VSA Victoria Shanghai AcademyInternational Baccalaureate DP

English A: Language and Literature Part Three: Things Fall Apart

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Contents

Page

Maps of Africa 3

Colonialism and Postcolonialism 5

Biography 7

Historical Context 10

Plot Summary 14

Chapter Summaries and Analysis 17

Characterisation 35

Themes, Motifs and Symbols 47

Settings 58

Language and Style 60

Achebe’s Use of Language 66

Glossary of Ibo Words and Phrases 90

Important Quotations 92

Independent Study 100

Literary Criticism 103

Essays 112

Appendix 123

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Modern Day Africa

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Old Map of Africa

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Colonialism and Postcolonialism

A Definition:

Colonialism is the extension of a nation's sovereignty over territory beyond its borders by the establishment of either settler colonies or administrative dependencies in which indigenous populations are directly ruled or displaced. Colonising nations generally dominate the resources, labour, and markets of the colonial territory, and may also impose socio-cultural, religious and linguistic structures on the indigenous population. It is essentially a system of direct political, economic and cultural intervention and hegemony by a powerful country in a weaker one. Though the word colonialism is often used interchangeably with imperialism, the latter is sometimes used more broadly as it covers control exercised informally (via influence) as well as formal military control or economic leverage.

The term colonialism may also be used to refer to an ideology or a set of beliefs used to legitimise or promote this system. Colonialism was often based on the ethnocentric belief that the morals and values of the coloniser were superior to those of the colonised; some observers link such beliefs to racism and pseudo-scientific theories dating from the 18th to the 19th centuries. In the western world, this led to a form of proto-social Darwinism that placed white people at the top of the animal kingdom, "naturally" in charge of dominating non-European aboriginal populations.

Postcolonialism (postcolonial theory) is a reaction to the cultural legacy of colonialism. As a literary theory (or critical approach), it deals with literature produced in countries that once were colonies of other countries, especially of the European colonial powers Britain, France, and Spain; in some contexts, it includes countries still in colonial arrangements. It also deals with literature written in colonial countries and by their citizens that has colonised people as its subject matter. Colonised people, especially of the British Empire, attended British universities; their access to education, still unavailable in the colonies, created a new criticism - mostly literary, and especially in novels.

Postcolonial Subject MatterPostcolonialism deals with cultural identity in colonised societies: the dilemmas of developing a national identity after colonial rule; the ways in which writers articulate and celebrate that identity (often reclaiming it from and maintaining strong connections with the coloniser); the ways in which the knowledge of the colonised (subordinated) people has been generated and used to serve the coloniser's interests; and the ways in which the coloniser's literature has justified colonialism via images of the colonised as a perpetually inferior people, society and culture.

Postcolonialism and AfricaThe interior of Africa was not colonised until almost the end of the 19th century, yet the impact of colonialism was even more significant to the indigenous cultures, especially because of the “Scramble for Africa”. The increasingly efficient railroad helped European powers to gain control over all regions of Africa, with the British particularly emphasising

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goals of conquest. The British Empire sought to build a single railroad through the continent and succeeded in building tracks from Egypt to Cape Town.

Many African empires existed in the pre-colonial era, such as the Ashanti, Ghana Empire and Edo Empire. Nigeria was home to the Haussa, Yoruba and Igbo cultures and Chinua Achebe was among the first to take up this history in the construction of a postcolonial identity, as in “Things Fall Apart”.

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Biography (1)

Chinua Achebe is one of Africa’s most influential writers. Things Fall Apart, Achebe’s first novel, was published in 1958, just before Nigeria gained independence. The title of the novel echoes W. B. Yeats’s poem “The Second Coming,” which describes history as a succession of gyres, or spirals. Achebe applies the image to Africa as the nineteenth century traditional world of the Igbo people gives way to the colonial forces of the twentieth century.

Things Fall Apart is based upon Achebe’s life experience. Born in 1930, Chinua Achebe spent his early childhood in Ogidi, Nigeria, a large village near the famous marketplace of Onitsha. Achebe was a child of both the traditional Igbo world and the colonial Christian world, because his father, Isaiah Achebe, worked as a catechist for the Church Missionary Society. Although Achebe spoke Igbo at home, he studied English in school. At the age of 14, he advanced to the prestigious Government College in Umuahia.

In 1948, Achebe was awarded a scholarship to study medicine at the University College in Ibadan. However, he soon refocused his program on literature, religion, and history. Achebe was repelled by the fundamental racism of colonial classics such as Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Joyce Cary’s Mister Johnson. These novels depicted a savage Africa that was humanized only through European colonialism. In reaction, Achebe expanded his own understanding of the Igbo world with a study of oral accounts and written colonial records; he also published his first essays, editorials, and short stories as the student editor of the University Herald.

After graduation, Achebe taught for a brief period. In 1954, he took a position with the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, and from 1961–1966, he served as the director of external broadcasting. As Nigeria moved toward independence, Achebe’s radio programs helped shape a national identity. During this time, Achebe also wrote his first four novels and became the founding editor of Heinemann Publisher’s “African Writers Series.” Things Fall Apart was followed by No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), and A Man of the People(1966).

In 1967, Achebe supported Biafra’s secession from Nigeria and left broadcasting to pursue research at the University of Nigeria. His reflections about the civil war were published as Beware Soul Brother and Other Poems (1971) and Girls at War and Other Stories (1972). His essays were published as Morning Yet on Creation Day (1975); The Trouble with Nigeria (1983); and Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays, 1965–87 (1988). His essays have had a great influence on contemporary thought about Africa and African literature. For example, “The Novelist as Teacher” explains the role of the writer in Africa, and “The African Writer and the English Language” explains Achebe’s use of language. These essays are among his most often quoted essays, and they are included in Morning Yet on Creation Day. Achebe also coedited Don’t Let Him Die: An Anthology of Memorial Poems for Christopher Okigbo (1978), and founded Okike: An African Journal of New Writing.

Achebe has also written several children’s books, including Chike and the River(1966), The Drum (1977), and The Flute (1977). He has also edited African Short Stories (1982) and The

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Heinemann Book of Contemporary African Stories (1992). Finally, Achebe published his fifth novel, Anthills of the Savannah, in 1987.

In addition to his research and writing, over the past 20 years Chinua Achebe has worked as a professor of literature, the director of African Studies, and a pro vice chancellor at the University of Nigeria. He has also served as a distinguished visiting professor of literature at the University of Massachusetts, the University of Connecticut, City College of New York, and Bard College. Achebe has lectured extensively throughout Africa and the United States, and he has received numerous awards, including the Nigerian National Merit Award. Chinua Achebe has influenced many African writers through his writing and his work as the chairperson of the Society of Nigerian Authors.

Biography (2)

Albert Chinualumogu Achebe was born on November 16, 1930, in Ogidi, a large village in Nigeria. Although he was the child of a Protestant missionary and received his early education in English, his upbringing was multicultural, as the inhabitants of Ogidi still lived according to many aspects of traditional Igbo (formerly written as Ibo) culture. Achebe attended the Government College in Umuahia from 1944 to 1947. He graduated from University College, Ibadan, in 1953. While he was in college, Achebe studied history and theology. He also developed his interest in indigenous Nigerian cultures, and he rejected his Christian name, Albert, for his indigenous one, Chinua.

In the 1950s, Achebe was one of the founders of a Nigerian literary movement that drew upon the traditional oral culture of its indigenous peoples. In 1959, he published Things Fall Apart as a response to novels, such as Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, that treat Africa as a primordial and cultureless foil for Europe. Tired of reading white men’s accounts of how primitive, socially backward, and, most important, language-less native Africans were, Achebe sought to convey a fuller understanding of one African culture and, in so doing, give voice to an underrepresented and exploited colonial subject.

Things Fall Apart is set in the 1890s and portrays the clash between Nigeria’s white colonial government and the traditional culture of the indigenous Igbo people. Achebe’s novel shatters the stereotypical European portraits of native Africans. He is careful to portray the complex, advanced social institutions and artistic traditions of Igbo culture prior to its contact with Europeans. Yet he is just as careful not to stereotype the Europeans; he offers varying depictions of the white man, such as the mostly benevolent Mr. Brown, the zealous Reverend Smith, and the ruthlessly calculating District Commissioner.

Achebe’s education in English and exposure to European customs have allowed him to capture both the European and the African perspectives on colonial expansion, religion, race, and culture. His decision to write Things Fall Apart in English is an important one. Achebe wanted this novel to respond to earlier colonial accounts of Africa; his choice of language was thus political. Unlike some later African authors who chose to revitalize native languages as a form of resistance to colonial culture, Achebe wanted to achieve cultural revitalization within and through English. Nevertheless, he manages to capture the rhythm of the Igbo language and he integrates Igbo vocabulary into the narrative.

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Achebe has become renowned throughout the world as a father of modern African literature, essayist, and professor of English literature at Bard College in New York. But Achebe’s achievements are most concretely reflected by his prominence in Nigeria’s academic culture and in its literary and political institutions. He worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Company for over a decade and later became an English professor at the University of Nigeria. He has also been quite influential in the publication of new Nigerian writers. In 1967, he co-founded a publishing company with a Nigerian poet named Christopher Okigbo and in 1971, he began editingOkike, a respected journal of Nigerian writing. In 1984, he founded Uwa ndi Igbo, a bilingual magazine containing a great deal of information about Igbo culture. He has been active in Nigerian politics since the 1960s, and many of his novels address the post-colonial social and political problems that Nigeria still faces.

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Historical Context

Things Fall Apart – An Introduction

In the 19th Century, Africa was viewed as a “dark continent” or a “blank continent”, full of mystery and intrigue. It was seen as a place devoid of history because:

1. There was no written history from the continent itself2. It was unexplored by the majority of Europeans

Livingstone was one of many colonisers who came to Africa to enforce imperial rule (in this case of Britain) and act as a missionary, spreading the word of God (Christian God) and therefore raising people out of their “savagery” and colonising them.

Common views of black Africans at this time were as “savages”, “brutes”, “barbaric” and “heathens” who worshipped the devil. Black Africans (as was the case with most black people of time) were viewed as inferior to white people and almost sub-human.

Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart in 1958 – two years before Nigeria gained independence in 1960. Achebe writes from a postcolonial perspective. He had a missionary upbringing and attended university during colonial times, yet could clearly see the many problems that colonialism had created in his country. Having said this, he also realises that the traditions of his country, in pre-colonial times, had created problems too.

The purpose of this novel is to show the white world that Africa had a rich history before colonialism, that it wasn’t a “blank” or “dark” continent, and that the indigenous peoples had religion, culture and beliefs and weren’t merely the “savages” that they had been portrayed to be. Achebe also wanted to show the devastating effects of colonialism on a society, yet also show that some African traditions were in need of change and weren’t acceptable.

Tribal SocietyThings Fall Apart was published in 1958 just prior to Nigerian independence, but it depicts pre-colonial Africa. Achebe felt it was important to portray Nigerians as they really were—not just provide a shallow description of them as other authors had. The story takes place in the typical tribal village of Umuofia, where the inhabitants (whom Achebe calls the Ibo, but who are also known as the Igbo) practice rituals common to their native traditions.

The Ibo worshipped gods who protect, advise, and chastise them and who are represented by priests and priestesses within the clan. For example, the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves grants knowledge and wisdom to those who are brave enough to consult him. No one has ever seen the Oracle except his priestess, who is an Ibo woman who has special powers of her own. Not only did the gods advise the Ibo on community matters, but also they guided individuals. Each person had a personal god, or chi, (Jiat directed his or her actions. A strong chi meant a strong person; people with weak chis were pitied. Each man kept a separate hut, or shrine, where he stored the symbols of his personal god and his ancestral spirits.

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A hunting and gathering society, the Ibo existed on vegetables, with yams as the primary crop. Yams were so important to them that the Ibo celebrated each new year with the Feast of the New Yam. This festival thanked Ani, the earth goddess and source of all fertility. The Ibo prepared for days for the festival, and the celebration itself lasted for two days. Yams also played a part in determining a man's status in the tribe—the more yams a man has, the higher his status. Trade with other villages was facilitated by small seashells called cowries which were used as a form of currency.

Within the village, people were grouped according to families, with the eldest man in the family having the most power. On matters affecting the whole village, an assembly of adult men debated courses of action, and men could influence these assemblies by purchasing "titles" from the tribal elders. This system encouraged hard work and the spread of wealth. People who transgressed against the laws and customs of the village had to confront the egwugwu, an assembly of tribesmen masked as spirits, who would settle disputes and hand out punishment. Individual villages also attained various degrees of political status. In the novel, other tribes respect and fear Umuofia. They believe that Umuofia's magic is powerful and that the village's war-medicine, or agadi-nwayi, is particularly potent. Neighboring clans always try to settle disputes peacefully with Umuofia to avoid having to war with them.

Christianity and ColonizationWhile Christianity spread across North and South Africa as early as the late fifteenth century, Christianity took its strongest hold when the majority of the missionaries arrived in the late 1800s. After centuries of taking slaves out of Africa, Britain had outlawed the slave trade and now saw the continent as ripe for colonization. Missionaries sent to convert the local population were often the first settlers. They believed they could atone for the horrors of slavery by saving the souls of Africans.

At first, Africans were mistrustful of European Christians, and took advantage of the education the missionaries provided without converting. Individuals who had no power under the current tribal order, however, soon converted; in the novel, the missionaries who come to Umuofia convert only the weaker tribesmen, or efulefu. Missionaries would convince these tribesmen that their tribe worshipped false gods and that its false gods did not have the ability to punish them if they chose to join the mission. When the mission and its converts accepted even the outcasts of the clan, the missionaries' ranks grew. Eventually, some of the more important tribesmen would convert. As the mission expanded, the clan divided, discontent simmered, and conflicts arose.

English Bureaucrats and ColonizationAfter the arrival of the British, when conflicts came up between villages the white government would intervene instead of allowing villagers to settle them themselves. In the novel, a white District Commissioner brings with him court messengers whose duty it is to bring in people who break the white man's law. The messengers, called "Ashy-Buttocks" for the ash-colored shorts they wear, are hated for their high-handed attitudes. These messengers and interpreters were often African Christian converts who looked down on tribesmen who still followed traditional customs. If violence involved any white missionaries or bureaucrats, British soldiers would often slaughter whole villages instead of seeking and punishing guilty individuals. The British passed an ordinance in 1912 that legalized this

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practice, and during an uprising in 1915, British troops killed more than forty natives in retaliation for one dead and one wounded British soldier.

One of the most important results of Europe's colonization of Africa was the division of Africa into at least fifty nation-states. Rather than being a part of a society determined by common language and livelihood, Africans lived according to political boundaries. The divisions often split ethnic groups, leading to tension and sometimes violence. The co-hesiveness of the traditional society was gone.

Nigerian IndependenceBritish colonial rule in Nigeria lasted only fifty-seven years, from 1903 to 1960. Although Nigerians had long called for self-rule, it was not until the end of World War II that England began heeding these calls. The Richards Constitution of 1946 was the first attempt to grant some native rule by bringing the diverse peoples of Nigeria under one representative government. The three regions (northern, southern and western) were brought under the administration of one legislative council composed of twenty-eight Nigerians and seventeen British officers. Regional councils, however, guaranteed some independence from the national council and forged a link between local authorities, such as tribal chiefs, and the national government. There were three major tribes (the Hausa, the Yoruba and the Igbo) and more than eight smaller ones living in Nigeria. This diversity complicated the creation of a unified Nigeria. Between 1946 and 1960 the country went through several different constitutions, each one attempting to balance power between the regional and the national bodies of government.

On October 1, 1960, Nigeria attained full status as a sovereign state and a member of the British Commonwealth. But under the Constitution of 1960 the Queen of England was still the head of state. She remained the commander-in-chief of Nigeria's armed forces, and the Nigerian navy operated as part of Britain's Royal Navy. Nigerians felt frustrated by the implication mat they were the subjects of a monarch living over 4,000 miles away. In 1963, five years after the publication of Achebe's novel, a new constitution would replace the British monarch with a Nigerian president as head of state in Nigeria.

Literary TraditionsAchebe wrote Things Fall Apart just before Nigeria received its independence. He intended the book for audiences outside Africa; he wanted to paint a true picture of precolonial Africa for those people who had no direct knowledge of traditional African societies. As a result of the Nigerians' acquisition of independence, the Nigerian educational system sought to encourage a national pride through the study of Nigerian heritage. The educational system required Achebe's book in high schools throughout the English-speaking countries in Africa. The book was well received. Chinua Achebe has been recognized as "the most original African novelist writing in English," according to Charles Larson in The Emergence of African Fiction. Critics throughout the world have praisedThings Fall Apart as the first African English language classic.

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Literary PrecedentsAchebe wrote his first and most famous novel partly in response to two works by European writers whom he had found wanting in their view of Africa: Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Joyce Cary's Mister Johnson (1951). To quote his own famous essay on Conrad, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness," the European sets "Africa up as a foil to Europe, as a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which Europe's own state of spiritual grace will be manifest." Africa's "triumphant bestiality" mocks European "intelligence and refinement"; it is projected as "the other world." Metaphors of silence and frenzy characterize Africa as a whole, and the people are treated as subhuman creatures lacking any real speech (they have only "a violent babble of uncouth sounds"). Conrad is "a purveyor of comforting myths," and only F. R. Leavis was astute enough to complain about "Conrad's adjectival insistence on inexpressible and incomprehensible mystery." The falsification reaches its nadir in his caricatures of Africans as dancing dogs; Achebe notes especially the fire stoker on the boat. Achebe admits that it is the narrator, Marlowe, and a secondary narrator, who tell the story, but lacking an alternative frame of reference, he finds Conrad very close to Marlowe. That Conrad's racism was not picked up by white critics, argues Achebe, is owing to the ingrained nature of racism in our culture. Although Conrad saw the evils of imperialism, his view was flawed because he did not connect it with racism. Although some critics have accused Achebe of being Conrad in reverse, his negative views of the British (often communicated through characters) are invariably qualified and balanced by his inclusion of many flawed African characters, and at least a sprinkling of wise British ones.

The case of Cary's Mr. Johnson (which Achebe considers "appalling") is different and regarded by some critics as a step in the right direction that falls short of the mark. The novel centers on the building of a road — a task justified as an incentive to commerce but one that finally makes unanticipated inroads into the African culture threatening it with dissolution. The breakup, however, is callously witnessed through the eyes of chief characters who are British. Achebe, as Christopher Wren has pointed out, shares the central proposition that colonialism destroyed African culture and does not posit anything in its place, and that events set in motion by colonialism have unpredictable results. Yet Achebe's vision of Africa, as evidenced by his fictional place Umuofia (opposed to Cary's Fada), is one of a complex culture, and consequently the reader's view of it is more fully experienced. Achebe's novel has the advantage of the inside African view, and a more modern view, and a generous artistic vision that make it in many ways the larger and more important work.

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Plot Summary

Things Fall Apart is a story told by a skillful storyteller. The novel attempts to recreate the social, cultural, and religious fabric of traditional Igbo life between 1850 and the early 1900s. However, the novel cannot be interpreted as an accurate social and political history of the Igbo people, because it is a work of fiction. Nevertheless, the novel depicts conflicts and tensions within Igbo society as well as changes introduced by colonial rule and Christianity. The novel is structured in three parts. Part One depicts life in pre colonial Igboland. Part Two relates the arrival of the Europeans and the introduction of Christianity, and Part Three recounts the beginning of systematic colonial control in eastern Nigeria. Okonkwo, the protagonist, is a talented but inflexible Igbo who struggles to achieve success in the traditional world.

The setting of Part One is Umuofia, a union of nine villages. Okonkwo is introduced as a great wrestler, a renowned warrior, and a hardworking member of the community. He has amassed two barns filled with yams, three wives, many children, and two titles. His goal is to move through the traditional Igbo title taking system by balancing personal achievement and community service. However, although Okonkwo feels he is destined for greatness, his chi, or the god-force within him, does not seem destined for greatness.

Okonkwo seeks to overpower his mediocre chi by working hard. He is profoundly afraid of failure. As a result, he is unable to balance the feminine energy of love with the masculine energy of material success. Okonkwo often suppresses his feminine side as he pursues his goals and angers the Earth goddess Ani. His rage, inflexibility, and fear of appearing weak like his lazy father, the musician Unoka, consistently overshadow his respect for his community.

When a daughter of Umuofia is killed by the neighboring village of Mbaino, a young boy named Ikemefuna is given to Umuofia in order to avoid war. Okonkwo adopts the boy and seems to admire him, for Ikemefuna is both a talented musician and a great hunter. He is also a brother and role model for Okonkwo’s eldest son Nwoye, who appears to be lazy. Ikemefuna lives with Okonkwo for three years until the Oracle of the Hills and Caves demands his life. Ogbuefi Ezeudu, the oldest man in the village, advises Okonkwo not to take part in the ritual killing of the boy. Although Okonkwo loves Ikemefuna, he does not want to appear weak. He joins the ceremony and kills Ikemefuna. Okonkwo’s action ultimately shatters his relationship with his sensitive son, Nwoye.

Okonkwo is both affectionate and violent with his family. He loves his daughter Ezinma, who is an ogbanje, or a changeling child who seems to die continually only to return to her mother’s womb to be reborn and die again. In an attempt to break the power of the ogbanje, Okonkwo follows his wife Ekwefi, the priestess Chielo, and his daughter Ezinma on a journey to the oracle Agbala. Okonkwo also assists a medicine man locate and destroy his daughter’s iyi uwa, or the sacred stone that links the child with the spirit world. However, Okonkwo also has a dark and dangerous side, for he controls his family through anger. In bouts of rage, he beats his youngest wife, Ojiugo, for neglecting to cook dinner and braiding her hair instead during the Week of Peace. He also takes a shot at Ekwefi with a rusty gun during the Yam Festival.

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Okonkwo’s immoral actions affect the community. During the funeral rite for the elder Ezeudu, Okonkwo’s gun accidentally explodes, killing Ezeudu’s son. Okonkwo’s crimes enrage the Earth Goddess Ani, for he has consciously and unconsciously chosen death by beating his wife, killing Ikemefuna, and now, killing Ezeudu’s son. His irrational actions are destroying the moral fabric of traditional life. Therefore, Ani banishes Okonkwo to Mbanta, his mother’s village, for seven years.

Part Two of the novel takes place while Okonkwo is in exile in Mbanta. Okonkwo flees to his mother’s village and takes refuge with the feminine principal represented by the Earth goddess. He is given time to learn the supremacy of a mother’s nurturing love. However, Okonkwo’s goals never change. He works hard to amass wealth through the production of yams, and he dreams of returning to Umuofia to become a judicial leader in the clan. While Okonkwo single-mindedly labors in Mbanta, the Europeans arrive in Igboland. His friend Obierika visits him twice with news of the political and social upheaval. Abame, one of the villages in the union of Umuofia, is razed by the British. Christianity, a new religion, is attracting the marginal members of the Igbo community. The disenfranchised among the Igbo include the anguished mothers of twins who are forced to discard their children in the Evil Forest, the osu, who are despised descendants of religious slave cults, and unsuccessful men who do not earn titles or achieve status in the traditional world. The new Christian converts include Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye.

In Part Three, Okonkwo returns from exile in Mbanta to a tense and radically changed Umuofia. At this point, a colonial government is taking root, the palm-oil trade is transforming the economy, and Christianity is dividing the Igbo people. Tensions escalate at the annual worship of the Earth goddess when the zealous Christian convert Enoch unmasks an egwugwu, a masquerader representing an ancestral spirit. His apostasy kills the spirit, unmasks the traditional religion, and throws Umuofia into confusion. Other egwugwu, who are actually Igbo men masked as ancestors, are enraged and retaliate. They raze Enoch’s compound to the ground and burn the new Christian church. Okonkwo and other village leaders are subsequently jailed and whipped by order of the District Commissioner. After paying a fine, the humiliated Igbo are released from prison.

The traditional Igbo gather to mourn the abominations suffered by the ancient gods, the ancestors, and the entire Igbo community. They decry the new religion, which has pitted Igbo against Igbo. When colonial officials arrive to disperse the crowd, Okonkwo blocks them. He draws his machete and decapitates the court messenger. Okonkwo marshals no support; however, for the divided Igbo community fails to rise in defense of traditional life. Okonkwo has no recourse. He retreats and hangs himself from a tree.

Okonkwo fails to achieve immortality according to Igbo tradition. Only strangers may touch him now, for he has committed suicide, the ultimate offense against the Earth goddess. Okonkwo does not even merit a simple burial among his own people. In the final denouement, a perplexed District Commissioner orders members of the Igbo community to appear in court with Okonkwo’s corpse. The commissioner decides to allot the tragedy of Okonkwo a paragraph in his anthropological study of the Igbo, which he has cruelly entitled “The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.” (p. 148)

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Although the novel represents Igboland in the 1890s, it is crucial for the reader to remember that Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart in 1958, at the dawn of Nigerian independence. Achebe writes from a realistic third person point of view and questions assumptions about civilization, culture, and literature. Proverbs, folk tales, myths, and portraits of rituals and festivals support the basic plot line and paint a picture of Igbo life. In Morning Yet on Creation Day, Achebe explains his desire to show that precolonial Africa was “not one long nightmare of savagery.” (p. 45) Overall, Achebe succeeds in presenting Igbo society as an organic whole and providing a window into the heart of Africa.

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Chapter Summaries and Analysis

Part One

Chapter 1 SummaryOkonkwo, who is now in his forties, is a man of tremendous reputation in the nine villages of Umuofia, famous for his strength and courage and for his prowess as a fighter. When he was only eighteen he defeated Amalinze the Cat in a wrestling-match, and since that victory his reputation has grown and increased. He is a champion wrestler, has fought bravely in two inter-tribal wars, and has become a wealthy farmer with three wives and two barns full of yams. His father, Unoka, who had died ten years before the story begins, had been a very different kind of man. He was lazy, never saved any money and liked best of all playing the flute, drinking and merrymaking.

As a grown man he had been a failure, unable to provide for his wife and children and always borrowing money which he could not repay. As an example of this, we are shown how Unoka deals with a friend, Okoye, to whom he owes money, and it is clear from this scene that Unoka is a gentle, persuasive man, skilled at adorning his conversation with the proverbs beloved by the Ibos, a man who loves the softer and more 'feminine' things in life, such as music and dancing. These qualities were not valued by the Ibo society of the time, as were the stem qualities displayed by his son, Okonkwo. Now, although his father had been a waster, Okonkwo had, by his own efforts, made himself one of the most important men in his village of Umuofia.

Chapter 2 SummaryA woman from Umuofia has been killed in the neighbouring village of Mbaino, and the members of the tribe, summoned by the town-crier, gather in the village square to hear an account of the incident. They agree to send Okonkwo as their ambassador to Mbaino to find out whether the offending villagers were prepared to go to war over the matter or if they would pay, by way of compensation to Umuofia, one youth and one maiden. Such is the warlike reputation of Umuofia, known to be backed up by a powerful War Spirit, that the people of Mbaino readily agree to a peaceful settlement. In these negotiationsOkonkwo plays the main part, and on his return the elders make him the guardian of the male hostage, Ikemefuna.

Throughout this episode, Okonkwo's proud and strong nature is stressed, his status within his tribe and the harsh way in which he rules his family. He seems a brave, even cruel, man, but, in reality, his life is ruled by fear of weakness and failure, of becoming a good-far-nothing laughing-stock like his father. We learn more of his wealth and of his son, Nwoye, who, he is afraid, is turning out to be an idler. We also learn of how the whole life of the tribe is governed by magic and superstition.

Chapter 3 SummaryUnoka's life had been dogged by misfortune and he succumbed to a miserable end. Once, on visiting the Oracle, he had been told clearly that the fault was within himself, in that he never exerted himself on his own behalf and did not work hard enough. So Okonkwo started with no advantages and has had to exert himself mightily to build up his fortune. This he has

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succeeded in doing, driven on in his tremendous efforts by the fear of being a failure, like his father. An example is given of how he had made his way when he was young by clearing a farm and planting the seed of a wealthy man, Nwakibie, in return for some of the produce.This scene shows the elaborate social rituals and proverb-laden forms of address used by the Ibo. That particular year had been one of drought and crop-failure, but Okonkwo had worked hard and not allowed this failure to break his spirit. Gradually a picture is being built up of Okonkwo's manly determination, courage and capacity for hard work, as opposed to his father's weakness.

Chapters 1–3 AnalysisWe are introduced immediately to the complex laws and customs of Okonkwo’s clan and its commitment to harmonious relations. For example, the practice of sharing palm-wine and kola nuts is repeated throughout the book to emphasize the peacefulness of the Igbo. When Unoka’s resentful neighbour visits him to collect a debt, the neighbour does not immediately address the debt. Instead, he and Unoka share a kola nut and pray to their ancestral spirits; afterward, they converse about community affairs at great length. The customs regulating social relations emphasize their common interests and culture, diffusing possible tension. The neighbour further eases the situation by introducing the subject of debt through a series of Igbo proverbs, thus making use of a shared oral tradition, as Okonkwo does when he asks Nwakibie for some seed yams. Through his emphasis on the harmony and complexity of the Igbo, Achebe contradicts the stereotypical, European representations of Africans as savages.

Another important way in which Achebe challenges such stereotypical representations is through his use of language. As Achebe writes in his essay on Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness, colonialist Europe tended to perceive Africa as a foil or negation of Western culture and values, imagining Africa to be a primordial land of silence. But the people of Umuofia speak a complex language full of proverbs and literary and rhetorical devices. Achebe’s translation of the Igbo language into English retains the cadences, rhythms, and speech patterns of the language without making them sound, as Conrad did, “primitive.”Okonkwo is the protagonist of Things Fall Apart, and, in addition to situating him within his society, the first few chapters of the novel offer us an understanding of his nature. He is driven by his hatred of his father, Unoka, and his fear of becoming like him. To avoid picking up Unoka’s traits, Okonkwo acts violently without thinking, often provoking avoidable fights. He has a bad temper and rules his household with fear. Okonkwo associates Unoka with weakness, and with weakness he associates femininity. Because his behaviour is so markedly different from his father’s, he believes that it constitutes masculinity. However, it strains his relationship with Nwoye and leads him to sin in Chapter 4 by breaking the Week of Peace. His rash behaviour also causes tension within the community because he expresses disdain for less successful men. Ikemefuna later demonstrates that masculinity need not preclude kindness, gentleness, and affection, and Nwoye responds far more positively to Ikemefuna’s nurturing influence than to Okonkwo’s heavy-handedness.

Despite its focus on kinship, the Igbo social structure offers a greater chance for mobility than that of the colonizers who eventually arrive in Umuofia. Though ancestors are revered, a man’s worth is determined by his own actions. In contrast to much of continental European society during the nineteenth century, which was marked by wealth-based class

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divisions, Igbo culture values individual displays of prowess, as evidenced by their wrestling competitions. Okonkwo is thus able, by means of his own efforts, to attain a position of wealth and prestige, even though his father died, penniless and titleless, of a shameful illness.

Chapter 4 SummaryAlthough Okonkwo is bold and adventurous, he is also arrogant and proud, caring little for others' feelings and accounting any softness as weakness. He is harsh to his family, being particularly stern to his son, Nwoye, and to the unhappy and homesick Ikemefuna. He seems not to care for either man or god. For example, during the Week of Peace, an annual festival during which violent action is forbidden, he beats one of his wives for neglecting her duty and is fined by the priest, but though he is inwardly repentant his pride will not let him show others that he cares.

After the Week of Peace is the time for planting the yams, and we see with what care Okonkwo carries out the various operations, taking the boys to task for not doing things properly. Yet, in spite of himself, he is growing attached to Ikemefuna, who is at last settling down, while the two boys are becoming fast friends.

Chapter 5 SummaryEach year in Umuofia, when the yams are ready to be harvested, a great festival is held, called the Feast of the New Yam. It marks the beginning of the period of plentiful food, between harvesting and the next planting, when there is no work to be done in the fields, and it is celebrated with feasting, drumming and wrestling. Okonkwo, being a man of action, does not like such periods of inactivity, and he loses his temper with his family, even going so far as firing his rusty old gun at one of his wives. Fortunately, he does no harm and the feast in Okonkwo's house proceeds, attended by his many relatives.

The second day of the feast is the day of a wrestling-contest between the neighbouring villages, an event that appeals much more to Okonkwo. But first we see something of the domestic arrangements of his household, how food is prepared by his wives and his little daughter, Ezinma, and how the various dishes are served to Okonkwo. All this takes place against a background of gathering excitement as the sound of the drums comes from the village square where the wrestling is to take place.

Chapter 6 SummaryThe wrestling-match is not a simple sporting contest but is a ritual event, taking place in front of the sacred silk-cotton tree and accompanied by drummers who, when they are drumming, are no longer ordinary human beings but are in some sense 'possessed' by the sacred spirit. In the same way Chielo, to whom Ekwefi tells the story of how Okonkwo had fired his gun at her, seems one person in her ordinary life and quite a different one when she is the priestess of the Oracle.

So the wrestling proceeds, by ordered formality, until Ikezue and Okafo, the two acknowledged champions, meet and, after a hard fight, Okafo is the winner. The celebrations have risen to a crescendo of excitement when the drums have become 'the

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very heart-beat of the people' and, singing a song of victory, the crowd then bears the winner home.

Chapters 4–6 AnalysisWhereas the first few chapters highlight the complexity and originality of the Igbo language, in these chapters Achebe points out another aspect of Igbo culture that colonialist Europe tended to ignore: the existence of subcultures within a given African population. Each clan has its own stories, and Ikemefuna is an exciting addition to Umuofia because he brings with him new and unfamiliar folk tales. With the introduction of Ikemefuna, Achebe is able to remind us that the story we are reading is not about Africa but rather about one specific culture within Africa. He thus combats the European tendency to see all Africans as one and the same.

The religious values of the Igbo emphasize the shared benefits of peaceful, harmonious relations. The Igbo always consult the Oracle before declaring war, for they fear punishment from their gods should they declare war without just cause. Their religion also emphasizes the individual’s obligation to the community. When Okonkwo breaks the peace during the sacred week, the priest chastises him for endangering the entire community by risking the earth deity’s wrath. He refuses Okonkwo’s offer of a kola nut, expressing disagreement peacefully. This parrying of potential violence on the interpersonal level reflects the culture’s tradition of avoiding violence and war whenever possible.Moreover, the belief in the chi, an individual’s personal god, also smooths possible tensions in the Igbo community. The chi allows individuals to attribute some portion of their failures and successes to divine influence, thus lessening the shame of the former and pride of the latter. This belief encourages respect between individuals; the men are thus able to settle a dispute between Okonkwo and a man whom he insults without resorting to personal attacks.

