![]() ![]() Pestle a tool, usually club-shaped, used to pound or grind substances in a mortar, or very hard bowl. Harbingers persons or things that come before to announce or give an indication of what follows heralds. Tie-tie a vine used like a rope from Pidgin English to tie. Achebe begins to show the boy's conflicting emotions he is torn between being a fiercely masculine and physically strong person to please his father and allowing himself to cherish values and feelings that Okonkwo considers feminine and weak.Įneke-nti-oba a bird that flies endlessly.Įntrails the inner organs of humans or animals specifically, the intestines viscera guts. This deep abyss between Okonkwo's divided selves accounts for the beginning of his decline.įor the first time in the novel, Okonkwo's son, Nwoye, emerges as a major character who, in contrast to his father, questions the long-standing customs of the clan. Okonkwo has not only outwardly disregarded his people and their traditions, but he has also disregarded his inner feelings of love and protectiveness. Okonkwo participates in the ceremony for sacrificing the boy after being strongly discouraged, and he delivers the death blow because he is "afraid of being thought weak." At a deep, emotional level, Okonkwo kills a boy who "could hardly imagine that Okonkwo was not his real father" - someone whom Okonkwo truly loves as a son. The murder scene is a turning point in the novel. These elements combined suggest that the murder of Ikemefuna is senseless, even if the killing is in accordance with the Oracle and village decisions. Before dying, Ikemefuna thinks of Okonkwo as his "real father" and of what he wants to tell his mother, especially about Okonkwo. In Chapter 2, the author comments that the fate of Ikemefuna is a "sad story" that is "still told in Umuofia unto this day." This observation suggests that the decision to kill Ikemefuna was not a customary one.
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