Achebe, Chinua
Monarch Notes
01-01-1963
Things Fall Apart: Part Two

Chapter Fourteen

Okonkwo's reception in Mbanta.

Part Two of Things Fall Apart is devoted to an account of Okonkwo's
seven-year exile in his motherland. Okonkwo is welcomed to Mbanta by his
uncle, Uchendu, and his family, who help him set up his family compound and to
settle in.

Okonkwo and his chi.

Okonkwo's great, passionate ambition in life has been to become one of
the lords of the clan. With his exile this is no longer possible, and as a
result his spirit is partly broken; work is no longer a pleasure for him. Part
of his despair must come from the realization that "Clearly his . . . chi was
not made for great things." ...