Although traditional Igbo culture is fairly democratic in nature, it is also profoundly patriarchal. Wife-beating is an accepted practice. Moreover, femininity is associated with weakness while masculinity is associated with strength. It is no coincidence that the word that refers to a titleless man also means “woman.” A man is not believed to be “manly” if he cannot control his women. Okonkwo frequently beats his wives, and the only emotion he allows himself to display is anger. He does not particularly like feasts, because the idleness that they involve makes him feel emasculated. Okonkwo’s frustration at this idleness causes him to act violently, breaking the spirit of the celebration.

Okonkwo’s extremely overactive desire to conquer and subdue, along with his profound hatred of all things feminine, is suggestive of impotence. Though he has children, Okonkwo is never compared to anything thriving or organic; instead, Achebe always associates him with fire, which consumes but does not beget. The incident in which he tries to shoot Ekwefi with his gun is likewise suggestive of impotence. After Ekwefi hints at Okonkwo’s inability to shoot properly, Okonkwo proves this inability, failing to hit Ekwefi. Impotence, whether or not it is an actual physical condition for him, seems to be a characteristic that is related to Okonkwo’s chauvinistic behaviour.

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Chapter 7 SummaryThree years have passed. Ikemefuna has settled down in Okonkwo's household and is having a good influence upon Nwoye who is growing up and becoming closer to his father. Yet, although he pretends to enjoy his father's warlike stories, in his heart he prefers the gentler tales told by his mother. One day, while Okonkwo and the boys are mending the compound wall, a swarm of locusts descends upon Umuofia. This rare event delights the villagers, since the locusts are good to eat.

While Okonkwo is eating locusts he is visited by one of the elders who tells him that the Oracle has decreed that Ikemefuna should be killed, as a sacrifice, but that, since the boy looks upon him as a father, Okonkwo should not take part in the killing. Pretending to be returning him to his home village, the men take Ikemefuna outside Umuofia and slay him, and, afraid of being thought weak, Okonkwo helps in the slaughter.

Nwoye is deeply affected by this incident which underlines the superstitious brutality of traditional Ibo society, a brutality that, with the coming of Christianity, is to be opposed by a religion preaching love and kindness.

Chapter 8 SummaryAlthough Okonkwo is not a man of thought but of action, he has been very upset by the killing of Ikemefuna and is made sadder by the thought that his own son, Nwoye, is lacking in manliness. He visits his friend, Obierika, a man who takes a balanced view of things and who believes that Okonkwo should have played no part in the killing. Yet Okonkwo firmly believes that the commandments of the Oracle should be obeyed.

While he is in Obierika's hut, Okonkwo participates in the negotiations for the bride-price to be paid for the hand in marriage of Obierika's daughter, Akueke. She is a beautiful young girl of sixteen who is specially dressed in beads and body-paint for the occasion. A price of twenty bags of cowries is finally settled after lengthy and highly formal negotiations.

In this chapter we learn more of the customs and traditions of the tribe and gain insight into what the men talk about when they meet.

Chapters 7-8 AnalysisOkonkwo disobeys the authority and advice of a clan elder in killing Ikemefuna. His actions are too close to killing a kinsman, which is a grave sin in Igbo culture. Okonkwo is so afraid of looking weak that he is willing to come close to violating tribal law in order to prove otherwise. No one would have thought that Okonkwo was weak if he had stayed in the village. In fact, Obierika’s opinion on the matter suggests that doing so would have been considered the more appropriate action. Instead, Okonkwo’s actions seriously damage both his relationship with Nwoye and Nwoye’s allegiance to Igbo society.

Nwoye shows promise because he voices chauvinist opinions, but his comments are really aimed at Okonkwo. In fact, Nwoye loves women’s stories and is pleased when his mother or Okonkwo’s other wives ask him to do things for them. He also seeks comfort in his mother’s hut after Ikemefuna’s death. Nwoye’s questioning of Ikemefuna’s death and of the practice of throwing away newborn twins is understandable: Obierika, too, frequently questions

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tradition. In fact, Obierika refused to accompany the other men to kill Ikemefuna, and Okonkwo points out that Obierika seems to question the Oracle. Obierika also has reservations about the village’s practice of tapping trees. Okonkwo, on the other hand, accepts all of his clan’s laws and traditions unquestioningly.Interestingly, Obierika’s manliness is never questioned. The fact that Obierika is sceptical of some Igbo practices makes us regard Nwoye’s scepticism in a different light. We understand that, in Umuofia, manhood does not require the denigration of women. Like Nwoye, Ikemefuna is not close to his biological father. Rather, his primary emotional attachments to his natal village are to his mother and little sister.

Although he is not misogynistic like Okonkwo, Ikemefuna is the perfect clansman. He eagerly takes part in the community celebrations and integrates himself into Okonkwo’s family. Okonkwo and Ikemefuna love one another as father and son, and Ikemefuna is a good older brother to Nwoye. Most important, he is protective rather than critical. He does not allow Nwoye and his brothers to tell their mother that Obiageli broke her water pot when she was showing off—he does not want her to be punished. Ikemefuna illustrates that manliness does not preclude gentleness and affection.

In calling himself a “shivering old woman,” Okonkwo associates weakness with femininity. Although he denigrates his emotional attachment to Ikemefuna, he seeks comfort in his affectionate friendship with Obierika. Ezinma is likewise a source of great comfort to him. Because she understands him, she does not address his sorrow directly; rather, she urges him to eat. For all of Okonkwo’s chauvinism, Ezinma is his favourite child. Okonkwo’s frequently voiced desire that Ezinma were a boy seems to suggest that he secretly desires affectionate attachment with his actual sons, although he avoids admitting as much because he fears affection as a weakness. It is interesting to note that Okonkwo doesn’t wish that Ezinma were a boy because she exhibits desirable masculine traits; rather, it is their bond of sympathy and understanding that he values.

Chapter 9 SummaryEzinma, Okonkwo's daughter, who is his favourite child, catches malaria. Ekwefi, her mother, has had ten children but only Ezinma has survived infancy, and it is thought that, in her case, the evil spell cast upon Ekwefi's children had been broken through an elaborate magical ritual. Okonkwo gathers herbs and leaves from the bush and prepares an inhalation which cures Ezinma.This chapter illustrates the magical beliefs and rituals of the tribe and shows how, before the coming of the white man, they had natural remedies and medicines for the commonest diseases. It is not accidental that a chapter dealing with malaria opens with an anecdote about the mosquito.

Chapter 10 summaryIn this chapter we see how justice is carried out in Umuofia. The case is one of a dispute between a husband and wife. The woman has returned to her family and her husband is now claiming back the bride-price from them. In reply, her family asserts that he has treated her harshly for nine years and that they are justified in taking her home.

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The case is presented not just before the elders of the tribe but before the highest tribunal in the land, made up of the nine egwugwu, masked figures representing the ancestral spirits of each of the nine villages. Thus a magical as well as a legal force is lent to their judgement, which is one making for reconciliation between the disputing parties. It is clear that the second egwugwu is Okonkwo, but while he is masked he is not himself but one of the dead ancestors of the clan.

Chapter 11 SummaryIt is a dark night and Ekwefi is telling her daughter, Ezinma, the legend of how the tortoise got its patterned shell when Chielo, the priestess of the Oracle, arrives possessed by her spirit and claims that the Oracle wishes to see Ezinma. In spite of Ekwefi's protestations, she carries the child off into the night. Ekwefi follows the priestess and the child by a long, roundabout route to the cave, her love for her daughter overcoming her fear of the darkness. While, not daring to enter, she waits outside the cave, she discovers that Okonkwo too has followed. Thus not only is the couple's love for their daughter demonstrated, but also the way in which they are prepared to submit to the will of the gods.

Chapters 9-11 AnalysisThe relationship between Ekwefi and Ezinma is not a typical parent-child relationship; it is more like one between equals. Ekwefi receives a great deal of comfort and companionship from her daughter and, because she has lost so many children, she loves and respects her daughter all the more. Although motherhood is regarded as the crowning achievement of a woman’s life, Ekwefi prizes Ezinma so highly, not for the status motherhood brings her but, rather, for the love and companionship that she offers.

Mutually supportive interaction between women receives increasing focus as the novel progresses. For example, Okonkwo’s wives frequently try to protect one another from his anger. Before Ezinma’s birth, Ekwefi was not jealous of Okonkwo’s first wife; she only expressed bitterness at her own misfortune. While Okonkwo gathers medicine for the fever, his other wives try to calm Ekwefi’s fear. Ekwefi’s friendship with Chielo, too, is an example of female bonding.

The incident with Chielo creates a real dilemma for Ekwefi, whose fear of the possible repercussions of disobeying her shows that Chielo’s role as a priestess is taken seriously—it is not just ceremonial. But Ekwefi and Okonkwo’s love for their child is strong enough that they are willing to defy religious authority. Although she has lost nine children, Ekwefi has been made strong by suffering, and when she follows Chielo, she chooses her daughter over the gods. In doing so, Ekwefi contradicts Okonkwo’s ideas of femininity and demonstrates that strength and bravery are not only masculine attributes. Okonkwo also disobeys Chielo and follows her to the caves. But he, too, is careful to show respect to Chielo. She is a woman, but, as a priestess, she can order and chastise him openly. Her authority is not to be taken lightly.

Unlike the narration of Chielo’s kidnapping of Ezinma, the narration of the egwugwu ceremony is rather ironic. The narrator makes several comments to reveal to us that the villagers know that the egwugwu are not real. For example, the narrator tells us: “Okonkwo’s wives, and perhaps other women as well, might have noticed that the second

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egwugwu had the springy walk of Okonkwo. And they might have noticed that Okonkwo was not among the titled men and elders who sat . . . But if they thought these things they kept them within themselves.” The narration of the incident of the medicine man and the iyi-uwa seems likewise to contain a trace of irony. After discussing the iyi-uwa and egwugwu in a tone that approaches mockery on a few occasions, the narrator, remarkably, says nothing that seems to undermine the villagers’ perception of the strength of Chielo’s divine power.

The story that Ekwefi tells Ezinma about Tortoise and the birds is one of the many instances in which we are exposed to Igbo folklore. The tale also seems to prepare us, like the symbolic locusts that arrive in Chapter 7, for the colonialism that will soon descend upon Umuofia. Tortoise convinces the birds to allow him to come with them, even though he does not belong. He then appropriates all of their food. The tale presents two different ways of defeating Tortoise: first, the birds strip Tortoise of the feathers that they had lent him. This strategy involves cooperation and unity among the birds. When they refuse to concede to Tortoise’s desires, Tortoise becomes unable to overpower them. Parrot’s trick suggests a second course of action: by taking advantage of the position as translator, Parrot outwits Tortoise

Chapter 12 SummaryThe following day is the day of the wedding-feast for Obierika's daughter. While Okonkwo's other wives and children go early to the feast, Okonkwo himself together with Ekwefi and Ezinma are delayed a little since they have been awake most of the night, and we learn ofhow the incident with the priestess ended and of Okonkwo's great concern for his daughter.

Preparations for the feast go ahead, with everyone taking part and contributing his share, and there are various incidents-a goat is slaughtered, a cow runs away-and informal gossip and conversation. When the suitor and his kinsfolk arrive, the formal ceremony begins. What happens is laid down by tradition, and it is noticeable that the occasion is a social (even a commercial) one, not a religious ceremony, involving feasting, singing and dancing and the telling of tales of past greatness.

Chapter 13 SummaryEzeudu, the oldest man in Okonkwo's village, has died. He is the man who had warned Okonkwo to have no part in the slaughter of Ikemefuna. The whole land of Umuofia is in a turmoil of mourning: everyone laments and expresses his grief, and the egwugwu, visitors from the land of the ancestors to which Ezeudu is going, make frightening appearances.

As befits one of such high rank, the funeral ceremonies are very elaborate, being particularly marked by the firing of guns. At the height of the excitement there is a dreadful accident: Okonkwo's old gun explodes and the dead man's sixteen-year-old son is killed.

To kill a clansman is the greatest of crimes, and he who is responsible is banished from the land. However, since the killing was an accident, he is permitted to return after seven years. So Okonkwo and his family are forced before nightfall to flee to his distant native village of Mbanta, and when they are gone his compound and his possessions are destroyed by his fellow tribesmen in a ritual cleansing and purification of his sin.

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Chapters 12–13 AnalysisIn the previous section, we see Okonkwo’s behaviour the night of the incident with Chielo as it appears to Ekwefi: Okonkwo shows up with his machete and fulfils the role of the strong, manly protector. At the beginning of Chapter 12, though, the narrator focuses on Okonkwo’s internal state and we see his true feelings rather than his apparent ones. Because Okonkwo views affection as a sign of weakness, he forces himself to wait before following Chielo. Each time he makes the trip to the caves and finds her missing, he returns home again to wait. Not until his fourth trip does he encounter Ekwefi. Okonkwo is not the cruel, heartless man that he presents himself to be; rather, he is gravely worried about Ezinma’s welfare. His hyperbolic understanding of manliness—the result of his tragic flaw—prevents his better nature from showing itself fully. Chielo’s actions force Okonkwo to acknowledge how important his wife and child are to him.

The importance of kinship bonds in manifests itself in the ramifications of the violation of such bonds. When Ikemefuna enters Okonkwo’s family as a surrogate son, he begins to heal the tension that exists between Okonkwo and Nwoye as a result of Okonkwo’s difficulty in dealing with the memory of his father. Ikemefuna is thus presented as a possible solution to Okonkwo’s tragic flaw. But Okonkwo fails to overcome his flaw and, in killing the boy who has become his son, damages his relationship with Nwoye permanently. Moreover, he seriously injures Nwoye’s respect for, and adherence to, Igbo cultural tradition.

Okonkwo’s accidental killing of Ezeudu’s son seems more than coincidence. We sense that it is a form of punishment for his earlier violation of kinship bonds. Just before the ill-fated incident happens, the one-handed spirit calls out to Ezeudu’s corpse, “If your death was the death of nature, go in peace. But if a man caused it, do not allow him a moment’s rest.” Although the explosion of Okonkwo’s gun moments later is not evidence that Okonkwo is, in fact, responsible for Ezeudu’s death, it seems to suggest that Okonkwo’s killing of Ikemefuna has been hurtful to the well-being and solidarity of the clan and its traditions.Okonkwo’s punishment emphasizes the importance of strong, harmonious relations within the community. Although Obierika questions the harsh punishment that Okonkwo receives for such an accident, the punishment, in a way, helps stave off anger, resentment, and, ultimately, revenge. Despite the accidental nature of the death of Ezeudu’s son, it is understandable for Ezeudu’s close relatives to be angry with Okonkwo. The burning of Okonkwo’s compound displaces this anger onto his property, while Okonkwo’s exile separates him temporarily from the offended community. Over a period of seven years, any remaining anger and resentment from Ezeudu’s close relatives will dissipate, and the offender’s place in the community will be restored.

Part Two

Chapter 14 SummaryOkonkwo has returned to Mbanta, his mother's home-village. He had last been there when he had taken his mother's body home for burial. His kinsfolk give him land for a compound and for cultivation and provide him with seed-yams, so Okonkwo plants again and tries to rebuild his fortune. But his heart is not in the task; he is in despair and feels that his personal god, his chi, is against him.

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The final ceremonies completing the marriage of one of his cousins to a new wife take place and after the ceremony his uncle, Uchendu, takes Okonkwo to task for his despair. He has returned to the home of his mother, as a child runs to his mother for comfort when he is hurt, and it is displeasing to a mother when her child refuses to be comforted. So Okonkwo should not displease the spirit of his dead mother by despairing but should bend his efforts to providing for his wives and children during this period of exile.

Chapter 15 SummaryTwo years have passed and Obierika has come to visit Okonkwo, bringing the money from the harvest of Okonkwo's yams. The visitors are greeted by Ochendu and the news they bring is of the first incursion of the white man into their land. One white man had arrived at the village of Abame, riding on a bicycle. Fearing that he would bring more of his kind, the villagers had killed him and, lest it should run away, had tied his machine to the sacred silk-cotton tree. Later, some other white men had come and, seeing the bicycle, had gone away again. One market day the village had been secretly surrounded by many white men with guns who had massacred nearly all the inhabitants without warning. It is clear that Ibo society is going to come under increasing strain from the arrival of the white men, and, in discussion as to how to deal with the threat, it is Okonkwo's firm view that they should be met with violence.

Chapter 16 SummaryAnother two years have passed and Obierika has again come to visit Okonkwo in exile. The missionaries have come to Umuofia and Obierika has discovered Okonkwo's son, Nwoye, among them, so he has come to discover how this has happened. Okonkwo will not tell him, but from Nwoye's mother he learns how one white missionary and his African evangelists had come to Mbanta. Most of the villagers, including Okonkwo, had scoffed at the preaching and the hymn-singing, but a few had been attracted by it. Amongst these was Nwoye, who had always felt unhappy at the violence and brutality of Ibo society, and who felt that the new religion offered hope of better things. He and his father are now estranged from one another.

Chapters 14-16 AnalysisOkonkwo’s exile forces him into his motherland. He doesn’t deal well with his misfortune because he is so intent on being as successful and influential as his father was poor and powerless. His initial lack of gratitude toward his mother’s kinsmen is a transgression of Igbo cultural values. His exile also upsets him because it forces him to spend time in a “womanly” place. He remains unwilling to admit to, or come to terms with, the feminine side of his personality.

Unoka’s words regarding the bitterness of failing alone are important considering Okonkwo’s present situation. Like Unoka, Uchendu reminds Okonkwo that he does not suffer alone. Uchendu laments the loss of five of his wives, openly expressing his strong attachment to the women who have shared his life and borne his children. He mentions that his remaining wife is a young girl who “does not know her left from her right.” Youth, beauty, and sexual attractiveness are not the only things one should value in a wife, he argues. Uchendu also values wisdom, intelligence, and experience in a wife. Each and every

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death has caused him pain. Although we would not know it from Okonkwo, a father grieves for lost children just as a mother does.

The introduction of the European missionaries is not presented as a tragic event—it even contains some comical elements. The villagers, for example, mock the interpreter’s dialect. They neither perceive the missionaries as a threat nor react violently like the village of Abame, even though the missionaries call their gods “false” outright. And the missionaries do not forcibly thrust Christianity on the villagers.

Considering the emphasis that the Igbo place on careful thought before violent action, Okonkwo’s belief that the people of Abame should have armed themselves and killed the white men reflects a rash, violent nature that seems to clash with fundamental Igbo values. Throughout Things Fall Apart, Igbo customs and social institutions emphasize the wisdom of seeking a peaceful solution to conflict before a violent solution. Uchendu voices this social value when he states that the killing of the first white man was foolish, for the villagers of Abame did not even know what the man’s intentions were.

The language that Achebe uses to describe the pleasure that Nwoye finds in Christianity reflects Umuofia’s seeming need to be soothed physically as well as spiritually. Achebe sets up, from the beginning of the novel, a system of images that accentuate both the dry land and the tense atmosphere in the village. The image of the words of the hymn as raindrops relieving Nwoye’s “parched soul” refers not only to relief from the arid, desert like heat with which Africa is commonly associated but also to the act of bringing Nwoye out of his supposed ignorance and into enlightenment through Christianity. It begins to quench his thirst for answers that Igbo religion has not been able to provide him.

Chapter 17 SummaryThe missionaries had asked for land on which to build their church and the elders had granted them a plot in the 'Evil Forest', where no man goes and where those dying of infectious diseases, the magic belongings of dead witch-doctors, and other dangerous objects are left. It was hoped that this land would prove uninhabitable to the newcomers, but to everyone's surprise this 'bad medicine' did not seem to affect them. Even after seven market-weeks, which was thought to be the limit of the ancient spirits' tolerance, they were still there unharmed and gaining more converts.

Amongst these converts was Nwoye, who had hesitated a long time before joining them. When Okonkwo heard of this he had been very angry and had beaten his son. So Nwoye had left his father and gone to join the mission at Umuofia. Okonkwo feels that the fates have dealt him a sad blow in giving him such a son, so like his own dead father. He sees his whole world crumbling about him and feels violent anger against the new faith. In Okonkwo's dilemma is forecast the destruction of traditional Ibo society.

Chapter 18 SummaryThe gradually increasing strength of the mission is leading to violence between the two sides and it is rumoured that the white men are introducing government and laws to protect the missionaries. Preaching that all men are equal in the sight of God, the Christians admit to membership the outcasts of the tribe. This welcoming of prohibited castes, such as twins

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(who were always exposed by the Ibos to die in the forest), causes still more trouble with the villagers. When one of the converts deliberately kills a royal python, a most sacred creature in the eyes of the tribe, indignation boils over. Okonkwo is all for violent action, but the elders decide that the converts should be excluded from all the life and privileges of the tribe. However, the traditional gods show that they are still powerful when Okoli, who slew the python, falls ill and dies, and the villagers lift their ban.

Chapter 19 SummaryOkonkwo's time of exile in Mbanta is drawing to a close. Although he has prospered there, he knows he would have done better in Umuofia and the thought makes him unhappy. Nevertheless, he gives a great feast to his kinsmen as a mark of his gratitude. At this point in the novel this feast-a celebration of, and affirmation of, traditional values of kinship-forms an ironic counterpoint to the dangers that are threatening Ibo society, a gesture towards things as they were that are now beginning to fall apart.

Chapters 17–19 AnalysisNwoye is drawn to Christianity because it seems to answer his long-held doubts about his native religion, specifically the abandonment of twin newborns and Ikemefuna’s death. Furthermore, Nwoye feels himself exiled from his society because of his disbelief in its laws, and the church offers refuge to those whom society has cast out. The church’s value system will allow twins to live, for example, which offers comfort to the pregnant woman who has had to endure the casting away to die of her four sets of newborn twins. Similarly, men without titles turn to Christianity to find affirmation of their individual worth. The osu are able to discard others’ perception of them as members of an ostracized caste and enter the church as the equals of other converts.

Okonkwo, on the other hand, has good reason to reject Christianity. Should Mbanta not drive the missionaries away, his killing of Ikemefuna would lose part of its religious justification. The damage to his relationship with Nwoye also seems more pointless than before. Both matters become his mistake rather than the result of divine will. Moreover, men of high status like Okonkwo view the church as a threat because it undermines the cultural value of their accomplishments. Their titles and their positions as religious authorities and clan leaders lose force and prestige if men of lower status are not there—the great cannot be measured against the worthless if the worthless have disappeared.Nwoye’s conversion devastates Okonkwo. Although he has always been harsh with his son, Okonkwo still believes in Nwoye’s potential to become a great clansman. Nwoye’s rejection of Igbo values, however, strikes a dire blow to Okonkwo’s hopes for him. Additionally, Nwoye’s actions undermine Okonkwo’s own status and prestige. It is, as Okonkwo thinks at the end of Chapter 17, as though all of Okonkwo’s hard work to distance himself from the legacy of his father has been destroyed. He sighs and thinks to himself: “Living fire begets cold impotent ash.”

Despite the challenges that the church represents, Mbanta is committed to peace and remains tolerant of the church’s presence. Even with the converts’ blatant disrespect of Umuofia’s customs—rumour has it that a convert has killed a royal python—the clan leaders vote for a peaceful solution, deciding to ostracize rather than attack the Christians. Okonkwo is not happy with their decision and advocates a violent reaction. His mentality is

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somewhat ironic: he believes that the village should act against its cultural values in order to preserve them.

The arrival of the white colonists and their religion weakens the kinship bonds so central to Igbo culture. Ancestral worship plays an important role in Igbo religion, and conversion to Christianity involves a partial rejection of the Igbo structure of kinship. The Christians tell the Igbo that they are all brothers and sons of God, replacing the literal ties of kinship with a metaphorical kinship structure through God. The overjoyed response of a missionary to Nwoye’s interest in attending school in another village—“Blessed is he who forsakes his father and his mother for my sake”—illustrates that the Christian church clearly recognizes Igbo kinship bonds as the central obstacle to the success of its missionaries.

Achebe does not present a clear-cut dichotomy of the white religion as evil and the Igbo religion as good. All along, the descriptions of many of the village’s ceremonies and rituals have been tongue-in-cheek. But the Christian missionaries increasingly win converts simply by pointing out the fallacy of Igbo beliefs—for example, those about the outcasts. When the outcasts cut their hair with no negative consequence, many villagers come to believe that the Christian god is more powerful than their own. Achebe himself is the son of Nigerian Christians, and it is hard not to think of his situation, in Chapter 17, when the narrator points out Okonkwo’s worry: “Suppose when he died all his male children decided to follow Nwoye’s steps and abandon their ancestors?”

Part Three

Chapter 20 SummaryOkonkwo has returned to Umuofia. He has, of course, lost the opportunity of taking the highest titles and of leading his people in resistance to the new faith which has been spreading and gathering strength. Yet he resolves to re-establish his fortunes, to build a more splendid compound and to take two new wives. In spite of losing Nwoye, he still has five sons to be brought up in the traditional beliefs, and there is Ezinma, his favourite daughter, who has grown into a beautiful young woman and who he is determined will marry a worthy suitor from Umuofia.

But Umuofia has changed during his absence. A church has been established there, and also a court and a District Commissioner; offences against the white man's law are tried and men of rank in Ibo society imprisoned and put to unworthy labour under the supervision of African warders drawn from distant tribes. Okonkwo cannot understand why his people do not resist by force, but Obierika, who knows the practical realities, points out that resistance is useless since their society is being undermined from inside and many of their fellow tribesmen now disapprove of the old ways. Even when the new law seems unjust by the old standards it will have to be accepted.

Chapter 21 SummaryThe coming of the white man has, in fact, brought increasing prosperity to Umuofia. The position of the mission is strengthened by the missionary, Mr Brown, who tries to learn something of the traditional ways and keeps his converts from excesses of zeal. Though Mr Brown does not succeed in converting one of the prominent citizens called Akunna to the

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idea that there is but One God, Akunna does send one of his sons to be taught in the mission-school. And in learning something of the nature of the old religion, Mr Brown realises that it is only in indirect ways, by building a school and a hospital, that he can hope to overcome.

In this way his influence spreads rapidly. Nwoye had been baptised a Christian under the name of Isaac and had left for a teacher-training college. This is a cause of great sorrow toOkonkwo whose triumphant return to Umuofia has been quite spoilt. He finds Umuofia a different land, with new interests, no longer a land of warriors.

Chapters 20–21 AnalysisOkonkwo’s status as a warrior and farmer and his clan’s perception of him have changed since his exile. His increasing loss of power and prestige brings him great anxiety. Any remaining doubt that Okonkwo is slightly crazy is quelled when we learn that he has been fantasizing about, and seriously planning for, his triumphant return to his village since his departure. Okonkwo has great expectations for himself—in Chapter 20 we are told that, “he saw himself taking the highest title of the land.”

Although Okonkwo still wishes that Ezinma were a boy, she remains a comfort to him throughout his troubles. Ironically, she best understands the dilemma of compromised manhood that her father faces. She sees how important her marriage is to Okonkwo’s position in the community, and she has considerable influence over her sister, who quickly agrees to postpone her marriage as well. After Nwoye’s departure, Okonkwo shows no sign of changing his practice of lecturing his sons about the rash and violent nature of true masculinity, showing his continued refusal to accept the fact that aggressiveness and pensiveness are not gender-defined, mutually exclusive traits.

Already having dealt with the missionaries in Mbanta, Okonkwo is now forced to deal with them in his own village. However, Mr. Brown, their leader, is far more enlightened than the average white colonist. Although he doesn’t really understand Igbo beliefs, he is capable of respecting them, and he does not want his flock to antagonize the clan. In a rare occurrence of cross-cultural understanding, he seems to share the clan’s value of peaceful, harmonious relations, and he debates religion with Akunna without insults or violence. His influence is largely benevolent, and Achebe uses Mr. Brown as a foil for the missionary who eventually takes his place, the more radical Reverend Smith.

Things Fall Apart is not one-sided in its portrayal of colonialism. It presents the economic benefits of cross-cultural contact and reveals the villagers’ delight in the hospital’s treatment of illnesses. The sympathetic Mr. Brown urges the Igbo to send their children to school because he knows that the colonial government will rob the Igbo of self-government if they do not know the language. In essence, he urges the Igbo to adapt so that they won’t lose all autonomy. Nevertheless, it is difficult to view colonialism in a tremendously positive light: suddenly the Igbo must relate to the colonial government on European terms. The story of Abame and the discussion of the new judicial system show how different the European frame of reference is from that of the egwugwu. The colonial government punishes individuals according to European cultural and religious values. For example, without first making an effort to understand the cultural and religious tradition behind the

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practice, the government pronounces the abandonment of newborn twins a punishable crime.

At the end of Chapter 20, Obierika points out that there is no way that the white man will be able to understand Umuofia’s customs without understanding its language. This idea mirrors one of Achebe’s purposes in writing Things Fall Apart: the book serves not only to remind the West that Africa has language and culture but also to provide an understanding of Igbo culture through language. Achebe shows us the extent to which cultural and linguistic structures and practices are intertwined, and he is able to re-create in English the cadences, images, and rhythms of the speech of the Igbo people. By the time things begin to “fall apart,” it becomes clear that what the colonialists have unravelled is the complex Igbo culture.

Chapter 22 SummaryMr Brown, who has become ill and left the mission, is replaced by Mr Smith, a narrow-minded and very rigid Christian who makes no effort to understand Ibo ways and refuses to compromise with them. Thus the more zealous converts flourish. One of them is Enoch who, it is believed, killed and ate the sacred python. It is this man who touches off the great conflict between the converts and the clansmen by committing the unheard-of crime of unmasking an egwugwu during the ceremonies to the earth-goddess. This arouses the elders of the tribe who, after a great gathering, destroy Enoch's compound, and then, after a confrontation between the traditional forces and the representative of the new faith, Mr Smith, they bum the church to the ground. If Mr Smith is prepared to learn and understand their ways, then he is free to live among them and practise his religion.

Chapter 23 SummaryOkonkwo is very pleased that at last the tribe has acted. He, along with another five leaders of the clan, is invited to the court-house to discuss the matter with the District Commissioner. There, by a trick, they are arrested and handcuffed. They are charged and fined for molesting others and destroying property. While they are in detention waiting for the fine to be collected from their people, they are maltreated by the court messengers and their heads shaved. The village is stunned and powerless before the white man's law and agrees to pay the fine.

Chapters 22–23 AnalysisReverend Smith causes a great deal of conflict between the church and the clan with his refusal to understand and respect traditional Igbo culture. Mr. Brown, by contrast, is far more lenient with the converts’ retention of some of their old beliefs and doesn’t draw as clear a line between the converts and the Igbo community. Smith, however, demands a complete rejection of the converts’ old religious beliefs. The text ironically comments that he “sees things as black and white.” While on the one hand this comment refers simply to an inability to grasp the gradations in a given situation, it also refers, of course, to race relations and colonial power. Interestingly, Achebe has named Smith’s predecessor “Brown,” as if to suggest that the latter’s practice of compromise and benevolence is in some way related to his ability to see the shades between the poles of black and white. Smith, by contrast, is a stereotypical European colonialist, as the generic quality of his name reflects. His inability to practice mutual respect and tolerance incites a dangerous zealous

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fervour in some of the more eager converts, such as Enoch. Smith’s attitude encourages Enoch to insult traditional Igbo culture.

That Enoch is the son of the snake-priest makes his suspected killing of the sacred python all the more dire a transgression. Enoch’s conversion and alleged attack on the python emblematize the transition from the old order to the new. The old religion, with its insistence on deism and animal worship, is overturned from within by one. In its place comes the new religion, which, for all its protestations of love and harmony, brandishes a fiery logic and fierce resolve to convert the Igbo at any cost.

Enoch figures as a double for Okonkwo, although they espouse different beliefs. They are similar in temperament, and each man rebels against the practices and legacies of his father. Like Okonkwo, Enoch feels above all others in his tradition. He also feels contempt for them—he imagines that every sermon is “preached for the benefit of his enemies,” and, in the middle of church, he gives knowing looks whenever he feels that his superiority has been affirmed. Most important, in his blind and unthinking adherence to Christianity, Enoch allows his violent desires to take over, just as Okonkwo is prone to do.

The language barrier between the colonists and the villagers enables a crucial misunderstanding to take place. Unawareness of his interpreter’s attempt to appease the villagers, Smith considers the burning of the church an open show of disrespect for the church and his authority. The power that the interpreter holds highlights the weaknesses and vulnerability created by the language gap, reinforcing Mr. Brown’s belief that reading and writing are essential skills for the villagers if they hope to maintain their autonomy. This miscommunication reminds us of Parrot’s trickiness in Ekwefi’s story about Tortoise.

Okonkwo’s desire to respond violently to the Christian church is not completely motivated by a desire to preserve his clan’s cultural traditions. He has been fantasizing for many years about making a big splash with his return to his village, but the church has changed things so much that his return fails to incite the interest that he has anticipated. He has also hoped that his daughters’ marriages would help to bring him some reflected glory but, again, his daughters’ suitors did not cause Umuofia to notice him. The opportunity to once again be a warrior represents Okonkwo’s last chance to recapture some of his former glory. His motivations for wanting revenge, including his humiliation in the jail, are deeply personal.

Chapter 24 SummaryThe men return in silence to the village, Okonkwo nursing in his heart a bitter hatred of the white man for the humiliation he has suffered, swears revenge and to fight alone if need be. A great meeting of the tribesmen is called, and while they are deciding that they have been pushed to the limit and that they will have to fight, even if it means attacking their kinsmen, the court messengers appear with orders to stop the meeting. Trembling with hatred and not stopping to think, Okonkwo draws his matchet and strikes the head messenger dead. Since the other messengers have been allowed to escape, he knows that his people will not fight.

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Chapter 25 SummaryThe District Commissioner and his soldiers arrive at Okonkwo's compound to find Obierika and others of his friends sitting there. They offer to take the Commissioner and his men to where Okonkwo is, if they will help them. They take them into the bush to where Okonkwo has hanged himself from a tree. Since suicide is an abomination, an offence against the gods, it is not permitted for his fellow-tribesmen to cut him down and bury him, or even to touch him. The Commissioner does not understand the people or the customs but nevertheless plans to include the incident in a paragraph of a book he is writing.

It is left to Obierika to speak Okonkwo's epitaph: 'That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog.'

Chapters 24-25 AnalysisIt is in Okonkwo’s nature to act rashly, and his slaying of the messenger constitutes an instinctive act of self-preservation. Not to act would be to reject his values and traditional way of life. He cannot allow himself or, by extension, his clan to be viewed as cowardly. There is certainly an element of self-destructiveness in this act, a kind of martyrdom that Okonkwo willingly embraces because the alternative is to submit to a world, law, and new order with which he finds himself inexorably at odds.

