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Lesson 3

We will study important characters in the last four chapters of the novel.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I gather and organize relevant and sufficient evidence to demonstrate an understanding of the novel?

  • Can I evaluate the effects of literary devices in Things Fall Apart?

Texts

Core

  • Tradebook
    • Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe, Penguin Random House, 1994

Materials

Tools

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Read

We will choose one character to analyze in the last several chapters of the novel.

With your group, pick one of the following three characters to study:

  • Mr. Brown

  • Enoch

  • The District Commissioner

Read Chapters 22-25. Take notes on how Achebe develops your chosen character.

Craft a 3-5 minute presentation on your chosen character that answers the following questions:

  1. Who is the character? What important information do we need to know about the character?

  2. How does Achebe develop the character? Include the character’s internal and external motivations, Achebe’s use of language and tone, and the situations Achebe puts the character in.

  3. How does your character interact with other characters in the novel?

  4. How does your character keep the plot moving?

Activity 2: Read

We will present our character analyses.

Present your character analyses to your classmates. Be sure to address who the character is, how Achebe develops the character, how the character interacts with other characters in the novel, and how the character keeps the plot moving.

As your classmates present, take notes and consider how their character relates to yours.

Activity 3: Read

We will interact with the words we defined to cement our understanding of their meaning.

With a partner or group, choose five words from your Vocabulary List from Chapters 22-25 of the novel and complete the vocabulary exercises provided by your teacher. Follow your teacher’s directions on how to meaningfully interact with the words.

Activity 4: Read

For homework, we will deepen our understanding of chapters 22–25.

Reread Chapters 22-25 and respond to four of the following questions from the Section 3 Question Set to further your understanding of the text. Support your responses with evidence from the text.

Chapter 22:

  1. How would you describe Mr. Smith?

  2. How does Enoch create a crisis for the church? How do the egwugwu resolve the situation?

Chapter 23:

  1. How does the District Commissioner trick the village elders? Why do you think he uses this method to arrest them?

  2. When the District Commissioner says, “the dominion of our queen” (p. 194), what does he mean? What has happened that the village elders do not understand?

Chapter 24:

  1. What does Okonkwo believe will happen at the village meeting? What does happen?

  2. Why does Okonkwo know that the village will not go to war as soon as he kills the messenger?

Chapter 25:

  1. Why do you think Okonkwo hangs himself? Why won’t the villagers cut him down?

Write down new or interesting words from Chapters 22-25 in your Vocabulary Journal. Write down at least two sentences from Chapters 22-25 in your Mentor Sentence Journal.