Okonkwo In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

In the book, Things Fall Apart, the author, Chinua Achebe, writes a story about a Okonkwo, a strong, wise, and influential leader within the Igbodo community of Umuofia in Eastern Nigeria. The genre of the work came from an excerpt which came from the novel. The excerpt from chapter seven is about, Ogbuefi Ezeudu, the oldest man of the village tells Okonkwo that Oracle has ordered that Ikemefuna must be killed. Later in the story, Okonkwo tells Ikemefuna that he has to go back home to Mbaino. While Ikemefuna is walking back towards his home, a group of guys attack Ikemefuna but in the end Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna with his own machete. The author builds tension throughout the passage by using the literary device of foreshadowing and shifting

When Nwoye, Okonkwo’s other son, tells his mother that Ikemefuna is returning home to see his family, the mother drops her pestle, folds her arms and sighs,”poor child”(line 44). This quote foreshadows that the boy is not going back home and that instead he is going to die. This quote is foreshadowing that something terrible is going to happen to Ikemefuna. Nwoye’s mother is in shock that she is receiving this news. Nwoye’s mother feels terrible of what she just heard from her son. Nwoye’s mother knows something about what is going to happen to Ikemefuna that Nwoye and Ikemefuna don’t. This builds tension because Nwoye’s mother knows what is going to happen of Ikemefuna’s future and that she also knows Ikemefuna is actually not going home and that Ikemefuna is going to be killed. Later, when Ikemefuna and the men of Umuofia are ready to leave the village, “a deathly silence descended on okonkwo’s compound”(line 53-54). It even seemed that the little children knew what was going on. This quote is foreshadowing that everybody in the clan knows that Ikemefuna is going to killed. We now know certain that Ikemefuna is going to be killed. Even the little children know that Ikemefuna is going to be killed. This quote helps up build up tension because it helps indicate that something horrific and terrible is going to happen to

In the beginning of the paragraph, the author uses cheerful and joyous tone when “Okonkwo sat in his obi crunching happily”(line 1) while drinking his his palm wine. Later, Ogbuefi Ezeudu, a great and fearless warrior in his time, creates a melancholy and heartbroken tone when Ogbuefi tells Okonkwo that the Umuofia village “has decided to kill”(line 16) Ikemefuna. The tone of the beginning passage changes from joyous, cheerful tone to a melancholy tone. In the beginning of the passage, Okonkwo is sitting, eating, and having a good time with Ikemefuna and Nwoye. Then, the tone shifts when Ogbuefi Ezeudu brings news that the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves have announced that Ikemefuna must be killed. This absolutely changes the tone because Okonkwo was happy and joyous in the beginning of the paragraph then when Okonkwo receives the news, Okonkwo shifts into melancholy and sorrow tone. This builds tension in the story because Okonkwo is starting to have a positive and heartwarming relationship with Ikemefuna, but Okonkwo can not have a relationship with Ikemefuna anymore because Ikemefuna is going to be killed. This illustrates that in Nigeria is not a peaceful country and that you can be killed without knowing. Towards the beginning of their journey, Ikemefuna and the men of Umuofia “talked and laughed about the locusts, about their women, and