Unoka’s words regarding the bitterness of failing alone come to have real significance in Okonkwo’s life. In fact, they can be seen as a fatalistic foreshadowing of the bitter losses that befall Okonkwo despite his efforts to distance himself from his father’s model of indolence and irresponsibility. He values his personal success and status over the survival of the community and, having risen to the top of the clan’s economic and political heap alone, he fails alone. Okonkwo’s lack of concern for the fate of his community is manifested when, before the clan-wide meeting, he doesn’t bother to exchange greetings with anyone. He is not interested in the fate of anyone other than himself. Despite his great success and prestige, he dies in ignominy like his titleless, penniless father. This solitude persists even after his life ends, as the supposed taking over of his body by evil spirits renders his clan unable to handle his burial.One way of understanding Okonkwo’s suicide is as the result of a self-fulfilling prophecy regarding his fear of failure. He is so afraid of ending up precisely the way he does end up that he brings about his own end in the worst manner imaginable. No one forces his hand when he slays the messenger; rather, the act constitutes a desperate attempt to reassert his manhood. The great tragedy of the situation is that Okonkwo ignores far more effective but less masculine ways to resist the colonialists. Ultimately, Okonkwo’s sacrifice seems futile and empty.

The novel’s ending is dark and ironic. The District Commissioner is a pompous little man who thinks that he understands indigenous African cultures. Achebe uses the commissioner, who seems a character straight out of Heart of Darkness, to demonstrate the inaccuracy of accounts of Africa such as Joseph Conrad’s. The commissioner’s misinterpretations and the degree to which they are based upon his own shortcomings are evident. He comments, for example, on the villagers’ “love of superfluous words,” attempting to ridicule their beautiful and expressive language. His rumination that Okonkwo’s story could make for a good paragraph illustrates his shallowness. Whereas Achebe has written an entire book about

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Okonkwo, he suggests that a European account of Okonkwo would likely portray him as a grunting, cultureless savage who inexplicably and senselessly kills a messenger. Achebe also highlights one of the reasons that early ethnographic reports were often offensively inaccurate: when Obierika asks the commissioner to help him with Okonkwo’s body, the narrator tells us that “the resolute administrator in [the commissioner] gave way to the student of primitive customs.” The same people who control the natives relay the accepted accounts of colonized cultures—in a manner, of course, that best suits the colonizer’s interest.

Achebe’s novel seeks at least in part to provide an answer to such inaccurate stereotypes. Okonkwo is by no means perfect. One can argue that his tragedy is of his own making. One can also argue that his chi is to blame. But as a societal tragedy, Things Fall Apart obviously places no blame on the Igbo people for the colonialism to which they were subjected. At the same time, the traditional customs of the villagers are not glorified—they are often questioned or criticized. Achebe’s re-creation of the complexity of Okonkwo’s and Umuofia’s situations lends a fairness to his writing. At the same time, his critique of colonialism and of colonial literary representations comes across loud and clear.

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Characterisation

Characters and CultureThe chief protagonist is Okonkwo, whose flawed but fascinating nature displayed against the backdrop of the encounter of the Igbo with the white man and his religion, has brought comparisons to Greek tragic heroes. Although his father has been poor — the Earth Goddess had never given him decent crops — Okonkwo is respected by the community in spite of that because of his character and his prowess at wrestling. Ironically then, it is his own psychological problem with his father's poverty, not some arbitrary limitation dictated by the gods, that leads to many of his other shortcomings, not the least of which is his constant desire to prove his virility. His narrow definition of what is masculine causes him to despise stories (and consequently the wisdom imparted in them) and words as the domain of women. He has a tender side, but squelches most tender impulses. Thus he is fond of his hostage "son" Ikemefuna, yet participates in his killing even after he is exonerated from having to do so. He maltreats his own son as too womanish, yet dotes on his daughter, the only surviving child of his second wife.

Okonkwo spends much of his early manhood building up wealth and position only to be banished when he accidentally shoots a boy at a funeral. Forced to flee to his mother's kinsmen in Mbanta, he is unable to consolidate his gains, although his friend Obierika brings him money and keeps him informed. In his absence, the Christian church makes inroads in Umuofia, and the nearby people of Abame have been slaughtered in retaliation for their killing of one white man. Soon the Christians find their way to Mbanta, where Okonkwo dismisses them as a joke, ironically just when his own son is being drawn to the faith. The exile period foreshadows tensions that will erupt into conflict once Okonkwo returns to Umuofia. In Mbanta, a Christian convert kills the sacred python, but as the perpetrator dies in his sleep, retaliation against the Christians is deemed unnecessary.

Upon returning to Umuofia after seven years banishment, Okonkwo discovers that many have converted to Christianity and that a more direct form of colonial rule has taken root, completely uprooting tribal justice and destroying families by imprisoning young men for long periods. When the good Anglican priest, Mr. Brown, tries to pay a visit, Okonkwo spurns him, still angry that his first son Nwoye has converted. When the fanatical Mr. Smith takes over, bad turns to worse as the fanatical Christian Enoch is unchecked and profanes the tribal religion by unmasking an egwugwu. Retaliation by the tribe takes the form of a church burning, which is in turn avenged by the ambush, beating, headshaving, and other humiliation of the tribal delegation, including Okonkwo. He never recovers from the humiliation, and the first chance he gets, he murders a British messenger. Rather than die at the hands of the British, he commits suicide.

Other characters in the book are minor compared to Okonkwo. Of male characters, his best friend Obierika is the most fully drawn. It is Obierika who advises him early on that he does not need to take a hand in the death of Ikemefuna, and who saves what money he can for him during the seven years banishment. Obierika is a sort of neutral male character who often sees things a bit more clearly than his friend because he is less driven to prove himself. Yet at the novel's crisis points, Obierika too is confused and troubled, as when he muses about the gods' insistence on sacrifice of innocent life after Okonkwo is banished.

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Okonkwo's father, Unoka, is sketched at the beginning of the book as a decided contrast to the son. He is a musician who spends money and never pays back what he borrows and is a coward in war — all this added to his poor luck with agriculture. Other male African characters who figure importantly in the plot as foils for Okonkwo are his son, Nwoye, whose lack of virility, love of stories, and defection to Christianity pain his father, and Enoch, the fanatic Christian who attacks the masqueraders of the spirits of the dead, incurring the burning of the church in retaliation.

British male characters include the two Anglican ministers, Mr. Brown and Mr. Smith, and the District Commissioner, whose bigoted idea for a book ends the novel. By far the most sympathetic of the three is the wise and tolerant Mr. Brown, who realizes that true success in converting the African depends on respect for the traditional Igbo religion. Mr. Smith, the fanatical Anglican with his either/or agenda, and the District Commissioner, with his utter lack of understanding and sympathy, are more typical of Europeans presented in Achebe's work.

Important female characters are Okonkwo's second wife, Ekwefi, and her only surviving child, Ezinma. Ekwefi was to have been the first wife, but he was too poor to marry her; after two years, she left her husband for him. As her babies die one after another, and she has to come to terms with the knowledge that she is the victim of an ogbanje, she not only gains stature through her suffering but is important because she is the only other character in the book besides Ikemefuna who brings out the gentle side in Okonkwo's nature. As the mother of the magical Ezinma, she is also a sort of heiress to the spiritual life of the tribe, which while apparently maledominated is utterly dependent on the female Earth Goddess. She, along with her daughter, is the prototype for later, more complexly drawn and central female characters, like Beatrice in Anthills of the Savannah (1987).

Okonkwo - An influential clan leader in Umuofia. Since early childhood, Okonkwo’s embarrassment about his lazy, squandering, and effeminate father, Unoka, has driven him to succeed. Okonkwo’s hard work and prowess in war have earned him a position of high status in his clan, and he attains wealth sufficient to support three wives and their children. Okonkwo’s tragic flaw is that he is terrified of looking weak like his father. As a result, he behaves rashly, bringing a great deal of trouble and sorrow upon himself and his family.

Okonkwo, the son of the effeminate and lazy Unoka, strives to make his way in a world that seems to value manliness. In so doing, he rejects everything for which he believes his father stood. Unoka was idle, poor, profligate, cowardly, gentle, and interested in music and conversation. Okonkwo consciously adopts opposite ideals and becomes productive, wealthy, thrifty, brave, violent, and adamantly opposed to music and anything else that he perceives to be “soft,” such as conversation and emotion. He is stoic to a fault.

Okonkwo achieves great social and financial success by embracing these ideals. He marries three women and fathers several children. Nevertheless, just as his father was at odds with the values of the community around him, so too does Okonkwo find himself unable to adapt to changing times as the white man comes to live among the Umuofians. As it becomes evident that compliance rather than violence constitutes the wisest principle for survival,

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Okonkwo realizes that he has become a relic, no longer able to function within his changing society.

Okonkwo is a tragic hero in the classical sense: although he is a superior character, his tragic flaw—the equation of manliness with rashness, anger, and violence—brings about his own destruction. Okonkwo is gruff, at times, and usually unable to express his feelings (the narrator frequently uses the word “inwardly” in reference to Okonkwo’s emotions). But his emotions are indeed quite complex, as his “manly” values conflict with his “unmanly” ones, such as fondness for Ikemefuna and Ezinma. The narrator privileges us with information that Okonkwo’s fellow clan members do not have—that Okonkwo surreptitiously follows Ekwefi into the forest in pursuit of Ezinma, for example—and thus allows us to see the tender, worried father beneath the seemingly indifferent exterior.

The principal character of Things Fall Apart is Okonkwo. Some people would call him the 'hero' of the book. 'Hero' may be a very little word, but it is one that is full of meaning. Traditionally, it is applied to a man of great nobility and courage, who fights bravely and whose feats have become almost legendary amongst his people. It is not the sort of word that should, properly, be applied to the principal character of just any story - though it often is. However, it is, indeed, properly applied to Okonkwo, since his society is one that sets very great store by such feats of personal courage and such personal qualities as he displays. Modern society, with its complexity and its stress upon qualities of gentleness and humanity, does not easily produce such men.

Of course, a character who displays nothing but good qualities of one sort would be rather flat and uninteresting, and Achebe does not fall into this mistake. According to one ancient view of the hero, he is a noble man whose tragic end is brought about by some flaw in his character, who, in a sense, produces his own tragedy since the seeds of it are always there inside him. Achebe does not make Okonkwo all good and all noble, without any flaws, but he takes pains to make him fully rounded and believable, a real human being with doubts and fears and questionings as well as the simpler and more straightforward virtues. Achebe takes care to give us his appearance on the very first page:

He was tall and huge, and his bushy eyebrows and wide nose gave him a very severe look. He breathed heavily, and it was said that, when he slept, his wives and children in their out houses could hear him breathe. When he walked, his heels hardly touched the ground and he seemed to walk on springs, as if he was going to pounce on somebody. And he did pounce on people quite often. He had a slight stammer and whenever he was angry and could not get his words out quickly enough, he would use his fists. He had no patience with unsuccessful men.

This is very much the sort of man we would expect one who had been such a famous wrestler to be, and it is clearly the sort of man that the Ibos - who are not the tallest of men - would admire. Later on, among the egwugwu in Chapter 10, it is by his walk that we can recognise Okonkwo under his disguise:

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Okonkwo's wives, and perhaps other women as well, might have noticed that the second egwugwu had the springy walk of Okonkwo.

All in all, the description of Okonkwo, both here and wherever else it is mentioned, is one that fits a man of his character and reputation - active, strong and physically energetic. So- we are not surprised to find him described in Chapter 2 as:

a man of action, a man of war. ... In Umuofia's latest war he was the first to bring home a human head. That was his fifth head; and he was not an old man yet.

In addition to success in war and fighting, Okonkwo has been very successful in other ways:He was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams, and had just married his third wife. To crown it all he had taken two titles and had shown incredible prowess in two inter-tribal wars. And so although Okonkwo was still young, he was already one of the greatest men of his time.

In Chapter 3 we learn by what prodigious efforts of industry and hard work, struggling against difficult odds, he had attained this position. As it is summed up at the beginning of Chapter 4:

it was really not true that Okonkwo's palm-kernels had been cracked for him by a benevolent spirit. He had cracked them himself. Anyone who knew his grim struggle against poverty and misfortune could not say he had been lucky. If ever a man deserved his success, that man was Okonkwo.

That is a very straightforward summing-up, such as we ourselves might make, but then Achebe goes on to put this discussion in the terms that an Ibo might use:

At the most one could say that his chi or personal god was good. But the Ibo people have a proverb that when a man says yes his chi says yes also. Okonkwo said yes very strongly; so his chi agreed. And not only his chi but his clan too, because it judged a man by the work of his hands.

This passage exemplifies the basic Ibo view of the universe. There is the everyday world of here and now and there is the otherworld of the spirit. The two run parallel to one another and intermingle one with the other. Okonkwo's chi is his equivalent in the spirit world, affecting him and being affected by him. He is a man of such positive power that his chi - which has something of the qualities of a personal god or good angel and something also of the qualities of fate-has to go along with him.

Very early in the novel, however, we learn what is Okonkwo's motivation or driving force. It is fear - fear of being regarded as a weak man and a failure in society as his father, Unoka, was. That is why Achebe devotes so much time in the first three chapters to the life and character of Okonkwo's father. He brings out the reason for Okonkwo's exaggerated idea of manliness by establishing Unoka as a character of an almost opposite type-gentle, interested in the softer and more kindly aspects of life, improvident, idle and unsuccessful. Achebe does not condemn Unoka but makes it clear why Okonkwo is ashamed of him.

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Thus we learn, in Chapter 2:

And so Okonkwo was ruled by one passion-to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved. One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness.

As we might expect, such a man is stern and harsh, even in his dealings with his own family, since 'to show affection was a sign of weakness'. He loves action and scorns inactivity, perhaps because it would give him too much time for thought; and, with a very clear idea of what, from the traditional Ibo point of view, is correct and proper, is inclined to act precipitately and without thought.

Such a character, strongly established by Achebe, is perhaps too positive to be entirely credible. And so Okonkwo is shown as having a gentler side, fully capable of human emotions and affections. This is first shown in the fact that he becomes fond of Ikemefuna and is distressed and upset for several days after his murder, but it is shown still more in his attitude towards his daughter, Ezinma, and her mother, Ekwefi. Ekwefi is the only one of his three wives whose name we learn; she is constantly involved in the story; and in Chapter 9 with his concern over Ezinma's malaria and in Chapter 11 where he overcomes his fear of the supernatural and follows the priestess we get a clear view of the depth of Okonkwo's love for his daughter. During his exile (Chapter 20) he influences Ezinma to marry only a man from Umuofia, so that, through his daughter, he will still retain prestige in his clan. She is everything his son, Nwoye, is not, and their relationship is very close. Had Nwoye conformed more to his ideal of manliness, had he been more a carbon-copy of himself and less like the father of whom he is ashamed, we can be sure that Okonkwo would have loved him too. As it is, he disowns Nwoye (Chapter 17) for what he sees to be the enormity of hiscome:

To abandon the gods of one's father and go about with a lot of effeminate men clucking like old hens was the very depth of abomination. Suppose when he died all his male children decided to follow Nwoye's steps and abandon their ancestors? Okonkwo felt a cold shudder run through him at the terrible prospect, like the prospect of annihilation. He saw himself and his father crowding round their ancestral shrine waiting in vain for worship and sacrifice and finding nothing but ashes of bygone days, and his children the while praying to the white man's god. If such a thing were ever to happen, he, Okonkwo, would wipe them off the face of the earth.

This is the man who is nicknamed' Roaring Flame', whose temper flares up as suddenly as a tropical storm, the man who is so violent that he threatens his remaining five sons that, if they turn against him, 'when I am dead I will visit you and break your neck' (Chapter 20).

By showing the various, and sometimes contradictory, aspects of Okonkwo's nature, Achebe has created a fully rounded character. If he often acts rashly and impetuously, he just as often has second thoughts after the event. When he breaks the Week of Peace in Chapter 4, 'Inwardly he was repentant. But he was not the man to go about telling his neighbours that he was in error.' He is too proud to admit that he is mistaken, which his clansmen see as a defect in his character. Similarly, when he has recovered from his period of moping after the

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death of Ikemefuna, he does not say a word to his family or his friend, Obierika, about his sorrow. But we, the readers, have been privileged to know his thoughts and we know that, inside, his feelings have been at war with his sense of duty. Always his sense of duty, duty to the traditions of his ancestors, prevails.

Throughout the story as it develops, we are made to know Okonkwo's thoughts. This lets us know that he is not quite the simple, one-point-of-view man that we might imagine if we only saw his actions and heard what he said out loud. Thus we are able to follow his reactions to outside events and the changes that are taking place in the fabric of Ibo life, and come into sympathy with him. While we might not entirely approve of his point of view, at least we are enabled to understand it and to feel for him in the dilemmas in which he is placed. He becomes a character we really know and understand, for whom we develop an affection and liking, whose faults we are prepared to overlook, since we can see clearly how they came about.

The Okonkwo of Part One is Okonkwo at the height of his powers. With his exile he loses his place in the clan and, while he is happy enough in Mbanta, some of the heart has gone out of him. He is beginning to face increasing odds, and part of the fascination of the rest of the story lies in watching the indomitable courage with which he faces up to a fate that is against him. We can guess the outcome, since we know that the old cannot for ever stand out against the new.

Yet this outcome turns out to be worse than we had imagined possible. His fear of being thought 'unmanly' has a weakness in it that is clearly recognised by his fellows during his period of prosperity. His apparent pride is not a very attractive feature of his character, and only Achebe's readers are allowed to know that this springs from his fear of being thought weak. When this fear is uppermost he acts rashly, like one possessed: in killing Ikemefuna he is 'dazed with fear'. Increasingly as the story progresses, Okonkwo's fear, which is something in his mind, is supplanted by the reality of the destruction of the manly and warrior-like qualities of his people. The things that have happened to the people of Umuofia, their impotence in the face of the power of the white man and, in particular, the humiliation in captivity of Okonkwo and the elders, at last convince him that his clansmen have 'unaccountably become soft like women' (Chapter 21). With the burning of the church he becomes, briefly, almost happy again, but when after the humiliation he is set free (Chapter 24) he swears vengeance: 'If Umuofia decided on war, all would be well. But if they chose to be cowards he would go out and avenge himself.' This, in fact, is what happens. He knows in his heart that the people of Umuofia will not fight, and this is confirmed when, after he slays the head messenger, they allow the other messengers to escape. The people are frightened, not angry, and he knows that the fabric of his world, the world into which he was born and whose traditions he has always upheld, has crumbled.

Although we are not with him at his end, we now know Okonkwo's character well enough to hazard a guess at what is in his mind. The world he knew has gone: the world that is coming has no place for one of his uncompromising nature. He cannot, singlehanded, take on the new powers that have destroyed the old. So he opts to join his ancestors, the men of the old order, the warriors he reveres. He chooses to commit suicide, the most shameful way to die,

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abominated by gods and men alike. The things that he has known have fallen apart and have dragged him down with them.

We are now in a position to draw up a list of the attributes of Okonkwo's character. On the good side, he is strong, brave, hardworking, energetic and loves action. He has within himself a capacity for love. But on the bad side, he is unbending and inflexible, unwilling to show the more kindly part of his nature, and is given to rash and impetuous action, without thought. Yet, since we know him 'from the inside' as it were, we understand and are prepared to forgive his faults and to mourn over his inevitable tragedy. His faults are the faults of his virtues -a loyal and unquestioning obedience to the old, the traditional, Ibo way of life.

Nwoye - Okonkwo’s oldest son, whom Okonkwo believes is weak and lazy. Okonkwo continually beats Nwoye, hoping to correct the faults that he perceives in him. Influenced by Ikemefuna, Nwoye begins to exhibit more masculine behaviour, which pleases Okonkwo. However, he maintains doubts about some of the laws and rules of his tribe and eventually converts to Christianity, an act that Okonkwo criticizes as “effeminate.” Okonkwo believes that Nwoye is afflicted with the same weaknesses that his father, Unoka, possessed in abundance.

Nwoye, Okonkwo’s oldest son, struggles in the shadow of his powerful, successful, and demanding father. His interests are different from Okonkwo’s and resemble more closely those of Unoka, his grandfather. He undergoes many beatings, at a loss for how to please his father, until the arrival of Ikemefuna, who becomes like an older brother and teaches him a gentler form of successful masculinity. As a result, Okonkwo backs off, and Nwoye even starts to win his grudging approval. Nwoye remains conflicted, however: though he makes a show of scorning feminine things in order to please his father, he misses his mother’s stories.

With the unconscionable murder of Ikemefuna, however, Nwoye retreats into himself and finds himself forever changed. His reluctance to accept Okonkwo’s masculine values turns into pure embitterment toward him and his ways. When missionaries come to Mbanta, Nwoye’s hope and faith are reawakened, and he eventually joins forces with them. Although Okonkwo curses his lot for having borne so “effeminate” a son and disowns Nwoye, Nwoye appears to have found peace at last in leaving the oppressive atmosphere of his father’s tyranny.

Since Unoka dies near the beginning of the novel, part of his function in expressing the gentler and more artistic side of Ibo life passes to Nwoye, who is frequently likened to his grandfather. But Nwoye is living in different times, and part of our interest in him lies in observing how one of his nature responds to the new ideas. Okonkwo despises him, of course, but younger readers will well be able to feel for him in having such a father.

Nwoye is extremely sensitive and with him feelings come first, then thought, and a long way after, action. He it is who loves legends and folk-tales. He it is who first senses that

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Ikemefuna has been killed, and the way in which he links this with the practice of exposing twins to die in the forest shows that, long before the coming of the white man, he is already questioning the barbarity of some of the old customs. Since he is afraid of his father, he hesitates at first to join the Christians, but it is his father's violence and opposition that finally drive him away to attend the mission-school in Umuofia. He sees in the new faith some sort of answer to the problems that have troubled him about the old and we see in his survival, echoing the interests of his grandfather, Achebe's affirmation of the continuity of these particular values.

Unoka, on his death, had been cast out into the Evil Forest. Nwoye joins a sect that has been established in the Evil Forest. Perhaps this suggests to us that the Evil Forest is a place where the Ibos deposit those things by which their society sets no store. Yet, ironically, it is from there that their ultimate salvation will come.

Ezinma - The only child of Okonkwo’s second wife, Ekwefi. As the only one of Ekwefi’s ten children to survive past infancy, Ezinma is the centre of her mother’s world. Their relationship is atypical—Ezinma calls Ekwefi by her name and is treated by her as an equal. Ezinma is also Okonkwo’s favourite child, for she understands him better than any of his other children and reminds him of Ekwefi when Ekwefi was the village beauty. Okonkwo rarely demonstrates his affection, however, because he fears that doing so would make him look weak. Furthermore, he wishes that Ezinma were a boy because she would have been the perfect son.

Ezinma, Okonkwo’s favorite daughter and the only child of Ekwefi, is bold in the way that she approaches—and even sometimes contradicts—her father. Okonkwo remarks to himself multiple times that he wishes she had been born a boy, since he considers her to have such a masculine spirit. Ezinma alone seems to win Okonkwo’s full attention, affection, and, ironically, respect. She and he are kindred spirits, which boosts her confidence and precociousness. She grows into a beautiful young woman who sensibly agrees to put off marriage until her family returns from exile so as to help her father leverage his sociopolitical power most effectively. In doing so, she shows an approach similar to that of Okonkwo: she puts strategy ahead of emotion.

Ezinma, Okonkwo’s favourite daughter and the only child of Ekwefi, is bold in the way that she approaches—and even sometimes contradicts—her father. Okonkwo remarks to himself multiple times that he wishes she had been born a boy, since he considers her to have such a masculine spirit. Ezinma alone seems to win Okonkwo’s full attention, affection, and, ironically, respect. She and he are kindred spirits, which boosts her confidence and precociousness. She grows into a beautiful young woman who sensibly agrees to put off marriage until her family returns from exile so as to help her father leverage his socio-political power most effectively. In doing so, she shows an approach similar to that of Okonkwo: she puts strategy ahead of emotion.

Ikemefuna - A boy given to Okonkwo by a neighbouring village. Ikemefuna lives in the hut of Okonkwo’s first wife and quickly becomes popular with Okonkwo’s children. He develops an especially close relationship with Nwoye, Okonkwo’s oldest son, who looks up to him.

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Okonkwo too becomes very fond of Ikemefuna, who calls him “father” and is a perfect clansman, but Okonkwo does not demonstrate his affection because he fears that doing so would make him look weak.

Mr. Brown - The first white missionary to travel to Umuofia. Mr. Brown institutes a policy of compromise, understanding, and non-aggression between his flock and the clan. He even becomes friends with prominent clansmen and builds a school and a hospital in Umuofia. Unlike Reverend Smith, he attempts to appeal respectfully to the tribe’s value system rather than harshly impose his religion on it.

Mr. Brown represents Achebe’s attempt to craft a well-rounded portrait of the colonial presence by tempering bad personalities with good ones. Mr. Brown’s successor, Reverend Smith, is zealous, vengeful, small-minded, and manipulative; he thus stands in contrast to Mr. Brown, who, on the other hand, is benevolent if not always beneficent. Mr. Brown succeeds in winning a large number of converts because he listens to the villagers’ stories, beliefs, and opinions. He also accepts the converts unconditionally. His conversation with Akunna represents this sympathetic stance. The derisive comments that Reverend Smith makes about Mr. Brown after the latter’s departure illustrate the colonial intolerance for any kind of sympathy for, and genuine interest in, the native culture. The surname Brown hints at his ability to navigate successfully the clear-cut racial division between the colonizers and the colonized.

Mr. Brown represents Achebe’s attempt to craft a well-rounded portrait of the colonial presence by tempering bad personalities with good ones. Mr. Brown’s successor, Reverend Smith, is zealous, vengeful, small-minded, and manipulative; he thus stands in contrast to Mr. Brown, who, on the other hand, is benevolent if not always beneficent. Mr. Brown succeeds in winning a large number of converts because he listens to the villagers’ stories, beliefs, and opinions. He also accepts the converts unconditionally. His conversation with Akunna represents this sympathetic stance. The derisive comments that Reverend Smith makes about Mr. Brown after the latter’s departure illustrate the colonial intolerance for any kind of sympathy for, and genuine interest in, the native culture. The surname Brown hints at his ability to navigate successfully the clear-cut racial division between the colonizers and the colonised.

Reverend James Smith - The missionary who replaces Mr. Brown. Unlike Mr. Brown, Reverend Smith is uncompromising and strict. He demands that his converts reject all of their indigenous beliefs, and he shows no respect for indigenous customs or culture. He is the stereotypical white colonialist, and his behaviour epitomizes the problems of colonialism. He intentionally provokes his congregation, inciting it to anger and even indirectly, through Enoch, encouraging some fairly serious transgressions.

Uchendu - The younger brother of Okonkwo’s mother. Uchendu receives Okonkwo and his family warmly when they travel to Mbanta, and he advises Okonkwo to be grateful for the comfort that his motherland offers him lest he anger the dead—especially his mother, who is buried there. Uchendu himself has suffered—all but one of his six wives are dead and he has buried twenty-two children. He is a peaceful, compromising man and functions as a foil

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(a character whose emotions or actions highlight, by means of contrast, the emotions or actions of another character) to Okonkwo, who acts impetuously and without thinking.

The District Commissioner - An authority figure in the white colonial government in Nigeria. The prototypical racist colonialist, the District Commissioner thinks that he understands everything about native African customs and cultures and he has no respect for them. He plans to work his experiences into an ethnographic study on local African tribes, the idea of which embodies his dehumanizing and reductive attitude toward race relations.

Unoka - Okonkwo’s father, of whom Okonkwo has been ashamed since childhood. By the standards of the clan, Unoka was a coward and a spendthrift. He never took a title in his life, he borrowed money from his clansmen, and he rarely repaid his debts. He never became a warrior because he feared the sight of blood. Moreover, he died of an abominable illness. On the positive side, Unoka appears to have been a talented musician and gentle, if idle. He may well have been a dreamer, ill-suited to the chauvinistic culture into which he was born. The novel opens ten years after his death.

Unoka is the opposite of Okonkwo. He is weak, idle, improvident and not in any way manly. The traditional Ibo society has little regard for such a man, and, of course, his very existence is the reason for much of the nature of Okonkwo, who tries, as much as possible, to be unlike his father.

However, Achebe does not in any way condemn Unoka. The things Unoka likes, such as flute-playing and music, are important aspects of Ibo life, and one feels that Achebe has, as one might expect, a great deal of sympathy for Unoka's tastes, for the poet as opposed to the man of action. Even Okonkwo has respect for such abilities, and in Chapter 24 praises Okudo, who was not a warrior but 'who sang a war song in a way that no other man could'. We cannot, however, imagine that he would think equally highly of a man who sang love songs!

Though Unoka is in the novel as a contrast to Okonkwo, it is undoubted that, without Unoka, we should miss a whole area of Ibo life and think the Ibos to be a fierce and warlike people, with no interest in the arts and the finer side of life-not at all the nation that could produce an Achebe.

Obierika - Okonkwo’s close friend, whose daughter’s wedding provides cause for festivity early in the novel. Obierika looks out for his friend, selling Okonkwo’s yams to ensure that Okonkwo won’t suffer financial ruin while in exile and comforting Okonkwo when he is depressed. Like Nwoye, Obierika questions some of the tribe’s traditional strictures.

Obierika counterparts Okonkwo quite differently from Unoka and Nwoye. No one can accuse him of being weakly or a coward. The first time we see them together, in Chapter 8, Obierika says, 'I am not afraid of blood.' But he is a man who thinks, a man who will obey the law but not blindly: 'If the Oracle said that my son should be killed I would neither dispute it nor be the one to do it.' Indeed, while he feels that the law should not be broken, he is of the opinion that if a law is unreasonable then it should be changed. In discussing the

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law that says that a man of the ozo title should not climb tall palm trees but is permitted to tap the short ones, he says, 'It is like Dimaragana, who would not lend his knife for cutting up dog-meat because the dog was taboo to him, but offered to use his teeth.' Although he does not know what to do about the established order of things when he feels it to be wrong, he nevertheless questions it. After the disaster of Chapter 13 which brings aboutOkonkwo's exile, his questionings are made clear:

Obierika was a man who thought about things. When the will of the goddess had been done, he sat down in his obi and mourned his friend's calamity. Why should a man suffer so grievously for an offence he had committed inadvertently? But although he thought for a long time he found no answer.

During Okonkwo's exile it is Obierika who looks after his affairs, thus demonstrating his affection; and when he visits Okonkwo to find out how Nwoye has come to join the Christians, he displays his tact-and his knowledge of his friend's character-by asking not Okonkwo but Nwoye's mother. So it is not surprising that it is with Obierika that Okonkwo most openly discusses his reactions to the disasters that have struck the state. Throughout these discussions it is Obierika who is the voice of reason, setting up logical objections to Okonkwo's headstrong and impulsive attitude, as in Chapter 20:

Our own men and our sons have joined the ranks of the stranger....If we should try to drive out the white men in Umuofia we should find it easy.... But what of our own people who are following their way and have been given the power?

And he sees clearly what has happened:

The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.

This is Okonkwo's far-seeing friend, the man who speaks his grief-stricken epitaph. Like Unoka and Nwoye, he displays in his own way yet another aspect of the Ibo character-thoughtful and perceptive, seeing how men's faiths must adjust to new circumstances and not bring destruction by blind adherence to the old ways.

Ekwefi - Okonkwo’s second wife, once the village beauty. Ekwefi ran away from her first husband to live with Okonkwo. Ezinma is her only surviving child, her other nine having died in infancy, and Ekwefi constantly fears that she will lose Ezinma as well. Ekwefi is good friends with Chielo, the priestess of the goddess Agbala.

Enoch - A fanatical convert to the Christian church in Umuofia. Enoch’s disrespectful act of ripping the mask off an egwugwu during an annual ceremony to honour the earth deity leads to the climactic clash between the indigenous and colonial justice systems. While Mr. Brown, early on, keeps Enoch in check in the interest of community harmony, Reverend Smith approves of his zealotry.

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Ogbuefi Ezeudu - The oldest man in the village and one of the most important clan elders and leaders. Ogbuefi Ezeudu was a great warrior in his youth and now delivers messages from the Oracle.

Chielo - A priestess in Umuofia who is dedicated to the Oracle of the goddess Agbala. Chielo is a widow with two children. She is good friends with Ekwefi and is fond of Ezinma, whom she calls “my daughter.” At one point, she carries Ezinma on her back for miles in order to help purify her and appease the gods.

Akunna - A clan leader of Umuofia. Akunna and Mr. Brown discuss their religious beliefs peacefully, and Akunna’s influence on the missionary advances Mr. Brown’s strategy for converting the largest number of clansmen by working with, rather than against, their belief system. In so doing, however, Akunna formulates an articulate and rational defence of his religious system and draws some striking parallels between his style of worship and that of the Christian missionaries.

Nwakibie - A wealthy clansmen who takes a chance on Okonkwo by lending him 800 seed yams—twice the number for which Okonkwo asks. Nwakibie thereby helps Okonkwo build up the beginnings of his personal wealth, status, and independence.

Mr. Kiaga - The native-turned-Christian missionary who arrives in Mbanta and converts Nwoye and many others.

Okagbue Uyanwa - A famous medicine man whom Okonkwo summons for help in dealing with Ezinma’s health problems.

Maduka - Obierika’s son. Maduka wins a wrestling contest in his mid-teens. Okonkwo wishes he had promising, manly sons like Maduka.

Obiageli - The daughter of Okonkwo’s first wife. Although Obiageli is close to Ezinma in age, Ezinma has a great deal of influence over her.

Ojiugo - Okonkwo’s third and youngest wife, and the mother of Nkechi. Okonkwo beats Ojiugo during the Week of Peace.

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Themes, Motifs and Symbols

OverviewAchebe's novels approach a variety of themes. In his early writing, a depiction of the Igbo culture itself is paramount. Critic Nahem Yousaf highlights the importance of these depictions: "Around the tragic story of Okonkwo, Achebe sets about textualising Igbo cultural identity". The portrayal of indigenous life is not simply a matter of literary background, he adds: "Achebe seeks to produce the effect of a precolonial reality as an Igbo-centric response to a Eurocentrically constructed imperial 'reality' ".

One important function of the novel is educational; indeed, Achebe stated that he would be content if Things Fall Apart did “no more than teach my readers that their past—with all its imperfections—was not one long night of savagery from which the first Europeans acting on God’s behalf delivered them.” In Things Fall Apart, Achebe effectively counters the persistent and self serving European stereotypes of African culture, particularly the notion that traditional African cultures are authoritarian, amoral, and unsophisticated. In refutation of this stereotype, Achebe carefully describes the complexity and fluidity of Igbo culture, disclosing its essential pluralism. Moreover, Achebe shows that the Igbo have a coherent system of values that nevertheless allows for a considerable exercise of individual choice. Although the novel is narrated in the third person, the sympathetic point of view is located within the Igbo culture, and the reader gradually comes to accept this perspective as natural.

