Things Fall Apart

This article is about the novel. For other uses, see Things Fall Apart (disambiguation).

Things Fall Apart
First edition
Author(s)	Chinua Achebe
Cover artist	C. W. Barton
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	William Heinemann Ltd.
Publication date	1958
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	9780385474542
Followed by	No Longer at Ease

Things Fall Apart is a 1958 English language novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. It is a staple book in schools throughout Africa and widely read and studied in English-speaking countries around the world. It is seen as the archetypal modern African novel in English, and one of the first African novels written in English to receive global critical acclaim. The title of the novel comes from William Butler Yeats's poem "The Second Coming". In 2009, Newsweek ranked Things Fall Apart #14 on its list of Top 100 Books: The Meta-List.

The novel depicts the life of Okonkwo, a leader and local wrestling champion in Umuofia—one of a fictional group of nine villages in Nigeria, inhabited by the Igbo ethnic group. In addition it focuses on his three wives, his children, and the influences of British colonialism and Christian missionaries on his traditional Igbo (archaically "Ibo") community during the late nineteenth century.

Things Fall Apart was followed by a sequel, No Longer at Ease (1960), originally written as the second part of a larger work together with Things Fall Apart, and Arrow of God (1964), on a similar subject. Achebe states that his two later novels, A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987), while not featuring Okonkwo's descendants and set in fictional African countries, are spiritual successors to the previous novels in chronicling African history.

Plot summary

Okonkwo is known to be hard working and shows no weakness, emotional or otherwise — to anyone. Although brusque with his family and neighbors, he is wealthy, courageous, and powerful among the people of his village. He is a leader of his village, and his place in that society is what he has striven for his entire life.

Because of his great esteem in the village, Okonkwo is selected by the elders to be the guardian of Ikemefuna, a boy taken prisoner by the village as a peace settlement between two villages after his father killed an Umuofian woman. The boy lives with Okonkwo's family and Okonkwo grows fond of him. The boy looks up to Okonkwo and considers him a second father. Then the elders decide that the boy must be killed. The oldest man in the village warns Okonkwo, telling him to have nothing to do with the murder because it would be like killing his own child. Rather than seem weak and feminine to the other men of the village, Okonkwo participates in the murder of the boy despite the warning from the old man. In fact, Okonkwo himself strikes the killing blow as Ikemefuna begs him for protection.

Shortly after Ikemefuna's death, things begin to go wrong for Okonkwo. When he accidentally kills someone at a ritual funeral ceremony when his gun explodes, he and his family are sent into exile for seven years to appease the gods he has offended. While Okonkwo is away in exile, white men begin coming to Umuofia and they peacefully introduce their religion. As the number of converts increases, the foothold of the white people grows beyond their religion and a new government is introduced.

Okonkwo returns to his village after his exile to find it a changed place because of the presence of the white man. He and other tribal leaders try to reclaim their hold on their native land by destroying a local Christian church. In return, the leader of the white government takes them prisoner and holds them for ransom for a short while, further humiliating and insulting the native leaders. As a result, the people of Umuofia finally gather for what could be a great uprising. Okonkwo, adamant over following Umuofian custom and tradition, despises any form of cowardice and advocates for war against the white men. When messengers of the white government try to stop the meeting, Okonkwo kills one of them. He realizes with despair that the people of Umuofia are not going to fight to protect themselves because they let the other messengers escape and so all is lost for the village.

When the local leader of the white government comes to Okonkwo's house to take him to court, he finds that Okonkwo has hanged himself, ruining his great reputation as it is strictly against the custom of the Igbo to commit suicide.

Culture

Achebe depicts the Igbo as people with great social institutions in accordance with their particular society, ie, wrestling, human sacrifice and suicide. Their culture is heavy in traditions and laws that focus on justice and fairness. The people are ruled not by a king or chief but by a kind of democracy, where the males meet and make decisions by consensus and in accordance to an "Oracle" that should be written down. It is the Europeans, who often talk of bringing democratic institutions to the rest of the world, who upset this system. Achebe emphasizes that high rank is attainable for all freeborn Igbo men – Okonkwo attains his through fighting as opposed to reading or ploughing the land and growing herbal remedies, vegetation, rearing cattle, fowl etc.

