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Things Fall Apart and The Novelist as a Teacher

Q&Answers are copyrighted to springline, Under the Copyright Act


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1. Things Fall Apart is the debut novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, first published in 1958.It is seen as the archetypal modern African novel in English, and one of the first to receive global critical acclaim. The novel was first published in the UK in ____?

A:) 1962

B:) 1963

C:) 1964

D:) 1965

springline- Correct option: A:) 1962


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2. Things Fall Apart: The novel follows the life of Okonkwo, an Igbo (‘Ibo’ in the novel) man and local wrestling champion in the fictional Nigerian clan of Umuofia. The work is split into three parts, with the first describing his family, personal history, and the customs and society of the Igbo, and the second and third sections introducing the influence of European colonialism and ________?

A:) African Culture

B:) Christian missionaries

C:) Religious Missions

D:) European missionaries

springline- Correct option: B:) Christian missionaries


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3. Things Fall Apart was followed by a sequel, No Longer at Ease (1960), originally written as the second part of a larger work along with Arrow of God (1964). Achebe states that his two later novels A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah , while not featuring Okonkwo's descendants, are spiritual successors to the previous novels in chronicling African history. Anthills of the Savannah, Which was written in ______?

A:) 1987

B:) 1988

C:) 1989

D:) 1990

springline- Correct option: A:) 1987


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4. Things Fall Apart: The novel's protagonist, Okonkwo, is famous in the villages of Umuofia for being a wrestling champion, defeating a wrestler nicknamed ‘Amalinze The Cat’ (because he never lands on his back). Okonkwo is strong, hard-working, and strives to show no weakness. He wants to dispel his father _______?

A:) Nwoye

B:) Unoka

C:) James Smith

D:) Uchendu

springline- Correct option: B:) Unoka


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5. Things Fall Apart: Okonkwo works to build his wealth entirely on his own, as Unoka died a shameful death and left many unpaid debts. He is also obsessed with his masculinity, and any slight compromise to this is swiftly destroyed. As a result, he often beats his wives and children, and is unkind to his _______?

A:) Neighbours

B:) Relatives

C:) village people

D:) friend

springline- Correct option: A:) Neighbours


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6. Things Fall Apart: Okonkwo is selected by the elders to be the guardian of Ikemefuna, a boy taken by the clan as a peace settlement between Umuofia and another clan after Ikemefuna's father killed an Umuofian woman. The boy lives with Okonkwo's family and Okonkwo grows fond of him, although Okonkwo does not show his fondness so as not to appear weak. The boy looks up to Okonkwo and considers him a ________?

A:) Friend

B:) Father

C:) Second father

D:) uncle

springline- Correct option: C:) Second father


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7. Things Fall Apart: The Oracle of Umuofia eventually pronounces that the boy must be killed. Who is the oldest man in the village, warns Okonkwo that he should have nothing to do with the murder because it would be like killing his own child – but to avoid seeming weak and feminine to the other men of the village, Okonkwo disregards the warning

A:) Obierika

B:) Unoka

C:) Uchendu

D:) Ezeudu

springline- Correct option: D:) Ezeudu


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8. Things Fall Apart: Shortly after Ikemefuna's death, things begin to go wrong for Okonkwo. He falls into a great depression, as he has been greatly traumatized by the act of murdering his own adopted son. His sickly daughter Ezinma falls unexpectedly ill and it is feared she may die; during a gun salute at Ezeudu's funeral, Okonkwo's gun accidentally explodes and kills Ezeudu's _______?

A:) wife

B:) son

C:) father

D:) daughter

springline- Correct option: B:) son


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9. Things Fall Apart: Okonkwo’s son Nwoye starts getting curious about the missionaries and the new religion. After he is beaten by his father for the last time, he decides to leave his family behind and live independently. He wants to be with the missionaries because his beliefs have changed while being introduced to Christianity by ______

A:) Ekwefi

B:) Enoch

C:) Mr. Brown

D:) Mr. Kiaga

springline- Correct option: C:) Mr. Brown


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10.Things Fall Apart: Returning from exile, Okonkwo finds his village changed by the presence of the white men. In response, the District Commissioner representing the colonial government takes Okonkwo and several other native leaders prisoner pending payment of a fine of two hundred and fifty ________?