Yet Achebe tries to avoid idealizing this historical past. Although sympathetic to it, he demonstrates that it cannot survive unaltered in a modern world. The novel’s title is taken from William Butler Yeats’s “The Second Coming,” and the novel presents a similarly ironic and apocalyptic vision of the failed effort to maintain order and balance. Okonkwo’s unsuccessful struggle with change parallels the Umuofians’ effort to maintain the careful balances between free will and necessity, the needs of the individual and the needs of the community, and the demands of traditional culture and the political reality of colonial rule. Colonialism strains the capacity of Igbo culture to adapt, and it is clear that Okonkwo’s death is a sudden and dramatic paradigm for the gradual but inevitable death of traditional Igbo culture.

Okonkwo’s physical strength, integrity, and courage give him heroic stature, but his pride and individualism contradict the essentially communal nature of Umuofia. He does not understand that Umuofia is a living culture that has always adapted in order to meet new challenges. His effort to deny the reality of history condemns him while making a sad comment on the limitations of human endeavor. The novel dramatizes the situation of modern men and modern societies that are forced to adapt and compromise if they wish to survive. Its central theme, and the central theme of all of Achebe’s novels, is the tragedy of the man or society that refuses or is unable to accommodate change.

Social ConcernsAs the title, taken from W. B. Yeats's poem "The Second Coming," implies, the chief social concern of Things Fall Apart is the undermining of traditional Igbo society as it is dominated and misunderstood by British colonizers bringing with them the Anglican Christian religion.

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Although the hero, Okonkwo, is a deeply flawed man, cruel to his wives and children, whose major tragic flaw is his fear of failure and an accompanying inflexibility, his ill-fated progress through the novel is as much the result of errors in judgment and inflexibility on the side of the British as his own. Consequently, rather than presenting Igbo society as a pristine one, and the British as totally evil, Achebe acknowledges faults on both sides and therefore creates a credible view of his own Igbo society.

While the Igbo have practices that are rigid and cruel, such as that of invariably throwing away twins and occasionally killing innocent hostages — the death of Ikemefuna inflicted in part by Okonkwo's own hand is the subject of much critical debate — they also have clan meetings to resolve disputes and a fair-minded flexibility in their encounters with the British and their religion. Furthermore, when the Igbo openness and flexibility are greeted by double crossing, as when the tribal elders are imprisoned, brutalized, and humiliated after they seek to make peace after the burning down of a church, the reader is encouraged to be sympathetic.

No matter what social forces are seen to be at play at any given moment in the novel, individual responsibility is never discounted. Things get worse when Mr. Brown, the flexible Anglican preacher, is supplanted by Mr. Smith, a fanatic. Likewise, the decision to kill Ikemefuma, prompted supposedly by Oracle of the Hills and the Caves, has severe repercussions, especially for Okonkwo. The fanaticism of Enoch, a Christian convert who unmasks an egugwu (a sacred impersonator of an ancestral spirit) is likewise condemned as it leads to the burning down of the church. Furthermore, the novel authenticates the spirituality of both Christian and Igbo religions, as transgressions of either belief by the fanatics of the other lead to dire consequences.

Theme and CultureThe novel was written in reaction to European assessments of African culture as found in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1902) and Joyce Cary's Mister Johnson (1939) and some critics have seen in it an effort to reverse the European view, presenting Igbo society as enlightened and the European/British colonizers as in the dark. Rather, it is an attempt to present accurately Igbo society and what its people endured in the clash of their culture with that of the British. With so much apparently determined by British occupation and rule, one major theme is that of fate vs. free will. Much of the interest in the book lies in Achebe's subtle handling of these forces as the characters both British and Igbo are in turn manipulated by or appear to steer successfully around forces beyond their control.

Okonkwo can be seen as psychologically determined by his weak father to avoid the appearance of weakness at all costs, hence his killing of Ikemefuna. Yet his own tribesmen have exonerated him from having to take a hand in the killing so that his choice is not externally determined. Misunderstanding and rigidity by chiefly male characters on both sides exacerbate already strained conditions of the colonial system. Achebe is careful to point out elsewhere that the British did not export democracy to the colonies; rather they undermined it and tried to govern the Igbo, who had a form of democracy in place, by a hierarchical, totalitarian system.

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The testing of conventional wisdom on both sides by experience is also a common theme that is carried out by Achebe's use of both Christian and Igbo beliefs, proverbs and stories. Thus the fanatical Mr. Smith relies on biblical stories "of sheep and goats," "wheat and tares," and of "slaying the prophets of Baal." Ironically, it is his extremism that in part leads to the burning down of the church. On the other hand, the Igbo allot part of the Evil Forest, a demonic location where twin babies are thrown away, for the building of the church. When the church then prospers and no parishioners are harmed, the Igbo religion is dealt a severe blow. Likewise, the Church finds a ready convert in Okonkwo's abused son, Nwoye, who is attracted by the "poetry of the new religion," having been ridiculed for liking the traditional Igbo tales told by women. Furthermore, pariahs called osu, people who as part of a priest caste are not given a place in the clan and are buried in the evil forest, are also drawn to the new religion, presaging the Igbo society's downfall through its own arbitrary social exclusions.

The arbitrary quality of traditional tribal custom is signaled also by the symmetrical blood crimes of Okonkwo, the killing of Ikemefuna, presumably a choice, and the accidental killing of a dead man's sixteen-year-old son at the man's funeral. Although he suffers severe remorse over his complicity in the first killing, the second one has been an accident. Yet the tribe punishes Okonkwo with banishment for the second killing and not at all for the first. Obierika, who has befriended Okonkwo both times, is totally puzzled, and the episode leads him to speculate about his own "throwing away" of his twins, also decreed by the Earth Goddess. The chapter ends with the poor man consoling himself with the proverb about collective guilt: "If one finger brought oil, it soiled the others."

The often unavoidable unfairness of life apart from the ravages of colonialism is elsewhere also a prominent theme. Ekwefi, Okonkwo's second wife, has had ten children and nine have died before age three. She then gives birth to a daughter, Ezinma, who, because of the deaths of all her prior siblings, is assumed to be an ogbanje, a child who repeatedly dies and returns to its mother to be born. The recurrent deaths have happened despite all prayers and namings intended to avert the tragedy, and the fear, of course, is that Ezinma will die also. Although frequently sick, she does not, and her health is partly owing to the efforts of her father, who enlists medicine men, tends her when sick, and even follows Ekwefi when Ezinma is spirited away in the night by the Priestess Chielo. The episode is a validation of the marriage and human nurturing and in some sense of the power allotted to women in the seemingly sexist polygamal society.

Despite his magnanimity toward some British characters and his objectivity about the shortcomings of the Igbo, Achebe is justifiably engaged in a severe indictment of colonialism and its brutality. And his indictment is not without the irony that the British could have ruled more completely and efficiently, with less retaliatory bloodshed and arson on the part of the Igbo, had they ruled more intelligently. Frequently, it is blunders, not real rule, that ruffle the surfaces in Igbo land, the humiliation of the men called in peace to speak with the British, the fanaticism of Smith. The British district commissioner whose idea for a book,The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger, ends the novel, merely underscores the narrow point of view that Achebe has spent his whole novel trying to dispel.

Culture, Colonialism and Change

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A prevalent theme in Achebe's novels is the intersection of African tradition (particularly Igbo varieties) and modernity, especially as embodied by European colonialism. The village of Umuofia in Things Fall Apart, for example, is violently shaken with internal divisions when the white Christian missionaries arrive. Nigerian English professor Ernest N. Emenyonu describes the colonial experience in the novel as "the systematic emasculation of the entire culture".

Undoubtedly, the main theme of Things Fall Apart is that of change. This change is considered as it affects one society when it comes under pressure from dramatically new ideas-new ideas in religion, in law, in political, economic and social structure. These pressures have occurred often in history, not only when a relatively primitive society has been invaded by the forces of 'civilisation' but also when, for example, a country has changed its political system (as in revolution) or when, say, an agriculture-based economy has changed to one based on industrialisation.

When these big changes come about, stresses are set up in society which affect every individual living in that society. Achebe has chosen to consider such changes as they affect the society he knows best, that of his Ibo grandparents, and in so doing he has created a picture that, with minor changes, has been seen in dozens of parts of the world (but perhaps particularly in Africa) over the past century. Thus the interest of his novel for the reader is widened out beyond a consideration of a small corner of West Africa.

As a story about a culture on the verge of change, Things Fall Apart deals with how the prospect and reality of change affect various characters. The tension about whether change should be privileged over tradition often involves questions of personal status. Okonkwo, for example, resists the new political and religious orders because he feels that they are not manly and that he himself will not be manly if he consents to join or even tolerate them. To some extent, Okonkwo’s resistance of cultural change is also due to his fear of losing societal status. His sense of self-worth is dependent upon the traditional standards by which society judges him. This system of evaluating the self inspires many of the clan’s outcasts to embrace Christianity. Long scorned, these outcasts find in the Christian value system a refuge from the Igbo cultural values that place them below everyone else. In their new community, these converts enjoy a more elevated status.

When such changes take place one of the almost inevitable results is violence, to a lesser or greater degree. The tragedy of Okonkwo is one expression of that violence. Though his tragedy will, purely by chance, be recorded as a minor footnote in a history-book, we know that there must have been many similar tragedies that have gone unrecorded when similar intransigent characters have tried to oppose change. He merely records impartially what happened, without assigning blame. Ibo traditional society contained a great deal of violence, senseless except in terms of Ibo beliefs, as is amply recorded in the novel, and it is a hope for an end to this violence that sends Nwoye to seek better things in the new order. But the new order establishes and maintains itself by its own kind of violence, and Achebe does not suggest that this new violence is any better than the old: it is merely based on a different view of the world. Ibo law killed for religious reasons, on the command of the God or Oracle: the white man killed according to the commands of a man-based and man-designed structure of laws. Achebe does not say that the latter is better, but he perhaps

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implies that it ought to be. The manifestations of each type and what happens when they come into collision are presented as facts, re-created and brought alive in fiction.

The villagers in general are caught between resisting and embracing change and they face the dilemma of trying to determine how best to adapt to the reality of change. Many of the villagers are excited about the new opportunities and techniques that the missionaries bring. This European influence, however, threatens to extinguish the need for the mastery of traditional methods of farming, harvesting, building, and cooking. These traditional methods, once crucial for survival, are now, to varying degrees, dispensable. Throughout the novel, Achebe shows how dependent such traditions are upon storytelling and language and thus how quickly the abandonment of the Igbo language for English could lead to the eradication of these traditions.

In Chapter 21, with the discussion between Mr Brown, the missionary, and Akunna, Achebe makes the two religions, Ibo and Christian, confront each other. In what is one of the most wry and pointed passages in the novel, Akunna with his sound common sense and Ibo theology is more than a match for the Christian evangelist with all his book-learning, and he makes it clear that, at base, there is really very little difference between the two faiths. This treatment of the two religions is typical of Achebe's impartial treatment of the two very different cultures throughout the novel.

We might expect that, dealing with such a theme as the sudden change that came over traditional African society with the coming of the white man, Achebe might have had something to say directly on the matter of colonialism, particularly on this subject as a source for all present-day Africa's ills. In essays and lectures he has shown that he has plenty of views on the matter. In Things Fall Apart, however, he is silent, preferring to present the facts as they happened, without taking sides, and leaving his readers to make their own deductions. It would be a very biased reader indeed who deduced from this novel that what happened was for the worst. Some of it was good, some of it was bad, but it happened and it was inevitable. Society as it had hitherto existed in Iboland was bound to be annihilated. Achebe's interest-and it is the interest of the true novelist-is in the effect it had upon living, breathing human beings.

Custom and TraditionOkonkwo's struggle to live up to what he perceives as "traditional" standards of masculinity, and his failure adapt to a changing world, help point out the importance of custom and tradition in the novel. The Ibo tribe defines itself through the age-old traditions it practices in Things Fall Apart. While some habits mold tribe members' daily lives, other customs are reserved for special ceremonies. For example, the head of a household honors any male guest by praying over and sharing a kola nut with him, offering the guest the privilege of breaking the nut. They dank palm-wine together, with the oldest person taking the first drink after the provider has tasted it.

Ceremonial customs are more elaborate. The Feast of the New Yam provides an illustration. This Feast gives the tribe an opportunity to thank Am, the earth goddess and source of all fertility. Preparations for the Feast include thorough hut-cleaning and decorating, cooking, body painting, and head shaving. Relatives come from great distances to partake in the feast

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and to drink palm-wine. Then, on the second day of the celebration, the great wrestling match is held. The entire village meets in the village playground, or llo, for the drumming, dancing, and wrestling. The festival continues through the night until the final round is won. Because the tribe views winning a match as a great achievement, the winner earns the tribe's ongoing respect.

Tribal custom dictates every aspect of members' lives. The tribe determines a man's worth by the number of titles he holds, the number of wives he acquires, and the number of yams he grows. The tribe acknowledges a man's very being by the gods' approval of him. Without custom and tradition, the tribe does not exist.

Pre-colonialism / Ibo Life and CultureAnother key theme in the novel is the very strong and extremely detailed picture given of Ibo life and society prior to the coming of the white man. Some critics, particularly in Europe, have found a somewhat heavy concentration upon what they call 'anthropological detail' in the novel, as if the book were mainly concerned with giving us a picture of how this strange and distant people, so far from what we know as civilisation, lived.

It is necessary that the traditional Ibo society should be displayed in detail and in its entirety since the main theme of the novel is how this society is annihilated. That is why the white man does not come on the scene until two-thirds of the way through the novel. Achebe gives us the detailed account of Ibo life not for its own sake but in order to transport us in our imaginations to this whole society, so that we can readily accept the characters as real, as people we know and understand. Thus it is important for us to know how Okonkwo takes snuff, how he greets his friends, how they converse and the background of beliefs against which all their activities take place. We have to feel we are actually there, transported in time and in place. That is what makes the difference between a novel and a work of social anthropology: though Okonkwo and his fellows never lived, we feel sure that this is how it must really have been.

There is still another reason why the Ibo background is treated in so much detail in the novel. This is tied in with the undercurrent of nostalgia that runs through the book as a minor theme. Nostalgia is a regretful longing for things that are past. It is often sad and regretful as if suggesting that things were better in the old days. However, Achebe's nostalgia is not of this sentimental sort. In part, it is a natural effect of his detailed and realistic treatment of the past, and in part a result of his desire to present things as they really were. He does not suggest that the old days and ways were better - though Okonkwo thinks they were - but he does wish to present them whole. His overriding desire in the novel is to establish this Ibo society as a reality.

There are several reasons why he wishes to do this. For a start, he knows that many of his readers will not have the slightest idea of what such a society was like. Therefore, everything that such readers learn about it must be contained within the novel itself and must not be dependent upon knowledge of history and the like brought from outside.This is why it is hardly necessary to give elaborate notes on Ibo customs and beliefs: everything is explained to us, in the simplest way, as we read. So this society, strange and foreign as it might be, comes alive to us and we are able to see these Ibo tribesmen as

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human beings, since we are looking at them 'from the inside', as it were. We have only to imagine, for example, how different the events of Part Three would be were we to see them from the point of view of the missionaries or the District Commissioner.

Secondly, though the circumstances of the story will be much more familiar to his African readers, he has to make them clear even to such a readership. As it has turned out, with the tremendous development of literacy and education in Africa over the past twenty years, the majority of his readers have, in fact, been African. For them, Achebe has had to create a past, bedded in historical reality, which they can understand and of which they can feel proud. At one time, educated by colonial masters, many Africans were inclined to despise their past. They knew about Greece and Rome, they knew about British history, but the past of their own nations, their African heritage, was a blank to them or was viewed as a dark night of barbarism and savagery. Things Fall Apart shows them what this past must have been like, thus explaining how the present came about in a way no European history books could, displaying the great deal that was good in African traditional society that was swept aside in the tide of history-ideas, in particular, of kinship and community and democracy-and giving them a past of which they can be truly proud and unashamed.

However, while in part a writer's intention in writing a novel is to communicate his ideas to his readers, often his first, and unrecognised, desire is to work things out and explain them to himself. This, one cannot help feeling, Achebe has done for himself in Things Fall Apart, creating a past for himself and his people that has a living reality greater than his own actual, if largely unknown, past. In so doing, he has created a past for all Africans and-perhaps more splendidly and importantly - created a living past for his people in the eyes of the whole outside world.

Masculinity and femininityIn Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo's furious manhood overpowers everything feminine in his life, including his own conscience. For example, when he feels bad after killing his adopted son, he asks himself: "When did you become a shivering old woman?" He views all things feminine as distasteful, in part because they remind him of his father's laziness and cowardice. The women in the novel, meanwhile, are obedient, quiet, and absent from positions of authority – despite the fact that Igbo women were traditionally involved in village leadership. Nevertheless, the need for feminine balance is highlighted by Ani, the earth goddess, and the extended discussion of "Nneka" ("Mother is supreme") in chapter fourteen. Okonkwo's defeat is seen by some as a vindication of the need for a balancing feminine ethos. Achebe has expressed frustration at frequently being misunderstood on this point, saying that "I want to sort of scream that Things Fall Apart is on the side of women...And that Okonkwo is paying the penalty for his treatment of women; that all his problems, all the things he did wrong, can be seen as offenses against the feminine."

Okonkwo’s relationship with his late father shapes much of his violent and ambitious demeanor. He wants to rise above his father’s legacy of spendthrift, indolent behavior, which he views as weak and therefore effeminate. This association is inherent in the clan’s language—the narrator mentions that the word for a man who has not taken any of the expensive, prestige-indicating titles is agbala, which also means “woman.” But, for the most part, Okonkwo’s idea of manliness is not the clan’s. He associates masculinity with

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aggression and feels that anger is the only emotion that he should display. For this reason, he frequently beats his wives, even threatening to kill them from time to time. We are told that he does not think about things, and we see him act rashly and impetuously. Yet others who are in no way effeminate do not behave in this way. Obierika, unlike Okonkwo, “was a man who thought about things.” Whereas Obierika refuses to accompany the men on the trip to kill Ikemefuna, Okonkwo not only volunteers to join the party that will execute his surrogate son but also violently stabs him with his machete simply because he is afraid of appearing weak.

Okonkwo’s seven-year exile from his village only reinforces his notion that men are stronger than women. While in exile, he lives among the kinsmen of his motherland but resents the period in its entirety. The exile is his opportunity to get in touch with his feminine side and to acknowledge his maternal ancestors, but he keeps reminding himself that his maternal kinsmen are not as warlike and fierce as he remembers the villagers of Umuofia to be. He faults them for their preference of negotiation, compliance, and avoidance over anger and bloodshed. In Okonkwo’s understanding, his uncle Uchendu exemplifies this pacifist (and therefore somewhat effeminate) mode.

Language as a Sign of Cultural DifferenceLanguage is an important theme in Things Fall Apart on several levels. In demonstrating the imaginative, often formal language of the Igbo, Achebe emphasizes that Africa is not the silent or incomprehensible country that books such as Heart of Darkness made it out to be. Rather, by peppering the novel with Igbo words, Achebe shows that the Igbo language is too complex for direct translation into English. Similarly, Igbo culture cannot be understood within the framework of European colonialist values. Achebe also points out that Africa has many different languages: the villagers of Umuofia, for example, make fun of Mr. Brown’s translator because his language is slightly different from their own.On a macroscopic level, it is extremely significant that Achebe chose to write Things Fall Apart in English—he clearly intended it to be read by the West at least as much, if not more, than by his fellow Nigerians. His goal was to critique and amend the portrait of Africa that was painted by so many writers of the colonial period. Doing so required the use of English, the language of those colonial writers. Through his inclusion of proverbs, folktales, and songs translated from the Igbo language, Achebe managed to capture and convey the rhythms, structures, cadences, and beauty of the Igbo language.

Choices and ConsequencesIn Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo makes a choice early in life to overcome his father's legacy. As a result, Okonkwo gains the tribe's respect through his constant hard work. The tribe rewards him by recognizing his achievements and honoring him as a great warrior. The tribe believes that Okonkwo's personal god, or chi, is good (fate has blessed him). Nevertheless, they realize that Okonkwo has worked hard to achieve all that he has (if a man says yes, his chi says yes). When he breaks the Week of Peace, however, the tribe believes that Okonkwo has begun to feel too self-important and has challenged his chi. They fear the consequences his actions may bring.

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The tribe decides to kill Ikemefuna. Even though Ezeudu warns Okonkwo not to be a part of the plan, Okonkwo himself kills Ikemefuna. Okonkwo chooses to kill the boy rather than to appear weak.

When Okonkwo is in exile, he ponders the tribe's view of his chi. He thinks that maybe they have been wrong—that his chi was not made for great things. Okonkwo blames his exile on his chi. He refuses to accept that his actions have led him to this point. He sees no connections among his breaking the Week of Peace, his killing Ikemefuna, and his shooting Ezeudu's son In Okonkwo's eyes, his troubles result from ill fate and chance.

Alienation and LonelinessOkonkwo's exile isolates him from all he has ever known in Things Fall Apart. The good name he had built for himself with his tribesmen is a thing of the past. He must start anew. The thought overwhelms him, and Okonkwo feels nothing but despair. Visits from his good friend, Obierika, do little to cheer Okonkwo. News of the white man's intrusion and the tribe's reactions to it disturb him. His distance from the village, and his lack of connection to it, give him a sense of helplessness. Even worse, Okonkwo's son, Nwoye, joins the white man's mission efforts.

Okonkwo's return to the village does nothing to lessen his feelings of alienation and loneliness. The tribe he rejoins is not the same tribe he left. While he does not expect to be received as the respected warrior he once was, he does think that his arrival will prompt an occasion to be remembered. When the clan takes no special notice of his return, Okonkwo realizes that the white man has been too successful in his efforts to change the tribe's ways. Okonkwo grieves the loss of his tribe and the life he once knew. He is not able to overcome his sense of complete alienation.

BetrayalIn Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo feels betrayed by his personal god, or chi, which has allowed him to produce a son who is effeminate. Nwoye continually disappoints Okonkwo. As a child, Nwoye prefers his mother's stories to masculine pursuits. As an adult, Nwoye joins the white missionaries.

Okonkwo also feels betrayed by his clan. He does not understand why his fellow tribesmen have not stood up against the white intruders. When Okonkwo returns from exile, his clan has all but disintegrated. Many of the tribe's leaders have joined the missionaries' efforts; tribal beliefs and customs are being ignored. Okonkwo mourns the death of the strong tribe he once knew and despises the "woman-like" tribe that has taken its place.

Change and TransformationThe tribe to which Okonkwo returns has undergone a complete transformation during his absence in Things Fall Apart. The warlike Ibo once looked to its elders for guidance, made sacrifices to gods for deliverance, and solved conflicts though confrontation. Now the Ibo are "woman-like"; they discuss matters among themselves and pray to a god they can not see. Rather than immediately declare war on the Christians when Enoch unmasks the eg-wugwu, or ancestral spirit, the Ibo only destroy Enoch's compound. Okonkwo realizes how

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completely the Christians have changed his tribe when the tribesmen allow the remaining court messengers to escape after Okonkwo beheads one of them.

Good and EvilMany of the tribesmen view the white man as evil in Things Fall Apart. Tribesmen did not turn their backs on one another before the white man came. Tribesmen would never have thought to kill their own brothers before the white man came. The arrival of the white man has forced the clan to act in ways that its ancestors deplore. Such evil has never before invaded the clan.

Culture ClashThe arrival of the white man and his culture heralds the death of the Ibo culture in Things Fall Apart. The white man does not honor the tribe's customs and strives to convince tribesmen that the white man's ways are better. Achieving some success, the white man encourages the tribesmen who join him, increasing the white man's ranks. As a result, the tribe is split, pitting brother against brother and father against son. Tribal practices diminish as the bond that ties tribesmen deteriorates. Death eventually comes to the weaker of the clashing cultures.

Motifs

ChiThe concept of chi is discussed at various points throughout the novel and is important to our understanding of Okonkwo as a tragic hero. The chi is an individual’s personal god, whose merit is determined by the individual’s good fortune or lack thereof. Along the lines of this interpretation, one can explain Okonkwo’s tragic fate as the result of a problematic chi—a thought that occurs to Okonkwo at several points in the novel. For the clan believes, as the narrator tells us in Chapter 14, a “man could not rise beyond the destiny of his chi.” But there is another understanding of chi that conflicts with this definition. In Chapter 4, the narrator relates, according to an Igbo proverb, that “when a man says yes his chi says yes also.” According to this understanding, individuals will their own destinies. Thus, depending upon our interpretation of chi, Okonkwo seems either more or less responsible for his own tragic death. Okonkwo himself shifts between these poles: when things are going well for him, he perceives himself as master and maker of his own destiny; when things go badly, however, he automatically disavows responsibility and asks why he should be so ill-fated.

Animal ImageryIn their descriptions, categorizations, and explanations of human behavior and wisdom, the Igbo often use animal anecdotes to naturalize their rituals and beliefs. The presence of animals in their folklore reflects the environment in which they live—not yet “modernized” by European influence. Though the colonizers, for the most part, view the Igbo’s understanding of the world as rudimentary, the Igbo perceive these animal stories, such as the account of how the tortoise’s shell came to be bumpy, as logical explanations of natural phenomena. Another important animal image is the figure of the sacred python. Enoch’s alleged killing and eating of the python symbolizes the transition to a new form of spirituality and a new religious order. Enoch’s disrespect of the python clashes with the Igbo’s reverence for it, epitomizing the incompatibility of colonialist and indigenous values.

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Symbols

LocustsAchebe depicts the locusts that descend upon the village in highly allegorical terms that prefigure the arrival of the white settlers, who will feast on and exploit the resources of the Igbo. The fact that the Igbo eat these locusts highlights how innocuous they take them to be. Similarly, those who convert to Christianity fail to realize the damage that the culture of the colonizer does to the culture of the colonized.The language that Achebe uses to describe the locusts indicates their symbolic status. The repetition of words like “settled” and “every” emphasizes the suddenly ubiquitous presence of these insects and hints at the way in which the arrival of the white settlers takes the Igbo off guard. Furthermore, the locusts are so heavy they break the tree branches, which symbolizes the fracturing of Igbo traditions and culture under the onslaught of colonialism and white settlement. Perhaps the most explicit clue that the locusts symbolize the colonists is Obierika’s comment in Chapter 15: “the Oracle . . . said that other white men were on their way. They were locusts. . . .”

FireOkonkwo is associated with burning, fire, and flame throughout the novel, alluding to his intense and dangerous anger—the only emotion that he allows himself to display. Yet the problem with fire, as Okonkwo acknowledges in Chapters 17 and 24, is that it destroys everything it consumes. Okonkwo is both physically destructive—he kills Ikemefuna and Ogbuefi Ezeudu’s son—and emotionally destructive—he suppresses his fondness for Ikemefuna and Ezinma in favor of a colder, more masculine aura. Just as fire feeds on itself until all that is left is a pile of ash, Okonkwo eventually succumbs to his intense rage, allowing it to rule his actions until it destroys him.

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Settings

UmofiaUmofia (oo-moh-FEE-uh). Area in southeastern Nigeria, comprising nine villages, where the Umofia clan live. “Umofia” is the Igbo word for “people of the forest.” The word “village” is a loose translation of a complicated concept in Igbo society and is used in Things Fall Apart to represent both the nine villages and the larger area; thus, the village of Umofia comprises nine villages. In Umofia at the end of the nineteenth century, homes are mud huts set in compounds. Each of the villages is advised by a male elder, and the nine elders meet to make decisions for the clan. The center of village life is the market. Okonkwo is known throughout Umofia for his strength and his success in warfare, unlike his father, who also came from Umofia. He is not an elder and has no official status as a leader, but he is relied upon as a man of action and he hopes one day to become a leader. In his father’s village, a male-dominated society, Okonkwo knows his place, and the place of his wives and his children. For him, social order is bound up in tradition and home.

When Okonkwo returns to Umofia after seven years in exile, he finds that the Christian missionaries have made several changes. New buildings—a church, a courthouse—have appeared in the village, representing new ideas and rules. For Okonkwo, the physical changes in the village symbolize the erosion of the Igbo culture—the things that are falling apart.

Okonkwo’s compoundOkonkwo’s compound. The home of Okonkwo and his immediate family. Okonkwo has a hut for himself and one for each of his three wives, a barn, and several yam fields, all enclosed in a red mud wall. None of this was inherited from his father, Unoka, who never prospered. Okonkwo has built up his wealth and his property through his own hard work and the work of his family. When it is determined that Okonkwo must be banished from Umofia, men storm his compound dressed as they would for a war. They burn Okonkwo’s buildings, kill his animals, and tear down his red walls. They do not do this out of anger or hatred (in fact, Okonkwo’s closest friend is one of them), but simply because a man’s land is inseparable from him, and to purify the village they must remove every trace of the offender. Okonkwo understands and accepts his punishment.

MbantaMbanta (m-BON-tuh). Okonkwo’s mother’s village, just beyond Mbaino, where Okonkwo spends his seven years of exile. In his motherland, he is immediately accepted, and his relatives give him land and fields to begin a new life. As Uchendu the elder explains, “A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland.”

MbainoMbaino (m-BI-no). Village bordering on Umofia. Umofia and Mbaino are traditional enemies. When a woman from Umofia is murdered at the market in Mbaino, Umofia threatens a war of vengeance. Rather than face a war with the stronger Umofia, Mbaino sends a young man (Ikemefuna) and a young virgin girl as payment. Throughout the story,

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Mbaino is referred to as a place where the people are weaker and less just, and the crops are poorer than in Umofia.

AbameAbame (ah-BAH-may). Neighboring village where the white man on an iron horse is killed. After the people of Abame kill the white man, they are attacked by European soldiers. Many of the Abame clan are killed, and the rest are scattered. Crops and fish die. It is the end of the clan, for without their land the clan cannot endure.

*Great River (Niger River)*Great River (Niger River). West Africa’s biggest river, rising in Guinea and flowing generally east before turning southward to flow through Nigeria. For Umofia, the Great River represents all that is far away and mysterious, since any travel over large distances would be by water. The missionaries establish their base at Umaru, on the Great River, because they are people who are not of the land and who will not stay in one place. They do not value land or land ownership, because they look to Heaven rather than to Earth.

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Language and Style

Chinua Achebe’s Writing StyleThe style of Achebe's fiction draws heavily on the oral tradition of the Igbo people. He weaves folk tales into the fabric of his stories, illuminating community values in both the content and the form of the storytelling. The tale about the Earth and Sky in Things Fall Apart, for example, emphasises the interdependency of the masculine and the feminine. Although Nwoye enjoys hearing his mother tell the tale, Okonkwo's dislike for it is evidence of his imbalance. Later, Nwoye avoids beatings from his father by pretending to dislike such "women's stories".

Another hallmark of Achebe's style is the use of proverbs, which often illustrate the values of the rural Igbo tradition. He sprinkles them throughout the narratives, repeating points made in conversation. Critic Anjali Gera notes that the use of proverbs in Arrow of God "serves to create through an echo effect the judgement of a community upon an individual violation." The use of such repetition in Achebe's urban novels, No Longer at Ease and A Man of the People, is less pronounced.

For Achebe, however, proverbs and folk stories are not the sum total of the oral Igbo tradition. In combining philosophical thought and public performance into the use of oratory ("Okwu Oka" – "speech artistry" – in the Igbo phrase), his characters exhibit what he called "a matter of individual excellence ... part of Igbo culture." In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo's friend Obierika voices the most impassioned oratory, crystallising the events and their significance for the village. Nwaka in Arrow of God also exhibits a mastery of oratory, albeit for malicious ends.

Achebe frequently includes folk songs and descriptions of dancing in his work. Obi, the protagonist of No Longer At Ease, is at one point met by women singing a "Song of the Heart", which Achebe gives in both Igbo and English: "Is everyone here? / (Hele ee he ee he)" In Things Fall Apart, ceremonial dancing and the singing of folk songs reflect the realities of Igbo tradition. The elderly Uchendu, attempting to shake Okonkwo out of his self-pity, refers to a song sung after the death of a woman: "For whom is it well, for whom is it well? There is no one for whom it is well." This song contrasts with the "gay and rollicking tunes of evangelism" sung later by the white missionaries.

Achebe's short stories are not as widely studied as his novels, and Achebe himself does not consider them a major part of his work. In the preface for Girls at War and Other Stories, he writes: "A dozen pieces in twenty years must be accounted a pretty lean harvest by any reckoning." Like his novels, the short stories are heavily influenced by the oral tradition. And like the folktales they follow, the stories often have morals emphasising the importance of cultural traditions.

TragedyThings Fall Apart chronicles the double tragedies of the deaths of Okonkwo, a revered warrior, and the Ibo, the tribe to which Okonkwo belongs. In literature, tragedy often describes the downfall of a great individual which is caused by a flaw in the person's character. Okonkwo's personal flaw is his unreasonable anger, and his tragedy occurs when

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the tribe bans him for accidentally killing a young tribesman, and he returns to find a tribe that has changed beyond recognition. The Ibo's public demise results from the destruction of one culture by another, but their tragedy is caused by their turning away from their tribal gods.

SettingThings Fall Apart is set in Umuofia, a tribal village in the country of Nigeria, in Africa. It is the late 1800s, when English bureaucrats and missionaries are first arriving in the area. There is a long history of conflict between European colonists and the Africans they try to convert and subjegate. But by placing the novel at the beginning of this period Achebe can accentuate the clash of cultures that are just coming into contact. It also sets up a greater contrast between the time Okonkwo leaves the tribe and the time he returns, when his village is almost unrecognizable to him because of the changes brought by the English.

ConflictIn Things Fall Apart, the Ibo thrive in Umuofia, practicing ancient rituals and customs. When the white man arrives, however, he ignores the Ibo's values and tries to enforce his own beliefs, laws, and religious practices. Some of the weaker tribesmen join the white man's ranks, leaving gaps in the clan's united front. First, the deserters are impressed with the wealth the white man brings into Umuofia. Second, they find in the white man's religion an acceptance and brotherhood that has never been afforded them due to their lower status in the tribe. As men leave the tribe to become members of the white man's mission, the rift in the tribe widens. Social and psychological conflict abounds as brothers turn their backs on one another, and fathers and sons become strangers.

NarrationAchebe develops Things Fall Apart through a third-person narrative—using" "he" and "she" for exposition—rather than having the characters tell it themselves. Often speaking in the past tense, he also narrates the story with little use of character dialogue. The resulting story reads like an oral tale that has been passed down through generations of storytellers.

