Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Who or what is the "arrow of God"? Is it possible to have different interpretations of this question and still lead to the same ideas about the novel? Why or why not?
- What are the various factors that lead to Umuaro's division and splintering? Why was Christianity so successful in replacing the old religion in Igboland?
- What is the meaning of the idiomatic saying, repeated several times, that when two brothers fight, a stranger reaps the harvest? Or when brothers fight to death, a stranger inherits their father's estate? What is the significance of this saying for the novel?
- How does Achebe use idioms to communicate the novel's ultimate meaning? What are some of the sayings that stuck out for you as you read the novel? What did those sayings mean in the context of the passage? What do they mean for the novel's overall message?
- Arrow of God offers the perspective of both the colonizer (the British officials) and the colonized (the Igbo people). How do they perceive each other? Why do they have such different interpretations of the same events? How do the two groups influence each other's behavior?