On Thursday, February 12, 2004
he received a letter from Okonkwo of Things Fall Apart. "Dear Pete," he wrote, "you ask me about the nature of tradgedy. Let me tell you, tradgedy knows two parts. One is the part of chaos, beyond our control. The other is the part of malevolence, of cruelty and hatred, and this we must fight. When the gun exploded and pierced the boy's heart with iron, my own life fell to shambles. This could not be helped. But when the white missionaries came, I could not fight them and I could not change. Death resulted from inflexibility. But the story of subjugation did not end with me."