonkwo's son, Nwoye, seems to take many characterisitcs after Unoka. In doing so Okonkwo beats him in attempt to correct his effeminate and lazy ways.Luckily for both Okonkwo and Nwoye, Ikemefuna is taken in and begins to serve as a male role model for Nwoye. He begins to show him the less forceful side of masculinity and Nwoye starts to emulate most of Ikemefuna's actions. Even Okonkwo begins to fully accept Ikemefuna as a son, though he never risks his reputation to say, for the simple fact that he believes language and emotions symbolize weakness. During the Week of Peace, Okonkwo's youngest wife, Ojiugo, leaves the hut to get her hair braided without cooking dinner. Okonkwo, enraged at this point, finds her and merely beats her merciless. In this village, Week of Peace is valued to be a time of sacredness, and Okonkwo's behavior had destroyed that. The priest requested that Okonkwo sacrifice a goat, a hen and to pay a fine of 100 cowries in response to his actions. Okonkwo willingly followed through and then repented relentlessly. Throughout the next chapters of this chunk an oracle is revealed to Okonkwo about the murder of Ikemefuna. The messenger advises him not to take part in Ikemefuna's death because he calls him "father". Towards the end of this chunk Ikemefuna is set up to be killed, and Okonkwo's fear of being perceived as weak causes him to take part in his death, triggering the start of when things for Okonkwo fall apart.