What are best examples of the way the second section links the first and third sections? Think especially about the things Oberirka says to Okonkwo.

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is segmented into three distinct sections that reflect the major stages of tragic protagonist Okonkwo’s life. Indeed, the first section shows Okonkwo as he strives to be one of the great, dominant men in Umuofia. The second section illustrates his life in exile in Mbanta. The final section details Okonkwo’s return to Umuofia, and his realization that his traditional way of life is now incongruous with the colonial values that now dominate the region. Interestingly, Okonkwo’s best friend Obierika’s perspective becomes very important in tying the three sections together. The first section ends with Obierika questioning the traditional norms of Umuofia and lamenting the fate of his best friend:

“Obierika was a man who thought about things. When the will of the goddess had been done, he sat down in his obi and mourned his friend's calamity. Why should a man suffer so grievously for an offense he had committed inadvertently?” (125).

Similarly, Obieirka’s perspective is the last native view that readers encounter in the end of the novel. Obeirika grieves the loss of his friend, and blames the colonial presence in Umuofia:

“That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog” (208).

While Obierika does not close out the second section in the same way that he does the first and third, his presence in the middle portion of the novel is nevertheless very important in tying the three sections together. Umuofia is changing drastically while Oknonkwo is away, and Obierika serves to report the alterations of the area. He is Okonkwo’s sole connection to his former land, and he visits Okonkwo with news from Umuofia. Indeed, Obierika portends the great changes that Umuofia will experience when he gives Okonkwo money from his crops:

“That is the money from your yams.... I sold the big ones as soon as you left. Later on I sold some of the seed-yams and gave out others to sharecroppers. I shall do that every year until you return. But I thought you would need the money now and so I brought it. Who knows what may happen tomorrow? Perhaps green men will come to our clan and shoot us” (142).

Thus, Obierika is a deceptively crucial character in tying the three sections of the novel together.