The Igbo people pray to their gods through wooden idols of them. It’s important to note that the shrine is devoted both to a god, but also the spirits of Okonkwo’s ancestors. Family life is so important in Umuofia that ancestors take on a somewhat divine nature; they must be remembered and honored or the ancestors will bring bad fortune. This is a crucial part of their religion and culture, to honor and respect the past lives before them. We can see that the Igbo people treasure their faith and always feels inclined to protect and defend it in many different ways.

The Umuofia follow a traditional ritual to determine a bride-price; the bride’s family presents the groom’s family with a sum and the other party adds or subtracts sticks as they see fit. They exchange the bundle of broomsticks several times, until the two groups finally agree. That final number of broomsticks corresponds to the number of bags of cowries paid by the groom’s family for the bride’s hand in marriage. After Akueke’s bride-price is settled on some of the men discuss how the Umuofia way of coming to a bride price is really quite civilized. Overall, this silent form of back-and-forth to reach an agreement is more respectful of women than just verbal haggling, which is how men agree on prices for livestock. Thus, the custom of settling a bride-price is intended to be respectful.

Language is a very important part of Igbo culture and is highly stylized. Instead of just saying, “Unoka, give me my damn money back,” Okoye must steep his message in fanciful and well-known proverbs, only slowly getting to his point. Correct speech is a symbol of respectability among these people. Unoka reveals his lack of respectability by later responding by laughing and with the terse, straightforward information that Okoye won’t be getting his money back any time soon. Language and communication is a essential part of every culture and this annotation showed how to get what you needed without coming off needy or forcefully taking something.

Since “everybody knew” what would happen after the Umuofia woman’s murder, justice seems inevitable or at least predictable. The fates of the two Mbaino children are decided for them, without their consultation or consent simply they're one of their tribesman committed a crime. The two youths are given no choice in their destinies.The neighboring clans want to avoid war because they fear the Umuofia. When Okonkwo arrives in the neighboring village of the offending tribe, they offer a peaceful solution of a ritual sacrifice of a boy and a virgin girl to the Umuofia clan. This showed the amount of fate and freewill in that area of Africa.

This annotation showed how the Madman was reacting towards his fellow community and how he a sense of paranoia with everyone including a doctor which only wants to help their patient. He obviously sees his paranoia just for the fact that he acknowledge the fact that the doctor might actually be a doctor trying to help and not harm. But at the end of the sentence he stated "He'd still be a cannibal just the same". This shows that he is still convinced everyone in the town is a cannibal and no will ever change their ways. He was lead to believe that everyone is a cannibal because he did not conform to societies rules and this made him an outcast. This quote exposes the ubiquity of such cannibalism and how everyone is an accomplice in the game of eating and being eaten.