1. What’s a proverb? --an adage What’s an adage? --a saying often in metaphorical form that embodies a common observation

2. Proverb: a short saying, usually of unknown or ancient origin, that expresses some useful thought, commonplace truth, or moral lesson and is most often expressed in simple, homely language. a short saying, usually of unknown or ancient origin, that expresses some useful thought, commonplace truth, or moral lesson and is most often expressed in simple, homely language. Sometimes, it is allegorical or symbolic.Sometimes, it is allegorical or symbolic. A proverb is appealing because it is succinct and uses simple rhyme, irony, metaphor, and comparison or contrast.A proverb is appealing because it is succinct and uses simple rhyme, irony, metaphor, and comparison or contrast. Proverbs are common to almost all nations and peoples.Proverbs are common to almost all nations and peoples.

3. Origins The term is from the Latin proverbium derived from verbum, meaning “word.”The term is from the Latin proverbium derived from verbum, meaning “word.” Proverbs are rooted in folklore and preserved by oral tradition.Proverbs are rooted in folklore and preserved by oral tradition.

4. Common Proverbs “A fool and his money are soon parted.” “Don’t count your chickens before they have hatched.” “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” (Why so many about chickens?) You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.

5. However long the night, the dawn will break. Blind belief is dangerous. - Luyia, Western Kenya The pillar of the world is hope. - Kanuri proverb, Nigeria He who marries a real beauty is seeking trouble. - Accra proverb, Ghana The young can't teach traditions to the old. - Yoruba proverb There is no medicine against old age. - Accra proverb, Ghana That man's a fool whose sheep flees twice. - Oji proverb When your mouth stumbles, it's worse than feet. - Oji proverb Hold a true friend with both hands. - Kanuri proverb, Nigeria One does not love if one does not accept from others. - Kanuri proverb, NigeriaAfricanproverbs

6. Achebe 125 “As the elders said, if one finger brought oil it soiled the others.” Meaning? Placement? PURPOSE?

7. Parables: a short usually fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle The tortoise and the hare.* The boy who cried wolf. *A fable is a parable involving animal characters.

8. Tikki Tikki Tembo Tikki Tikki Tembo is set in ancient China and invents an ancient Chinese custom whereby parents honor their first-born sons with long, elaborate names that everyone is obliged to say completely – no nicknames, no shortening of any kind – while the second-born sons are typically given short, unimportant names. A boy named Tikki Tikki Tembo-no Sa Rembo-chari Bari Ruchi-pip Peri Pembo ("The Most Wonderful Thing in the Whole Wide World") and his little brother Chang ("Little or Nothing") are playing near a well they'd been previously warned by their mother to avoid….

9. Tikki Tikki Tembo… Chang falls in the well, his older brother runs to their mother, tells her Chang has fallen down the well, and Chang is rescued. Some time later, the boys are again playing near the well. This time, the older brother falls in. Chang runs to their mother and shouts that "Tikki Tikki Tembo-no Sa Rembo- chari Bari Ruchi-pip Peri Pembo has fallen into the well", but she can't hear him. He says it over and tells Chang to get the old man with the ladder. He then goes to get the Old Man with the Ladder, initially the old man doesn't respond but after Chang repeats his brother's predicament the old man goes with Chang to save his brother from the well.

10. So What? Achebe uses both parables and proverbs throughout TFA. Parable/fable – the tortoise and the birds p. 96-99 The tortoise tricks the birds into giving him the best of their feast.

11. So What? He says, “I have learned, a man who makes trouble for others is also making it for himself” After he tricks the birds, he is punished by breaking his shell in his fall from the heavens (which explains why turtles have rough shells) His own words come true.

12. So What? Why would Achebe choose THIS parable/fable? Why at this point in the story? How does it apply to TFA?