ImageryWhile the characters in Things Fall Apart have little dialogue, the reader still has a clear image of them and is able to understand their motives. Achebe accomplishes this through his combination of the English language with Ibo vocabulary and proverbs. When the characters do talk, they share the rich proverbs that are "the palm-oil with which words are eaten." Achebe uses the proverbs not only to illustrate his characters but also to paint pictures of the society he is depicting, to reveal themes, and to develop conflict. Vivid images result, giving the reader a clear representation of people and events.

Point of ViewCritics praise Achebe for his adept shifts in point of view in Things Fall Apart. Achebe begins the story from Okonkwo's point of view. Okonkwo's story helps the reader understand the Ibo's daily customs and rituals as well as celebrations for the main events in life: birth, marriage, and death. As the story progresses, however, it becomes more the clan's story than Okonkwo's personal story. The reader follows the clan's life, gradual disintegration, and death. The novel becomes one of situation rather than character; the reader begins to

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feel a certain sympathy for the tribe instead of the individual. The final shift occurs when Achebe ends the story from the District Commissioner's viewpoint While some critics feel that Achebe's ending lectures, others believe that it strengthens the conclusion for the reader. Some even view it as a form of functionalism, an African tradition of cultural instruction.

Plot and StructureDivided into three parts, Things Fall Apart comprises many substories. Yet Achebe holds the various stories together through his use of proverbs, traditional oral tales, and leitmotif, or recurring images or phrases. Ibo proverbs occur throughout the book, providing a unity to the surface progression of the story For example, "when a man says yes, his chi says yes" is the proverb the tribe applies to Okonkwo's success, on the one hand, but is also the proverb Okonkwo, himself, applies to his failure. Traditional oral tales always contain a tale within the tale. Nwoye's mother is an expert at telling these tales—morals embedded in stories. The stories Achebe tells throughout Things Fall Apart are themselves tales within the tale. Leitmotif is the association of a repeated theme with a particular idea. Achebe connects masculinity with land, yams, titles, and wives. He repeatedly associates this view of masculinity with a certain stagnancy in Umuofia. While a traditional Western plot may not be evident in Things Fall Apart, a definite structure with an African flavor lends itself to the overall unity of the story.

FoilAchebe uses foil—a type of contrast—to strengthen his primary characters inThings Fall Apart, illuminating their differences. The following pairs of characters serve as foils for each other: Okonkwo and Obierika, Ikemefuna and Nwoye, and Mr. Brown and the Reverend Smith. Okonkwo rarely thinks; he is a man of action. He follows the tribe's customs almost blindly and values its opinion of him over his own good sense. Obierika, on the other hand, ponders the things that happen to Okonkwo and his tribe. Obierika often makes his own decisions and wonders about the tribe's wisdom in some of its actions. Ikemefuna exemplifies the rising young tribesman A masculine youth, full of energy and personality, Ikemefuna participates in the manly activities expected of him. In contrast, Nwoye appears lazy and effeminate. He prefers listening to his mother's stories over making plans for war. He detests the sight of blood and abhors violence of any kind. Mr Brown speaks gently and restrains the overzealous members of his mission from overwhelming the clan. He seeks to win the people over by offering education and sincere faith. The Reverend Smith is the fire-and-bnmstone preacher who replaces Mr. Brown. He sees the world in black and white; either something is evil, or it is good. He thrives on his converts' zeal and encourages them to do whatever it takes to gain supporters for his cause.

Use of EnglishAs the decolonization process unfolded in the 1950s, a debate about choice of language erupted and pursued authors around the world; Achebe was no exception. Indeed, because of his subject matter and insistence on a non-colonial narrative, he found his novels and decisions interrogated with extreme scrutiny – particularly with regard to his use of English. One school of thought, championed by Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o, urged the use of indigenous African languages. English and other European languages, he said in 1986, were "part of the neo-colonial structures that repress progressive ideas".

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Achebe chose to write in English. In his essay "The African Writer and the English Language", he discusses how the process of colonialism – for all its ills – provided colonised people from varying linguistic backgrounds "a language with which to talk to one another". As his purpose is to communicate with readers across Nigeria, he uses "the one central language enjoying nationwide currency". Using English also allowed his books to be read in the colonial ruling nations.

Still, Achebe recognises the shortcomings of what Audre Lorde called "the master's tools". In another essay he notes:

For an African writing in English is not without its serious setbacks. He often finds himself describing situations or modes of thought which have no direct equivalent in the English way of life. Caught in that situation he can do one of two things. He can try and contain what he wants to say within the limits of conventional English or he can try to push back those limits to accommodate his ideas ... I submit that those who can do the work of extending the frontiers of English so as to accommodate African thought-patterns must do it through their mastery of English and not out of innocence.

In another essay, he refers to James Baldwin's struggle to use the English language to accurately represent his experience, and his realization that he needed to take control of the language and expand it. Nigerian poet and novelist Gabriel Okara likens the process of language-expansion to the evolution of jazz music in the United States.

Achebe's novels laid a formidable groundwork for this process. By altering syntax, usage, and idiom, he transforms the language into a distinctly African style. In some spots this takes the form of repetition of an Igbo idea in standard English parlance; elsewhere it appears as narrative asides integrated into descriptive sentences.

Literary TechniquesAchebe uses the traditions, narrative and otherwise, of two cultures in a highly allusive work that fully exploits their proverbs, tales, religious rituals, and customs. Narrative structure is only apparently simple in this novel. Okonkwo's life is evaluated in the light of both Igbo and Christian traditional values — values that often intersect. His fear of being thought of as weak causes him to negate the importance Igbo culture places on peaceful settlement of conflict and diplomacy. When telling stories to his children, he tells only tales of violence and bloodshed. Indeed, as critics have pointed out, his rigidity makes him resemble Old Testament figures from the Bible more than New. The sacrifice of Isaac is evoked both in his actual murder of Ikemefuna and his psychic murder of his own son Nwoye, who takes the name Isaac upon his conversion. (His accidental killing of a third male child causes his banishment.) The more rigid British characters, such as Mr. Smith and the District Commander then appear like his white counterparts. Achebe is able at the same time to use Christian values to expose what is arbitrary and cruel about the Igbo religion, such as the existence of the pariah osu, and the throwing away of twins, and the Igbo custom and belief to expose the absurdities and contradictions in the Christian/ European perspective. The efforts of the missionaries in Mbanta (the place where Okonkwo is exiled) to explain the

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trinity right after telling the crowd that there is only one God are met with hilarious rejoinders.

References to the white prelates as albinos and officials wearing beige shorts as "ashy buttocks" have even led some critics to see the book as a reversal of Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1902) — the novel is presenting the white man as other and absurd, a sort of horror. Yet the existence of even one sympathetic Christian cleric in Mr. Brown seems to undercut this reading. Achebe is aware that the interplay between the two cultures has gone too far to be reversed, and the most optimistic moments in the book are those that point to the preservation of human values and productive lives despite the trauma of change. That Nwoye gains a productive life that he could not have had with his father is a blessing, as is the saving of his sister from the plight of the changeling.

The manipulation of proverbs, both Igbo and biblical, and the testing of them against experience is also a common technique. Mr. Smith fails because, unlike Mr. Brown, he wants to make Christianity more selective. "Narrow is the way and few the number," he argues, doubtless buttressed by scripture, and he is appalled by the pockets of ignorance of common doctrines. Sometimes, the experience the proverb is meant to contain is too large and unfathomable, and the proverb seems pasted on, as if the character is clutching at straws, as when Obierika tries to rationalize his throwing away of his twin children: "The Earth had decreed that they were an offense on the land and must be destroyed," and "If one finger brought oil it soiled the others."

A corollary to his concern with truths of two intersecting cultures is Achebe's problematical (at least for Western, more scientifically-minded cultures) substantiation of spiritual realities. The Ekwefi/Ezinma story is often cited in evidence of this aspect of his work. For not only are the Christians seen to err when they blatantly disregard Igbo beliefs, the spiritual is validated in both cultures and, among other things, provides a long view for lives and struggles of the characters. Okonkwo and Ezinma secure their daughter's chances for life and avert the fate of the ogbanje by careful vigilance and ritual, not by denying its reality or thwarting the belief irreverently.

Indeed, the hubris that denies belief and tradition appears to be the chief tragic flaw on both sides. At times the narrator will enter the point of view of Okonkwo in order to expose it ironically, as in the following passage:

Nwoye knew that it was right to be masculine and to be violent, but somehow he still preferred the stories that his mother used to tell . . . stories of the tortoise and his wily ways . . . of the quarrel between Earth and Sky long ago.

The stories of the new faith, stories that Okonkwo has no use for along with the Igbo ones, draw Nwoye to it. This is but one of the opportunities for irony that Achebe makes use of throughout the book.

The novel follows a more or less sequential narrative line, although it is sometimes disrupted by flashbacks, as when the courtship of Ekwefi and Okonkwo is remembered after

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their vigil over Ezinma. Later novels, especiallyAnthills of the Savannah, are to exploit distortions of chronological sequence even more fully.

Other hallmarks of Achebe's style are his ability to intersperse Igbo and pidgin expressions where appropriate for context sketching characters, and to adapt English to the rhythm of his African language. His numerous translations of Igbo proverbs reflect this ability, and as he uses them he builds a serious respect for a culture little understood previously by Westerners.

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Achebe’s Use of Language

Epigraph – Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming” – the title of the novel has come from these lines.

Relevance – the society of Umuofia and Okonkwo fall apart (like many other societies / people would have done in Africa at the time the story is set)

Anarchy (chaos) arises in the novel from the breakdown of society. Also “the centre” can refer to Great Britain and ideas that colonialism would have to

come to an end (think about when Achebe wrote the story).

Chapter One Narrative introduces us to Okonkwo and conveys his heroic status “Okonkwo was

well known…solid personal achievements” – important as it contrasts with Okonkwo’s downfall and heightens the tragedy.

Amalinze the Cat - “great wrestler…was unbeaten” – modification “great” and superlative “fiercest” to describe the fight – heightens the achievement of Okonkwo.

Technique of understatement – reference to the “spirit of the wild” – although the narrative has a dramatic tone to it, spiritual / paranormal events are seen as quite normal.

Triadic structure, “the drums beat…held their breath” – continues the dramatic tone of the narrative.

The lexis is simplistic to start with, which is a reflection of the pre-colonial village – before the English language was imposed (the lexis becomes more complex later)

Descriptions of Okonkwo –similes used to describe him “slippery as a fish”, “fame…grown like a bush fire…harmattan” and his fame

Connotations of physical description “tall”, “huge”, “bushy eyebrows”, “wide nose” “a very severe look” – quite masculine, aggressive, “breathed heavily” – a sense of fear can be conveyed from this – the way it sounds to others.

Narrative describes his walk “as if he was going to pounce on somebody” – furthers aggressive connotations – links to his “slight stammer” and “whenever he was angry…could not get his words out…use his fists”. Okonkwo is a man who says little and lets his actions speak for him – does not think things through rationally – anger takes over. The narrative establishes that he is a violent man.

Parallel structure – “had not patience…father” – contrast set up between father and son.

Triadic structure introduces us to Unoka and furthers this contrast – “he was lazy…improvident…incapable…thinking…tomorrow”

Narrator takes a critical tone to Unoka with the aside “Unoka was, of course, a debtor”.

Unoka - contrasting description to Okonkwo “Tall and thin…mournful look” – sets them up as polar opposites (however, look later in the novel to see if there are any similarities).

Reference to the “first kites” – readers get the impression from the narrative that Unoka is more ‘feminine’ as he is enamoured by folklore stories of the kite and its lengths of cloth and that he is not fully mature, as is seen from his inability to provide for his family and the narrator’s negative term of address when stating “Unoka, the grown up, was a failure”.

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Narrator positions Unoka against Okonkwo (contrast) – we discover that he is “poor”, a “loafer” (noun – negative connotations) and in debt.

Narrative introduces the character of Okoye ( Unoka’s neighbour who wants his debt paid back).

Cultural references “alligator pepper”, “kola nut”, “white chalk” (noun phrases) – purpose is to show the audience of the traditions and culture of the Ibo (Igbo) peoples.

Phatic talk between Unoka and Okoye (typical social greetings, e.g. “He who brings kola brings life”).

Their discourse – triadic structure “the heavy rains…yams…ancestral feast…impending war…Mbaino” (these things are deemed important in this society).

The narrator uses the negative noun “coward” to refer to Unoka as he “was never happy when it came to wars “and could not bear the sight of blood”. The narrator is biased. The narrator holds the views of the indigenous society at the time (fighting in wars is a sign of masculinity) – he prefers music.

Contrast in the view of musicians in society. The declarative “Okoye was not a failure like Unoka” shows that Okoye is accepted, mainly because, as the narrative states “He had a large barn full of yams…three wives…take the Idemili title” (triadic structure) (these are the things respected in this culture).

Significance of proverbs to communicate meaning is demonstrated in the metaphor “proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten”.

In response to paying the debt back Unoka “laughed loud and long and his voice rang out clear as the ogene” (the alliteration and simile position us against Unoka, like the other villagers). He also uses a proverb to try and justify why he won’t pay Okoye yet “Our elders say that the sun will shine…stand before it shines…kneel under them.”

Page 7/8 - Rhetorical question, “Any wonder…Okonkwo…ashamed of him?” – further narrator bias. The narrative then informs us of the greatness of Okonkwo – setting up the tragedy to come (fall of a hero).

We learn from the declaratives that he is “the greatest wrestler…nine villages” (superlative – highlights greatness). He is a “wealthy famer..two barns...yams...married...third wife” (contrast to Unoka)

Positive modification – skill in war “incredible prowess” and superlative phrase “one…greatest men of his time” (confers heroic status on him)

Proverb “if a child washed his hands…eat with kings” – reference to age – with ages comes status, but he has achieved so much early on – still accepted by the elders – treated as one.

Chapter ends – ominous tone – negative modification “doomed lad”, “ill-fated lad” – Ikemefuna (been sacrificed from the village of Mbaino to avoid war) – sense of foreshadowing.

Chapter 2 Narrative opens with the description of night time. Okonkwo hears the town crier

and “he had discerned a clear overtone of tragedy…voice” – the reference to the abstract noun “tragedy” can refer to what has happened to the young woman of the village, but also, the tragedy to come (from the murder of Ikemefuna).

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We begin to see the beliefs of the Ibo about dark nights, the nouns and modifiers connote danger, fear and evilness, “Darkness held a vague terror”, “Dangerous animals…more sinister...uncanny”. The narrative also informs us of other beliefs, e.g. calling a snake by its name.

Contrast this with moonlight nights – more joyous – proverb “When the moon is shining…hungry for a walk”, also a sexual reference – declarative - “not so young...less open places”

Rhetorical question – Okonkwo “war with a neighbouring clan? That seemed the most likely reason” (informs us that this is common). This links to the idea of Tribalism (following the norms, values and beliefs of your tribe very strictly, often at the detriment of others).

Parallel structure – “a man of action, a man of war”, to highlight Okonkwo’s overtly masculine qualities.

Understatement is used to describe Okonkwo that he has “his fifth head” and that he drinks from his first head – it normalises the tradition.

Ogbuefi Ezeugo – rouses the crowd into a frenzy – through his aggressive and angry tone and his skills as a “powerful orator”. He repeats the tribal call and clenches his fist and teeth – verbs “clenched”, “gnashed” connote violence and the narrator describes Ogbuefi Ezeugo as “like one possessed” and his smile is “more terrible and more sinister” – verbs and modifiers – connote fear. The declarative “the crowd…anger and thirst...blood” – it is easy for the villagers to act on anger.

Declaratives describe Umuofia as a great and fearsome village – parallel structure highlights this “powerful...war and magic…surrounding country”. Superstitious tone is created – addressing – “agadi-nwayi” – some women are privileged in this society.

War needs to be seen as just as the narrative informs us of the importance of acceptance by the Oracle.

Narrative informs us of the importance of the “ndichie” (elders) in ruling the clan. At home Okonkwo exerts his power and authority as the declaratives suggest,

“Okonkwo ruled his house…heavy hand...perpetual fear…fiery temper” – modifiers connote strength and violence.

He acts in such a way to ensure he is not like his father as we see this is his greatest fear – declaratives “the fear of failure” (alliteration) and “fear of himself”.

Father – negative term of address “agbala” – “another name for woman” – reflects patriarchal society and a woman’s place in it.

Antonyms “Okonkwo was ruled by one passion – to hate everything his father..loved….gentleness…idleness” – used to show contrast between the two.

Character of Nwoye - first son – narrator informs us that he “was already causing” Okonkwo “great anxiety” – fears he will be like Unoka and “sought to correct him…beating and nagging” – later we see how Okonkwo’s actions drive Nwoye towards the missionaries.

Position of the huts – Okonkwo’s is in the centre – dominance, the wives are behind – subservience.

Narrative informs us he is a religious man “shrine” that he “worshipped” “ancestral spirits”.

Discourse – Okonkwo and his senior wife – he uses a directive “so look after him”. As soon as she uses an interrogative “Is he staying long?” he becomes angry and uses

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another directive “Do…told…woman” and rhetorical question “When....become…ndichie…?” in a patronising and aggressive tone – to put her in her place.

Does the narrative make us feel sorry for Ikemefuna?

Questions (Chapters 3, 4 and 5)1. Identify the triadic structure and parallel structures in the first two paragraphs on

page 16?

2. What impression do we get of the Oracle (pages 16 – 17)? How does she respond to Unoka? What language features are used to convey this impression?

3. What is a person’s “chi”? The narrative informs us that Unoka is not buried after his death. Why is this and what does this tell us about the villagers of Umuofia?

4. Who is Nwakibie? Describe him and list the social rituals which take place before Okonkwo asks Nwakibie for help. What does this tell us about Umoufian society?

5. Look at the discourse between Okonkwo and Nwakibie (pages 19-20). What language features do both use when discussing youth, men and yams?

6. What are considered to be women’s crops and what are considered to be men’s crops?

7. Pick out examples of the hyperbole / figurative lexis used to discuss “the year Okonkwo took eight hundred see-yams from Nwakibie”.

8. A man hangs himself due to the disastrous harvest. What is this a cataphoric reference to?

9. What language features are used to describe how Okonkwo feels about the year? (page 24)

10. What significance do Unoka’s words at the bottom of page 24 have? How does Okonkwo respond?

11. What does the proverb about the “king’s mouth” on page 25 tell us about Okonkwo?

12. Identify the language terms in the following quote from Okonkwo, when one of the members of the clan contradicts him on page 25, “This meeting is for men”. What does this tell us about Okonkwo and what might this be an anaphoric reference to?

13. What does the proverb about the palm kernels suggest about Okonkwo’s wealth and why do some think this isn’t accurate?

14. On page 26 and 27 the narrator shows us two contrasting sides to Okonkwo. What are these contrasting sides?

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15. A parallel structure on page 25 gives us a clue as to why he acts like this. What is the quote?

16. What is the narrator’s attitude towards Okonkwo beating his wife during the week of peace (page 27)? What does this reflect about the roles of husbands and wives in this society?

17. How does Okonkwo speak to his other wives about this on page 28 (use language terminology?)

18. How does Ezeani speak to Okonkwo when he breaks the Week of Peace (page 29)? There is a cataphoric reference in Ezeani’s discourse. What is it? (quote this)

19. On page 31, Okonkwo speaks in a very threatening and aggressive tone to Nwoye. Give quotes to back this up and give reasons as to why he is so aggressive about it.

20. According to Okonkwo (page 31) what are yams synonymous with?

21. On page 33, the narrator informs us as to how Ikemefuna tells Nwoye folk tales. What is the significance of this?

22. In Chapter 5, we are told about The Feast of the New Yam. Describe what the feast is about. What do you think this feast is similar to in European countries?

23. Why is Okonkwo uncomfortable at this time of year (page 36)? What is this a reminder of?

24. What do we learn about the differences between male and female discourse when Okonkwo has his outburst on page 37? What does this event show us about Okonkwo?

25. What shifts in tone take place from the start of the outburst to the descriptions of Ekwefi and her memories?

26. Describe the relationship between the women of Okonkwo’s household (use language terminology in your descriptions).

27. On page 41, what connotations do the beat of the drums have for Okonkwo?

28. What do we learn of the relationship between Okonkwo and his daughters?

29. List the main events of section 6. Why do you think wrestling is such an important part of this culture?

Questions Chapter 7

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1. What simile is used to describe how Ikemefuna has grown up in the opening paragraph and what metaphor is used to describe how Nwoye has changed as a result? (Use quotes)

2. Two parallel structures are used to describe what Okonkwo wants from Nwoye in the second paragraph. What are they? (Use quotes)

3. The narrator uses conditional tense to express their views as to a man’s position in the home at the end of the second paragraph. Give the quote and state what you think it reflects about the expectations of men and women in this society.

4. What is the contrast between men’s and women’s stories? (i.e. what are they about) The narrative informs us that Nwoye experiences conflict about the stories. What is the conflict?

5. What different jobs does the narrator state the men and women do in the “cold harmattan season”? What does this reflect about their roles in the home / society?

6. What do you think is the significance of the locusts descending on Umuofia? Pick out language features used to describe this.

7. What shift in tone takes place when Ogbuefi Ezeudu visits Okonkwo?

8. Why is the technique of understatement used when Ogbuefi Ezeudu informs Okonkwo that Ikemefuna will be killed?

9. How does the narrative create a sense of foreboding when Ikemefuna is taken away from Umuofia on his ‘supposed’ journey home? Pick out the language features and quotes which convey this foreboding and signify Ikemefuna’s impending death.

10. What tone is created when Ikemefuna is remembering home?

11. What language features are used to convey Ikemefuna’s sense of fear just before his murder?

12. Why, according to the narrator does Okonkwo finish the murder of Ikemefuna? Are his actions justified?

13. What figurative language is used to describe Nwoye’s feelings about the murder of Ikemefuna? What do these feelings remind him of?

14. How, do you think, we as readers are supposed to respond to this part of the book?

Questions Chapter 8

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15. What figurative language techniques are used to describe Okonkwo’s state and his feelings about the murder of Ikemefuna in the first 2 paragraphs? (Give quotes).

16. What is the “cold shiver” Okonkwo experiences an anaphoric and cataphoric reference to?

17. How would you describe Okonkwo’s relationship with Enzinma? Refer to language features / quotes in your answer.

18. A triadic structure of rhetorical questions is used when Okonkwo questions himself about his reactions to the murder of Ikemefuna – what are these? (Quote them).

19. What are the topics of the discourse between Okonkwo and Obierika? What language features are used to present Okonkwo’s views of his own family and Ikemefuna’s murder and Obierika’s responses?

20. Whose deaths does Ofoedu tell Okonkwo and Obierika about? What are the differences in Okonkwo’s and Obierika’s reactions? Is there anything that Okonkwo fails to realise about the deaths?

21. How does the narrative describe Okonkwo’s changed mood concerning the murder of Ikemefuna?

22. What is the significance of the discourse between Okonkwo and Obierika about the palm tapping and the ozo titles?

23. What rituals are described when Obierika’s daughter’s suitor, Ibe, visits?

24. What is the significance towards the end of the chapter of the discourse about other clans and their customs / traditions?

25. What language features are used to describe the “white men”? How would you describe the views held of “white men”? Why do you think leprosy is referred to with the euphemism “the white skin” at the end of the chapter?

Chapter 9 Tone at the start of the narrative (page 71) sets us at ease – false sense of security.

We think things have returned to normal Simile – dream and nightmare and the proverb of the mosquito – foreshadowing

danger. Emotive declarative (Ezinma is dying) and emotive lexis – abstract nouns – tragedy

and sorrow. Okonkwo “sprang from his bed” – verb sprang reflects the affection he has for

Ezinma (affection is a thing we don’t often see from Okonkwo). Narrative outlines the different roles men and women have (page 72). Okonkwo

goes off to gather medicine, Ekwefi stays at home - carer / nurturer. Patriarchal society.

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Narrative informs us that Ekwefi and Ezinma have a relationship “of equals”. Exposition – Ekwefi’s past – contrast “crowning glory” vs. “physical agony”, negative

modifiers and abstract nouns, “grim”, “sorrow”, “despair”. Page 73 cohesion (lexis) is used to evoke sympathy for Ekwefi and create a sense of

depression and despair (1st paragraph) Ogbanje – evil spirit that returns to torment its mother – it is born, dies and returns

to its mother’s womb to repeat this “evil cycle of birth and death” (page 73). Ekwefi is instructed how to break this cycle but the child still died. Okagbue Uyanwa is called in. He is a person to fear – regards modifiers and verbs

uses “striking”, “eyes…red and fiery”, “always gnashed his teeth”. Page 74 – narrative informs us that the villagers are very superstitious – this turns

into a spectacle, people gossip – intensifier “very significant”. Is it significant or coincidence?

Tone of narrator makes the mutilation of the child sound justified “then he took it away…holding it by the ankle and dragging it on the ground. After such treatment it would think twice before coming again…”

Modern readers – we start to question these customs – postcolonial attitudes. For Ezinma to stay on the plain of the living her bond must be broken with her “iyi-

uwa” (pages 76) Page 76 – Series of declaratives that set an accusatory tone, to lead us to believe

that Ezinma is an ogbanje. Okagbue uses interrogatives, Ekwefi’s eyes are “sad and pleading” and Okonkwo

uses directives angrily “Answer the question at once’, roared Okonkwo”. Is she really an Ogbanje or is she just glad of the attention? The narrative says she

starts to have a “feeling of importance”. Leads everybody on a massive detour back to where they started. Okonkwo is

furious – simile thunder in rainy season (page 78) and she goes to cook food with Ekwefi for Okagbue

Shift in tone page 79 – Very ordinary scene – folk stories about the snake-lizard then rushed out when hear noise to “see what it was” – wouldn’t Ezinma know what it was though?

The iyi-uwa is found by Okagbue – did he plant it? To keep respect for him? Pages 81 – Okonkwo’s reactions to Ekwefi – uses directives, interrogatives to instruct

Ekwefi. Shows anger to mask his affection.

Chapter 10 The court case with the Egwugwu (people who masquerade as spirits of ancestors). The case is between Mgbafo, the wife of Uzowulu, who is beaten by him frequently. Page 83 – declarative – “It was clear…the ceremony was for men” – patriarchy. Contrast Mgbafo and Uzowulu – “Mgbafo and her brothers were as still as statues” –

simile – shows respect. Uzuwolu and his relatives “talking at the top of their voices” – lack respect –

narrator positions the audience against Uzuwolu. Page 84 – drama – appearance of the Egwugwu – modifiers – “guttural”, “awesome”

and “esoteric” suggest that the Egwugwu are feared and very separate to the rest of the clan (irony – they are people of the clan)

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“No woman ever did” see the inside of the house of the egwugwu – declarative highlights sexism of society

Syntactical parallelism “No woman ever asked questions…most powerful…most secret…clan” – superlatives emphasise their power.

Fear of the egwugwu is evident form the narrative – declarative “it was instinctive” modifier “terrifying”

Page 85 – Realisation second egwugwu is Okonkwo – syntactical parallelism “might have noticed”. The question is do they realise that these rituals lack authenticity? If so why adhere to them?

Egwugwu – figures of fear - they are there to maintain law and order Pages 89 –case is resolved use of conditional tense “if your in-law brings wine to you,

let your sister go with him”. Interrogative “I don’t know why…trifle…egwugwu” – views of women and domestic violence – women lack value in this society. Mgbafo’s life is worth a pot of wine.

Chapter 11 Page 90 – Intensifier – “night was impenetrably dark” – sense of impending doom.

Simile – “nights were as black as charcoal”. Narrative describing rituals of the night Folk story tortoise and the birds – moral message – don’t deceive others. Page 95 Chielo breaks the peaceful atmosphere. Her voice is “like a sharp knife

cutting through the night and Ekwefi is “like an animal that had sniffed death in the air” – similes = danger.

Page 95-96 – Okonkwo uses politeness strategies to ensure that Chielo doesn’t take Ezinma – but she uses directives and rhetorical questions to put him in his place as she does with Ekwefi also

Page 97 –alliteration “strange and sudden weakness” and simile chick and kite – connote death.

Page 97 – Okonkwo interrogates his wives “Why…stand there…kidnapped?” more to alleviate his own fears

He doesn’t stop Ekwefi from following Chielo. Why? He wants her to go, but he won’t say it.

Pages 98-103 – sense of panic conveyed by Ekwefi in the narrative through interrogatives to emphasise confusion and anxiety, modifiers describing the night (connotations?), shouts of Agbala – exclamatives – warnings and then symbols of danger – Okonkwo and his matchet.

Why at the end of this chapter is there a memory of sex? – Memory of togetherness – just like they are together at the cave of the Oracle.

Chapter 12 Obierika’s daughter’s uri (wedding / marriage ceremony) Page 104 – declarative – “it was really a woman’s ceremony” – very different spheres

that men and women operate in. Women and children have specific job roles in relation to this ritual (e.g. cooking)

Page 105 – the priestess “crawled out of the shrine on her belly like a snake” – simile (does she do things of detriment to the tribe? Is she devious or dangerous?

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Page 106 – Okonkwo’s reactions to Ezinma being taken by Chielo – intensifiers – “very anxious”, “gravely worried” but he waits for a “manly interval” to pass before following them – he still has to act in a way that he thinks he should. Out of all the children, Ezinma is the one he shows most affection to.

Pages 109-110 – discussion about pots of wine. (used in ceremonies for community events) Also a symbol of masculinity – Comment by a guest “Now they are behaving like men”

Pages 110 – 111 – The ceremony, which is supposed to be a woman’s ceremony, begins to focus on the men – positive modification “prosperous men and great warriors”.

Page 111 Declarative “They had something to say for every man. Triadic structure “some were great….some were…Okonkwo…greatest...alive”

superlative gives him this heroic / epic quality. Latest song – sexual song – sign that times are changing – bit more equality in terms

of physical relationships. Chapter ends with people paying respect to Okonkwo – positive modification –one

of the “prominent men” of the clan.

Chapter 13 These prior events are leading up to his life in this village falling apart. It makes the

fall much more dramatic. The death of Ezeudu Dramatic lexis (page 113), nouns, verbs and modifiers connote panic, danger and

death. Alliteration “wailing of women” – their death rituals, alliterative simile – “like a

sediment of sorrow on the earth” – all creates cohesion. Page 114 – Okonkwo’s memory – Ezeudu’s speech “Bear no hand in his death” –

Oracle’s retribution? Declaratives – “Ezeudu was a great man”, “It was a warrior’s funeral” – reflect the

epic status of this man. Egwugwu – intensifier “very violent” followed by humour – tying them up. “But the most dreaded…yet to come” – superlative leading to climax of this part of

the book. “sickly odour…flies went with him” – symbolic of death – whose death? – Okonkwo’s

imminent fall. Page 115 – Contrast – living and dead (worlds not far removed). Violence increases – page 114– violent verbs “dashed”, “cutting”, page 115

“shouting”, “firing” etc. Action builds up – pace increases until it is broken by Okonkwo murdering the 16-

year-old boy. Page 117 – female crime “it had been inadvertent” – females are devalued in this

society. Page 116 simile – “it was as if a spell had been cast” (Retribution?) Men of the clan come to burn Okonkwo’s compound – violent verbs (demolished,

killed, destroyed). Declarative “justice…earth goddess” – justifiable. Obierika’s thoughts – 2 rhetorical questions “Why should a man suffer so…?” “What

crime had they committed?” (his twins)

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However, at this moment in time nobody really questions the order and law of the clan.

Things Fall Apart – Part 2 - ExileChapter 14

Okonkwo is in his motherland – exile. He is received well Uchendu – looks after Okonkwo like a son Uchendu knew what had happened so he didn’t ask any questions Okonkwo received his own land (300 seed yams) Okonkwo lost the desire to work Amikwu’s wedding Uchendu meeting with Okonkwo – lesson learnt about the motherland. Page 121 – Contrast – histories – Okonkwo as a boy (triadic structure “mother” –

emotional) to the reason why he is there now. Modifiers – sad and weary – describe the family – everything for Okonkwo has fallen

apart. The narrative tells us that Uchendu is relieved that the crime “is a female ochu” –

not seen as bad as a male ochu – values and attitudes towards men and women. Description of the rains – page 122– hyperbole / dramatic lexis, similes,

personification etc – connotes danger, until the rain falls more soberly and “all were happy, refreshed and thankful” triadic structure – contrasts with Okonkwo’s growing depression.

Page 122 – use of negatives to describe this and then declaratives / figurative language page 123 “His life…ruled…great passion….Then everything had been broken. He has been cast out of his clan like a fish…”

Page 123 – anaphoric reference (Ch 4, page 24) – contrasts with what was said earlier about chi.

Page 123 – 124– The wedding ceremony – highlighted – different customs within different tribes – e.g. slitting hen’s throat

Triadic Structure – page 125 “I am an old man and you are all children….let him speak up”. Use of pronouns puts the others in their places – subservient to their elders. Finishes with a directive – emphasizing his control.

Page 125 – series of interrogatives based around the name given to children Nneka – mother is supreme – this is a culture that knows the value of women.

Repeats that Okonkwo is a child and then uses possessive pronoun “my” to show he is Uchendu’s child and not as great as he makes out as he cannot see past his tribe’s values and attitudes about women.

Further series of interrogatives – used to teach a lesson. Parallel structures (page 126) “A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good

and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland” (anaphoric reference to Ch4 – page 25 – king and sucking at mother’s breast)

Page 126 – Uchendu uses declaratives and directives and rhetorical questions to make Okonkwo realize how fortunate he still is and to try and alleviate his sorrow.

Cataphoric reference (foreshadowing). Uchendu says - “Do you know how many children I have buried...Twenty-two. I did not hang myself.”

Song – end – nobody has a prefect life.

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Chapter 15 2 years on into exile Obierika visits Informs Okonkwo about the massacre in Abame and the arrival of the white man Page 128 - Obierika’s visit is a happy time – intensifier “very happy” Uchendu – still refers to Okonkwo as “my son” – possessive pronoun – Uchendu is

the one with overall authority and that Okonkwo still has much to learn (remember his stubbornness has brought about some of his problems)

Page 129 – Uchendu – declaratives – critical tone “Your generation does not know that. You stay at home…motherland…strange…nowadays”

Pages 129 – 132 – Obierika tells the story of Abame – declaratives “Abame has been wiped out” – verb – sign of aggression – colonial aggression – this is what Achebe wants us to know about

Page 130 “He was not an albino…And he was riding an iron horse” – bicycle Oracle – “The strange man would break their clan and spread destruction among

them” slight hyperbole here – to shock Abame into action. Oracle’s declarative – true – the white man does destroy the clans of the area (based on historical fact), however – this is also somewhat ironic – their actions also bring this on. Cataphoric reference to the end of the story – more evidence of things falling apart.

