Online Resources for Book Discussion Groups
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Are you looking for different discussion questions to use for your book
discussion group meeting? While Things Fall Apart seems simply written,
there are many different aspects of the book, including daily life of
the Igbo culture, how colonialism changed traditional cultures, and the
roles killing and suicide take in cultures.
This list of alternative sources for finding discussion questions will
help you to not only discover great new questions, but in some cases will
provide you with questions to ask about Achebe's writing style, give you
a pronunciation guide to characters in the novel, and provide you with
a synopsis of the different chapters.
Reading Group Guides.Com
www.readinggroupguides.com/guides/things_fall_apart.asp
This web page has the traditional publisher - created discussion questions
for book discussion groups. You will find a brief description of the book,
18 discussion questions, and critical praise for the book. This is a great
place to start for basic discussion questions.
Central Oregon Community College's web page
web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/achebtfa.htm
This is a 9 page study guide from a college humanities course. Useful
because it is arranged by the three parts of the novel, each part contains
questions to use for book discussion groups, points out parts of the novel
to think about and re-read, and provides questions to think about Achebe's
writing style, his role in African literature, and Achebe's role as an
African storyteller. This web page has very detailed questions and would
be great for a group that wants to do an in-depth discussion of the book.
In addition, the study guide has a complete copy of Yeats' poem, The Second
Coming, which Achebe used a line from to create the title, Things Fall
Apart.
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology's web page
www.sdsmt.edu/courses/is/hum375/achebe.html
While this study guide only has a few questions for book groups to use,
this web page has literary criticism of the author and an analysis of
the novel. This study guide is useful in that it discusses two important
aspects of the novel - women in the novel, and the role of epic heroism,
including the role of suicide.
Teachit.Co.Uk
www.teachit.co.uk/pdf/1569.pdf
This British online study guide is useful for its great pronunciation
chart of all of the characters in the novel. It also has a map of Africa
and Nigeria so readers can visualize the area they are reading about.
While not as useful as other online study guides for finding discussion
questions, this web page does give a few questions for readers to think
about while they are reading each chapter. This would be a useful companion
for a book discussion group leader to use while reading the book.
Lawrence University's web page
www.lawrence.edu/dept/freshman_studies/resource/fsachebe.html
A ten page study guide for college freshman, this web page provides many
basic questions for an adult book discussion group to use. Topics include
the role of family, missionaries and colonialists, the role of religion,
and analysis on the main character, Okonkwo. The study guide also has
also the full text of the Yeats' poem, as well as a pronunciation guide
to the characters of the novel.
Washington State University's web page
www.wsu.edu:8000/~brians/anglophone/achebe.html
Broken down into sections for each of the 25 chapters, this online study
guide gives a general introduction to the novel and then offers questions
for each chapter. More of a guide to use while initially reading the novel,
this web page has different discussion questions for groups to consider,
such as the role of night on people, the role of spirits and evil in the
novel, and how Okonkwo can be viewed as a defiant hero.
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