Two pieces of evidence that demonstrate that Unoka had a bad Chi or personal god are:
1. Unoka died of a swelling in his stomach and limbs, which was considered an abomination to the earth goddess. This illness prevented him from being buried in the ground and instead he rotted away above the earth, without receiving the proper burial rites.
2. Unoka's fate was described as being tied to the fate of his personal god, as he suffered a shameful death and lived a contemptible life. This suggests that his personal god did not bring him fortune or favor.
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|UCT ONLINE
HIGH SCHOOL
ENGLISH HL
SECTION B: NOVEL
QUESTION 6: THINGS FALL APART - CONTEXTUAL QUESTIONS
Read the extracts below and then answer the questions that follow.
EXTRACT A
Unoka was an ill-fated man. He had a bad chi or personal god, and evil fortune
followed him to the grave, or rather to his death, for he had no grave. He died of the
swelling which was an abomination to the earth goddess. When a man was afflicted
with sweling in the stomach and the limbs he was not allowed to die in the house.
He was carried to the Evil Forest and left there to die. There was the story of a very
stubborn man who staggered back to his house and had to be carried again to the
forest and tied to a tree. The sickness was an abomination to the earth, and so the
victim could not be buried in her bowels. He died and rotted away above the earth,
and was not given the first or the second burial. Such was Unoka's fate. When they
carried him away, he took with him his flute.
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With a father like Unoka, Okonkwo did not have the start in life which many young
men had. He neither inherited a barn nor a title, nor even a young wife. But in spite of
these disadvantages, he had begun even in his father's lifetime to lay the foundations
of a prosperous future. It was slow and painful. But he threw himself into it like one
possessed. And indeed he was possessed by the fear of his father's contemptible life 15
and shameful death.
[Chapter 4]|
Achebe, C. (1958). Things Fall Apart. Penguin Classics. Penguin Group: London.
6.1 Identify TWO pieces of evidence that demonstrate that Unoka had a bad
Chi or personal god? Refer to the extract and/or the novel as a whole.
(2)
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