How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #41
The story of this man who had killed a messenger and hanged himself would make interesting reading. One could almost write a whole chapter on him. Perhaps not a whole chapter but a reasonable paragraph, at any rate. There was so much else to include, and one must be firm in cutting out details. (25.22)
The Commissioner reduces Okonkwo’s life, about which Achebe’s whole book has been written, to a paragraph. By recording what little he knows about Okonkwo as a man, he is essentially freezing Okonkwo in a limited and woefully misunderstood way. It is these words, not Okonkwo’s honor, that will be passed on to posterity. Because the Commissioner is determined to “cut out details”, Okonkwo will be remembered only as a savage.
Quote #42
He [the Commissioner] had already chosen the title of the book, after much thought: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger. (25.22)
The Commissioner reduces much of the story told by Achebe to a cold and biased imperialist report. Because we have followed Okonkwo’s story and seen society through his understanding eyes, we see the Igbo people more sympathetically than the power-mongering Commissioner.