Hung the iron horse up – thought it would tell others – irony – the fact that a bike is hanging up in a tree is a sign that something has happened to the white man.

Oracle declarative “other white men were on the way” (again – based on historical fact – colonialism spreading)

Metaphors “They were locusts…harbinger..killed him” – symbolising danger and how colonialism will spread rapidly and devour everything in their way. (hyperbolic)

What was the word that was said that sounded like “Mbaino” Page 131 – Reaction of the white man “And then they began to shoot. Everybody

was killed” – understatement makes this seem worse. Declarative “A great evil has come upon their land” Folklore - Mother Kite – point is silence is dangerous, which leads to Uchendu’s

critical declarative – “Those men of Abame were fools” Page 132 Okonkwo’s utterances – violent attacks as a way of solving that problem

(man of war) Obierika – mentions Slavery and that he is “greatly afraid” intensifier – Obierika is

showing his emotion – suggests the severity of the situation. “There is no story that is not true….abomination..others” triadic structure –

Uchendu – talks about values and attitudes – going beyond skin colour when uses the rhetorical question about the albinos

Pages 132 – 133 – meal time – Obierika that Nwoye has grown up – declarative “You are a big man now”

Humour end – pages 133-134 – I do not know how to thank you. Directive – form Obierika “Then kill yourself”. Ironic humour – the thought is that he will never do it.

Issues of colonialism and postcolonialism are now becoming more apparent – please read back over your notes on this and I’ll give you some more.

Chapter 16

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Nwoye becomes Christian The missionaries arrive in Mbanta (symbolic of colonialism) Page 135 – Descriptions of Christianity Triadic structure – “They had built their church…converts…evangelists…villages” “handful of converts” modifier – assume this is something that won’t last. Narrative tells us the converts are “none whose word was heeded in the assembly of

people” Also given negative terms of address – “efulefu” (worthless empty men) – So why

join the church? To gain a sense of belonging not felt form the clan? Metaphors – Chielo – Converts – “excrement of the clan”, “new faith…mad dog” –

converts seen as outcasts, scum. Interrogative – Obierika “What…doing here?” to Nwoye – express shock Nwoye’s declarative – “I am one of them” – short declarative – shows allegiance to

the church, not part of the clan. Use of pronoun “them” – Nwoye now aligns himself to something other than the clan, a different and conflicting group.

Narrative informs us that Obierika had “many difficulties” in speaking to Nwoye because of the missionaries – Why?

Are the missionaries scared of losing Nwoye? If so, why do they want converts? What is the agenda of the missionaries? Is it just to spread the word of Christ or is there something more sinister? Is it about seizing control – think about the agenda of the colonialists?

Part of colonialism was about “re-educating the natives”, via institutions such as religion, to make them believe white dominance was right and natural.

Page 136 – Nwoye’s declarative about Okonkwo “I don’t know. He is not my father” told – modifier – unhappily – Why? What has happened? He denies his father but does he want to?

Description of the arrival of the missionaries – One white man and five black men. Modifiers to describe the translator “commanding presence” – so although the

villagers laugh at his dialect, he has power in both his speech and physicality which will be of influence over others later.

He uses the semantic field of Christian religion to try and convert people, “God, “heathen”, “happy Kingdom”, antonyms of “good” and “evil”, and uses similes to persuade and directives “ask you to leave your wicked ways…” to instruct – Is this just? Will the missionaries and colonialists allow the ‘kite and the eagle to perch’, or will they impose their way of thinking, their belief systems on the indigenous population.

White man’s promises – declaratives “tell them…bring many iron horses….” – technique of persuasion for people to convert.

Declaratives – interpreter – deride Ibo culture, beliefs, religion and way of life “All the gods…gods of deceit…destroy innocent children” – any words of truth

Page 138 – Declarative “gods are not alive” insults clan. To stop people leaving the narrative informs us that “the missionaries burst into song” – metaphor “power…plucking…silent…dusty chords…heart” – persuasive technique to convert others.

Okonkwo’s declaratives and reasoning cut through the words and rhetoric of the missionaries – Son of God and God, and there being only one god.

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Page 139 - Nwoye – captivated by the “poetry of the new religion…greatly puzzled” – figurative lexis – the religion speaks to Nwoye and seems that it may offer some solace to him.

Chapter 17: The missionaries stay The church is built in the evil forest They don’t die as the villagers think they will Nwoye tries hide his curiosity about the missionaries Okonkwo finds out about Nwoye’s interests – beats him – Okonkwo disowns Nwoye and Nwoye leaves to join missionaries Page 140 – 141 – Building of the Church on the Evil Forest Negative modifiers – Evil Forest, “dumping ground”, “really evil diseases”, “powers

of darkness” – we as modern readers know that this superstitious belief will be proved wrong – traditional beliefs falling apart.

Declaratives – “Let us give them a real battlefield in which to show their victory” – further reference to pronouns “us” and “them” – two conflicting sides – the kite and the eagle won’t perch (Nwakibie’s proverb – Ch4) – one side will be destroyed by the other, one must be more dominant.

Villagers believe that the missionaries are not yet dead as the white man must communicate with evil spirits.

Syntactical parallelism “We have now built a church” – repetition to enforce what is being said and persuade people to go to church.

Term of address “Mr. Kiaga” – westernised, European name – cast off his real name – effect of colonization – see your ‘former life’ as inferior or primitive to what you have now.

Pronoun “we” – inclusive address, used by the missionaries to make people feel part of their group.

Page 142 – narrative informs us about the villagers’ beliefs that “long suffering ancestors” could “deliberately allow a man to go on defying them” for a long time – hence why the church is still standing.

This is a way of ensuring that the clan stays cohesive and that people don’t question the validity of the belief systems of the clan.

Convert – Nneka – lost children – Declarative of the narrator about her twins “immediately thrown away” – understatement – sounds justifiable. Further declaratives – understated – show the patriarchal beliefs “Her husband …family…highly critical of such a woman…good riddance” – woman is the root cause of the problem.

Page 143 – Confrontation – Okonkwo and Nwoye – about Nwoye being part of the Christians.

Okonkwo – interrogatives and directives and exclamatives – all short – not a man of words – all express his anger – modification “savage blows” – much harsher punishment than his words.

Mr Kiaga’s utterance – “blessed is he..forsakes…for my sake” – religious / Christian lexis to express self – How Christian is it to forsake your mother (who hasn’t done anything wrong)? – Missionaries agenda?

Narrative “Nwoye did not understand” – easily manipulated?

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Page 144 – Okonkwo’s inner thoughts about the situation Uses rhetorical questions, comparisons with Nwoye to Unoka, dramatic and

hyperbolic lexis to describe “Nwoye’s crime” Does he want his son back? – What are his initial thoughts? “A sudden fury…strong

desire…wipe out…vile and corrupt gang….but ….Nwoye was not worth fighting for” Cataphoric reference – “Okonkwo felt a cold shudder…prospect of annihilation…if

such a thing…happen…he would wipe them off the face of the earth” Contrast to Nwoye and Okonkwo – antonyms – term of address “Roaring flame”

(Okonkwo) with Nwoye “cold, impotent ash” – Figurative meaning – is Nwoye dead to him? If the contrast is so strong would this separation have inevitably happened?

Chapter 18

Focus on the church in Mbanta (in the Evil Forest) Survival of the church and missionaries spreading the word Conflict – clan and missionaries (growing in power) Killing of the sacred python – Okonkwo seeks revenge Issue of outcasts Page 146 – Personification of the church – “few crises…early..life” – something new –

like a living growing thing Narrative informs us that the church is “gradually becoming stronger” – modification

here suggests that at some point the church will be a force to be reckoned with. Tone of the narrator – condemnation “When one came to think of it…Evil Forest…fit

home…undesirable people”. They do save twins left to die though – are they all that bad? – It depends on their actions and intentions generally. What bad things do they do?

Declarative – beating of the missionaries – overstepping the mark – “The men were seized and beaten until they streamed with blood” – this is normal punishment by the clan – but is it justifiable? Is this norm acceptable or should some things be changing among the clan?

Page 146-147 – narrator – gossips – hearsay – white man formed a government and a place of judgement – seize power by force – Why aren’t the clans properly informed? Would it cause a war?

Dramatic Irony – “If they became more troublesome than they already were they would simply be driven out of the clan” – modifier – simply connotes this is an easy task – ignoring the situation makes it worse.

Term of address “The little church” – modifier – ironic – part of a much bigger institution (colonial powers)

Noun – “osu” – outcasts – this is one of the reasons why Christianity grew – acceptance of difference, which the clan won’t accept.

Converts’ discourse – is that of Christian religion “what will the heathen say of us…”, “new faith”, but the mentality is still of the clan.

Mr. Kiaga – employs the semantic field of Christian religion to persuade his followers. Page 147 -148 – description of the outcast – series of declaratives – suggest this is a

norm that is to be adhered to – “Wherever he went he carried with him the mask of the forbidden” – do the reasons for him being an outcast make sense “A person dedicated to a god, a thing set apart” (possible pun on the title of the novel).

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Reinforcement of Mr. Kiaga’s character, his “firmness” – abstract noun. – dispels the myth about the shaving of the hair and dying of the outcasts.

Outcasts’ passion for Christianity grows as a result and more join. Narrative informs us that one outcast “in his zeal brought the church into serious conflict with the clan” – Abstract noun – zeal – had religious connotations – lexis of the narrator is beginning to change as colonialism and Christianity gain more of a foothold in the region.

Outcast kills the sacred python. Figurative lexis “the spirit of war was upon” the clan. Okonkwo – desires violent retribution – reported speech “until the abominable gang

was chased out of the village with whips there would be no peace” Proverbs of the elders – page 150 “When a man blasphemes, what do we do….We

put our fingers into our ears to stop us hearing. That is a wise action” – Irony – this proverb tells you to ignore what is going on and not to act. “Blaspheme” – verb – religious / Christian connotations – more lexical change – as a result of colonialism.

Okonkwo’s response – do we agree / side with him – use of interrogatives / exclamatives to show anger – and justifiable reasons for retaliation

Views on his motherland – declarative - negative modification “This was a womanly clan”. Cataphoric reference / irony – “such a thing…never happen…fatherland”

Okonkwo’s growing anger - decision to ostracise the outcasts – narrative reminds us he is an angry and rash man “Okonkwo ground his teeth in disgust”

Mr Brown – white missionary arrives – and preparations are underway for the Easter service when it is revealed that the village has outlawed the converts due to Okoli killing the sacred python. Page 152 – intimidation from the clan “some of them had big stick and some even matchets” (parallel structure)

Narrative page 152 informs us Okoli dies – declarative “His death showed that the gods were still able to fight their own battles” – stated as fact to connote that the Ibo gods still have power – however, how has Okoli died – form the retribution of the gods or from the clan? Consider how much of the beliefs of the clan are being shown to be fantastical.

Chapter 19 Okonkwo leaving to go back to Umuofia – exile over Page 153 - Narrative – describing the end of the year – symbolising things coming to

an end for Okonkwo in Mbanta His views – declarative and alliteration “seven wasted and weary years were at last

dragging to a close” – emphasising how difficult the experience has been for Okonkwo

Repetition “prospered” – belief that life will be better in Umuofia – “where men were bold and warlike” – modifiers show his expectations – these will be shattered upon his arrival ‘home’.

Okonkwo asks Obierika to build him two huts in his old compound and Okonkwo decides that there will be a great feast to thank his mother’s kinsmen.

All the kinsmen “umunna” invited – great / lavish feast Page 157 – One of the oldest members of the umunna gives warning to Okonkwo

and the younger generation – Tone – dramatic – “I fear for the younger generation”

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Parallel structure – “Do not understand…bond..kinship…do not know..speak with one voice

Rhetorical question – “And what is the result” Tone of condemnation “An abominable religion…settled among you”, simile –

hunter’s dog turning on master All of these techniques are used to foreshadow things to come – the things that will

fall apart. Structurally this is done to set us up for the events of Part 3, where the clan and

Okonkwo fall apart quickly.

Part Three – Everything falls apart

Chapter 20 Okonkwo’s return to Umuofia His family has grown and the children are older He thinks it will be a great return However, Umuofia has changed The church has gained many converts There is now a government established by the white man Obierika also informs Okonkwo of the hanging of Aneto by ‘the white men’ Page 161 – Proverb – “the clan was like a lizard; if it lost its tail it soon grew another”

(if something old goes, something new appears in this place and takes over) – links declarative “A man’s place was not always there, waiting for him” (things move on and change) – relating both to his position in the clan, but more so his tribe’s position in colonial governed Nigeria.

Triadic structures about what Okonkwo lost “He had lost his place…lost the chance….lost the years…” contrast with what he believes he will gain on his return – we as readers are omniscient know this won’t happen due to colonialism

Dramatic irony of Okonkwo’s thoughts “Okonkwo saw clearly the high esteem in which he would be held, and saw himself taking the highest title in the land” – this way of life is already falling apart on his return.

Narrative makes reference to “his chi” – Is it fate that Okonkwo’s life ends in the way it does? Or is the belief in one’s own chi redundant?

Page 162 – Contrast “Then the tragedy...first son occurred. At first it appeared as if it might prove too great for his spirit…But it was a resilient spirit” to the end of the story. The story is slowly building up to the climax and the tragedy of Okonkwo – this is one man’s experience of the effects of colonialism.

Okonkwo refers to Nwoye – negative term of address “great abomination” and uses declaratives to order threats against his other children, to stop his family falling apart, “If any of you prefers to be a woman….if you turn against me….I will visit you and break your neck” – fear from beyond the grave

Narrative refers to Ezinma and Obiageli (daughters ready for marriage). Ezinma has a close bond with her father as the narrative suggests and Okonkwo only wants them to marry in Umuofia. Why? The narrative tells us that there is “hidden meaning” behind this which Ezinma understands – What is this meaning?

Page 163 - He still wishes “she were a boy” – direct speech – his opinions don’t change – problematic with changing times.

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Declaratives - “His future sons-in-law..men…authority...The poor and the unknown would not dare come forth” – these are the reasons as to why he wants his daughters to marry in the fatherland.

Pages 163-164 – Narrative describes the changes in Umuofia. Religious Christian lexis / simile “Ogbuefi Ugonna…two titles…like a mad man…cast it

away” Reference to the kotma, “court messengers” (black people who would have been

members of other clans, but due to colonialism, Christianity and westernised education – they now perceive themselves as above other members of other clans)

The narrative also informs us that there is now a prison, where lots of members of clans are imprisoned.

Lexical change – more western – “They were grieved by the indignity” - reference to the men of titles.

Page 165 – Repetition of the events at Abame, and Okonkwo’s repetition of his feelings towards it now (same as before) – use of interrogatives – to blame the men of Abame for the massacre “Why did they not fight back?” and directives “We must fight these men and drive them from our land”.

Discourse of Obierika – very perceptive about the situation at hand – use of declaratives “It is already too late”, “Our own men and sons have joined the ranks of the stranger. They have joined his religion and they help to uphold the government” – use of the first person possessive plural pronoun and the third person personal plural pronoun – emphasise how these men are now very different types of people, when once they were the same.

Issue of Aneto – rhetorical questions form Obierika, e.g. “How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us?” – conveys the helplessness of the clan towards the colonial government.

Tone shift – “The white man is very clever” – intensifier – makes them sound deceptive and devious – Declarative – accusatory tone “He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.”

Aneto and Oduche – fight over the land. The kotma help to bring him to the justice of the colonial government – part of the impact of colonialism was to turn fellow black people against each other in order to maintain this system of power.

Chapter 21 Welcome changes by “many” in Umuofia from colonialism The arrival of the white missionary, Mr. Brown Discussions between Mr. Brown and Akunna – religion and beliefs Page 168 - The pace of change has quickened, which is reflected in the style of lexis.

Declarative – “There were many men and women in Umuofia who did not feel as strongly as Okonkwo about the new dispensation.” The modifier “many” suggests there are lots of converts. The conversion is also reflected in the change of lexis to a more Latinate style, “dispensation”, “lunatic”, overwhelming” and more complex sentences.

Introduction of Mr. Brown, “the white missionary” – he has a typically British name and signifies colonial powers as the intensifier suggests in the declarative; he “was very firm in restraining his flock”. Colonial powers all are about oppression and control (flock – connotations of sheep and followers)

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Contrast – father and son (Enoch the convert and his father “the priest of the snake cult”). The noun “cult” has negative connotations – reflecting the changing views towards traditional African religion, even within the clan itself – it is the narrator who refers to this.

The implication here is that the missionaries influence has caused the breakdown of families within the clan and is another sign of things falling apart.

The lexis of Christian religion (and its strong influence) is evident in the text from this point on as the narrator’s parallel structure suggests, “everything was possible…but everything was not expedient”

Understatement of the narrator, towards Mr. Brown, “and so Mr. Brown came to be respected even by the clan, because he trod softly on its faith”. Colonialism was not always carried out brutally; sometimes it would be done through more subtle means.

Page 168 – Contrast – Akunna – positive term of address “One of the great men” and Mr. Brown.

The narrative informs us that Akunna “had given one of his sons to be taught the white man’s knowledge” – the likelihood is that this will bring about the destruction of this family.

Pages 169 – 170 – Discourse between the two men focuses upon the different religious beliefs of the two men and how “neither of them succeeded in converting the other” to their respective ways of thinking – anaphoric reference to “Let the kite perch and let the eagle perch too” – page 19. Both these men are very similar in their intentions (to covert the other to their beliefs) but Mr. Brown is positioned by the narrator as being much more patronizing and less compromising, as is evident from his patronizing tone, “the worst thing about it is that you give all your worship to all the false gods you created.”

The tone of Akunna is more open-minded as is reflective in his use of interrogatives to find out more about the Christian religion.

The narrative informs us of Mr. Brown’s plans, which appear a bit sinister, “he came to the conclusion that a full frontal attack on it (religion of the clan) would not succeed. And so he built a school and a little hospital in Umuofia (“re-educating the native”).

Mr Brown also uses rhetoric to try and achieve his ‘mission’, triadic structure-he “begged and argued and prophesied” page 171, parallel structure “He said …leaders...land…learnt...read and write” and conditional tense, “If Umuofia failed…strangers would come…rule them” – irony – this is what is happening and it is what Mr. Brown is attempting to do.

The narrative also informs us of how Mr. Brown bribes the clan with gifts and how quick change takes place – metaphor – “the white man’s medicine was quick in working”. The declarative “form the very beginning religion and education went hand in hand” reflects the key institutions for driving colonialism forward.

The metaphor to describe Mr. Brown’s ill health as “broken” suggests his methods of driving forward change will no longer work, and also have fallen apart.

Narrative shifts focus towards Okonkwo and the change and upheaval in his life. Page 172 – reference to Nwoye / Isaac (new western / biblical name) and

Okonkwo’s reaction to Mr. Brown’s attempted interaction, creates a threatening tone in the narrative “Okonkwo had driven him away…carried out of it”

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The “profound change “in Umuofia is reflected in the negative modification and the semantic field of grief, “Okonkwo was deeply grieved…mourned for the clan…saw breaking up and falling apart…warlike men…soft like women”. The simile reflect the change in society which he no longer has control over, yet also how his traditional views have not changed nor ever will.

Chapter 22 Page 174 – The tone of the narrative becomes much more aggressive in its

description of the Reverend James Smith. Contrast between Mr. Brown’s “policy of compromise and accommodation and how

Mr. Smith sees things “as black and white. And black was evil” – metaphor is reflective of the racism of the colonialist as is the metaphor of the “world as a battlefield…children of light…conflict..sons of darkness”

Colonisation in Umuofia becomes more brutal now – anaphoric reference to Mr. Brown’s earlier rhetoric (notice how quick the change is).

Mr Smith holds superior values and attitudes towards others as the narrative suggests, “he was greatly distressed by the ignorance which many of his flock showed” and through the metaphor, “It only showed that they were seeds on a rocky soil”.

The narrator openly condemns Mr. Smith when talking about the word of “Our Lord”, which suggests he is a convert too, but has a clear idea of the true meaning of Christianity.

Page 175 - Figurative lexis is used to describe Mr. Smith based on the proverb in Umuofia, “as a man danced so the drums were beaten for him. Mr Smith danced a furious step and so the drums went mad” (figurative language). Mr Smith is as aggressive in his beliefs as Okonkwo, and it is clear that there will be conflict between the two of them.

Character of Enoch (not the adoption of a western, biblical name) – term of address “The outsider who wept louder than the bereaved”, reflects his “over zealous” nature towards his new found faith.

Simile / personification – description of Enoch – “his feet opened outwards as if they had quarrelled and meant to go in different directions – creates humour, and the audience is led to see Enoch as a somewhat pathetic figure.

Enoch acts as a polar opposite to Okonkwo, he is just as stubborn and just as aggressive as the narrative states, he “touched off the great conflict between church and clan”.

Page 176 – the disruption of the annual ceremony in honour of the earth deity. The narrative presents the clansmen as having a more compromising attitude than

the Christians as the egwugwu allow the Christian women to return home. Declarative – “Enoch had killed an ancestral spirit, and Umuofia was thrown into

confusion” – marks a shift in tone and hints at trouble to come. Hyperbole – “That night the Mother of the Spirits…weeping for her murdered son…

strange and fearful sound” and the figurative lexis, “It seemed as if the very soul of the tribe wept for a great evil that was coming (simile) – its own death” (personification), reflects the enormity and severity of Enoch’s actions and also how colonization will change the clan and all if Africa irrevocably.

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The nouns verbs and modifiers, “terrible gathering”, “eerie voices”, “clash of matchets”, tremors of fear”, connote violence and a sense of the supernatural, and leaves the impression that there will be a high degree of violence to come.

Page 177 – The narrative, and Mr. Smith’s interrogative suggests his fear of the clan, as his worried interrogative suggests, “What are they planning to do?”

Contrast – Christians – believe in the power of the word and the salvation of prayer as Mr. Smith suggests, “Our strength lies in the Lord”, “O Lord save Thy people” whereas the clansmen believe in action as the narrative suggests, “The band of egwugwu moved like a furious whirlwind…reduced it to a desolate heap”.

The narrative suggests that Enoch “was greatly disappointed” as “he had hoped that a holy war was imminent”.

Page 178-179 – pace of the narrative increases as tension mounts between the Christians and the clan, leading to the climax of events. The quickened pace of the narrative reflects the quick pace of destruction and gives some credence to the idea that supernatural forces are at work here.

Page 179-180 Ajofia – speaks like a great orator, uses interrogatives “The body of the white man do you know me?” and directives, “Tell the white man that we will not do him any harm” and modal verbs, “this shrine…must be destroyed. We shall no longer allow it in our midst”, and personification “It has bred untold abominations” to show superiority over the Mr. Smith and what her represents – Christianity and colonisation.

Towards the end of his discourse, Ajofia’s tone becomes somewhat compromising, “you can stay with us…you can worship your own god”, towards Mr smith, however, his refusal to let the church be destroyed, in his declarative, “This is the house of God and I will not live to see it desecrated”.

The struggle for control of the situation and control of the discourse on page 168 (reflective of control for power and Mr Smith’s uncompromising nature and belief in Christian and colonial superiority), leads to the church being burnt down.

The narrative ends with a declarative, “and for the moment the spirit of the clan was pacified”, which suggests that further conflict is yet to arise.

Chapter 23 Page 182 – the narrative creates a false sense of security through the use of parallel

structures, “The times which had altered…making amends”, and the use of declaratives to describe Okonkwo’s thoughts, “It was like the good old days…when a warrior was a warrior”. However, the times have irrevocably changed.

The triadic structure, “Although they had not agreed…do something substantial” is ironic as this act is of little significance in the grand scheme of colonization.

The declarative “they would not be caught unawares…men of Abame” is ironic as this is exactly what happens.

Page 182 – term of address, “sweet tongued messengers”, connotes how manipulative the Kotma are, as they deceive others with their words.

The contrasting parallel structure that Okonkwo uses, “He may refuse…he does not refuse..asked”, coveys how the men of Umuofia can see that the colonial powers pose a threat to their way of life.

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The District Commissioner’s tone and lexis suggests he will be friendly, but this is ultimately deceptive. He has no intention of listening to the men’s story as can be seen through his interruption of Ogbuefi Ekwueme.

Page 183-184 – the District Commissioner’s use of conditional tenses and directives shows that he wishes to exert his power over the men of the clan, “We shall not do you any harm…if only you agree to cooperate with us”, “That must not happen in the dominion of our queen”.

Through the District Commissioner’s discourse, it is very clear who is in control of the land, “That must not happen in the dominion of our queen, the most powerful ruler in the world”. The superlative reinforces the power relations and how the rule of these men has fallen apart.

The narrative conveys the humiliation that the men of Umuofia face at the hands of the Kotma. Colonisation was able to take such a hold, as the indigenous population turned on each other due to colonial values and attitudes being instilled in certain members of the population.

Page 185 – the discourse between the Okonkwo and the other men of Umuofia reflects the reality of their situation and how they have all been broken. Okonkwo’s angry tone, “We should have killed the white man if you had listened to me”, reflects how his values and attitudes are different to the other men of the clan, and it is this that will lead to his tragic end.

Page 186 – An eerie tone is established through the narrative descriptions of the night, as the simile, “Umuofia was like a startled animal with ears erect, sniffing the silent, ominous air and not knowing which way to run.”

The simile used to describe Okonkwo’s compound, “It was as if cold water had been poured on it”, conveys how the spirit of the house has gone, and begins to build up to the tragedy to come.

Chapter 24 Page 188 – The narrative suggests that Okonkwo is getting ready for war with the white man,

“The bitterness in his heart was now mixed with a kind of child-like excitement”, “he had brought down his war dress.”

The parallel structure, “If Umuofia decided on war…go out and avenge himself”, conveys how Okonkwo will fight to the very end.

Okonkwo’s declaratives, “worthy men are no more” and “Those were days when men were men” conveys his growing separation form the rest of the clan and his resentment at the changes that have occurred. However, Okonkwo is living in the past, and his way of life has already fallen apart.

Page 191 – discourse with Obierika – declaratives “I do not care what he does to you…I shall fight alone if I choose” furthers the sense of separation from the clan and Okonkwo’s growing anger, which suggests he may act without thinking of the consequences.

Page 192 – anaphoric reference, “There was immediate silence as though cold water had been poured on a roaring flame”

Okika’s discourse, and use of proverbs, “Whenever you see a toad jumping…something is after it’s life”, listing “All our Gods are weeping….” And rhetorical

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questions, “Are all the sons of Umuofia here?” reflects how severe the situation has become and sets the tone of the tragedy to come.

Page 193-194 – despite Okika’s metaphorical words of war, “We must root out his evil” no action is taken when the white men come, apart from Okonkwo. The parallel structure, “He knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because he let the other messengers escape” shows how Okonkwo is now alone in the clan and that the white colonial powers will seek vengeance for the murder committed.

Chapter 25 Page 195 – The tone of the District Commissioner is aggressive as his commanding

interrogatives suggest, “Where is he?” The District Commissioner fails to understand Obierika’s words and dismisses them

with the modifier “superfluous”. The modifier suggests that the District Commissioner does not understand the clansmen and doesn’t particularly want to either.

Page 196 – The discovery of Okonkwo’s body hanging from the tree is an anaphoric reference back to page 22 and Unoka’s words of a man failing alone, take significance.

Page 197 – Obierika’s angry tone and accusations, “That man was one of the greatest men of Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog”, conveys the tragedy that has befallen Okonkwo, a tragedy that could have befallen any number of the indigenous population of Africa.

The narrative ends with the thoughts of the District Commissioner, which is fitting as the colonial forces are in power and control of the land and the people now. The District Commissioner fails to see the tragedy that has happened and instead will confine it to one of his many experiences in the book that he will write, a book that will omit certain details and represent the clan of Umuofia and other clans around the Lower Niger through the white man’s eyes.

The title of the book, “The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger”, conveys what the agenda of the colonialist was all along, and that the institutions that they brought with them, religion through the missionaries and education, was part of a grander scheme to ensure white dominance and control over the indigenous population.

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Glossary of Ibo Words / Phrases(0 indicates aw sound as in awful)

agadi-nwayi old womanagbala woman: also used of a man who has taken no title – the term is an

insult as it implies weaknessAmadioha the god of thunder and lightningbride-price a dowry paid by the groom’s parents to the bride’s parentschi personal godcowries shells used as moneydiala a freeborn individualefulefu worthless manegwugwu a masquerader who impersonates one of the ancestral spirits of the

village.ekwe a musical instrument: a type of drum made from woodeneke-nti-oba a kind of birdeze-agadi-nwayi the teeth of an old womanfoo foo a pounded yam dishharmattan a dry wind from the northiba feverIguedo Okonkwo’s villageikenga a wooden carving containing a man’s personal spiritilo the village green, where assemblies for sports, discussions, etc. take

placeinyanga showing off: braggingisa-ifi a ceremony: if a wife had been separated from her husband for some

time and were then to be re-united with him this ceremony would beheld to ascertain that she had not been unfaithful to him during the time of their separation

iyi-uwa a special kind of stone which forms the link between an ogbanje and the spirit world. Only if the iyi-uwa were discovered and destroyed would the child not die

jigida a string of waist beadskite A bird that arrives during the rainy seasonKola nuts Nuts offered to guests as a symbol of hospitalitykotma court messenger: the word is not of Ibo origin, but is a corruption of

'court messenger'kwenu a shout of approval and greetingndichie eldersnna ayi our fathernno welcomenso-ani a religious offence of a kind abhorred by everyonenza a very small birdobi the large living quarters of the head of the familyobodo dike the land of the braveochu murder or manslaughter

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ogbanje a changeling: a child who repeatedly dies and returns to its mother to be reborn. It is almostimpossible to bring up an ogbanje child withoutit dying, unless its iyi-uwa is first found and destroyed.

ogene a musical instrument; a kind of gongoji odu achu-ijiji-o cow. (i.e.: the one that uses its tail to drive flies away)osu outcast; having been dedicated to a god, the osu was taboo, and was

not allowed to mix with the freeborn in any way.otu onu A woman’s council that controls the marketplace by imposing fines on

anyone who disturbs the peaceOye the name of one of the four market days.

ozo the name of one of the titles or rankspalm wine a fermented beverage made from palm tree saptufia a curse or oathudu a musical instrument; a type of drum made from potteryuli a dye used by women for drawing patterns on the skinumuada a family gathering of daughters, for which the male kinsfolk return to

their village of originumunna a wide group of kinsmen: (the masculine form of the word Umuada)Umuofia Okonkwo’s clan, consisting of nine villagesuri part of the betrothal ceremony when the dowry is paid

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Important Quotations

Quote OneTurning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon cannot hear the falconer;Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

Achebe uses this opening stanza of William Butler Yeats’s poem “The Second Coming,” from which the title of the novel is taken, as an epigraph to the novel. In invoking these lines, Achebe hints at the chaos that arises when a system collapses. That “the center cannot hold” is an ironic reference to both the imminent collapse of the African tribal system, threatened by the rise of imperialist bureaucracies, and the imminent disintegration of the British Empire. Achebe, writing in 1959, had the benefit of retrospection in depicting Nigerian society and British colonialism in the 1890s.

Yet Achebe’s allusion is not simply political, nor is it ironic on only one level. Yeats’s poem is about the Second Coming, a return and revelation of sorts. In Things Fall Apart, this revelation refers to the advent of the Christian missionaries (and the alleged revelation of their teachings), further satirizing their supposed benevolence in converting the Igbo. For an agricultural society accustomed to a series of cycles, including that of the locusts, the notion of return would be quite credible and familiar.

The hyperbolic and even contradictory nature of the passage’s language suggests the inability of humankind to thwart this collapse. “Mere anarchy” is an oxymoron in a sense, since the definition of anarchy implies an undeniably potent level of radicalism. The abstraction in the language makes the poem’s ideas universal: by referring to “[t]hings” falling apart as opposed to specifying what those collapsing or disintegrating things are, Yeats (and Achebe) leaves his words open to a greater range of interpretations. It is worth noting, in addition, that Achebe cuts away from the poem just as it picks up its momentum and begins to speak of “innocence drowned” and “blood-dimmed” tides. It is a measure of Achebe’s subtlety that he prefers a prologue that is understated and suggestive, rather than polemical, ranting, and violent.

Quote TwoAnd at last the locusts did descend. They settled on every tree and on every blade of grass; they settled on the roofs and covered the bare ground. Mighty tree branches broke away under them, and the whole country became the brown-earth color of the vast, hungry swarm.

This passage from Chapter 7 represents, in highly allegorical terms, the arrival of the colonizers. The locusts have been coming for years, but their symbolic significance in this passage lies in the inevitable arrival of the colonizers, which will alter the landscape and psychology of the Igbo people irreparably. The repetition of the phrase “They settled,” an example of the rhetorical device anaphora (in which a clause begins with the same word or words with which the previous clause begins), in addition to the repetition of the word “every,” reflects the suddenly ubiquitous presence of the locusts. The choice of the verb

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“settle,” of course, clearly refers to the colonizers. The branches that break under the weight of the locusts are symbols of the traditions and cultural roots of Igbo society, which can no longer survive under the onslaught of colonialism and white settlement. Ironically, the “vast, hungry swarm” is not white but rather brown like the earth; the emphasis, however, remains on the locusts’ consumptive nature and inescapable presence.

Quote ThreeAmong the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.

This quote, from the narrator’s recounting, in Chapter 1, of how Unoka calmly interacted with someone to whom he owed money, alludes to the highly sophisticated art of rhetoric practiced by the Igbo. This rhetorical formalness offers insight into the misunderstandings that occur between the Igbo and the Europeans. Whereas the latter value efficiency and directness in their dealings, the Igbo value an adherence to their cultural traditions, which include certain patterns of dialogue considered inefficient by Western standards. The metaphor of words as food is highly appropriate, given the almost exclusively agricultural nature of Igbo society. They award the same value that they place on food, the sustenance of life, to words, the sustenance of interaction and hence community.

Quote FourHe had already chosen the title of the book, after much thought: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.

This sentence, which concludes the novel, satirizes the entire tradition of western ethnography and imperialism itself as a cultural project, and it suggests that the ethnographer in question, the District Commissioner, knows very little about his subject and projects a great deal of his European colonialist values onto it. The language of the commissioner’s proposed title reveals how misguided he is: that he thinks of himself as someone who knows a great deal about pacifying the locals is highly ironic, since, in fact, he is a primary source of their distress, not their peace. Additionally, the notion of “[p]acification” is inherently offensive—a condescending conception of the natives as little more than helpless infants. Similarly, the label “[p]rimitive” comes across as a patronizing insult that reflects the commissioner’s ignorance about the Igbo and their complexly ritualized and highly formalized mode of life. The assertion that the commissioner has come up with a title “after much thought” accentuates the fact that the level of attention he has paid to his own thoughts and perceptions well exceeds that paid to the actual subject of the study.