He also depicts the injustices of Igbo society. No more or less than Victorian England of the same era, the Igbo are a patriarchal society. They also fear twins, who are to be abandoned immediately after birth and left to die of exposure. The novel attempts to repair some of the damage done by earlier European depictions of Africans.

Political Reasons

Despite converting to Christianity himself, Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart not only in response to the then common bastardizations of his native people, but to show his fellow citizens that the Igbo were dignified. His mentioning of the Igbo people's democratic institutions and culture serve to test themselves “against the goals of modern liberal democracy and to have set out to show how the Igbo meet those standards.”

However, the novel does not completely idolize the Igbo people, as Achebe also intended to show readers what fractures existed within the Igbo people's culture. He “Also presents its weaknesses which require change and which aid in its destruction.”

In addition, he “chooses to ignore the evidence of what Izevbaye calls 'rich material civilization' in Africa in order to portray the Igbor as isolated and individual, evolving their own 'humanistic civilization'.”

This suggests that Achebe intended to show readers what the Igbo culture could have taken advantage of or eliminated in order to survive in future years.

Culture Clash

Notably, Achebe also writes that European sentiments toward Africans 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. On first arriving in Mbanta, the missionaries expect to find a king (p. 138), and, discovering no functionaries to work with, the British set up their own hierarchical system which delegates power from the queen of England through district commissioners to native court messengers- foreigners who do not belong to the village government at all (p. 160). Since the natives from other parts of Nigeria feel no loyalty to the villages where they enact the commands of the district commissioners, the British have superimposed a system which leads to bribery and corruption rather than to progress.”

By contrast, the Igbos follow a democracy which judges each voting man according to their personal merits.

While the Europeans in Things Fall Apart are depicted as intolerant of Igbo culture and religion, telling villagers that their gods are not real (pp. 135, 162) the Igbo are seen as tolerant of other cultures as a whole. For example, Uchendu is able to see “what is good among one people is an abomination with others,” (p. 129)

The linking of history, myth, and culture to create the setting

It is impossible to separate culture from history in terms of literary analysis. The history, as a chronological sequence of events, can be created. Yet, even the cutting and adding of particular events is influenced by the very culture of the historian writing the time-line. In the genre of literature, the author’s history, culture, society, emotions, judgments, prejudices and even the essence of himself or herself are all part of the creation of a history and setting where the characters interact. It is the author’s world and the reader can only make educated guesses as to the history of the people in that world. Just as creation myths were based on the events witnessed living on this planet and used to create the stories about the genesis of life itself, the reader must use the evidence at hand to assume their own version of the history of the characters’ world in the stories we read. The specific history of Chinua Achebe is not as important as the history of his culture and his society. The influences and inspirations are the true history of what Achebe created in Things Fall Apart; they go much deeper than one man.

Lack of a written history…

According to Roberts, in A Short History of the World, outside the major cities built up around the fertile Nile, the rest of Africa was more a source of natural resources that other cultures came to eventually exploit. He continues by calling Africa "the home of peoples to whom things have happened rather than the source of ideas or techniques which changed life elsewhere. Even the most important changes in African history have been produced by forces working from the outside." Around 3000BC, after Africa's role as the cradle of civilization, a climate change desiccated the Sahara and made the land uninhabitable for both man and animal.

Another issue with the study of African history outside Egypt, is the lack of written records. The introduction of Islam helped to remedy this lack of primary sources. However, until Islam arrived and spread throughout the continent "we have to make do with legend and travelers' tales." Oral traditions are still valuable despite the ambiguity and possible misinterpretation by the translator, since there are many myths of the African people recorded after being passed through many generations.

