Things Fall Apart Chapter 6 - 10
The wrestling matches begin, and perhaps no one in Okonkwo’s household is as excited as Ekwefi. Okonkwo’s second wife encounters the Oracle of the hills and caves, Chielo, who is also attending the ceremony. However, Chielo is just a normal woman when she isn’t in the caves, and she refers to Ezinma as her daughter. She asks Ekwefi about the child’s health and reassures her that Ezinma is likely to survive to adulthood now since she had crossed the tender age of six.
As time passes on, Okonkwo grows fond of telling his sons, Ikemefuna and Nwoye, stories of war as he calls them to his Obi every night. Nwoye pretends to like the stories of war and berates the childish stories that the women of the house used to tell him even though he had enjoyed those far more. Nwoye does this to please his father, who does appreciate the maturity that Nwoye begins to see. The festival is celebrated with much pomp, and after the harvesting is done the village is pleasantly shocked by the arrival of the locusts. The Locust swarms were said to come once in a generation, and all the villagers of Umuofia celebrate the arrival of this new food source. This joy of the locusts is short-lived as Okonkwo soon receives word that the Oracle had decided on Ikemefuna’s death. A respected elder of the clan advises Okonkwo to distance himself from the process since it was known that the boy called him father.
Okonkwo tells the family members that Ikemefuna is going to be sent back to his village, and the news makes Nwoye cry. Okonkwo beats Nwoye for his tears, while the rest of the family understands what is going to happen and keeps silent. Okonkwo ignores the elders' advice as he doesn’t wish to seem weak to the rest of the clan, and so he accompanies the group of men that escort Ikemefuna away from the village. At first, Ikemefuna is in disbelief that he would be going home, but as they leave home, Ikemefuna begins to think of seeing his mother and sister. One of the men strikes him with his machete, and Ikemefuna runs towards Okonkwo as he calls him “Father.” Okonkwo doesn’t want to look weak, so he strikes Ikemefuna down with his machete. Nwoye is deeply affected by Ikemefuna’s loss, and he comes to understand what happened to his foster brother. He recalls the cry of a set of twins that he had heard when returning to the village one evening. His villagers did not raise twins but exposed them to the forest upon birth.
Okonkwo shuns food for the next two days and instead spends the whole day drinking. He tries to find some comfort in Nwoye’s company, but the boy avoids his father as much as he can. On the third day, Okonkwo eats some fried fish and plantains that Ezinma brings for him as she insists that he eat the whole dish. He struggles to find an outlet for the angst that he experiences but the ongoing season of rest means that he doesn’t have any work to occupy him. He decides to visit his friend, Obierika, who criticizes him for being involved with Ikemefuna’s death. He condemns Okonkwo’s actions as being sacrilegious which would normally bring on the wrath of their gods. Okonkwo defends his actions as being in consonance with the word of the Oracle who had called for Ikemefuna’s death.
Okonkwo feels a little better after he discusses the news of an old warrior’s death, and prepares to leave. Obierka invites him back to the house a little later since Obierkia is going to be receiving the suitor of his daughter. Okonkwo returns gladly and participates as a relative when the suitor's family arrives to examine the prospective bride and they determine the bride price using broomsticks.
Okonkwo’s sleep returns, but it is once again interrupted. This time it is by a distressed Ekwefi who believes that Ezinma is dying. Okonkwo heads out to collect medicine while Ekwefi remains behind to care for her fevered daughter. Ekwefi is deeply bonded to her daughter who calls her by name rather than using her title as mother. Ezinma was her tenth child, and the only one still alive as all of her other children had died during infancy. It came to be known that Ekwefi was being haunted by an Ogbanje, the ghost of a dead child who had caused the miscarriages. However, Ezinma had survived and the medicine man had cured the energy of the Ogbanje. Okwonko soon returned with the medicine and helped Ekwefi administer it to the sick child. The next evening, the men of the village gathered together in the village playground while the women fringed the assembly. The egwugwu, ancestors of the people of Umuofia, rushed out of the hut that opened a portal to the underworld. The masked spirits presided over the issue of a woman who had been rescued from her abusive husband’s home. One of the spirits bore an uncanny resemblance to Okonkwo but the villagers ignored it.
Analysis
The Igbo culture is strictly patriarchal, and women are often treated as little more than objects. This gender difference is highlighted in Okonkwo’s treatment of his favorite child, Ezinma. He believes she has the right character but he regrets the fact that she was born a woman, almost as if he believes that her potential is wasted as a woman. Furthermore, the practice of justice in the culture also highlights women’s status as they are not allowed to directly participate in the process of justice. However, it is important to note that there is an existing system of justice that is based on the consensus of a jury of important men from the village. The author demonstrates that the Igbo culture is rational and that his people are not savages as has often been claimed by the white colonials.
Ikemefuna’s death is a quintessential moment in the plot of the book, as it has a profound impact on both Okonkwo and Nwoye. Okonkwo’s fortune begins to decline after this point in the book, a fact that is foreshadowed in Okonkwo’s conversation with Obierika. Ikemefuna’s death begins a process of alienation for Nwoye, who begins to see the crueler aspects of his culture. His foster brother’s death reminds him of the abandoned infant twins that he had heard crying in the forest.
