Chi In Unoka And Okonkwo's Things Fall Apart

Within the book Things Fall Apart, a chi was what a man and woman used as a personal god. To help further explain this, we can understand a chi by comparing it to a Christian concept that we are more familiar with. This concept is expressed as a guardian angel. Just as a guardian angel does, a chi would follow his or her person throughout their entire life and would either demonstrate compassion or vindictive conduct in relation to their person's life. It was said that if an individual were to say yes then their personal chi was saying yes as well. Throughout this book we see that individuals with a good chi were typically successful with their actions, whereas an individual with an evil chi was an ill-fated individual who would work without gaining. When a person thought that things were going wrong with their

Unoka, Ekwefi and Okonkwo all show signs of having an evil chi. Unoka, was the father of Okonkwo who was the main character of this story. The book describes Unoka as "tall but very thin and had a slight stoop. He wore a haggard and mournful look" (Achebe 4). Unoka was a very unsuccessful man who brought his misfortune upon himself by spending the majority of his time drinking and relaxing rather than working just as the other villagers did. "Unoka, the grown-up, was failure. He was poor, and his wife and children had barely enough to eat. People laughed at him because he was a loafer, and they swore never to lend him money because he never paid back." (Achebe, 4). When he wasn't drinking he would spend his time playing music. Music was the one thing that both his chi and him could agree upon. "He was very good on his flute, and his happiest moments were the two or three moons after the harvest when the village musicians brought down their instruments, hung above the fireplace" (Achebe, 4). It was said that he had a bad chi which followed him all the way to his unfortunate