Things Fall Apart, Chapter 23 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. What advice does Okonkwo give the other leaders before they go to meet the District Commissioner?

   • Send a younger man ahead to learn what the white man wants
   • Correct answer: Go to the meeting fully armed, because the times have changed
   • Refuse the invitation until the missionary has left Umuofia
   • Bring palm-wine and kola nuts as a sign of their goodwill

   Okonkwo says an Umuofia man does not refuse a call, but since the times have changed the leaders must be fully prepared.

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2. 2

   Question 2. Why do the six leaders carry machetes to the meeting but leave their guns behind?

   • The Commissioner had forbidden guns inside his courthouse
   • They feared the court messengers would take the guns away
   • Okonkwo said a machete was the true weapon of a warrior
   • Correct answer: Carrying guns to such a meeting would have been unseemly

   The narrator says they did not carry guns, for that would be unseemly; machetes in sheaths were acceptable.

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3. 3

   Question 3. At what moment are the six leaders seized and handcuffed?

   • As soon as they set down their goatskin bags and machetes
   • When Okonkwo stands to answer the Commissioner's questions
   • Correct answer: While Ogbuefi Ekwueme is telling the clan's side of the story
   • After they flatly refuse to pay the fine he has set them

   The Commissioner brings in his twelve men, and while Ekwueme is telling how Enoch killed an egwugwu, the leaders are overpowered in a brief scuffle.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What fine does the District Commissioner himself set for the six leaders?

   • Correct answer: Two hundred bags of cowries
   • Two hundred and fifty bags of cowries
   • Fifty bags of cowries for each leader
   • One hundred bags and a dozen goats

   The Commissioner names two hundred bags; it is his messengers who tell the village the fine is two hundred and fifty.

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5. 5

   Question 5. How do the court messengers respond to the Commissioner's order to treat the prisoners with respect?

   • They obey it until the prisoners insult the Commissioner
   • Correct answer: They ignore it, shaving, starving and mocking the leaders
   • They pass it on to the guards but keep the prisoners bound
   • They carry it out by feeding the men and freeing their hands

   They say "Yes, sir" and salute, but as soon as he leaves the head messenger shaves the men, and the leaders get no food or water.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What does the empty village ilo on the night of the full moon suggest?

   • The children have been sent to learn at the mission school
   • The elders have forbidden moon-play as a sign of mourning
   • Correct answer: Fear has stopped the ordinary life of the whole village
   • Heavy rains have kept every family inside its compound

   Achebe lists the full-moon pleasures that do not happen to show how deeply fear has silenced Umuofia.

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7. 7

   Question 7. Which detail best shows that the colonial court of law does not work the way the Commissioner claims?

   • Correct answer: His messengers secretly raise the fine to keep fifty bags
   • His interpreter mistranslates what Ogbuefi Ekwueme says
   • He refuses to let any of the six leaders speak at all
   • He orders the leaders hanged at Umuru without a trial

   The last sentence reveals that the messengers increased the fine to keep fifty bags for themselves, a corruption the Commissioner's fine words ignore.

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8. 8

   Question 8. Which of these events happen in Chapter 23?

   • The District Commissioner invites six leaders of Umuofia, Okonkwo among them, to his headquarters.

     Happened

   • The prisoners are given food but no water while they are held.

     Didn't happen

   • Mr. Smith is locked in the guardroom along with the six leaders.

     Didn't happen

   • Ezinma returns early from her visit to her future husband's family.

     Happened

   • The village crier calls the men of Umuofia to a meeting in the marketplace.

     Happened

   • The men of Umuofia vote to refuse the fine and go to war.

     Didn't happen

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9. 9

   Question 9. What does 'sullen' mean as used in: 'The six men remained sullen and silent'?

   • Calm and at peace with what has happened
   • Too frightened to understand their situation
   • Correct answer: Gloomy and resentful, refusing to speak
   • Weak and faint from going without food

   Sullen describes silent, bad-tempered resentment, which fits men who will not answer the Commissioner.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does 'sonorous' mean as used in: 'beating his sonorous ogene'?

    • Correct answer: Deep, full and ringing in sound
    • Small enough to carry in one hand
    • Painted with the clan's sacred signs
    • Cracked from many years of hard use

    Sonorous means deep and resonant; the crier's ogene must carry its sound across the whole village.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does 'appease' mean as used in: 'to appease the white man'?

    • To trick someone with a false promise
    • To challenge someone to a fair contest
    • To shame someone before the whole clan
    • Correct answer: To calm someone by meeting his demands

    The men collect the fine to satisfy the white man's demand and win back their leaders.

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