Things Fall Apart.

Things Fall Apart is set in Umuofia the hometown of Okonkwo a proud angry and hard-working man in his prime Okonkwo has always felt a need to prove himself because he is the son of a failure a man named Unoka who was heavily in debt because he preferred playing his flute and drinking palm wine to farming Okonkwo first established himself as a man to be reckoned with by beating the famous wrestler Amalinze the Cat in a match at the tender age of 18 He provides for himself and his mother and sisters economically by share-cropping yams for a wealthy neighbor until he makes enough profits to get land and seeds and start his own farm He does well enough that by the beginning of the novel he has three wives a large compound with huts for each of them as well as a separate one for himself and a large and growing family His ambition is to take the highest titles of honor that his tribe can bestow
Okonkwo is known for his bad temper and his willingness to be rude to unsuccessful men At one point his temper also made him guilty of an offense against the earth goddess because he forgot that the village was celebrating the Week of Peace and beat his youngest wife during the holy festival The goddess' priest prescribed a series of sacrifices and penance for him to perform

One day Okonkwo's village sends a challenge to a neighboring village because they caused the death of an Umuofia woman who had gone to market there This village fears Umuofia enough to pay a recompense of one virgin and a young boy instead of going to war Umuofia's elders decide that the virgin will marry the husband of the slaughtered woman and the youth will stay in Okonkwo's household until they reach a final decision about what to do with him The boy's name in Ikemefuna and he becomes good friends with NwoyeOkonkwo's eldest son Ikemefuna is clever and loved by everyone in the household When Ikemefuna has lived with Okonkwo's family for three years the elders finally reach their decision and say that Ikemefuna must be killed He is marched in a procession told that he is going back to his original village and then deep in the woods one of the villagers hits him with a machete The blow isn't fatal and he runs in fear to Okonkwocalling him father and asking him for protection Afraid of being thought weak Okonkwo strikes the boy down.