Assignment Two: Things Fall Apart

What passages strike you as insightful, even profound? Perhaps a bit of dialog that's funny or poignant...or encapsulates a character? Maybe comments that state the book's thematic concerns?


After Okonkwo is banished from his village for accidentally killing a fellow clansman, he migrates to the village in which his mother was born.  When he gets there his relatives notice that he is bitter about his exile.  The day after a wedding ceremony his uncle asks him if he knows the value of a mother and receives no answer.  He calls Okonkwo a child and then explains,

"It's true that a child belongs to its father. But when a father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in its mother's hut.  A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland. Your mother is there to protect you.  She is buried [here]. And that is why we say that mother is supreme. Is it right that you, Okonkwo, should bring to your mother a heavy face and refuse to be comforted? Be careful that you may displease the dead." (Page 124)

 I really liked that Chinua Achebe chose to reveal maternal importance to Okonkwo, who spends most of the book concerned with his father.  Okonkwo is often concerned with his wives being too nice to their sons. He criticizes them for telling stories that he declares useless to men.  He spends a great amount of time worshiping his male ancestors but never offers a sacrifice to his mother. This passage left me thinking of my own mother and those of my friends.