According to Roberts, the terrain also determined the lifestyle of the people in Nigeria. Africans of this area were migrant farmers, clearing the land and moving on once the soil was exhausted of nutrients. According to Roberts, "they neither discovered nor adapted the plow until much later. One reason may be that in many places disease made it difficult to breed draft animals to pull one." In reference to Iron, Roberts states:

Iron-working and agricultural techniques (new food crops from Asia early in Christian times, for example) were the first of a long list of the importations to Africa which have made it easier for its inhabitants to live in sizable numbers... But for a long time Africa south of the Sahara remained tied to a shifting agriculture, and lagged behind in pottery, milling and transport because it lacked the wheel. Nor was much of Africa literate until modern times.

Despite the appearance of nearby advanced civilizations which had access to means of creating surplus food, the interior of Sub-Saharan Africa would not benefit from these advances until easier contact was created across the Sahara in the 1500's.

History of Fire and Cooking according to Baldwin…

Fire was primarily a means of protection from predators and cold temperatures. Even though people did not realize the advantages of cooking food, many cultures have legends about its origin. According to Baldwin:

In Africa, according to Yoruba tradition, the first man tried to eat a raw yam but found it wasn't fit to eat. Later, he left one lying near his campfire, where it soon became roasted. And that's how the art of cooking was discovered. That's also probably about as close as we shall ever come to digging up the correct answer.

Religion, Myth and History

Religion was a part of everyday life and the history of the African people. According to Baldwin:

Religion looms large in the life of primitive man. It is not a one-a-day-a-week affair as it generally is with us. Seven days a week, 365 days a year, primitive peoples eat and work and play and sleep with religion. Nearly everything in primitive society - hunting, fishing, planting crops , harvesting, head hunting, war, marriage, birth, coming of age, illness, death, building a house, making a canoe or an ax- is associated with ritual or magic or ceremony or some other form of religious activity.

The analysis of cultural history involves myths, religion, totems, superstitions, rituals, festivals, icons, etc. In the case of the Ibo, in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the mask, the earth, the legends and the rituals all have significance to the story and the history of the Ibo culture.

First there is the use of the mask to draw the spirit of the gods into the body of a person in Achebe’s story. A great crime in Ibo culture was to unmask or disrespect the immortality of an egwugwu in front of his people. In Enoch, a warrior converted into a Christian unmasks and kills one of his own ancestral spirits. The clan wept for “it seemed as if the very soul of the tribe wept for a great evil that was coming – its own death." According to Baldwin, in Strange People and Stranger Customs, “numerous tribes in both Africa and Melanesia, where the worship and the veneration of ancestral spirits looms large, go in heavily for ceremonial masks… these figures [masks] are created to house the spirit of their dead ancestors.” Rene Girard also wrote of the importance of masks to primitive sects in his book Violence and the Sacred. Girard identifies masks as an expression of art. Next he logically concludes that “primitive art, after all, is fundamentally religious. And, masks will undoubtedly, therefore, serve a religious function." He goes on to state that:

Like the festival in which it often plays an important role, the masks displays combinations of forms and colors incompatible with the differentiated order that is not primarily that of nature but of the culture itself. The mask mixes man and beast, god and inanimate object…Masks juxtapose beings and objects separated by differences. They are beyond differences; they do not merely defy differences or efface them, but they incorporate and rearrange them in original fashion.

Masks are the liminal space where the “monstrous double,” the divine, the person, the undifferentiated and differentiated are all concentrated into an eventual new order. In Girard’s opinion “there is no point in trying to determine the ‘nature’ of masks, because it is in their nature not to have a nature but to encompass all natures.” This ideology underlining the use of masks in Achebe’s story applies to the literal mask of the ancestors of the Ibo.