A:) bags of cowries

B:) pots of cowries

C:) bags of coins

D:) pots of coins

springline- Correct option: A:) bags of cowries


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11. Things Fall Apart: Despite the District Commissioner's instructions to treat the leaders of Umuofia with respect, the native ‘court messengers’ humiliate them, doing things such as shaving their heads and whipping them. When messengers of the white government try to stop the meeting, Who beheads one of them?

A:) Chielo

B:) Okonkwo

C:) Ezeudu

D:) Mr. Kiaga

springline- Correct option: B:) Okonkwo


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12. Things Fall Apart: Among Okonkwo’s own people, Okonkwo's actions have tarnished his reputation and status, as it is strictly against the teachings of the Igbo to commit suicide. Who reflects that Okonkwo's story will make for a good chapter in his book, or perhaps a reasonable paragraph?

A:) Obierika

B:) Mr. Brown

C:) District Commissioner

D:) Mr. Kiaga

springline- Correct option: C:) District Commissioner


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13. Things Fall Apart: Who is Okonkwo's second wife and although she falls in love with Okonkwo after seeing him in a wrestling match, she marries another man because Okonkwo is too poor to pay her bride price at that time?

A:) Uyanwa

B:) Ekwefi

C:) Nwakibie

D:) Chielo

springline- Correct option: B:) Ekwefi


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14. Things Fall Apart: Ikemefuna is a boy from the Mbaino tribe. His father murders the wife of an Umuofia man, and in the resulting settlement of the matter, Ikemefuma is put into the care of Okonkwo. By the decision of Umuofia authorities, Ikemefuna is ultimately killed, an act which Okonkwo does not prevent, and even participates in, lest he seems feminine and weak. Ikemefuna became very close to_____?

A:) Nwoye

B:) Akunna

C:) Enoch

D:) Oberika

springline- Correct option: A:) Nwoye


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15. Things Fall Apart: Obierika is Okonkwo's best friend from Umuofia. Unlike Okonkwo, Obierika thinks before he acts and is, therefore, less violent and arrogant than Okonkwo. He is considered the voice of reason in the book, and questions certain parts of their culture, such as the necessity to exile Okonkwo after he unintentionally kills a boy. Who is greatly admired by Okonkwo for his wrestling prowess?

A:) Uyanwa

B:) Obiageli

C:) Ojiugo

D:) Maduka

springline- Correct option: D:) Maduka


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16. Who commented that ‘Things Fall Apart is indeed a classic study of cross-cultural misunderstanding and the consequences to the rest of humanity, when a belligerent culture or civilization, out of sheer arrogance and ethnocentrism, takes it upon itself to invade another culture, another civilization?

A:) Ben Okri

B:) Ernest N. Emenyonu

C:) Helon Habila

D:) Teju Cole

springline- Correct option: B:) Ernest N. Emenyonu


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17. Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as the dominant figure in modern African literature. His first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall Apart , occupies a pivotal place in African literature and remains the most widely studied, translated and read African novel. Along with Things Fall Apart, his No Longer at Ease (1960) and Arrow of God (1964) complete the so called ______?

A:) African Trilogy

B:) African Trinity

C:) African theology

D:) African Triunity

springline- Correct option: A:) African Trilogy


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18. Chinua Achebe is often referred to as the ‘father of African literature’, although he vigorously rejected the characterization. He Born in Ogidi, British Nigeria, Achebe's childhood straddled the worlds of Igbo traditional culture and postcolonial Christianity. Moving to Lagos after graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS) and garnered international attention for his novel ____?

A:) Things Fall Apart

B:) Home and Exile

C:) No Longer at Ease

D:) Arrow of God

springline- Correct option: A:)Things Fall Apart


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19. The village of Umuofia in Things Fall Apart, for example, is violently shaken with internal divisions when the white Christian missionaries arrive. Nigerian English professor Who describes the colonial experience in the novel as ‘the systematic emasculation of the entire culture?

A:) J.P. Clark

B:) Cyprian Ekwensi

C:) Amos Tutuola

D:) Ernest N. Emenyonu

springline- Correct option: D:) Ernest N. Emenyonu


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20. The standard Achebean ending results in the destruction of an individual and, by synecdoche, the downfall of the community. Odili's descent into the luxury of corruption and hedonism in A Man of the People. Even with the emphasis on colonialism, Achebe's tragic endings embody the traditional confluence of fate, individual and society, as represented by Sophocles and ______?

