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Quiz about Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Quiz about Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

"Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe Quiz


This classic of world literature tells the story of a West African village both before and during its colonization by the British in the 1890s. This quiz will try to highlight some of the novel's major points.

A multiple-choice quiz by stuthehistoryguy. Estimated time: 6 mins.
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Time
6 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
202,809
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
7 / 10
Plays
995
Awards
Top 35% Quiz
Last 3 plays: Guest 157 (0/10), Guest 71 (9/10), Guest 99 (10/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. The main character of "Things Fall Apart", the proud and tempestuous Okonkwo, is defined early in the novel by his relationship with his father, Unoka. Which of these best describes this relationship? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Throughout the book, an unusual currency is used for most transactions. What is this unlikely coin of the realm? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. The main political unit in "Things Fall Apart" is the alliance of "nine villages", including Okonkwo's village of Umuofia. Following the murder of one of Umuofia's women (identified in the text only as "Udo's wife"), Okonkwo negotiates a peace with Umuofia's enemies, wherein they will send Udo a virgin as compensation and give up one of their young boys as well. The boy, Ikemefuna, becomes a part of Okonkwo's household, even calling Okonkwo "father". What ends up happening to Ikemefuna? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. In Chapter 8, Okonkwo is having a discussion with several of his village's men. One of them, Obierika, remarks that in two other villages (Abame and Aninta) titled men climb trees and pound food for their wives, tasks seen as women's work in Umuofia. Okonkwo replies that in some tribes the children belong to the wife and her family, a proposition a third man, Machi, dismisses as ludicrous. Obierika concludes this discussion with a tall tale he has heard, that there are ___________. Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. Chapter 13 sees Okonkwo banished from Umuofia for killing someone. What were the circumstances of this homicide? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. The first British evangelist in the area, Mr. Brown, callously disregards local customs, learning nothing of Umuofia's traditional spirituality while imposing his own. Fittingly, his church collapses, a victim of the spirits in Umuofia's taboo area, the "evil forest".


Question 7 of 10
7. Mr. Brown is succeeded by Mr. Smith, who, in contrast to Brown, is much more open and understanding, making much greater allowance for native customs.


Question 8 of 10
8. A recurrent motif of "Things Fall Apart" is the assumption of divine roles by the worthy men of the village. These men wear masks representing figures like the evil forest and the tree spirit, and take the collective title "egwugwu". At the annual feast of the Earth deity, a Christian convert named Enoch shows his disregard for the egwugwu by ripping off one of their masks. How do they egwugwu retaliate for this offense? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. After various legal struggles with the British administration, including the capture of several of Umuofia's leaders (including Okonkwo) and the leveling of heavy fines, a meeting is called in the marketplace to organize opposition to these depredations. Five British court messengers arrive to break up this assembly. What action does Okonkwo take? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. The novel concludes with the British District Commissioner contemplating Okonkwo's life, remarking to himself that it would make for a fascinating paragraph in his upcoming book: "The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger".



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Most Recent Scores
Nov 12 2024 : Guest 157: 0/10
Oct 22 2024 : Guest 71: 9/10
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quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. The main character of "Things Fall Apart", the proud and tempestuous Okonkwo, is defined early in the novel by his relationship with his father, Unoka. Which of these best describes this relationship?

Answer: Okonkwo is embarrassed by the lazy Unoka, who is widely considered a failure

In Chapter 3, Unoka goes to an oracle to ask why his harvests have always been so poor and why he has been so unlucky. Angrily, the oracle replies that Unoka is lazy, not unlucky. Instead of journeying far and wide to cultivate virgin fields like his better-off neighbors, Unoka has stayed close to home and plowed exhausted land. Okonkwo's drive throughout the rest of the novel can be largely attributed to his resolve to redeem himself for the sin of being Unoka's son.
2. Throughout the book, an unusual currency is used for most transactions. What is this unlikely coin of the realm?

Answer: Cowries

Cowries are small, hard shells originally carried by British ships as ballast when sailing back to England from India. During the slave trade, these shells gradually came to be used as currency in West Africa. In the period after that in which the novel is set, the British Administration gradually converted its African colonies to the pound sterling.

The rate of exchange between the pound and the cowrie was so poor that new forms of British currency (including the 1/10 penny) had to be introduced.
3. The main political unit in "Things Fall Apart" is the alliance of "nine villages", including Okonkwo's village of Umuofia. Following the murder of one of Umuofia's women (identified in the text only as "Udo's wife"), Okonkwo negotiates a peace with Umuofia's enemies, wherein they will send Udo a virgin as compensation and give up one of their young boys as well. The boy, Ikemefuna, becomes a part of Okonkwo's household, even calling Okonkwo "father". What ends up happening to Ikemefuna?