In the cultural history of Nigeria complex rituals also played a large part in the daily life of the people. Anthropologist James Frazier mentions the Ibo people in his book The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. In his chapter entitled “Between Heaven and Earth,” he speaks of the link between the human divinities and the well being of the clan. Frazier believes that the people were ignorant of their exact relationship with the "divine King," but that their fates are bound together. The health and welfare of the divine King influenced the health of the community, the yield of the harvest and the health of the animals. Superstitions and taboos formed to protect the divine King and the community at large. According to Frazier, the Ibo priest of the Earth was not allowed to see a corpse, wear a mask, or touch one, or sit on the bare earth or eat foods that have fallen to the ground. The earth, to which the Ibo priest was spiritually connected, was not to be thrown at him. Frazier explains the power of these taboos and its sacredness in the following:

... [i]n many cases apparently the insulation of the tabooed person is recommended as a precaution not merely for his own sake but for the sake of others; for since the virtue of holiness or taboo is, so to say, a powerful explosive which the smallest touch may detonate, it is necessary in the interest of the general safety to keep it within narrow bounds, lest breaking out it should blast, blight, and destroy whatever it comes into contact with...

Again, Achebe’s story is found to contain this very strict attention to rituals and taboos. Okonkwo upholds his traditions by helping to kill the boy sacrificed to settle a dispute with another tribe, despite his feelings of fatherhood towards the boy. Okonkwo commits the ritual of killing Ikemefuna because “he was afraid of being thought weak.” Yet, after the ritual he could not eat or sleep; “He felt like a drunken giant walking with the limbs of a mosquito.” The space between an individual identity and their ancestors is narrow. Even Achebe goes so far as to put the following in his story:

The land of the living was not far removed from the domain of the ancestors. There was coming and going between them, especially at festivals and also when an old man died, because an old man was very close to the ancestors. A man’s life from birth to death was a series of transition rites which brought him nearer and nearer to his ancestors.

There are several legends and myths told in Things Fall Apart: the earth and the sky ; the mosquito and the ear ; the tortoise and the birds. In any oral tradition, stories and myths are told to all ages. In World Mythology, by Donna Rosenberg, the Yoruba people ranged from just north of the Niger River as far back as 300 BC and today live all over the southwest corner of Nigeria. Many religious ideas spread from the principal sacred city in Yoruba, called Ife. Rosenberg goes on to state that:

The mythology of the Yoruba people contains hundreds of gods, from major gods…to minor gods who protect local villages and regions. The Yoruba gods are human in form, thought, and way of life. They relate to one another as members of a large, human family... and like to spend time with them [humans] on earth... The gods in the Yoruba myth [“The Creation of the Universe and Ife”] are likable because they exhibit many of the best characteristics of the human personality.

According to Rosenberg, “myths symbolize human experience and embody the spiritual values of a culture.” . The values and views of the world spread through mythology is important to the survival of every society’s culture. Myths are instructional as well as entertaining. Purposefully, myths “explain the nature of the universe (creation and fertility myths)… or instruct members of the community in the attitudes and behavior necessary to function successfully in that particular culture (hero myths and epics).” In Things Fall Apart, the way of the language is much like a myth; “Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten.” Proverbs and Myths are both ways of portraying a meaning without directly force feeding the words to the listener. When the Ibo listener is digesting his words, he is learning and analyzing them as an active listener. Achebe is showing the importance of stories even within the story he is telling in Things Fall Apart.

Characters

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 eight children. Okonkwo’s tragic flaw is that he is terrified of being weak or "womanly" like his father. As a result, he behaves rashly, bringing a great deal of trouble and sorrow upon himself and his family. He is a tragic character who not only brings suffering to himself but also to those around him. Towards the end of the novel one can view Okonkwo as a tragic hero because like other tragic heroes he has one major flaw. His main flaw stems from the fear of being like his father, who is a soft-spoken, cheerful layabout who plays his flute and does not repay his debts. Okonkwo represses his emotions because he doesn't want to seem weak or effeminate, and when he does show any emotion, it is an uncontrollable rage. As a result of his flaws he makes many terrible mistakes, which ultimately leads to his tragic death.

Nwoye (later known as Isaac): Okonkwo’s eldest son, whom Okonkwo believes is weak, effeminate, and lazy, like his grandfather, Unoka. Okonkwo continually beats Nwoye, hoping to correct what he sees as flaws in his personality. When under the influence of Ikemefuna, Nwoye begins to exhibit more masculine behavior, which pleases Okonkwo. However, Nwoye harbours doubts about some of the laws and rules of his village and eventually converts to Christianity, an act that Okonkwo criticizes as “effeminate,” and punishes with beatings, after which the son leaves. Okonkwo believes that Nwoye is afflicted with the same weaknesses that his father, Unoka, possessed in abundance.

