Things fall apart (part 3) Summaries

Chapter 20

• since Okonkwo was exiles he has been thinking of what he will do when he returns to Umuofia, he wants to get 2 more wives and make Ezinma and her other daughter Obiageli to marry which were persuaded to stay single until they were back in Umuofia. He wants to get titles for his sons and although Nwoye isn’t there anymore he has passed on through that. Okonkwo and Okierika discuss of how Umuofia has changed during his exile, Okonkwo realized. Many people had taken the ways of the Christians making families distant from each other and making it harder for the people of the clan to make the white men flee. They end sitting in silence.

Chapter 21

• White men's power and influence over the villages has increased and natives have been getting angrier and angrier withe time. Mr. Brown a white missioner often meets with one of the leaders of the clan Akunna, he explains that although they may worship many gods there is only one high god named Chukwu and the rest are his messengers, they talk about how worshiping wooden gods is illogical at Brown's point of view but Akunna refutes what he says by telling that although there is only one god, he made the wood that made the wooden gods. Both of them end comprehending each other’s beliefs though not converting each other. Brown builds a church and a school begging the natives to send their kids so men who know how to read and write won’t take advantages of them and people follow. Okonkwo receives a visit from Brown to inform him that Nwoye has gone to school to become a teacher, Okonkwo scares him away using threats. Brown leaves and then he begins getting ill making going away from Africa the only option for him.

Chapter 22

• Brown gets replaced by Reverend James Smith who is strict man and wants everyone to follow his rules and practice Christianism without doubting anything. A convert man named Enoch likes the idea of a not restraining policy and unmasks an Egwugwu at the annual ceremony which is the worst crime a man can do in the tribe due to the fact that ot was the same as killing an ancestral spirit. As revenge the Egwugwu burn Enoch's compound and then go to the church where Smith and the Christians are gathered. They want to burn the church as a vengeance for what Enoch did. Smith tells them that he forbids them from touching the church but he's translator tells that smith demands the matter left in his hands. Smith can’t save the church and only watches as it is burn to the ground.

Chapter 23

• Okonkwo regains a little bit of power and becomes a little bit happy although the people didn’t send the Christians away or worse killed them. The people begin to guard themselves with their guns and machetes in case something happens. The district commissioner request the presence of the leaders of Umuofia without their weapons, he talks to them as friends to settle the church problem but when they lower their guard, some soldiers surprise them and handcuff them and they are sent to jail for days where they are very bad treated and insulted. The way to bail them out of jail is if the townspeople pay 200 bags of cowries and when the messenger is sent to collect the cowries he collects 250, making 50 for his personal use and the other messengers the town crier announces an emergency meeting and the next morning the town decides to collect the cowries.

Chapter 24

• The prisoners return and due to how they look at people no one even greets them, Okonkwo goes to his compound and there Enzima makes him some food which he eats only to please her and with Okierika they notice Okonkwo has Whip marks in his back. There is announced another town meeting which everyone attends. Okonkwo sleeps very little imagining what actions will the people make due to the situation. When they arrive Okonkwo thinks the clan will make a war out of all of this due to the fact that there were enormous amounts of people. The meeting starts and not long after this 5 court messengers arrive and when one of them begins to talk Okonkwo kills him with two blows of his machete. Then people wonder why he did that, which is when Okonkwo knows that Umuofia won’t enter war as he thought Okonkwo leaves.

Chapter 25

• The district commissioner arrives at Okonkwo's compound and asks for him, Obierika with other men who gathered outside tell him that Okonkwo isn't there and after the commissioners threatens the men Okierika agrees to take him where Okonkwo is, he leads the commissioner behind some bushes where behind it, on a tree, the corpse of Okonkwo hangs from a branch. He killed himself and asks the Commissioner if he could help them to get him down and bury him because it was in their traditions that they couldn’t do it. The commissioners sends a man to get the corpse down and he begins to thinks the story of the man who killed a messenger and then killed himself would make a good short story for a book.