The purpose of chapter 1 and the role it plays in the unfolding of the action.

Achebe makes it clear from the beginning that he intends his reader to have to do a bit of work putting together the pieces of the story; he begins in the present day at Obi’s bribery trial and then jumps back in time to various points in his history. This non-chronological telling, as one contemporary reviewer wrote, “is rather erratic to start with, but is soon beautifully perfected.” Achebe starts with Obi’s failure and then works backward to see just how a young man with so much promise could arrive there.