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 center 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 favorite child, for she understands him better than any of his other children. She reminds him of Ekwefi, who 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.

Ikemefuna: A boy given to Okonkwo by a neighboring 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. 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 Igbo value system rather than harshly impose his religion on it.

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 behavior 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 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 entrenchant culture into which he was born. The novel opens ten years after his death.

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 Igbo traditional structures.

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 honor 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.

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 defense 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 after she is late bringing in his dinner, and is fined.

Themes and motifs

Themes throughout the novel include change, loneliness, abandonment, and fear:

1. Individuals derive strength from their society, and societies derive strength from the individuals who belong to them. In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo builds his fortune and strength with the help of his society's customs. Likewise, Okonkwo's society benefits from his hard work and determination.
2. In contacts between other cultures, beliefs about superiority or inferiority, due to limited and partial world view, are invariably wrong-headed and destructive . When new cultures and religions meet the original, there is likely to be a struggle for dominance. For example, the Christians and Okonkwo's people have a limited view of each other, and have a very difficult time understanding and accepting one another's customs and beliefs, which resulted in violence as with the destruction of a local church and Okonkwo's killing of the messenger.
3. In spite of innumerable opportunities for understanding, people must strive to communicate. For example, Okonkwo and his son, Nwoye have a difficult time understanding one another because they hold different values. On the other hand, Okonkwo spends more time with Ikemefuna and develops a deeper relationship that seems to go beyond cultural restraints.
4. A social value—such as individual ambition—which is constructive when balanced by other values, can become destructive when overemphasized at the expense of other values. For example, Okonkwo values tradition so highly that he cannot accept change. (It may be more accurate to say he values tradition because of the high cost he has paid to uphold it, i.e. killing Ikemefuna and moving to Mbanta). The Christian teachings render these large sacrifices on his part meaningless. The distress over the loss of tradition, whether driven by his love of the tradition or the meaning of his sacrifices to it, can be seen as the main reasons for his suicide.
5. There is no such thing as a static culture; change is continual, and flexibility is necessary for successful adaptation. Because Okonkwo cannot accept the change the Christians bring, he cannot adapt.
6. The struggle between change and tradition is constant; however, this statement only appears to apply to Okonkwo. Change can very well be accepted, as evidenced by how the people of Umuofia refused to join Okonkwo as he struck down the white man at the end. Perhaps Okonkwo is not so much bothered by change, but the idea of losing everything he had built up - his fortune, fame, title, etc. that will be replaced by new customs. It is evidenced throughout the book that he cares for these things, especially his mentions of a lack of a "respectable" father figure from whom he could have inherited them from. A second interpretation is apparent with Okonkwo's static behavior to cultural change. His suicide can be seen as a final attempt to show to the people of Umuofia the results of a clash between cultures and as a means for the Igbo culture to be upheld. In the same way that his father's failure motivated Okonkwo to reach a high standing within Igbo culture and society, Okonkwo's suicide leads Obierika and fellow Umuofia men to recognize the long held custom of not burying a man who commits suicide and perform the associated rituals with his death. This interpretation is further emphasized with Obierika's comment on Okonkwo as a great man driven to kill himself, likely as a result of the loss of tradition. His killing of the messenger and subsequent suicide continues the internal struggle between change and tradition.
7. The role of culture in society. With the death of Ikemefuna, Okonkwo's expulsion due to causes beyond his control, and the journey of Ezinma with Chielo, Achebe questions, particularly through Obierika, whether adherence to culture is for the better of society, when it has caused many hardships and sacrifices on the part of Okonkwo and his family.
8. Definitions of masculinity vary throughout different societies. In this case, Okonkwo views aggression and action as masculinity.
9. Notion of success and failure. Okonkwo's personal ambition to avoid a life of complacency like his father, Unoka, leads to his high ranking and affluence in the community. He ardently tries to avoid failure. The notion of failure correlates with the idea of change in Umuofia and a shift in cultural values. Failure, for Okonkwo, is societal reform. Hence Okonkwo's drastic and at times erratic action against anything foreign or not masculine.
10. Through Achebe’s use of language, he is successful in demonstrating (and attesting to) the Igbo’s rich and unique culture. By integrating traditional Igbo words (e.g. egwugwu, or the spirits of the ancestor’s of Nigerian tribes), folktales, and songs into English sentences, the author is successful in proving that African languages aren’t incomprehensible, although they are often too complex for direct translation into English. Additionally, the author is successful in verifying that each of the continent’s languages are unique, as Mr. Brown’s translator is ridiculed after his misinterpretation of an Igbo word.

