1. The Igbo religious structure consists of chi--the personal god--and many other gods and goddesses. What advantages and disadvantages does such a religion provide?

2. The villagers believe--or pretend to believe--that the "Supreme Court" of the nine egwugwu are ancestral spirits. In fact, they are men of the village in disguise. What does this say about the nature of justice in general, and in this village in particular? Why do you think the people of Umuofia maintain the belief that the egwugwu are gods when they are clearly masked humans?

3. "It was not the same Chielo who sat with her in the market...Chielo was not a woman that night." What do you make of this culture where people can be both themselves and also assume other personas?

4. Chapter 7 tells the story of Ikemefuna's death. Why does Okonkwo participate in the slaughter in spite of an elder’s advice not to become involved? How does Okonkwo’s son Nwoye react to the sacrifice?

5. “A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness, he finds refuge in his motherland… And that is why we say that mother is supreme.” What do you think of Okonkwo’s punishment for his “female” crime?

6. Obierika, Okonkwo’s close friend, mourns the exile of Okonkwo, yet participates in the destruction of his property. He is often shown questioning his community traditions but taking part in them anyway. How do you explain this conflict?

7. In what ways did the Christian missionaries have a positive or negative impact on the characters?

8. The District Commissioner is going to title his work The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Niger (p. 209). What do you interpret from this to be his perception of Okonkwo and the people of Umuofia?

9. “Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear… [he] never showed any emotion openly, unless it be the emotion of anger.” What was Okonkwo afraid of? And Why was he so angry?

10. Who do you think was the better father: Okonkwo or Unoka?

11. Of Ezinma, Okonkwo thinks: "She should have been a boy.” Why is it necessary to the story that Okonkwo's most favored child be a girl?

12. Who do you think was the more successful missionary: Mr. Brown or Mr. Smith?

13. “Among the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.” The book is rich with many Igbo provers and phrases, how did this affect your reading of it?

14. The novel’s title comes from the poem “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats. This poem was written in 1919 in the aftermath of the First World War. Are there parallels between the novel and the poem? What, if anything, does this suggest about Achebe's attitude towards European literature? About Christianity?

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hew the falconer; Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again,-- but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony deep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?