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Things Fall Apart
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==Plot== Okonkwo is a famous man in the village of Umuofia. He is a wrestling champion and leader of a clan. He strives to be the opposite of his father Unoka, who was an indolent debtor unable to support his wife or children, preferring flute-playing over struggling for success. Okonkwo works hard from a young age to build fame and wealth all on his own. Obsessed with manly strength and discipline, he often beats his wives and children. Okonkwo is selected by the elders to be the guardian of Ikemefuna, a boy who was taken as a peace settlement between Umuofia and another clan after Ikemefuna's father killed a woman from Umuofia. The boy looks up to Okonkwo as his second father. The [[Oracle]] of Umuofia eventually pronounces that the boy must be killed. Ezeudu, the village elder, warns Okonkwo to stay away from the killing, but he brushes off the warning and carries out the grim task. After killing Ikemefuna, Okonkwo feels haunted by sadness and nightmares. During a gun salute at Ezeudu's funeral, Okonkwo's gun accidentally explodes and kills Ezeudu's son. He and his family are exiled for seven years to his motherland, Mbanta, as required to appease the gods. While Okonkwo is in Mbanta, he learns that the white men are living in Umuofia with the intent of introducing their religion, [[Christianity]]. As the number of converts increases, the foothold of the white people grows and a new government is introduced. The village is forced to accept or oppose the imposition of the white people's nascent society. Okonkwo's son Nwoye becomes curious about the missionaries, and after he is beaten by his father for the last time, he decides to leave his family to live independently. Nwoye is introduced to the new religion by a missionary, Mr. Brown. In the last year of his exile, Okonkwo instructs his best friend Obierika to sell all of his yams and hire two men to build him two huts so he can have a house to go back to with his family. He also holds a great feast for his mother's kinsmen. Returning from Mbanta, Okonkwo finds his village changed by the presence of the white men. After a convert commits the crime of unmasking an elder as he embodies an ancestral spirit of the clan, the village retaliates by destroying a local Christian church. In response, the District Commissioner representing the colonial government takes Okonkwo and several other native leaders prisoner pending payment of a fine of two hundred bags of cowries. Despite the District Commissioner's instructions to treat the leaders of Umuofia with respect, the native "court messengers" humiliate them, shaving their heads and whipping them. Outraged, the people of Umuofia finally gather for an uprising. Okonkwo, being a warrior by nature and adamant about following Umuofian custom and tradition, despises all cowardice and advocates war. When messengers of the white government try to stop the meeting, Okonkwo beheads one of them. Because the crowd allows the other messengers to escape and does not fight alongside Okonkwo, he realizes with despair that the people of Umuofia will not fight to protect themselves. The result of this is that when the District Commissioner, Gregory Irwin, comes to Okonkwo's house to take him to court, he finds that Okonkwo killed himself because he saw he was fighting the battle alone and his tribe had given up. Among his own people, Okonkwo's actions have tarnished his reputation and status, as it is strictly against the teachings of the [[Igbo people|Igbo]] to commit suicide. Obierika struggles not to break down as he laments Okonkwo's death. As Irwin and his men prepare to bury Okonkwo, Irwin muses that Okonkwo's death will make an interesting chapter for his written book, ''The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger''.
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