Quote Five“Does the white man understand our custom about land?” “How can he when he does not even speak our tongue? But he says that our customs are bad; and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad. How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.”

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This exchange occurs at the end of Chapter 20 during the conversation between Obierika and Okonkwo. In the discussion, which centers on various events that have come to pass since the arrival of the colonialists, Obierika seems to voice Achebe’s own thoughts on colonialism. Upset by the fact that the white men have come and completely disregarded the Igbo sense of justice, Obierika points out the impossibility of the colonialists understanding anything about the Umuofians without speaking their language. He points out the ludicrousness of denigrating unfamiliar customs.

Yet, Obierika does not lay the blame wholly on the side of the white man. He feels also that the Umuofians who have converted to Christianity have consciously and wrongly turned their backs on their own “brothers.” This assessment complicates our understanding of the novel, as Achebe prevents us from seeing matters in clear-cut terms of good (black) versus bad (white). Indeed, Achebe elsewhere attempts to demonstrate the validity of some questions about Igbo culture and tradition. If religion and tradition are the threads that hold the clan together, and if that religion is flawed and that tradition vulnerable, it becomes hard to determine who is at fault for the resulting destruction. Certainly, Achebe does not blame the villagers. But, while this quotation displays his condemnation of the colonialists for their disrespect toward Igbo customs, it also shows his criticism of some clan members’ responses to the colonial presence.

Essential Quotes by Character: Okonkwo

Essential Passage 1: Chapter 1Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal achievements. As a young man of eighteen he had brought honor to his village by throwing Amalinze the Cat. Amalinze was the great wrestler who for seven years was unbeaten, from Umuofia to Mbaino. He was called the Cat because his back would never touch the earth. It was this man that Okonkwo threw in a fight which the old men agreed was one of the fiercest since the founder of their town engaged a spirit of the wild for seven days and seven nights.

SummaryOkonkwo, the protagonist of the story, is a prominent member of the Igbo tribe in Nigeria in the 1890s, prior to the widespread control of Great Britain, the colonial power of the time. He is a man of action rather than reflection. His fame is centered on his strength, especially his physical strength. From an early age, he has shown himself proficient in the art of wrestling, which is of great importance in the villages of Umuofia. Defeating the most prominent wrestler in the area, Okonkwo gains a reputation as one of the finest men in the area, and he has great hopes to prosper even more. In a culture where courage is exhibited through physical prowess, Okonkwo has few peers. As long as action is required, Okonkwo can be counted on to lead the way. This allows him to acquire titles, three wives, a successful farm, and a place among the leaders of the community.

Essential Passage 2: Chapter 14Okonkwo and his family worked very hard to plant a new farm. But it was like beginning life anew without the vigor and enthusiasm of youth, like learning to become left-handed in old

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age. Work no longer had for him the pleasure it used to have, and when there was no work to do he sat in a silent half-sleep.

His life had been ruled by a great passion—to become one of the lords of the clan. That had been his life-spring. And he had all but achieved it. Then everything had been broken. He had been cast out of his clan like a fish onto a dry, sandy beach, panting. Clearly his personal god or chi was not made for great things. A man could not rise beyond the destiny of his chi. The saying of the elders was not true—that if a man said yea his chi also affirmed. Here was a man whose chi said nay despite his own affirmation.

SummaryOkonkwo accidentally killed the son of one of the clan members, when his gun explodes and a piece of the metal pierces the youth’s heart. Because it was an accident, Okonkwo is punished to seven years’ exile to his mother’s homeland. His home is destroyed, and Okonkwo and his family leave with only a few of his possessions. In his new home, Okonkwo tries to start over from scratch. He begins a new farm, but he no longer enjoys work as he used to. Before, he was working toward becoming one of the lords of the clan, and he had come close to succeeding. He had accumulated two titles and many yams. However, now that he is in exile, his plans have been dashed. Okonkwo begins to doubt the teachings and traditions of his elders. Okonkwo does not believe that his chi will respond positively to his work and efforts. His faith in his gods begins to slip.

Essential Passage 3: Chapter 25Then they came to the tree from which Okonkwo’s body was dangling, and they stopped dead.“Perhaps your men can help us bring him down and bury him,” said Obierika.“We have sent for strangers from another village to do it for us, but they may be a long time coming.”The District Commissioner changed instantaneously. The resolute administrator in him gave way to the student of primitive customs.“Why can’t you take him down yourselves?” he asked.“It is against our custom,” said one of the men. “It is an abomination for a man to take his own life. It is an offense against the Earth, and a man who commits it will not be buried by his clansmen. His body is evil, and only strangers may touch it. That is why we ask your people to bring him down, because you are strangers.”

SummaryOkonkwo and his family have returned from their seven years’ exile to their own village to find much has changed. The Christian missionaries have established a church, and many of the villagers have become converts, rejecting the old traditions. Okonkwo in anger wants to destroy the white men and destroy their church, but he and the others who joined him were arrested and held prisoner for several days. On their release, Okonkwo realizes that the old ways of life are over. At his despair over the lost traditions, he commits suicide, thus breaking one of the strongest of those old traditions, that which prohibited suicide. Because he took his own life, his clansmen are not allowed to retrieve his body, and he is not allowed to be buried with his family. His body is now considered evil, and only someone outside of the clan may touch it. Thus Okonkwo’s friend Obierika asks the British District Commissioner

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if he will take it down for them. He gets some of his men to do the task, since he does not want it later said that he lowered himself to such an undignified task as removing dead bodies.

Analysis of Essential PassagesOkonkwo, of the Igbo (Ibo) tribe of Nigeria, is a tragic hero, destined to be destroyed both by the fall of his civilization and his own fatal flaws. Struck down by his inability to control his traditional way of life or his own anger, Okonkwo represents a season of change that struck many countries of the world as they adjusted from centuries of their own culture to the control of colonial powers.

Okonkwo is a man of action. He takes pride in, and is given respect for, his “solid personal achievements.” This pride (hubris) contributes to his downfall, as it triggers his anger when events retreat from his own control. Wrestling, the physical control of an opponent, is typical of his need to present himself solely through action and force. As a farmer, he readily accepts the unpredictability of the weather, thus affecting his crops, but he cannot accept the unpredictability of human nature, whether it is his son or the British colonial officials. Rage erupts when he is crossed.

It is ironic that, despite his many brutal attacks on his wives and children out of rage, it is because of an accidental death that Okonkwo is exiled from his tribe for seven years. This exemplifies yet another incident that is beyond his control. Theoretically, his anger can be controlled by himself, yet the explosion of the ancient gun was an act over which he had no power.

Not only in his own strength but in the strength of the tribal traditions does Okonkwo gain meaning. His concern for their continuance, especially in the face of the invasion of white missionaries and colonial officials, is the foundation of his strength. He would fight and die to maintain these traditions. However, his anger repeatedly leads him to break the traditions of the clan. Beating his wife during the Week of Peace, for example, is expressly forbidden by the religious culture of the clan. Yet Okonkwo’s anger places him beyond the tradition he is trying to protect. In the end, through losing the fight to keep the traditions from destruction by the colonial officials, Okonkwo breaks the strongest tradition of all: the injunction against suicide. He has destroyed the very thing he was trying to save. In this, Okonkwo, as the tragic hero, fails in his quest, unable to save his land from the destruction that he has brought. As with many tragic heroes, his fate is determined from the very beginning, his tragic flaw clearly making itself known. Okonkwo’s deep-seated anger, based on his disdain for the weakness of his father’s failure, has set him up for his own failure. His inability to control himself made him unable to control the fate of his clan, ensuring that both will fall apart.

Essential Quotes by Theme: Pride

Essential Passage 1: Chapter 1When Unoka died he had taken no title at all and he was heavily in debt. Any wonder then that his son Okonkwo was ashamed of him? Fortunately, among these people a man was judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of his father. Okonkwo was

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clearly cut out for great things. He was still young but he had won fame as the greatest wrestler in the nine villages. He was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams, and had just married his third wife. To crown it all he had taken two titles and had shown incredible prowess in two inter-tribal wars. And so although Okonkwo was still young, he was already one of the greatest men of his time. Age was respected among his people, but achievement was revered. As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings. Okonkwo had clearly washed his hand and so he ate with kings and elders.

SummaryOkonkwo is a man of “solid achievements,” based on his physical strength and ability to grow and harvest an abundance of yams (a sign of individual wealth among the Igbo). He had great reason to be proud of his achievements, and even more so when contrasted with those of his father. Unoka was the exact opposite of his son. He had taken no titles (which resulted in increased status in the clan); he was also heavily in debt. Unoka was a laughing stock among the nine villages. Yet his son bore none of the weaknesses that debased his father. Through Okonkwo’s hard work, he gained wealth, yet Unoka’s laziness brought shame to his son. With a full barn and a full home, Okonkwo displayed himself as a man of property. He had not one barn but two. He had just acquired his third wife. His skill in battle also brought him honor. Even though he was young, he had become a leader in the community and seemed destined for greatness. It is through his achievements, not through his age, that Okonkwo is revered among the Igbo people.

Essential Passage 2: Chapter 8“Nwoye is old enough to impregnate a woman. At his age I was already fending for myself. No, my friend, he is not too young. A chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches. I have done my best to make Nwoye grow into a man, but there is too much of his mother in him.”

“Too much of his grandfather,” Obierika thought, but he did not say it. The same thought also came to Okonkwo’s mind. But he had long learned how to lay that ghost. Whenever the thought of his father’s weakness and failure troubled him he expelled it by thinking about his own strength and success. And so he did now. His mind went to his latest show of manliness.

SummaryOkonkwo takes great pride in his place in the clan. He is known for his strength and courage. Yet his oldest son, Nwoye, is nothing like him. He is lazy, resisting the level of commitment to work that his father has. He is weak, Okonkwo stating that “a bowl of pounded yams can throw him in a wrestling match.” Okonkwo sees similar weakness in his other two boys. It is only in his daughter Ezinma that he can see some of those traits which brought him so much renown. His friend, Obierika, tries to calm his fears, stating that the children are still very young and still have much room to grow. Yet, as Okonkwo points out, Nwoye is old enough to become a father and is lagging behind his father at that age. Okonkwo despairs that anything can come of Nwoye, believing that there is “too much of his mother in him.” Obierika, however, sees a parallel between Nwoye and Unoka, the boy’s grandfather. They both exhibit a strong strain of weakness. Okonkwo sees it also, but when confronted with

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the failings of his father, he turns his eyes on himself and focuses on his own achievements, believing himself incapable of the weakness found in his father and his son.

Essential Passage 3: Chapter 24“The greatest obstacle in Umuofia,” Okonkwo thought bitterly, “is that coward, Egonwanne. His sweet tongue can change fire into cold ash. When he speaks he moves our men to impotence. If they had ignored his womanish wisdom five years ago, we would not have come to this.” He ground his teeth. “Tomorrow he will tell them that our fathers never fought a ‘war of blame.’ If they listen to him I shall leave them and plan my own revenge.”

SummaryFollowing seven years’ exile in his motherland, Okonkwo has returned to his home in Umuofia to find it in chaos. The invasion of the white man, in the form of Christian missionaries and British colonial officials, has begun the destruction of the Igbo traditions. The missionary whom they had come to respect has departed due to ill health, replaced by another who has no sensitivity to the people with whom he is working. As a result, the Christian church is destroyed. Okonkwo, along with several others, are arrested and imprisoned in the white man’s jail, subjected to humiliation and punishment. On his release, Okonkwo is more determined than ever to exact revenge. Yet the messenger of the clan, Egonwanne, seeks to placate both sides. Okonkwo sees no hope, and no desire, for peace. Knowing that the message of conciliation will be presented to the clan to avoid bloodshed, Okonkwo, in his pride, vows to go it alone and plan his own revenge.

Analysis of Essential PassagesAs with most tragic heroes, pride (hubris) is the ultimate downfall of Okonkwo. Despite the great abilities and opportunities that come his way, Okonkwo eventually throws them away through his insistence on placing himself first, above his family, his clan, and the very traditions that he is fighting so hard to maintain and protect.

From an early age, Okonkwo has shown strength, courage, and ability in facing physical challenges. Represented by his victory in the wrestling match with an older man, Okonkwo’s great promise will lead him to phenomenal success in his personal and communal life. His very physical appearance bespeaks of a future destined for greatness. Going from sport to war, Okonkwo’s strength brings him to the forefront of the struggle, making him a hero among his clan, gaining for him the titles and respect so important to the Igbo life. Yet his very strengths will lead eventually to his downfall. His inability to control that strength is exhibited in his monumental rages and tyrannical abuse of his wives and children. It is the physical beatings that will make him lose a good portion of the respect of his fellow tribe members.

Okonkwo, in his pride, finds himself sandwiched between two people who are nothing but failures in his eyes—his father and his son. His father, Unoka, was lazy and improvident, having no titles and little respect from his fellow clansmen. A great part of Okonkwo’s life is spent trying to distance himself from the failures of his father, often through the outright bragging that he engages in concerning his own achievements.

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His father’s negative traits are mirrored in Nwoye, Okonkwo’s oldest son. It is for this reason that Okonkwo feels such a desire to belittle and beat the laziness out of his son. Nwoye’s failures are a sad reflection on his father, giving the appearance of weakness in his ability to pass on his virtues to the next generation. Through Unoka’s failures as a father and Okonkwo’s efforts not to repeat them, Okonkwo instead becomes a failure as a father himself. Okonkwo thus develops a habit of bringing about the very thing he is endeavoring to avoid.

Similarly, Okonkwo’s eventual fall is the ultimate failure. Taking upon himself the sole responsibility to maintain the Igbo traditions, Okonkwo instead places himself far beyond the ability to do so when he commits suicide. This complete rejection of the most important of the traditions against self-murder shows that Okonkwo’s ultimate concern is not tradition but his own pride in his achievements.

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Independent Study

Ideas for DiscussionAchebe's Things Fall Apart is a ground-breaking novel, specifically African in vision, yet universal in themes and scope. The fictional time for the novel is around 1920, and although his locations are fictional, they are based on his actual experiences of life in an African village. Provocative areas for group discussion lie in comparisons of Igbo life and values to the European Christian culture that sought to supplant them, comparison of the African "hero" Okonkwo to predecessors in Western literature — he has been compared in his stature and flawed nature to the heroes of Greek tragedy, and the question of the problem of colonialism. Comparisons to his literary predecessor Joseph Conrad, and the question of whether Conrad was racist in his portrayal of Africa, especially when his novel is set against Achebe's fuller picture, will also stimulate debate. The charge some critics aim at Achebe — that his portrayals of Europeans make him a Conrad in reverse, may be evaluated.

The political situation in present day Nigeria is so alarming that many of Achebe's writings, this one included, have appeared prophetic. Bringing the values expressed in Achebe's novel to bear on the behavior of the present regime, and the West's reaction to it, may also be useful.

1. Okonkwo kills three people in the course of the novel. Look carefully at each of these episodes. Is he to be exonerated for any of the deaths? Is the killing of Ikemefuna premeditated, spontaneous, or done in obeisance to the Earth goddess? Do you believe Okonkwo's participation was necessary? The act has been compared to the biblical sacrifice of Isaac; do you see any parallels?

2. Mr. Smith can be called a fanatic compared to the more circumspect Mr. Brown; some have compared Smith's narrow views to the rigidity of Okonkwo. Does such a comparison hold up?

3. Look carefully at Chapter 11 where Ekwefi and Okonkwo keep an all night vigil over their only daughter, Ezinma, and at the flashback in Chapter 12. How does this chapter qualify your view of Okonkwo? Is this a break in his character, or are there other places in the novel that work in a similar way?

4. Evaluate the relationship between Okonkwo and his son, Nwoye. Is Okonkwo's view of the masculine idiosyncratic or does he reflect the mores of his culture?

5. Umuofia benefits materially when the British and the Christians gain a foothold there. What is the author's attitude to this gain?

6. Evaluate the Igbo judicial system and compare it to that of the British.

7. How ingrained are Igbo customs? Are they sometimes changed?

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8. Evaluate the position of women in Igbo society. Is the predominant deity a god or a goddess? Is storytelling primarily a male or a female activity? How does Okonkwo treat his three wives? Which wife suffers the most at his hands?

9. Compare Okonkwo to his father Unoka. How is the father used to explain the son's shortcomings? What shortcomings and strengths does the father have?

10. How does Achebe use proverbs, both Igbo and Christian, to comment on or assess the actions of the characters?

11. What appears to be the author's attitude about the Igbo custom of throwing away twins? How does this custom figure in the sacrifice of Ikemefuna? Note especially Nwoye's reaction.

12. Who is Okonkwo's favorite child? Why?

Compare and Contrast

1800s: Prior to colonization, common language and geography differentiated African societies. Six types of societies existed: hunting and gathering societies, cattle-herding societies, forest dwellers, fishermen, grain-raising societies, and city (urban) societies. The geographic area in which people lived determined their lifestyle.Colonial Africa: Africa was divided into more than fifty nation-states, with no regard for maintaining groups sharing common language and livelihood.Today: Societies are no longer as clear-cut. People have more opportunities for education, better jobs, and improved means of communication and transportation. They marry individuals from other societies. As a result, the societies have become mixed, but ethnic conflicts still lead to violence.

1800s: While religion varied from society to society, most Africans shared some common beliefs and practices. They believed in a supreme creator god or spirit. Other lesser gods revealed themselves as, and worked through, community ancestors.Colonial Africa: Missionaries arrived and introduced Christianity Many tribesmen converted to the new religion.Today: While more than an estimated 25% of Africa is Christian, traditional African religion is still practiced, as is Islam. Islam is a monotheistic religion related to the Jewish and Christian traditions.

1800s: Prior to colonization, Africans had their own identities and cultures and were not concerned with participating in the modern world.Colonial Africa: After colonization, African children were taught European history and literature so that they might compete in the modern world, while their own heritage was ignored.Today: Africans continue to seek the independence they began to achieve in the 1950s and 1960s There is, however, a renewed interest in cultural heritage, and traditional customs are being taught to African children.

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Topics for Further StudyHow does the displacement from one's culture affect a person psychologically? Explain possible reactions a person might have and the steps someone might take to help him or her adjust. School integration is being attempted across America. How successful has it been? Cite specific examples, such as court cases, to support your answer.

Integration is being attempted in a high school in Capetown, South Africa. At the beginning of each school day, white students and students from one of the black societies are required to attend a formal assembly. Students are also required to wear school uniforms. What might the students infer from these requirements? Support your answer by discussing the purpose of assemblies and uniforms in our society and researching cultural aspects of one of the black societies in Capetown.

Compare and contrast American and African colonization by discussing the events and their effects.

Investigate women's roles in tribal society. Find and discuss specific examples from Things Fall Apart.

Women in tribal societies were often forced to undergo female circumcision. Investigate the purpose of this ritual. What are the medical implications of this procedure?

Language is an important means of communication as well as a prominent culture marker. What does a person's language tell us about him or her? What effects could loss of one's language—through physical disability or societal disallowance—have on a person?

Missionaries went to Umuofia to convert the Ibo to Christianity. Should anyone try to change another's religious beliefs? Take a stand from either a Christian's point of view or from an opposite point of view. Prepare a logical argument for presentation in a debate.

What is the purpose of multicultural education in our country? Describe some of the efforts that are being undertaken by schools around the country. What have been your own experiences? Discuss the methods being used to implement these programs and their success.

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Literary Criticism

Things Fall Apart – Some Key PointsChinua Achebe's book is a narrative that follows the life of an Igbo tribe on the very cusp of the time when the wave of colonization washed over Africa. Set in Nigeria, the book follows the story of Okonkwo, the son of a ne'er do well, who is determined not to end up a failure like his father, but wants to follow tradition and rise in rank within the tribe. But just as the title predicts, Okonkwo's plans for a perfect life go astray. Change is inevitable, and even the best laid plans go astray. In the turbulent time setting, Okonkwo is doomed to lose the traditions he cherishes as his society slowly falls apart.

Turning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon cannot hear the falconer;Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...

(From Yeats' "The Second Coming".) As a reply to Heart of Darkness"By situating itself in opposition to the depiction of relationships between Africa and Europe in such texts as Heart of Darkness or Mister Johnson, Things Fall Apart opens a complex literary dialogue that challenges not only the content of such texts, but also the fundamental rationalist, individualist and historicist assumption upon which those texts are constructed." (Booker, 76)

If you've ever read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, you can see why Achebe calls it racist. The surprising thing was that he was one of the first critics to do so. Why hadn't anyone seen it before? Who knows? (Perhaps it was an overdose of academia...) He describes so many things in terms of black and white, good and bad, and switches them around artfully until by the end of the novella, you can't bear either adjective. Nearly everything is described in those terms: not a thing escapes Conrad's lack of adjectives. But it goes much deeper than that. To call something racist just by a lack of descriptive ability, or carrying a metaphor too far would be on shaky grounds. But Conrad does much worse; he describes Kurtz' mistress as "..savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent...She stood looking at us without a stir and like the wilderness itself..." It's no wonder that Achebe picks out this passage in his essay. Also offensive is when the narrator compares a native who was helping navigate the boat to a "dog in breeches." There is no end to the ways this is an irritating passage. Conrad's portrayal of the Africans as savage and uncivilized is part of what prompted Achebe to write his eloquent novel. His depiction of the highly civilized cultures and traditions of the Igbo nation were a reply to Conrad's ignorant (but well meaning?) false portrayal. (For more on this, like the Achebe essay and commentary on it, see the links section below.)

The two narrative voicesMany critics see Things Fall Apart as a book with two narrators, one that adheres to tradition, and another with more modern views.

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In his essay, Wright plays off Neil McEwan's idea of the two narrative voices: the traditional/communal which dominates the first 2/3 of the book, and the individual/ modern which takes over the last thirdHe claims that Okonkwo's stubborn resistance and deep need to wipe out his father's memory "…are out of harmony with a society which is renowned for its talent for social compromise and which judges a man according to his own worth , not that of his father." (Wright, 78)Okonkwo resists change so much that he can't even accept it in others. Wright claims that to the rest of his people, Okonkwo's recklessness and fanaticism is embarrassing. This is not as evident in the first 2/3 of the book, but in the modern narrator's voice, it becomes clearer how out of touch Okonkwo really is.

Or maybe as just one narrator....But not everyone sees the book as narrated by two distinct voices. It can also be seen as having a single narrator, whose tone changes and adapts over time. This would be a reflection of the Umoufian society's gradual change and adaptation in order to survive. "The detached yet tolerant tone of the narrator creates this perspective, and acts as a most effective mediator between the individual and the community, between the present and the past." (Carroll, 33) In fact, Carroll points out that "…when the narrator begins to delve into the single mind we anticipate with foreboding an unpleasant turn of events." (Carroll, 34)

The use of the phrase "great man" At his death, Obierika calls Okonkwo “one of the greatest men in Mafia" (Things Fall Apart, 208). Wright claims this is a phrase used in "this particular African society" to describe someone like a tragic hero, "…who is most unlike his community but who, through his great strength and his ability to do more than it has ever asked of him, and set examples it does not require, belatedly becomes its representative"(Wright, 79). Is Okonkwo completely unlike his community? While he certainly fits the other qualifications of a "great man," Okonkwo only seems to be unlike the community at the end, once everyone has adapted and changed.

Okonkwo and the end of traditionSo how is Okonkwo related to the end of traditional Umoufian society? Booker sees Okonkwo as a visual representation of the standards of success in Ibo life. He is prosperous, he is one of the egwugwu, no one compared him to his shiftless father; he has everything he wants at first. But things start to change when Ikemefuma was killed. Up until that point, following the traditions of his society has only improved Okonkwo's situation. When the choice comes to kill Ikemefuma, the shortcomings in tradition start coming through. "…Okonkwo can be seen as testing the limits of his society's integrity and exposing its real failure to provide for humane and compassionate feelings." (Wright, 79) He adheres so strictly to the rules that his example points out to others the flaws in the system. If the system was complete, then Okonkwo's stubborn, inflexible observation of the rules would not have led to his downfall. Wright also claims that Okonkwo's death was inevitable because through his inflexibility he was the clog in the wheel of progress. "If things fall apart is first a story of the disintegration of a traditional African society, it is also the personal tragedy of a single individual, whose life falls apart in the midst of that same process." (Booker, 69)

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But does Okonkwo fall because he represents the values of a culture that is disappearing, or because he deviates from that society's' norms? Umoufian society is very flexible; they compare their actions to those of their neighbours, always questioning and adapting. But Okonkwo does not adapt at all. In fact, he is so averse to changing that he cannot even accept it in anyone else. And as for his strict adherence to tradition, that is not quite true. Sure, he does follow the order to kill Ikemefuma-even when he is given a loophole to escape through, pointed out by Obierika-but he also disrupts the Week of Peace and Achebe writes that "…Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through, not even for fear of a goddess" (Things Fall Apart, 30). In that scene, he is following his own stubborn will, and not tradition. He kills Ikemefuma not because the system is flawed, but because he does not want to appear weak like his father.

Okonkwo as a Historical FigureOne of the requirements of "civilization" is that a nation must have a history. But Mafia seems to lack one. Gikanki suggest that the beginning of Things Fall Apart is an "imaginary response to the problems of genealogy and cultural identity that have haunted Igbo culture…" (Gikanki, 29) The book sets up Okonkwo as surrogate founding father, with the story about throwing the Cat in a wrestling tournament, and other aspects of Okonkwo's history as the same as those of the Umoufian nation. This is possible because he seems to draw his identity from the traditions and laws of Mafia. It is when he is separated from these values and sent to his mother's land that marks the end of his way of life. "In general terms, Okonkwo acquires his heroic and tragic status by becoming alienated from the very values he espouses and uses to engender himself." (Gikanki, 39)

Okonkwo's tragic flawsMafia is a nation that definitely treasures loquacity. In a setting like this, Okonkwo's stammer is a tragic flaw. It is not seen in the book much; never does Achebe quote a passage when Okonkwo sputters out his words. One of the reasons for this may be that Okonkwo uses aggression to replace his lack of speech (Carroll, 40). This flaw sets him apart from the traditions he embodies; he can participate, but he cannot find the joy of being verbose like his compatriots. Another tragic flaw is Okonkwo's stubborn inflexibility."As Achebe presents this growing success, he insinuates the cause of future conflict: Okonkwo's inflexible will is bringing him success in a society remarkable for its flexibility." (Carroll, 40) His rigidity leads to his participation in the death of Ikemefuma. This incident is seen by many as a turning point in novel, the beginning of the end. It "initiates a series of catastrophes which end with his death" (Carroll, 44). This action may have been legally correct, but it was morally wrong. From that point on, all of Okonkwo's decisions lead to disaster, even at the end when his decision to kill the messenger leads him to kill himself, something so abhorrent to his nation that they cannot bury him. Despite Okonkwo's best efforts, he is further separated from his nation until "…the embodiment of traditional law has become the outcast of the tribe" (Carroll, 58).

Society falling apart as Yeats predicts

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Yeats said that societies don't collapse on their own; there must be outside pressures as well as internal conflict before they collapse. Like Yeats predicts, Umoufian society is undone from within first, and then collapses under forces from without. Wright notes that Umoufian tradition's cruelty to minorities furthers its collapse. The people it casts aside are the ones who first join the church. Wright also calls the Ibo sense of justice arbitrary and inadequate. The conflicts between the modern and traditional, individual and community are highlighted in Obierika's conflict of loyalties: personal/tribal, human/ religious, particularly when he fathers twins but then has to leave them in the evil forest, comforting Okonkwo then having to destroy his house. The question of loyalties, and irreconcilable differences between public and private needs, are made more painful because one person is frequently asked to do both conflicting things. This inner, personal conflict grew into an external, community conflict. "From every indication it destroyed total unity among the people and they could no longer fight a common enemy as before" (Emenyonu, 87). One of the factors to play on the weakness of Umoufian society was the missionaries. Christianity didn't take over through militarism or force, "but by responding clearly to a need so deeply felt that it has not been clearly formulated." (Carroll, 53)

Or not falling apart...."The dual vision of Things Fall Apart is evidence, at least at the narrative level, of things not falling apart."(Wright, 76) Wright concludes that the title of Things Fall Apart is misleading, because Mafia does not actually fall apart. It does not stand with Okonkwo and resist change with war, but adapts in order to survive. Carroll points out that the Umoufians are always probing the logic of what they do and why, comparing with other villages, and the past. The only thing that falls apart is Okonkwo's life, because he refuses to adapt. The world does not end; it merely changes, and the Umoufians change with it.

The culture clash"…Things Fall apart is indeed a classic study of cross-cultural misunderstanding and the consequences to the rest of humanity, when a belligerent culture or civilization, out of sheer arrogance and ethnocentrism, takes it upon itself to invade another culture, another civilization." (Emenyonu, 84) One of the things pointed out is that Mafia had no kings or chiefs but had a highly democratic and efficient government. This is something the invaders did not see; Western sensibilities insist that each nation needs a leader, at least one person to take charge and prevent anarchy. The courts used the white man's justice: either a flogging or hanging: both senselessly brutal in Umoufian eyes. The main reason for the culture clash is lack of social interaction and understanding between the cultures. And the misunderstanding did not end at the end of the novel; the colonizers are the ones who recorded the history, so, as the saying goes, "…Until the lions produce their own historian, the story of the hunt will glorify only the hunter" (Achebe, Home and Exile 73). African history is unique; "History has not treated the whole world the same way, and we would be foolish not to realize how we are in a peculiar situation as Africans. Our history has not been the history of England." (Jussawalla, 76). The cultural misunderstanding led to a false history, with characters written from the hopes and fears of a people whose uniformed accounts are prevalent even today. "Achebe has made it clear that his principle purpose in the book was to give African readers a realistic depiction of their precolonial past, free of the distortions and stereotypes imposed in European accounts." (Booker, 65)

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Semiotics and ColonizationGikandi claims that the semiotic codes in the book (like breaking kola nuts, etc.) are intended to provide cultural background to the characters and warns that they should not be regarded merely as local colour. They are included in the book to represent societal values, not exotic quirks. "After all, the most obvious sign of the destruction of Igbo culture and its authority is the repression of Igbo voices at the end of the novel when colonialism imposes its grammatology and henceforth represents the African as a subject with neither a voice nor a logos." (Gikanki, 33) The most profound and effective way to take control of someone is to control their speech. A language is not just a way to talk with another person; it reflects cultural information as well, it is the embodiment of the speakers' point of view. "When Umoufia's scheme of meanings is colonized, the function of its culture is rapidly eroded." (Gikanki, 35) Another thing pointed out is the 'semiotics of the yam.' According to Gikani, the yams represent three things: manhood, prosperity, and control in society. Whenever they are mentioned, or used, they are always as one of these three signs.

About Chinua AchebeGeneral StatisticsBorn in 1930 in Ogidi Full name: Albert Chinualumogu Achebe.Father: Christian evangelist and teacherEducation: in the colonial system, received a BA in 1953Studied broadcasting with the BBC1958: Things Fall Apart published, first book1966 Man of the people published: first book set in post colonial NigeriaBecame highly involved in Nigerian politicsAchebe has written nearly 300 books about himself and his writing

Chinua as a post-colonial writer"Achebe is aware that the acquisition of a speaking voice betrays his involvement with the process of destruction he records; that he can celebrate the value of Ibo culture only with he language tools acquired in the act of destroying it" (Wright, 77). Many critics agree on this point, that for Achebe, "To write is to reconcile oneself to a past foreclosed by the experience of colonialism; it is an archaeological gesture that seeks to recover the historicity of Igbo life and culture" (Gikanki, 25). Postcolonial writers are faced with the irony of using the tools of their destruction to recreate a foreclosed past, and also to reconcile themselves to it as well. "Achebe is aware that in gaining the voice to speak he reveals his involvement with the destruction which he records." (Gikanki, 49)

Achebe and the 20th century Igbo society"Achebe recalls that his parents looked down upon the "heathens" in their community who did not espouse Christianity, but he eventually came to wonder if "it isn't they who should have been looking down on us for our apostasy"…which mirrors the hybrid experience of the twentieth-century Igbo society as a whole…" (Booker, 80). Achebe is able to so completely record and create Igbo society because he has faced the general problems on a personal level. He has felt and lived in the questions colonialism brings up, and is able to use them to his advantage in recreating an unbiased past. "Achebe's advantage is that he is able

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to use with economy and confidence rituals and conventions each of which symbolizes the society his is describing." (Carroll, 34)

Critical Context

Things Fall Apart has been called the archetypal African novel. It was the first West African novel written in English that succeeded in giving European readers a sympathetic understanding of the indigenous culture, which had been occupied but not understood for one hundred years. Critics have praised its protagonist’s heroic though futile stand against colonialism, its restrained prose style, and Achebe’s purposeful integration of Igbo proverbs. Achebe was attempting to create the communal, functional, utilitarian art he admired and which he believed represented the traditional purpose of art in Igbo society. He consciously wrote Things Fall Apart as part of the cultural revolution that was moving in step with the political revolution that led to Nigerian independence in 1960. The primary goals of this cultural revolution were to rediscover the Igbo past and to undermine the colonial stereotypes represented in European literature about Africa.

On a more personal level, Things Fall Apart is also Achebe’s attempt to atone for his own Europeanization. A Christian with a coveted university education, Achebe had at one time dismissed the importance of his own culture. Things Fall Apart is an effort to rediscover the riches of Nigerian history, celebrate the cultural past, and mourn what has been lost.

Critical Evaluation

Chinua Achebe was born in the colony of Niger in 1930, to Ibo parents who were Christian converts. He attended British-style schools in Nigeria, including University College, Ibadeen, and graduated from London University in 1953.

Achebe’s first novel, Things Fall Apart, is a classic of African literature. Among all the colonial governments in Africa, the British in Nigeria fostered first education in its territory. As a result, Nigerian writers preceded those in other areas of Africa. Things Fall Apart is noted as the first African novel. Achebe, a master of his craft, also wrote No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). Achebe also published poetry, short stories, and essays.

In Things Fall Apart and in his later novels, Achebe wanted to counter demeaning and incorrect stereotypes of his people and Eurocentric presentations of the confrontation between the Ibo of Nigeria and the British intruders. In his novels, Achebe admits, he strives for artistic excellence but also wants to give a message. Just as the oral tradition of the Ibo people served their society by sustaining its values, so the modern Ibo, writing in English, should serve Ibo society.

In Things Fall Apart, Achebe combines the Ibo oral tradition’s narrative style with the Western world’s traditional novel form. In novel form Achebe narrates an African tale in African style. The novel’s narrative voice could be Achebe’s or it could be the voice of a

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village elder. In either case, the voice is connected to the world of the novel. Though the voice is objective, it is also a part of the scene depicted.