Literary significance and reception

Things Fall Apart is a milestone in African literature. It has achieved the status of the archetypal modern African novel in English, and is read in Nigeria and throughout Africa. It is studied widely in Europe and North America, where it has spawned numerous secondary and tertiary analytical works. It has achieved similar status and repute in India and Australia. Considered Achebe's magnum opus, it has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide. Time Magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.

Achebe’s writing about African society, in telling from an African point of view the story of the colonization of the Igbo, tends to extinguish the misconception that African culture had been savage and primitive. In Things Fall Apart, western culture is portrayed as being “arrogant and ethnocentric," insisting that the African culture needed a leader. As it had no kings or chiefs, Umofian culture was vulnerable to invasion by western civilization. It is felt that the repression of the Igbo language at the end of the novel contributes greatly to the destruction of the culture. Although Achebe favors the African culture of the pre-western society, the author attributes its destruction to the “weaknesses within the native structure.” Achebe portrays the culture as having a religion, a government, a system of money, and an artistic tradition, as well as a judicial system.

Achebe named Things Fall Apart from a line in William Butler Yeats' "The Second Coming," thus tying in the meaning of the poem itself. The missionaries' arrival begins the downfall of traditional Igbo society. This downfall destroys the Igbo way of life, leading to the death of Okonkwo, who was once a hero of the village.

Things Fall Apart has been called a modern Greek tragedy. It has the same plot elements as a Greek tragedy, including the use of a tragic hero, the following of the string model, etc. Okonkwo is a classic tragic hero, even though the story is set in more modern times. He shows multiple hamartia, including hubris (pride) and ate (rashness), and these character traits do lead to his peripeteia, or reversal of fortune, and his downfall at the end of the novel. He is distressed by social changes brought by white men, because he has worked so hard to move up in the traditional society. This position is at risk due to the arrival of a new values system. Those who commit suicide lose their place in the ancestor-worshipping traditional society, to the extent that they may not even be touched to give a proper burial. The irony is that Okonkwo completely loses his standing in both value systems. Okonkwo truly has good intentions, but his need to feel in control and his fear that other men will sense weakness in him drive him to make decisions, whether consciously or subconsciously, that he regrets as he progresses through his life.

Popularity/influence

No one could have predicted that Things Fall Apart would one day sell nearly 8 million copies, and become of the most widely read books in Africa. The novel is typically assigned in schools and universities, and most critics consider it to be Africa’s most important novel to date.”

Things Fall Apart has been translated into more than fifty languages, and often used in literature, world history, and African Studies courses across the world. Things Fall Apart is the first African novel to receive such powerful international critical acclaim, and is oftentimes considered the archetypal modern African novel.

Of all of Achebe’s works, Things Fall Apart is the one read most often, and has generated the most critical responses, examinations, and literary criticism. When the novel was first published, Achebe gave African’s their own story in print, and he is quoted as saying,

The popularity of Things Fall Apart in my own society can be explained simply… this was the first time we were seeing ourselves, as autonomous individuals, rather than half-people, or as Conrad would say, ‘rudimentary souls'

Although Things Fall Apart made a huge impact on African culture, it has also proven to be popular among international audiences. It is a novel that can be read and reread from different perspectives, and it continues to generate diverse interpretations.

