Things Fall Apart, Chapter 9 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Following the diviner's advice, how does Ekwefi try to protect her third child from the ogbanje?

   • She buries a protective charm beneath the floor of her own hut before the birth
   • Correct answer: She gives birth in her old mother's village and stays away until near the naming
   • She asks Okonkwo to sacrifice a goat to the Afa Oracle on the child's market-day
   • She keeps the newborn hidden inside Okonkwo's obi until seven market weeks pass

   The diviner told her not to sleep in her hut but to stay with her people, so she lived with her mother in another village and returned three days before the naming ceremony.

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2. 2

   Question 2. What do the mourners notice when Okagbue questions Okonkwo about the dead Onwumbiko?

   • That the child died on the very day its naming ceremony had been planned
   • That the child had been born during the sacred Week of Peace in the village
   • Correct answer: That the child had died on the same market-day, Oye, on which it had been born
   • That the child bore a missing finger from an earlier medicine man's razor

   Okonkwo answers that the child was born on Oye and realises it also died on Oye; the neighbours and relations say the coincidence is very significant.

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3. 3

   Question 3. Why does Ekwefi go about with a cloud on her brow when Nwoye's mother celebrates her three sons?

   • She resents Okonkwo for slaughtering a goat for the first wife and not for her
   • She fears the first wife's healthy sons will one day inherit Okonkwo's barns
   • She is still weak and feverish from the recent birth of a child of her own
   • Correct answer: She blames her own evil chi for denying her children, not her fellow wife

   The narrator explains that Ekwefi's bitterness flows inward: she does not blame others for their good fortune but her own chi, even though the first wife mistakes it for malevolence.

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4. 4

   Question 4. Why does the narrator call Ezinma's refusal to cooperate with Okagbue 'only to be expected'?

   • Correct answer: No ogbanje was thought to yield up its secrets easily
   • Okonkwo had forbidden her to speak to medicine men
   • She was too weak from her illness to understand him
   • She feared Ekwefi would be punished over the eggs

   The narrator says no ogbanje would yield her secrets easily, and most never did because they died too young to be asked.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What does Okagbue do right after he climbs out of the pit with the iyi-uwa?

   • He hands the dirty rag to Okonkwo and orders him to untie it in front of everyone
   • Correct answer: He chews and swallows two leaves from his goatskin bag before untying the rag
   • He calls on Ekwefi to break the pebble apart with the hoe she had brought him
   • He carries the rag down to the stream and washes it before showing the crowd

   Without a word or a glance at the spectators, he takes two leaves from his bag, chews and swallows them, then unties the rag with his left hand.

   Read the passage
6. 6

   Question 6. Why does Okonkwo warn Ekwefi not to let the medicine pot boil over?

   • He fears the steam will scald Ezinma before the herbs are properly cooked
   • He believes that spilled medicine would anger Ezinma's chi against them
   • Correct answer: He says that if it boils over, the medicine's power will be gone
   • He wants the medicine to thicken into a paste for Ezinma to swallow

   His instruction is plain: if the pot boils over, its power will be gone, which is why Ekwefi watches it almost as if it were a sick child.

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7. 7

   Question 7. Which reading of the snake-lizard tale that Ezinma and Ekwefi recall best fits the chapter?

   • Children must always obey their mothers whenever food is being prepared
   • A careful cook can stretch a small harvest of vegetables through a famine
   • Animals in folktales are punished for stealing food from a village store
   • Correct answer: Rash anger punishes the innocent and at last destroys the one who feels it

   The snake-lizard kills his mother over shrunken vegetables, then learns the leaves shrink for him too and kills himself, a warning about blind anger in a household ruled by Okonkwo's temper.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What does 'malevolence' mean as used in: 'Her husband's wife took this for malevolence'?

   • Correct answer: Ill will, or a wish to harm others
   • Deep sadness over a terrible loss
   • Jealous pride in one's own children
   • Quiet acceptance of lasting hardship

   Malevolence means ill will; the first wife wrongly reads Ekwefi's gloom as hostility toward her.

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9. 9

   Question 9. What does 'specious' mean as used in: 'misled people into digging up a specious one'?

   • Unusually large and heavy for its size
   • Recently buried and still damp with earth
   • Correct answer: Seeming genuine but actually false
   • Sacred and forbidden for anyone to touch

   Specious means appearing true while being false, which is why Ekwefi still fears the iyi-uwa might be a decoy.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does 'elude' mean as used in: 'In that way she will elude her wicked tormentor'?

    • To confront and defeat in open battle
    • Correct answer: To escape or avoid by cleverness
    • To trick into revealing its name
    • To calm down and win over with gifts

    Elude means to escape or avoid; by giving birth away from her hut, Ekwefi is meant to slip past the ogbanje spirit.

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11. 11

    Question 11. Which of these events from the search for Ezinma's iyi-uwa actually happen in Chapter 9?

    • Ekwefi brings Okagbue the hoe he asks for.

      Happened

    • Okagbue throws the iyi-uwa into the stream once he has found it.

      Didn't happen

    • Some women run away in fear when the iyi-uwa is thrown to the surface.

      Happened

    • Okonkwo takes a turn digging the pit.

      Happened

    • Okonkwo beats Ezinma for leading the crowd into the bush for nothing.

      Didn't happen

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12. 12

    Question 12. Which of these details about Ekwefi's lost children appear in Chapter 9?

    • One daughter is named Ozoemena, meaning "May it not happen again."

      Happened

    • Okagbue buries Onwumbiko beneath the big udala tree.

      Didn't happen

    • Ekwefi gives birth to her third child in her mother's village.

      Happened

    • The neighbours hold a long mourning feast for Onwumbiko.

      Didn't happen

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