Answer: The Oracle decrees that he must die, and Okonkwo kills him

Okonkwo is repeatedly cautioned to have no part in the killing, but he goes along with the death party out of a sense of commitment to tradition, eventually landing the death blow. The significance of this plot point is debatable; it is perhaps most telling that Ikemefuna's death causes Okonkwo's son (perhaps representative of the new generation) to question the brutality of some of their native traditions, including the abandonment of twins to die in the "evil forest".
4. In Chapter 8, Okonkwo is having a discussion with several of his village's men. One of them, Obierika, remarks that in two other villages (Abame and Aninta) titled men climb trees and pound food for their wives, tasks seen as women's work in Umuofia. Okonkwo replies that in some tribes the children belong to the wife and her family, a proposition a third man, Machi, dismisses as ludicrous. Obierika concludes this discussion with a tall tale he has heard, that there are ___________.

Answer: white men, "white like this piece of chalk", who have no toes

In teaching "Things Fall Apart", one idea that many of my students have come away with is that precolonial Africans thought that their way was the only way to do things, and that cultures alien to them did not exist. In this passage, Achebe demonstrates that his characters do have some grasp of diversity, including the concept of matrilineal descent common to many African cultures, even though these characters doubt that such creatures as "white men" exist.

As Okonkwo puts it, "the world is large".
5. Chapter 13 sees Okonkwo banished from Umuofia for killing someone. What were the circumstances of this homicide?

Answer: Firing off a gun at the funeral of village elder Ezeudu to celebrate his great life, Okonkwo accidentally kills Ezeudu's son

Perplexingly, it is not a bullet that does the killing; a piece of metal flies off the gun's carbine, hitting the boy in the heart. Though there is no British involvement in this episode, the "British revenge" scenario is played out in Chapter 15, which sees the British massacre a whole village for the death of one missionary.
6. The first British evangelist in the area, Mr. Brown, callously disregards local customs, learning nothing of Umuofia's traditional spirituality while imposing his own. Fittingly, his church collapses, a victim of the spirits in Umuofia's taboo area, the "evil forest".

Answer: False

This disregard is another of the curious ideas my students seemed to carry away from a cursory reading of this novel. In fact, Mr. Brown becomes very knowledgeable regarding the local religion and customs, debating things like the nature of god with the elders of Umuofia in Chapter 21. Edward Said's book, "Orientalism", extrapolates on how many Europeans made great studies of the areas they colonized, using this knowledge, according to Said, as a tool in their domination of the colonial peoples. Further, though Brown does build his church in the evil forest, the church actually flourishes, frustrating the village elders who felt sure that the evil forest would bring it down.
7. Mr. Brown is succeeded by Mr. Smith, who, in contrast to Brown, is much more open and understanding, making much greater allowance for native customs.

Answer: False

Quite the opposite is true. Smith is disgusted by Brown's loose interpretation of Christianity, observing that many of his "converts" are unfamiliar with church orthodoxy. He condemns many native practices, including the ritual mutilation of babies born to women whose previous child had been stillborn, as "work of the devil".
8. A recurrent motif of "Things Fall Apart" is the assumption of divine roles by the worthy men of the village. These men wear masks representing figures like the evil forest and the tree spirit, and take the collective title "egwugwu". At the annual feast of the Earth deity, a Christian convert named Enoch shows his disregard for the egwugwu by ripping off one of their masks. How do they egwugwu retaliate for this offense?

Answer: They burn down Enoch's compound and the church

Interestingly enough, Achebe portrays Smith in what could be called a positive light throughout this tribulation. Though his instinct is to bolt the scene, he remains in the church and tries to defend it, albeit nonviolently. (It may be important to note that this book was written in 1959 while Martin Luther King was leading nonviolent civil right marches in the United States, though I am unaware of any scholarship suggesting that Achebe had this on his mind when describing Smith's actions.)
9. After various legal struggles with the British administration, including the capture of several of Umuofia's leaders (including Okonkwo) and the leveling of heavy fines, a meeting is called in the marketplace to organize opposition to these depredations. Five British court messengers arrive to break up this assembly. What action does Okonkwo take?

Answer: He kills one of the court messengers, but his people allow the others to escape

Realizing that his people will not resist the British, Okonkwo walks away in silence. When the District Commissioner arrives the next day with soldiers, Okonkwo has hung himself.
10. The novel concludes with the British District Commissioner contemplating Okonkwo's life, remarking to himself that it would make for a fascinating paragraph in his upcoming book: "The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger".

Answer: True

At the turn of the century, during the apex of the "scramble for Africa" and the height of European colonial power worldwide, colonial administrators wrote numerous studies with titles just as dispassionate as this, including "Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula" by Walter Skeat and "The Lower Niger and Its Tribes" by Arthur Leonard, both from 1906. These books do offer a wealth of data about native customs, but may reveal even more about the attitudes of the Europeans toward their colonial "subjects".

Thank you very much for playing. I hope you enjoyed the quiz. If you have any questions, comments, corrections, or requests for clarification, please let me know!
Source: Author stuthehistoryguy

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