Achebe Pt 2

There are three distinct parts of this book both marked and unmarked, they correspond as the first part of most of the life of Okonkwo, when his family is exiled, and when the family moves back to Omuofia after their exiled years are over. During their exile, the missionaries infiltrate the town of Mbanta and when they return to Omuofia, they are found their too. The chapters had changed from how they were organized in the beginning of the book; at first they were as we had discussed in class “episodic” and once the missionaries moved in, the writing was less so. There was more speaking mentioned, but had to be between the Igbo and the missionaries because they obviously didn’t speak the same language. The lack of “speaking” in the first parts of this book let me to believe that they did not mention the speaking as much because the people of the group had known the customs and knew what to do.

I also was a little bit confused with the ending, which seemed so sudden of Okonkwo’s death. Did he realize that their lives were going to be permeated by the missionaries and it was such a crushing thought that he would rather not be part of that future? Was it part of one of their customs, which seemed opposite of what his people said that suicide was an abomination. Achebe seemed to build the story of Okonkwo and his life with much more gusto in the beginning but his immediate death was so unlike the beginning writing.