"The medicine man then ordered that there should be no mourning for the dead child. He brought out a sharp razor from the goatskin bag slung from his left shoulder and began to mutilate the child. Then he took it away to bury in the Evil Forest, holding it by the ankle and dragging it on the ground behind him. After such treatment it would think twice before coming again, unless it was one of the stubborn ones who returned, carrying the stamp of their mutilation- a missing finger or perhaps a dark line where the medicine man's razor had cut them" (Achebe 78-79).
The Importance of Stories and Myths in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
In Things Fall Apart, story-telling and myths have great importance in the village where Okonkwo and his family live. After Okonkwo's wife, Ekwefi, had failed to keep a child long after birth, Okonkwo decided to seek help from a medicine man. A medicine man apparently being the one who has all the answers to situations similar to these. The medicine man believed that there was only one child, and this child was dying and coming back to life repeatedly. To fix this problem, the medicine man decided to mutilate the dead child to scare it off and teach it a lesson. After this, Ekwefi had Ezinma, who although ailing seemed determined to live, and so she did. The radical steps the medicine man took, and the trust Okonkwo had in him shows the importance of myths and stories in Okonkwo's tribe. Although Ezinma lived, it is quite possible that it was only a coincidence and not due to the medicine man's mutilation of the "rebirthing child."
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