Setting

In Things Fall Apart, the forest represents rejected and unwanted things, it was believed to be haunted and serves as a place to put the dead/dying, the place where evil spirits reside and superstition took over it was also the location of the white missionaries’ church.
“Every clan and village had its “evil forest”। In it were buried all those who died of the really evil diseases, like leprosy and smallpox. It was also the dumping ground for the potent fetishes of great medicine men where they died. An “evil forest” was, therefore, alive with sinister forces and powers of darkness. It was such a forest that the rulers of Mbanta gave to the missionaries. They did not really want them in their clan, and so they made them that offer which nobody in his right senses would accept.” (148)

Okonkwo’s home village is a place that stands for his years of hard work and the reputation he got out of it. It was the society in which he was most judged and most desperate for honor. His life was oriented toward succeeding in Umufia and sacrificed happiness, love and sanity for it.
“His life had been ruled by a great passion-to become on of the lords of the clan. Then everything had been broken. He had been cast out of his clan like a fish onto a dry, sandy beach, panting” (131)

His mother’s clan, Mbanta,was a place where Okonkwo was able to find refugee during his 7 year exile. His uncle lived there, Uchendu, who was friendly and accepting and overall served as a foil to Okonkwo. His emotions were open and although Uchendu had suffered much grief remained optimistic.
“Okonkwo was well received by his mother’s kinsmen in Mbanta…Okonkwo was given a plot of ground on which to build his compound, and two or three pieces of land on which to farm during the coming planting season। With the help of his mother’s kinsmen he built himself an obi and three huts for his wives.” (129)

-Courtney H