Things Fall Apart Challenge Quiz

Things Fall Apart Challenge questions

The answers and an explanation for each question appear as you play, and on the answer-key page of the printout.

1. Why does Umuofia send an ultimatum to Mbaino instead of attacking at once?
   The dead woman's husband asked for payment instead · It fights only a war the Oracle has approved · Mbaino was far larger and better armed than Umuofia · Its warriors were away trading in distant markets
2. At a kindred meeting Okonkwo dismisses a man who holds no title as a woman. How does an elder rebuke him?
   By ordering him to pay a fine to the earth goddess · By reminding him that his own father held no title · With a proverb recalling that he too began humbly · By refusing to let him speak again at the meeting
3. What do the drums contribute to the wrestling scene?
   They warn the villages that a war party is gathering · They signal the arrival of the masked ancestral spirits · They mark the hours so that the contest can be timed · They give the match the pulse of the village's own life
4. Okonkwo's wives notice something about the second masked spirit but say nothing. What have they seen?
   It limps in the way Ogbuefi Ezeudu did · Its springy walk is their own husband's · Its voice is the priest Ezeani's own voice · It wears cloth taken from Okonkwo's barn
5. Why does Ekwefi follow the priestess into the hills at night?
   She cannot let Ezinma go beyond her sight · She suspects the priestess of meaning to sell the girl · She means to plead with Agbala on her own behalf · Okonkwo has ordered her to bring the child home
6. What is Uchendu's point in the story of Mother Kite?
   Strangers should be fed before they are questioned · A mother's first duty is to feed her own young · Silence in a stranger is more dangerous than threats · A clan must answer a raid with a raid of its own
7. What in the missionaries' first visit takes hold of Nwoye?
   The promise that converts would be given land · A hymn the missionaries sang at the end · The interpreter's offer to teach him to read · The white man's account of how the world was made
8. After the sacred python is killed, why does the clan shun the Christians rather than drive them out?
   It fears the soldiers who emptied Abame's market · Mr Kiaga agrees to punish the man responsible · It trusts the offended god to avenge itself · Uchendu persuades the elders that no snake died
9. What does the oldest guest at the farewell feast say he fears?
   That the young no longer value the bond of kinship · That the clan's farms will fail without more rain · That the white man's soldiers will reach Mbanta next · That the elders have grown too weak to judge cases
10. Why is Enoch's act during the earth goddess's ceremony so grave?
    It was done in front of the women of the clan · It interrupts a rite that may never be paused · It took place on ground sacred to the python god · Unmasking an egwugwu kills an ancestral spirit
11. What has the imprisonment done to Okonkwo by the time he comes home?
    Convinced him that Umuofia must come to terms · Broken his will to take part in the clan's affairs · Persuaded him to seek Obierika's counsel first · Left him set on vengeance whatever the clan decides
12. What does Obierika say to the Commissioner over the body?
    That the white man's rule drove a great man to this · That Okonkwo should have been given a fair trial · That the clan will pay any fine the court demands · That Okonkwo had been mad since his return home
13. What is the effect of the novel ending inside the Commissioner's thoughts?
    It leaves the reader unsure whether Okonkwo really died · A whole life shrinks to material for a stranger's book · It confirms that the clan welcomed the new government · It shows the Commissioner moved by what he has seen
14. Why does Nwoye find the mission easier to accept than his father's household?
    It promises him revenge on Okonkwo in time · It offers him land and a title of his own · It lets him go on hunting and wrestling as before · It answers questions his father forbade him to ask
15. Why does Ezinma matter so much to the portrait of Okonkwo?
    She is the only child who shares his contempt for Unoka · She persuades him to accept the missionaries' school · She shows the tenderness his code will not let him own · She inherits the titles he had intended for Nwoye

More Things Fall Apart practice: all Things Fall Apart quizzes · characters quiz · themes quiz · language & structure quiz

Original questions written for Pagine. This book is in copyright, so questions paraphrase rather than quote it.