To achieve an African voice, Achebe uses plain, short, declarative sentences. Also, throughout the novel, characters narrate or listen to traditional stories from the society’s past and stories that illustrate and teach the culture’s values. The novel opens with the retelling of Okonkwo’s exploits in a traditional wrestling match, the ritual by which young men proved themselves worthy of a high place in their clan.

Achebe weaves Ibo proverbs into the novel’s dialogue, to clarify a point, to teach a lesson, and, usually, to provide humor. Also, many Ibo words are used in the text without translation. Some of these can be understood by the reader through context, but others remain mysterious and create a distance between the non-Ibo reader and the Ibo world of Things Fall Apart. Taken together, sentence structure, Umuofian stories, proverbs, and language create a memorable colloquial narrative voice.

The novel’s structure, on the other hand, is formal. There are twenty-five chapters: thirteen in book 1, six in book 2, and six in book 3. The pivotal chapter about Okonkwo’s accidental shooting of a young boy and his subsequent banishment is at the book’s center, in chapter 13. Achebe establishes the nature of the Umuofian society and Okonkwo’s character in book 1. In book 2 tension heightens as the outsiders appear. In book 3 the conflict comes to a head when Okonkwo kills the clerk and his people retreat before the power of the new government. The novel’s last page has the required unexpected yet inevitable ending. The novel is a very orderly work.

To return to character, Things Fall Apart presents Okonkwo as a tragic hero who struggles against internal and external forces and meets a tragic end. Obereika calls his fallen friend a “great man.” The hero is a complex man with both strengths and weaknesses. At the novel’s start Okonkwo’s deep shame about his father’s failure motivates him to become a respected man, an exemplar of all that is valued in his society. His accomplishments feed his pride and cause his rigidity. His pride, rigidity, and short temper lead to sins against the gods of his people and criticism from his chi. Finally, Okonkwo is banned from his fatherland for seven years and, when he returns home, kills in anger. Okonkwo then takes his own life, the greatest sin against the gods of his people. His is a tragic end.

The plot line of Okonkwo’s struggle and fall reveals not only his complex character but also the strong social fabric of the Umuofian people. Like Okonkwo’s character, this society is complex, having both strengths and weaknesses. Its traditions create a stable community in which each individual finds meaning. The oral storytelling and rituals for planting, harvesting, and human passage sustain an orderly society. Some of the harsher customs, such as killing the innocent Ikemefuna, exiling Okonkwo for an accidental killing, and banishing some persons to live their entire lives as outcasts, raise doubts about the ultimate wisdom of Umuofian customs. Some, like Nwoye and Obereika, question what was always done and suggest that change is necessary. Others, like Okonkwo, stand fast in defense of the tradition. When the newcomers come with a new religion and laws, the fabric of Umuofian society weakens.

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The newcomers also have strengths and weaknesses. They offer a gentler religion and different laws. Their excessive zeal and righteousness, however, provoke the anger of the people the newcomers want to win over. Finally, the Umuofian people and the newcomers share a common weakness. Few attempt to learn each other’s language, customs, or beliefs. Conflict is inevitable. The situation and characters that Achebe draws in his novel are fraught with complexity. It is this complexity, as well as Achebe’s masterful writing style, that make Things Fall Apart a classic novel.

Critical Overview

Things Fall Apart has experienced a huge success. Since it was published in 1958, the book has sold more than two million copies in over thirty languages. Critics attribute its success not only to the book's message, but also to Achebe's talents as a writer. Achebe believes that stories should serve a purpose; they should deliver a meaningful message to the people who hear or read them. When Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart, his intent was to explain the beginnings of the turmoil Africans have been experiencing over the past century. He wanted to describe the integrity of precolonial Nigeria, detail the effects of colonialism on tribal societies, and reveal the kinds of immoral treatment that people in modern society are often made to suffer. Critics agree that he accomplished all of these purposes. They feel that he wntes honestly about tribal life and the colonial legacy. They also believe that Achebe delivers another important message: man will always face change, and he who can accommodate change will survive.

While some readers will view Okonkwo's deterioration and demise as a tragic result of his going against the will of the gods, others see the new "world order" as inevitable. Okonkwo's acts do not bring the tribe to an end; it is the tribe's lack of adaptability that destroys it. These opposing interpretations strengthen the impact of the book. In The Growth of the African Novel, Eustace Palmer states that "while deploring the imperialists' brutality and condescension, [Achebe] seems to suggest that change is inevitable and wise men ... reconcile themselves to accommodating change. It is the diehards ... who resist and are destroyed in the process."

Achebe successfully communicates his message through skillful writing. From the time critics first read his book, they have concurred that Achebe's craftsmanship earns him a place among the best writers in the world. An example of his craftsmanship is Achebe's ability to convey the essence of traditional Nigeria while borrowing from the conventions of the European novel. He was the first Nigerian writer to adapt African oral tradition to novel form. In doing so, "he created a new novel that possesses its own autonomy and transcends the limits set by both his African and European teachers," as Kofi Awoonor observes in The Breast of the Earth. The borrowed European elements Achebe contrasts are communal life over the individual character and the beauty and detail of traditional tribal life over brief references to background. His descriptions of day-to-day life and special ceremonial customs provide a "powerful presentation of the beauty, strength, and validity of traditional life and values," as Palmer observes.

Literary experts also point out Achebe's ability to combine language forms, maintain thematic unity, and shape conflict in Things Fall Apart. His use of Ibo proverbs in conjunction

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with the English language places the reader in Africa with the Ibo tribe. Adrian A. Roscoe explains in his book Mother Is Gold: A Study of West African Literature, "Proverbs are cherished by Achebe's people as tribal heirlooms, the treasure boxes of their cultural heritage." In addition, the combination of languages helps reiterate the theme of tradition versus change. Roscoe goes on to say, "Through [proverbs] traditions are received and handed on; and when they disappear or fall into disuse ... it is a sign that a particular tradition, or indeed a whole way of life, is passing away."

The death of the language then, a powerful cultural tradition, signifies the ultimate discord in the novel—the fall of one culture to another. G. D. Kil-lam observes in The Novels of Chinua Achebe that "the conflict in the novel, vested in Okonkwo, derives from the series of crushing blows which are levelled at traditional values by an alien and more powerful culture causing, in the end, the traditional society to fall apart " Achebe's mastery of content and his talent as a writer contribute to his worldwide success with this novel as well as his other novels, articles, poems, and essays. As Killam concludes, his writing conveys that "the spirit of man and the belief in the possibility of triumph endures."

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Essays

Things Fall Apart: a Vauable Source of African Literature

As the most widely read work of African fiction, Things Fall Apart has played an instrumental role in introducing African literature to readers throughout the world. In particular, Achebe's fiction has contributed to world literature by retelling African history, as well as the history of European colonization, from an Afro-centric perspective rather than a Euro-centric one. By shifting the narrative focus from the perspective of the colonizer to the perspective of the colonized, Achebe's novels reveal and correct many of the biased assumptions found in previous historical and literary descriptions of Africa. Specifically, they reaffirm the value of African cultures by representing their rich and complex cultural traditions instead of stereotyping them as irrational and primitive. As Achebe explains in his frequently quoted essay, "The Novelist as Teacher," his novels seek to teach Africans that "their past—with all its imperfections—was not one night of savagery from which the first Europeans acting on God's behalf delivered them." To say that Achebe affirms African culture and history, however, is not to imply that he simply inverts European ethnocentrism by romanticizing African culture as perfect or vilifying European cultures as entirely corrupt. Instead, Achebe presents a remarkably balanced view of how all cultures encompass both good and bad dimensions.

In addition to re-interpreting African culture and history from an African perspective, Things Fall Apart is also significant because of its mastery of literary conventions. In fact, many critics argue that it is the best African novel ever written, and they specifically praise its sophisticated development of character, tragedy, and irony. Okonkwo, in particular, is a complex character, and consequently there are many ways to interpret his role in the novel. On one level, he can be interpreted psychologically in terms of the oedipal struggle that he has with his father and the very different oedipal struggle that his son, Nwoye, has with him. As each son rejects the example of his father, these three generations form a reactionary cycle that ironically repeats itself: when Nwoye rejects Okonkwo's masculinity, he ironically returns to the more feminine disposition that Okonkwo originally rejected in his father. Many of the major events of the novel, including both Okonkwo's tragic drive to succeed and Nwoye's eventual conversion to Christianity, largely result from the inter-generational struggle created when each son rejects his father.

Another way to analyze the psychological dimensions of Okonkwo's character is to examine how he constructs his sense of gender by asserting a strong sense of masculinity and repressing any sense of femininity Just as there is an external psychological conflict between Okonkwo and his father, there is also an internal psychological conflict between the masculine and feminine sides within Okonkwo. While Okonkwo's hyper-masculinity initially enables him to achieve success as a great wrestler and warrior, his refusal to balance this masculine side with feminine virtues eventually contributes to his later destruction. At virtually every turn in the novel, his excessive masculinity nudges him toward new troubles. Because of his contempt for unmanliness, he rudely insults Osugo, destroys his relationship with his own son Nwoye, and lets himself be pressured into sacrificing Ikemefuna in spite of Ezeudu's warning. Moreover, Okonkwo's lack of respect for women is equally pervasive and

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problematic. He ignores the wisdom found in women's stories, he frequently intimidates and beats his wives, and he can only relate to his daughter Ezinma because he thinks of her as a boy. Consequently, Okonkwo is a man out of balance who has only developed one half of his full serf because he only accepts the masculine side of his culture.

In addition to noting how gender influences Okonkwo's behavior within the story, many critics also note that gender influences Achebe as an author. Feminist critics, in particular, have criticized Things Fall Apart both for suggesting that men are representative of all Africans and for focusing too exclusively on masculine activities and male characters. Though it is perhaps inevitable that Achebe would write his novel from a male perspective, these critics raise interesting questions about how Achebe's male perspective might ignore and misrepresent the experiences of African women. Nevertheless, despite Achebe's male bias, there are moments in the novel when Achebe emphasizes female characters and valorizes (heir perspectives. It is the women who pass on many of the cultural traditions through stories, and it is Okonkwo's daughter, Ezinma, not his son, Nwoye, who understands Okonkwo in the end. Moreover, Okonkwo's wife, Ekwefi, shows more courage and parental love in defending the life of her daughter, Ezinma, than Okonkwo does in participating in the sacrifice of Ikemefuna Consequently, even though Achebe might emphasize male characters and perspectives, he does not simply represent men as superior to women. In fact, there are many ways in which Achebe critiques Okonkwo's inflated sense of masculinity.

Another way to interpret Okonkwo's character is to focus less on his internal personality and look instead at how this personality is shaped by the various social and historical contexts in which he lives. From such a perspective, Things Fall Apart does not explore oedipal conflicts or gender identity as much as it explores the tension between pursuing individual desires and conforming to the community's values and customs. In many ways, Okonkwo's tragic death results directly from his inability to balance these competing demands of individuality and community. At first, Okonkwo seems an ideal representative of his community's values. He earns honor and respect from his people by developing the physical strength, manly courage, and disciplined will valued by his Igbo culture. As the novel progresses, however, Okonkwo's success gradually develops into a dangerous sense of individualism that flagrantly disregards the community's rules and decisions. For example, he beats his wife during the sacred Week of Peace, and he attempts to single-handedly attack the British instead of waiting for and accepting the community's collective decision. In fact, many critics have argued that this individualistic disregard for the community is Okonkwo's primary tragic flaw, though it is perhaps difficult to separate this individualism from Okonkwo's other character flaws such as inflexibility, hyper-masculinity, and an obsessive reaction against his father.

In an even broader context, Achebe adds yet another dimension to Okonkwo's tragedy by situating it within the historical context of British colonial expansion. As the novel progresses, the initial focus on Okonkwo's psychological struggles enlarges to include Okonkwo's political struggle against British colonialism By situating the personal tragedy of Okonkwo's suicide within (his larger historical tragedy of colonial domination, Things Fall Apart develops a double-tragedy. Moreover, this double-tragedy further complicates the interpretation of Okonkwo's character because the external tragedy of colonial domination

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largely provokes Okonkwo's internal aggression. Although both Okonkwo and his society are responsible for their own destruction to some degree, there is also another sense in which they are destroyed by forces beyond their control. While the reader might condemn Okonkwo's rash outburst of violence, the reader also sympathizes with and perhaps even justifies the rage that Okonkwo feels while watching foreign invaders unjustly accuse and dominate his people. Even though Okonkwo's final act of resistance is ineffective and perhaps even misguided, it exemplifies how Africans and other colonized peoples have courageously resisted colonialism instead of passively accepting it Consequently, Okonkwo's character is both tragically flawed and tragically heroic, and instead of separating the intermixed heroism and destructiveness that defines Okonkwo throughout the novel, Achebe's conclusion only emphasizes' how Okonkwo's strengths and weaknesses are interrelated Thus, Achebe's conclusion brings together a masterful sense of character, tragedy, and irony.

In addition, Things Fall Apart is also important stylistically because it develops a hybrid aesthetic form that creatively fuses European and African cultural forms. At the simplest level, Achebe does this through his use of language. By introducing numerous African terms throughout the novel, he develops a hybrid language that mixes Igbo and English words. While some of these words may be confusing at first, by the end of the novel the reader learns to recognize many basic Igbo words like chi (fate), obi (hut), and osu (outcast). At a more complex level, however, Achebe also integrates African cultural traditions into the structure of the novel through his use of proverbs and folktales. Many of the insights developed in the novel are presented either through proverbs or through stones drawn from the rich oral traditions of Igbo culture. These stories, like the story about Mosquito's marriage proposal to Ear and the story about Tortoise's attempt to trick the birds out of their feast, function as stories-within-the-story, and they add additional layers of meaning to the main plot of the novel.

In addition to its literary and political value, Things Fall Apart is also a novel rich in anthropological detail. In many ways, it can be read as an anthropological description of the daily life and customs of the Igbo people because Achebe blends his description of Okonkwo's tragedy with a richly detailed description of Igbo culture before European colonization. Throughout the novel, Achebe describes numerous aspects of daily life in a traditional Igbo community ranging from methods of farming and forms of entertainment to dietary practices, clan titles, kinship structures, and marriage customs. In addition, he also describes a wide variety of Igbo religious beliefs and ceremonies such as the Week of Peace, the Feast of the New Yam, the Ozo dance, ogbanje spirit-children who keep dying and being reborn, the Evil Forest, and various gods and goddesses. This comprehensive, detailed description of African customs not only helps the reader understand the daily activities and religious beliefs of the Igbo people, but it also helps the reader begin to understand an Igbo world view. Consequently, it represents not only how Igbo people live but also what they believe and how they think and feel.

Finally, Achebe adds yet another dimension to Things Fall Apart by concluding the novel with a strong critique of how western colonial histories have been written from biased, ethnocentric perspectives. While this historical dimension of the novel may not be readily apparent at first, Achebe makes it unmistakably clear in the concluding paragraph, which

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describes the District Commissioner's callous response to Okonkwo's suicide. In addition to being generally apathetic to Okonkwo's death, the District Commissioner seems even more inhuman because he takes interest in Okonkwo's suicide only because it will give him "new material" for his book. After the reader has read Achebe's detailed and moving description of Okonkwo' s life, the District Commissioner dismisses this story as only worth a "reasonable paragraph" because there is "so much else to include, and one must be firm in cutting out the details." At this point, Achebe begins to turn the reader's attention from the District Commissioner's lack of compassion to his historical ignorance, which grossly underestimates the long and complex history leading up to Okonkwo's tragic death. Moreover, the District Commissioner's decision to title his book The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger, demonstrates both his inability to think of African people as anything other than primitive and his inability to recognize how he has brought violence instead of peace to the Lower Niger. By ending the novel with the District Commissioner's complete misinterpretation and miswriting of the scene of colonial conflict, Achebe suggests that his novel is not simply about the colonial encounter between two cultures. At a deeper level, it is also about how the story of that encounter is told. It is a story about the telling of history itself. By drawing attention to the District Commissioner's erroneous sense of history, Achebe reminds the reader that western descriptions of Africa have largely been written by men like the District Commissioner. Consequently, Things Fall Apart seeks to correct such erroneous historical records by retelling African history from an African perspective that intimately understands Okonkwo's pain and outrage, even if it does not completely condone Okonkwo's violent actions.

Source: Robert Bennett, in an essay for Novels for Students, Gale, 1997. Bennett is a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Culture In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

That Achebe sees the best of Igbo village life as offering something of the ideal is suggested by an interview in 1988 with Raoul Granqvist [in Travelling: Chinua Achebe in Scandinavia. Swedish Writers in Africa, Umea University, 1990]. Achebe, talking of the importance of ideals, refers to the example of village life based on a land of equality. "This," he says, is what the Igbo people chose, the small village entity that was completely self-governing... The reason why they chose it [this system] was because they wanted to be in control of their lives. So if the community says that we will have a meeting in the market place tomorrow, everybody should go there, or could go there. And everybody could speak.

Since Achebe is not the first to write of Africa, he must dispel old images in order to create a true sense of his people's dignity. Works such as Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness see Africans as primitives representing Europeans at an earlier stage of civilization, or imaging all humanity's primal urges which civilization hides. First-hand European accounts of the colonial period, such as the district commissioner's Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger in Things Fall Apart, reduce the African experience to an anthropological study told from the white man's point of view. Achebe reveals that the Europeans' ideas of Africa are mistaken. Perhaps the most important mistake of the British is their belief that all civilization progresses, as theirs has, from the tribal stage through monarchy to parliamentary government....

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The Igbos, on the other hand, have developed a democratic system of government. For great decisions the ndichie, or elders, gather together all of Umuofia. The clan rules all, and the collective will of the clan can be established only by the group. Further, as is appropriate in a democracy, each man is judged on his own merits, "according to his worth," not those of his father, as would be appropriate in an aristocracy or an oligarchy.

Within this system the Igbos as a whole reveal themselves more tolerant of other cultures than the Europeans, who merely see the Igbos as uncivilized. In other words, the Igbo are in some ways superior to those who come to convert them. Uchendu, for example, is able to see that "what is good among one people is an abomination with others," but the white men tell the Igbos that Igbo customs are bad and that their gods are not true gods at all. Unlike the Europeans, the Igbos believe that it "is good that a man should worship the gods and spirits of his fathers" even if these gods are not the Igbos' gods. While the European tradition allows men to fight their brothers over religion, the Igbo tradition forbids them to kill each other: it is an abomination to kill a member of the clan. Further, the long history of Crusades and holy wars and of religious persecution in Europe occurs because men can fight for gods, but it is not the Igbo "custom to fight for [their] gods." Rather, heresy is a matter only between the man and the god.

The Christian missionary in Mbanta objects to the Igbo gods on the belief that they tell the Igbos to kill each other, and, in fact, the gods are invoked in the fighting of wars against another village— though not indiscriminately, only when the war is just. At times the oracle forbids the Umuofians to go to war. The Europeans in Things Fall Apart, however, kill far more in the name of religion than the Igbos: the British, for example, wipe out the whole village of Abame in retaliation for the killing of one white man.

The Igbos do not fight each other because they are primitive. Achebe implies the existence of the conditions in Nigeria which historically led to the need for war as a matter of survival. The land, consisting of rock underlying an almost non-existent topsoil, was very poor and thus would not support large numbers of people. Planting soon depleted the soil, and so villagers were forced to move further and further afield to find land which would yield a crop to support them. Okonkwo's father, the lazy Unoka, has little success planting yams because he sows on "exhausted farms that take no labor to clear." Meanwhile, his neighbors, crossing "seven rivers to make their farms," plant the "virgin forests." As the population of Nigeria increased, land and food were insufficient to provide for everyone The novel seems to make the turning point in the alteration from plenty to scarcity some time between the generation of Okonkwo's Uncle Uchendu and that of Okonkwo, for Uchendu speaks of "the good days when a man had friends in distant clans." Although the state of constant warfare was hardly desirable, at least it provided a means for survival....

The Christian missionary, then, is mistaken about the perversity of the Igbo religion: some wars are inevitable if the clan is to survive, but war is not indiscriminate. Religion is a factor both in limiting war and in supporting it when it is just. In the latter case war might be seen as a deterrent to future crimes against Umuofia. Neighboring clans try to avoid war with Umuofia because it is "feared" as a village "powerful in war," and when someone in Mbaino kills a Umuofian woman, "[e]ven the enemy clan know that" the threatened war is "just."

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In fact, the Igbo have a highly developed system of religion which works as effectively as Christianity. The Igbo religion and the Christian religion are equally irrational, but both operate along similar lines to support morality. To the Christians it seems crazy to worship wooden idols, but to the Igbos it seems crazy to say that God has a son when he has no wife. Both systems of religion look to only one supreme god, Chukwu for the Umuofians. Both supreme gods have messengers on earth, Christ for the British and the wooden idols for the Igbos. Both religions support humility; the Igbos speak to Chukwu through messengers because they do not want to worry the master, but they deal with Chukwu directly if all else fails. Both gods are vengeful only when disregarded. If a person disobeys Chukwu, the god is to be feared, but Chukwu "need not be feared by those who do his will."

In addition to revealing that the original Igbo religion is not inferior to Christianity, Achebe makes it clear that the demoralizing current state of political affairs in Africa is the result of European interference rather than simply the natural outgrowth of the native culture. The Igbos have a well-established and effective system of justice which the British replace with the system of district commissioners and court messengers. Disputes in the tribe which cannot be resolved in other ways come before the egwugwu, the greatest masked spirits of the clan, played by titled villagers. Hearing witnesses on both sides, for example, the tribunal comes to a decision in the case of Uzowoli, who beat his wife, and his indignant in-laws, who took his wife and children away. In this dispute the egwugwu try to assuage each side. They warn Uzowoli that it "is not bravery when a man fights a woman" and tell him to take a pot of wine to his in-laws; they tell Odukwe to return Uzowoli's wife if he comes with wine. The system helps to dispel hard feelings by refusing "to blame this man or to praise that"; rather the egwugwu's duty is simply "to settle the dispute."

Although the conditions in Nigeria require warlike men for the survival of the village, the Igbos have realized the danger of such men to their own society. Warriors must be fierce to their enemies and gentle to their own people, yet spirited men can bring discord to their own societies. The tribe has institutions to control the anger of its own men. For instance, there is a Week of Peace sacred to the earth goddess. Moreover, as indicated earlier, killing members of one's own clan is forbidden, and even inadvertent death such as Okonkwo's killing of Ezeudu's son must be expiated. Recognizing the need for Okonkwo to distinguish between friends and enemies, Ogbuefi Ezeudu calls on Okonkwo to tell him to have nothing to do with the killing of Ikemefuna because the boy is too much like a family member: "He calls you his father."...

In addition to supplying a workable system of government and institutions supporting moderation and morality, the Igbos have an economic system which redistributes wealth in a manner preventing any one tribesman from becoming supreme. As Robert Wren asserts [in Achebe's World, 1981] ozo requires that every ambitious man of wealth periodically distribute his excess. In order to take any of the titles of the clan, a man has to give up a portion of his wealth to the clan. Okoye, in Things Fall Apart, is gathering all his resources in preparation for the "very expensive" ceremony required to take the Idemili title, the third highest in the land. As Achebe explains in Arrow of God, long ago there had been a fifth title among the Igbos of Umuaro— the title of king:

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But the conditions for its attainment had been so severe that no man had ever taken it, one of the conditions being that the man aspiring to be king must first pay the debts of every man and every woman in Umuaro.

Along with the representation of the viability of Igbo institutions in a world without Europeans, Achebe gives a sense of the beauty of Igbo art, poetry and music by showing how it is interwoven with the most important institutions of the clan and by creating a sense of the Igbo language through his own use of English. The decorating of walls and bodies or the shaving of hair in "beautiful patterns" recurs in various ceremonies. Music and dancing are a part of Igbo rituals which call for talent such as that of Obiozo Ezikolo, king of all the drums. Stones become the means of inciting men to strength, of teaching about the gods, and of generally passing on the culture....

In addition to portraying the dignity of Igbo village life, Achebe makes it clear that the Igbos did not need the white man to carry them into the modern world. Within the Igbo system change and progress were possible. When old customs were ineffective, they were gradually discarded. Formerly the punishment for breaking the Week of Peace was not so mild as that meted out to Okonkwo, an offering to Ani. In the past "a man who broke the peace was dragged on the ground through the village until he died. But after a while this custom was stopped because it spoiled the peace which it was meant to preserve." Such changes were likely to be brought about by men who, like Obierika, "thought about things," such as why a man should suffer for an inadvertent offense or why twins should be thrown away.

Although Achebe has the Igbo culture meet certain standards, he does not idealize the past. Probably the most troubling aspect of Igbo culture for modern democrats is the law that requires the killing of Ikemefuna for the sins of his clan. Achebe's description of Ikemefuna makes him a sympathetic character, and it is difficult not to side with Nwoye in rebelling against this act. Nevertheless, Igbo history does not seem so different from that of the British who think they are civilizing the natives. A form of the principle of an eye for an eye is involved in Mbaino's giving Mbanta a young virgin and a young man to replace the "daughter of Mbanta" killed in Mbaino. It is the Old Testament principle cast in a more flexible and gentler mold, for the killing of Ikemefuna is dependent on the Oracle and thus is not, like the Old Testament law, inevitable. Further, the sacrifices of the virgin to replace the lost wife and of the young boy become a way to "avoid war and bloodshed" while still protecting one's tribe from injustices against it. Achebe, then, seems to depict this episode in terms which relate it to the development of the British, while also sympathizing with the impulses to change in Obierika and with the revulsion of Nwoye against the sacrifice which to him is so like the abandonment of twins in the Evil Forest. The sacrifice of the virgin, of course, is also a reminder of the sacrifices of young virgins in the classical literature which is so basic a part of the British heritage....

Although Achebe depicts the treachery and ignorance and intolerance of the British, he does not represent the Europeans as wholly evil. Both the Igbo and the British cultures are for Achebe a mixture of types of human beings. Okonkwo and Mr. Smith are warrior types who will not compromise when their own cultures are threatened. Okonkwo favors fighting the Christians when in Abame one of them kills the sacred python, and he favors war with the Christians in Umuofia. In the end he cuts down the court messengers who come to disband

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the meeting in Umuofia. Likewise, the Reverend James Smith is against compromise: "He saw the world as a battlefield in which the children of light were locked in mortal conflict with the sons of darkness."

Mr. Brown, on the other hand, is more like Akunna or Obierika. He and Akunna are willing to learn about the other's beliefs even if they are not converted to them. He and Obierika are thoughtful defenders of their own cultures. Mr. Brown recognizes the difficulty with a frontal attack on the Igbos' religion, and so he favors compromise and accommodation. Obierika realizes that if Umuofia kills the Christians, the soldiers from Umuru will annihilate the village.

Achebe's novel, then, depicts for both Africans and Americans the actual and potential sources of modern Nigerian dignity. Things Fall Apart suggests that the perpetual human types recur in all cultures and that all effective civilizations must learn to deal with those types. Revealing the Igbo ability in precolonial times to incorporate the variety of humans in a well-functioning, culture, Achebe refers his Igbo society to a series of standards which both Africans and Americans can seek as goals—a degree of redistribution of wealth, a combining of male and female principles, compelling art and poetry and music, tolerance, democracy, morality, a sound system of justice and, perhaps most important, the capacity for meaningful change. Lending veracity to his depiction of Igbo history by remaining clear sighted about cultural weaknesses which need correction, Achebe depicts a worthy precursor of a healthy and just modern civilization.

Source: Diana Akers Rhoads, "Culture in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart," in The African Studies Review, Vol. 26, No. 2, September, 1993, pp. 61-72.

The Center Holds – The Resilience of Ibo Culture in Things Fall Apart

Written about the past of Africa by a novelist who sees himself as a "teacher," Things Fall Apart encompasses several worlds, several experiences, sometimes complex, all altered or mixed. Achebe is never a mere reporter of public events. Talking of Things Fall Apart, he said: "I now know that my first book was an act of atonement with my past, the ritual return and homage of a prodigal son." [Achebe in Morning Yet on Creation Day, Heinemann, 1975]. The past that Chinua Achebe describes so beautifully in Things Fall Apart is a past that Achebe himself had to rediscover. It is a past that was largely lost as a result of twentieth-century Europeanization. This rediscovery of the suppressed past is an act of faith and religious revival. Achebe, like the majority of African writers today, wants his writings to be functional, to serve as oral literature did in traditional Africa, reflecting the totality of actual experience. As David Cook tells us:

Close study of a passage from Things Fall Apart out of context is particularly likely to lead to pedantic fault-finding and to have little relation to the full impact the novel makes upon us since . . the achievement of this work is essentially an epic achievement in which the whole is greater than the parts and in which the parts cannot be appreciated properly when separated from the whole. [African Literature. A Critical View, by David Cook, Longman, 1977 ]

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John Mbiti similarly sees the holistic and communal nature of African culture in his statement: "I am because we are and since we are therefore I am" [in African Religions and Philosophy, by John Mbiti, Anchor Books Doubleday, 1970]. This communal sense makes it necessary to see Okonkwo as something other than just a tragic hero in the usual Western sense—a lonely figure who passes moral judgment the group.

The "we" of Achebe's story is the Ibo society of Umuofia, which has no centralized authority or king. The tribal setup is very different from most tribal societies in Africa, because of its respect for individualism and its rejection of any inherited or hierarchical system of authority. The Ibo people's highly individualistic society may have developed partly because of geography, for they lived in forest areas which were difficult to penetrate, and each village lived separated from the next. These natural obstacles are described by another Ibo writer, Elechi Amadi, in his novel The Concubine[Heinemann, 1982]:

Only the braves could go as far as Alyi. It was a whole day's journey from Omokachi. The path went through forests and swamps and there is no knowing when and where headhunters would strike. When there was any message to be relayed to Alyi two strong men ran the errand.

In spite of its isolation, Umuofia society is proud, dignified, and stable. It is governed by a complicated system of customs, traditions, and rituals extending from birth through marriage to death. It has its own legal, educational, and religious system and conventions governing relations between men and women, adults and children, and the various generations. The first part of the book allows us to see the customs, rituals, and traditions of Umuofia (e.g., consultation of oracles, the Week of Peace, the New Yam Festival) and to see the myths operating in the clan (e.g., Ogbanje, or a child that repeatedly dies and returns to the mother to be reborn, the exposure of twins, and taboos about shedding the blood of one's clansmen).

In addition, we are shown a society that is competitive and materialistic. A man's prestige is in direct proportion to the size of his barns and his compounds, to the number of titles he has taken. As Things Fall Apart shows the first impact of European invasion upon the old Ibo society, Achebe presents, in a very fair and objective way, the strengths and weaknesses of this society. Contrary to the views of the District Commissioner who plans to write a book, The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger, Achebe presents an Ibo culture which is neither "primitive" nor "barbaric." Even though his ambition to prove that "African peoples did not hear of culture for the first time from Europeans" might seem to cast doubt on his objectivity, he does not romanticize the Ibo society, but reveals instead the bad side as well as the good. He acts as the conscientious teacher he wants to be. Nothing is left aside.

To his credit, Achebe does not merely describe these traditions, values, and customs; he brings the ceremonial to life, presenting events and conversations dramatically. In so doing, he presents convincingly a rich Ibo culture which is not static, but clearly in a state of transition. Outwardly, Umuofia is a world of serenity, harmony, and communal activity, but inwardly it is torn by the individual's personal doubts and fears. At times, the reader is faced with contradictions. For example, although the child is valued more than any material thing

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in Umuofian society, an innocent child named Ikemefuna is denied rife by traditional laws and customs which demand his life m return for that of a Umuofian who was killed by his people. But Ibo society is full of contradictions. It is a world in which the spiritual dimension is a part of daily life, but also a world in which a man's success is measured by his material goods. It is a world which is at once communal and individualistic, a world in which human relations are paramount, but in which old people and twins are left in the forest to die. It is a male-dominated society, in which the chief goddess is female and in which proverbial wisdom maintains "Mother is supreme." This sustained view of the duality of the traditional Ibo society intensifies the wider tragedy and reveals the dilemma that shapes and destroys the life of Okonkwo....

In providing a context for interpreting Okonkwo's relationship with his society, the novel's use of proverbs plays an important role. They reveal the clan's dependence upon traditional wisdom and help to present the whole way of life. Many critics have demonstrated the power of proverbs in the work of Achebe in general and in Things Fall Apart in particular. Bernth Lindfors sums up the role of the proverbs in Achebe's fictions when he declares:

Proverbs can serve as keys to an understanding of his novels because he uses them not merely to add a touch of local color but to sound and reiterate themes, to sharpen characterization, to clarify conflict, and to focus on the values of the society he is portraying. [Folklore in Nigerian Literature, by Bernth Lindfors, Africana Publishing, 1973 ]

Such an understanding of the subtleties of language by the reader is possible only through personal effort linked with open-mindedness. It is, unfortunately, those elements which are lacking among many of the characters in the novel and which have led also to cultural misunderstanding among its readers. Achebe is using English, a worldwide language, to translate African experience. In other words, English, a tool in the hands of all those who have learnt to master it, can be submitted to different kinds of use Critics of African literature must keep this fact in mind and try to grasp all the riches of the Ibo language and rhetoric that Achebe, as a son of the tribe, has tried to translate. With such an attitude, the critic will contribute to consolidating and widening our experience, the human experience. Hasn't the reader grown into accepting, for instance, that the natural world is penetrated by the supernatural, thanks to Achebe's ability to make us live (with the characters) the various stages of their cultural life?

Things Fall Apart, the title of which is an allusion to W. B. Yeats's poem "The Second Coming," is a novel in which Achebe is interested in analyzing the way things happen and in giving language to the Ibo experience. He offers a larger view of history and of individual life:

No civilization can either remain static or evolve forever towards a more inclusive perfection. It must both collapse from within and be overwhelmed from without, and what replaces it will appear most opposite to itself, being built from all that it overlooked or undervalued. [In Critical Perspectives on Achebe, edited by C. L. Innes and Bernth Lindfors, Three Continents Press, 1978.]

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The novel, therefore, celebrates stability in human affairs despite its apparent "anarchy" (to use a word from Yeats's poem). Ibo culture, even while changing, is very much alive. Despite the tragic loss of Okonkwo, the society of the Ibos, because of its flexibility, survives. Despite the loss, "the center holds."

Source: Ndiawar Sarr, "The Center Holds - The Resilience of Ibo Culture in Things Fall Apart," in Global Perspectives on Teaching Literature, Shared Visions and Distinctive Visions, Sandra Ward Lott, Maureen S. G. Hawkins, Norman McMillan, eds., National Council of Teachers of English, 1993, pp. 347-55.

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APPENDIX

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