Before Mr. Brown goes home, he visits Okonkwo to tell him that Nwoye — now called Isaac — has been sent to a teaching college in a distant town. Okonkwo drives the missionary out and orders him never to return.
Everything about the changed community of Umuofia displeases Okonkwo. His homecoming was not what he had hoped; no one really took much notice of his arrival. He can't even proceed with the ceremonies for his sons, because the rites are held only once every three years, and this year is not one of them. The dissolution of the old way of life saddens him as he sees the once fierce Umuofians becoming more and more "soft like women." He mourns for the clan, "which he saw breaking up and falling apart" — a phrase that again recalls the book's title.