Critical reception/value

Chinua Achebe’s first novel, Things Fall Apart, is generally thought of as the first novel to have been produced by an African writer in the English language. The impressive achievement of ‘Things Fall Apart set the foreground for numerous African novelists. Because of Things Fall Apart, novelists after Achebe have been able to find an eloquent and effective mode for the expression of the particular social, historical, and cultural situation of modern Africa.

Before Things Fall Apart was published, Europeans had written most novels about Africa, and they largely portrayed Africans as savages who needed to be enlightened by Europeans. Achebe broke apart this view by portraying Igbo society in a sympathetic light, which allows the reader to examine the effects of European colonialism from a different perspective.

Achebe is now considered to be the essential novelist on African identity, nationalism, and decolonization. Achebe’s main focus has been cultural ambiguity and contestation. The complexity of novels such as Things Fall Apart depends on Achebe’s ability to bring competing cultural systems and their languages to the same level of representation, dialogue, and contestation.

Reviewers have praised Achebe’s neutral narration and have described Things Fall Apart as a realistic novel. Much of the critical discussion about Things Fall Apart concentrates on the socio-political aspects of the novel, including the friction between the members of Igbo society as they are confronted with the intrusive and overpowering presence of Western government and beliefs. Ernest N. Emenyonu commented that,"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."

One point of contention with the reception of Things Fall Apart has to do with the killing ofIkemefuna. Many critics have argued that Okonkwo was wrong and went against the clan when he became involved with the boy’s death. Others believe that he was merely fulfilling the command of the Oracle of the Hills and Caves.

Achebe’s choice to write in English has also caused controversy. While both African and non-African critics agree that Achebe modeled Things Fall Apart on classic European literature, they disagree about whether his novel upholds a Western model, or, in fact, subverts or confronts it.

Yet Achebe has continued to strongly defend his decision:

English is something you spend your lifetime acquiring, so it would be foolish not to use it. Also, in the logic of colonization and decolonization it is actually a very powerful weapon in the fight to regain what was yours. English was the language of colonization itself. It is not simply something you use because you have it anyway.

The language of the novel has not only intrigued critics but has also been a major factor in the emergence of the modern African novel. Because Achebe wrote in English, portrayed Igbo life from the point of view of an African man, and used the language of his people he was able to greatly influence African novelists, who viewed as a guide.

Today Achebe’s fiction and criticism continue to inspire and influence African writers. Adichie, the author of the popular and critically acclaimed books Purple Hibiscus (2003) and Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), commented in a 2006 interview,

“Chinua Achebe will always be important to me because his work influenced not so much my style as my writing philosophy: reading him emboldened me, gave me permission to write about the things I knew well.”

Language

Achebe writes his novels in English because written Standard Ibo was created by mixing the various languages, creating a stilted written form. In an interview for The Paris Review by James Brooks in 1994, Achebe says, "the novel form seems to go with the English language. There is a problem with the Igbo language. It suffers from a very serious inheritance, which it received at the beginning of this century from the Anglican mission. They sent out a missionary by the name of Dennis. Archdeacon Dennis. He was a scholar. He had this notion that the Igbo language—which had very many different dialects—should somehow manufacture a uniform dialect that would be used in writing to avoid all these different dialects. Because the missionaries were powerful, what they wanted to do they did. This became the law. But the standard version cannot sing. There’s nothing you can do with it to make it sing. It’s heavy. It’s wooden. It doesn’t go anywhere."

Aspects of gender

Gender differentiation is seen in Igbo classification of crimes. The narrator of Things Fall Apart states that "The crime [of killing Ezeudu's son] was of two kinds, male and female. Okonkwo had committed the female because it was an accident. He would be allowed to return to the clan after seven years." Okonkwo fled to the land of his mother, Mbanta, because a man finds refuge with his mother. Uchendu explains this to Okonkwo:

"It is true that a child belongs to his father. But when the father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in its mother's hut. 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. Your mother is there to protect you. She is buried there. And that is why we say that mother is supreme."

