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Things Fall Apart

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New Insight Into the Culture Things Fall Apart gave me a new perspective on the life of Africans before and during European colonization. I could relate to the life of Okonkwo and gained new insight on him when he shot at his second wife, Ekwefi. Okonkwo's fit of rage lead him to be impulsive and this was something I could relate to. I did not understand why anybody would listen to the Oracle but when he called for Ikemefuna to be killed I finally understood his significance, it gave me new insight into their culture.
One thing about the book that was a mirror for me was Okonkwo’s impulsiveness.In Chapter 5 Okonkwo’s second wife Ekwefi, made fun of Okonkwo’s shooting skills. Okonkwo became very upset and shot at her trying to prove he had a good shot. Okonkwo did this in a fit of rage and immediately regretted it.
“He …show more content…

In today's 21st century world if someone claiming to be an oracle told my community that we needed to kill somebody as a religious sacrifice nobody would listen to them and would act with reason and not kill the person. I could never understand why people listened to everything an oracle would say and thought lesser of people for listening to them. Things Fall Apart gave me new insight on why people from this time period would listen to them. The people of Umuofia during the 1890’s were not well educated in science and modern reason so most things were explained in supernatural ways. This is evident when Ezinma gets sick and it is said that the reason she is sick is because she is an Ogbanje, a kid possessed by an evil spirit that kills the children of one mother.
“After the death of Ekwefi's second child, Okonkwo had gone to a medicine man, who was also a diviner of the Afa Oracle, to enquire what was amiss. This man told him that the child was an ogbanje, one of those wicked children who, when they died, entered their mothers' wombs to be born again.”

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