A:) T.S. Eliot

B:) Chaucer

C:) Shakespeare

D:) Mathew Arnold

springline- Correct option: C:) Shakespeare


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21. The Novelist as a Teacher: Achebe begins by clarifying that ‘the kind [of writing he does] is relatively new ‘ in Africa. By explaining that the Africans have been educated by the Europeans in terms of the common relationship between______?

A:) Africa and Society

B:) Europe and Africa

C:) writer and society

D:) Writers and Tradition

springline- Correct option: C:) writer and society


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22. The Novelist as a Teacher: Achebe indicates that most of his readers are young, which implies that they still have a lot of capacity to get educated. Thus, hope on a better self-image of Africa arises. Achebe claims that many of his readers regard him as a teacher, a statement which is almost pretentious. In this part, he also includes a letter from a Northern Nigerian fan in order to show what a reader like him expects from the author, ____?

A:) Helon Habila

B:) Ben Okri

C:) Soyinka

D:) Achebe

springline- Correct option: D:) Achebe


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23. The Novelist as a Teacher: Achebe does not think the woman’s opinion is right. In this part it becomes clear again that Achebe is very self-assured, as he points out that ‘no self-respecting writer will take dictation from his audience [and] must remain free to disagree.’ However, he cleverly depicts himself as merciful because he comprehends that his European-influenced society needs to be efficiently_______?

A:) knowledge

B:) educated

C:) writings

D:) themes

springline- Correct option: B:) educated


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24. The Novelist as a Teacher: Achebe’s concern comes into sharper relief in the next segment. Achebe sardonically illustrates one of the differences between Europeans and Africans by the example of ‘turning hygiene into a god ‘ a peculiar blasphemy in Achebe’s eyes. He admits, though, that Africans have their own respective _____?

A:) curse

B:) pity

C:) boon

D:) sins

springline- Correct option: D:) sins


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25. The Novelist as a Teacher: It follows a short anecdote of 1940’s Christians who where shocked to see Nigerian dances on an anniversary, which exemplifies ‘the result of the disaster brought upon the African psyche in the period of subjection to alien race . Achebe uses appeal to pity here and in other parts, as he only presents the picture of the pathetic African. In this way, he disregards the fact that the West does indeed know from Africa, many educated, highly respected men, tales, and ______

A:) traditions

B:) cultures

C:) writings

D:) knowledge

springline- Correct option: A:) traditions


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26. The Novelist as a Teacher: Achebe’s next example further describes the ‘traumatic effects of [Africa’s] first confrontation with Europe . Achebe tells about a student who wrote ‘winter’ instead of the African trade wind ‘harmattan’ which occurs during wintertime - just because he was afraid to be called a bushman by his ___?

A:) fellow

B:) peers

C:) poets

D:) novelist

springline- Correct option: B:) peers


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27. The Novelist as a Teacher: Achebe quoting a Hausa folk tale in order to show that art and education do not need to be mutually exclusive. He leads the reader onto a ‘slippery slope’ here, as he claims that if one considers the tale’s ending ‘a naïve anticlimax ‘ then one would not know much about _______?

A:) Africa

B:) Europe

C:) Racism

D:) Poetry

springline- Correct option: A:) Africa


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28. Achebe was the recipient of over 30 honorary degrees from universities in Nigeria, Canada, South Africa, Nigeria, the United Kingdom and the United States, including Dartmouth College, Harvard, and Brown. Among his other honours are the first Commonwealth Poetry Prize (1972), both the Nigerian National Order of Merit and the Order of the Federal Republic in the year of______?

A:) 1975

B:) 1976

C:) 1977

D:) 1979

springline- Correct option: D:) 1979


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29. Achebe—active as a author, poet, and critic—is regularly regarded as the most dominant and influential writer of modern African literature. As such, he is often considered the ‘father of African literature’, with other characterizations including the ‘founding father of African literature’, and the 'father of the African _____?

A:) Poetry in English

B:) novel in English

C:) Drama

D:) Historical Novel

springline- Correct option: B:) novel in English


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30. Achebe vigorously rejected such descriptions. Regarded as his masterpiece, Things Fall Apart has been described as the most important book in modern African literature. Selling over 20 million copies wordlwide, it has been translated into _______?

A:) 45 languages

B:) 55 languages

C:) 57 languages

D:) 65 languages

springline- Correct option: C:) 57 languages