Women are understated throughout Things Fall Apart. A crucial element of the story is represented through the cultural aspects of the Igbo society, and traditions. As such, it can be argued that the infrequent mentions of wives in the story of "Things Fall Apart," can be taken as a statement of the limited value of women. The mentioning of wives purely as the bearers of children can then be taken as a statement that women are actually nothing more than tools of reproduction. The fact that the number of wives you have affects social status further depicts women as possessions of the men. The fact that the men are free to beat their wives also adds to this idea. Okonkwo wishing that his favorite child, Enzima, was a boy further reveals in the inequality between the genders in Nigeria at the time.

References to history

The events of the novel unfold around the 1890s. The majority of the story takes place in the village of Umuofia, located west of the actual Onitsha, on the east bank of the Niger River in Nigeria. The culture depicted is similar to that of Achebe's birthplace of Ogidi, where Igbo-speaking people lived together in groups of independent villages ruled by titled elders. The customs described in the novel mirror those of the actual Onitsha people, who lived near Ogidi, and with whom Achebe was familiar.

Within forty years of the British arrival, by the time Achebe was born in 1930, the missionaries were well-established. Achebe's father was among the first to be converted in Ogidi, around the turn of the century. Achebe himself was an orphan, so it can safely be said the character of Nwoye, who joins the church because of a conflict with his father, is not meant to represent the author. Achebe was raised by his grandfather. His grandfather, far from opposing Achebe's conversion to Christianity, allowed Achebe's Christian marriage to be celebrated in his compound.

Political structures in the novel

Prior to British colonization, the Igbo people as featured in Things Fall Apart, lived in a patriarchal collective political system. Decisions were not made by a chief or by any individual but were rather decided by a council of male elders. Religious leaders were also called upon to settle debates reflecting the cultural focus of the Igbo people. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to explore Nigeria. Though the Portuguese are not mentioned by Achebe, the remaining influence of the Portuguese can be seen in many Nigerian surnames. The British entered Nigeria first through trade and then established The Royal Niger Colony in 1886. The success of the colony led to Nigeria becoming a British protectorate in 1901. The arrival of the British slowly began to deteriorate the traditional society. The British government would intervene in tribal disputes rather than allowing the Igbo to settle issues in a traditional manner. The frustration caused by these shifts in power is illustrated by the struggle of the protagonist Okonkwo in the second half of the novel.

Film, television, and theatrical adaptations

A dramatic radio program called Okonkwo was made of the novel in April 1961 by the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. It featured Wole Soyinka in a supporting role.

In 1987, the book was made into a very successful mini series directed by David Orere and broadcast on Nigerian television by the NTA (Nigerian Television Authority). It starred movie veterans like Pete Edochie, Nkem Owoh and Sam Loco.

Recently, the author turned down $1 million from rapper 50 cent who sought permission to use the name of the book as the title of the upcoming movie that he is producing.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• No Longer at Ease
• Arrow of God
• Heart of Darkness
• Weep Not, Child
• Death and the King's Horseman

References

currently for footnotes 8-33

Roberts, J.M. A Short History of the World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. (Print)

Girard, Rene. Violence and the Sacred. Trans. Patrick Gregory. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977. (Print)

Rosenberg, Donna. World Mythology: An Anthology of the Great Myths and Epics. Lincolnwood, Illinois: NTC Publishing Group, 1994. (Print)

Baldwin, Gordon. Strange Peoples and Stranger Customs. New York: W.W. Norton and Company Inc, 1967. (Print)

Frazer, Sir James George. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1942. (Print)

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York, London, Sydney, Toronto, Auckland: Anchor, 1994. (Print)

External links

• Chinua Achebe discusses Things Fall Apart on the BBC World Book Club
• Teacher's Guide at Random House
• Study Resource for writing about Things Fall Apart
• Study guide
• Resource connecting the novel to historical evidence. From MSN Encarta
• Words present in the novel used in past SATs Includes definitions, words in order from the book, and three different tests.
• Things Fall Apart Reviews
• Things Fall Apart on Wiki Summaries
• Things Fall Apart study guide, themes, analysis, teacher resources