Introduction Of Things Fall Apart f2r71

Introduction of things fall apart

Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is probably the most authentic narrative ever written about life in Nigeria at the turn of the twentieth century. Although the novel was first published in 1958 — two years before Nigeria achieved its independence — thousands of copies are still sold every year in the United States alone. Millions of copies have been sold around the world in its many translations. The novel has been adapted for productions on the stage, on the radio, and on television. Teachers in high schools, colleges, and graduate schools use the novel as a textbook in many types of classes — from history and social studies to comparative literature and anthropology.

The novel takes its title from a verse in the poem "The Second Coming" by W. B. Yeats, an Irish poet, essayist, and dramatist:

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

In this poem — ironically, a product of European thought — Yeats describes an apocalyptic vision in which the world collapses into anarchy because of an internal flaw in humanity. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe illustrates this vision by showing us what happened in the Igbo society of Nigeria at the time of its colonization by the British. Because of internal weaknesses within the native structure and the divided nature of Igbo society, the community of Umuofia in this novel is unable to withstand the tidal wave of foreign religion, commerce, technology, and government. In "The Second Coming," Yeats evokes the anti-Christ leading an anarchic world to destruction. This ominous tone gradually emerges in Things Fall

Apart as an intrusive religious presence and an insensitive government together cause the traditional Umuofian world to fall apart.

Literary Purpose

When Things Fall Apart was first published, Achebe announced that one of his purposes was to present a complex, dynamic society to a Western audience who perceived African society as primitive, simple, and backward. Unless Africans could tell their side of their story, Achebe believed that the African experience would forever be "mistold," even by such well-meaning authors as Joyce Cary in Mister Johnson. Cary worked in Nigeria as a colonial and was sympathetic to the Nigerian people. Yet Achebe feels that Cary, along with other Western writers such as Joseph Conrad, misunderstood Africa. Many European writers have presented the continent as a dark place inhabited by people with impenetrable, primitive minds; Achebe considers this reductionist portrayal of Africa racist. He points to Conrad, who wrote against imperialism but reduced Africans to mysterious, animalistic, and exotic "others." In an interview published in 1994, Achebe explains that his anger about the inaccurate portrayal of African culture by white colonial writers does not imply that students should not read works by Conrad or Cary. On the contrary, Achebe urges students to read such works in order to better understand the racism of the colonial era.

Achebe also kept in mind his own Nigerian people as an audience. In 1964, he stated his goal:

to help my society regain belief in itself and put away the complexes of the years of denigration and self-abasement. . . . I would be quite satisfied if my novels . . . did no more than teach my [African] 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, the Europeans' understanding of Africa is particularly exemplified in two characters: the Reverend James Smith and the unnamed District Commissioner. Mr. Smith sees no need to compromise on unquestionable religious doctrine or practices, even during their introduction to a society very different from his own. He simply does not recognize any benefit for allowing the Nigerians to retain elements of their heritage. The District Commissioner, on the other hand, prides himself on being a student of primitive customs and sees himself as a benevolent leader who has only the best intentions for pacifying the primitive tribes and bringing them into the modern era. Both men would express surprise if anyone suggested to them that their European values may not be entirely appropriate for these societies. The Commissioner's plan for briefly treating the story of Okonkwo illustrates the inclination toward Western simplification and essentialization of African culture.

To counter this inclination, Achebe brings to life an African culture with a religion, a government, a system of money, and an artistic tradition, as well as a judicial system. While technologically unsophisticated, the Igbo culture is revealed to the reader as remarkably complex. Furthermore, Things Fall Apart ironically reverses the style of novels by such writers as Conrad and Cary, who created flat and stereotypical African characters. Instead, Achebe stereotypes the white colonialists as rigid, most with imperialistic intentions, whereas the Igbos are highly individual, many of them open to new ideas.

But readers should note that Achebe is not presenting Igbo culture as faultless and idyllic. Indeed, Achebe would contest such a romantic portrayal of his native people. In fact, many Western writers who wrote about colonialism (including Joseph Conrad, George Orwell, Herman Melville, and Graham Greene) were opposed

to imperialism but were romantic in their portrayal of noble savages — primitive and animalistic, yet uncorrupted and innocent. The opposition to imperialism that such authors voiced often rested on the notion that an advanced Western society corrupts and destroys the non-Western world. Achebe regards this notion as an unacceptable argument as well as a myth. The Igbos were not noble savages, and although the Igbo world was eventually destroyed, the indigenous culture was never an idyllic haven, even before the arrival of the white colonialists. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe depicts negative as well as positive elements of Igbo culture, and he is sometimes as critical of his own people as he is of the colonizers.

Achebe has been a major force in the worldwide literary movement to define and describe this African experience. Other postcolonial writers in this movement include Leopold Senghor, Wole Soyinka, Aime Cesaire, Derek Walcott, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and Birago Diop. These writers not only confront a multiethnic perspective of history and truth, but they also challenge readers to reexamine themselves in this complex and evolving world.

As an African novel written in English and departing significantly from more familiar colonial writing, Things Fall Apart was a ground breaking work. Achebe's role in making modern African literature a part of world literature cannot be understated.

Note: Throughout this novel, Achebe uses the spelling Ibo, the old spelling of the Umuofian community. Throughout the CliffsNotes, as well as on the map, the contemporary spelling Igbo is used.

A Brief History of Nigeria

The history of Nigeria is bound up with its geography. About onethird larger than the state of Texas, Nigeria is located above the inner curve of the elbow on the west coast of Africa, just north of

the equator and south of the Sahara Desert. More than two hundred ethnic groups — each with its own language, beliefs, and culture — live in present-day Nigeria. The largest ethnic groups are the mostly Protestant Yoruba in the west, the Catholic Igbo in the east, and the predominantly Muslim Hausa-Fulani in the north. This diversity of peoples is the result of thousands of years of history; as traders, nomads, and refugees from invaders and climatic changes came to settle with the indigenous population, and as foreign nations became aware of the area's resources.

The events in Things Fall Apart take place at the end of the nineteenth century and in the early part of the twentieth century. Although the British did not occupy most of Nigeria until 1904, they had a strong presence in West Africa since the early nineteenth century. The British were a major buyer of African slaves in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

In 1807, however, the British outlawed slave trade within their empire. At the time, they did not yet control Nigeria, and internal wars continually increased the available supply of captured slaves. In 1861, frustrated with the expanding slave trade, the British decided to occupy Lagos, a major slave-trading post and the capital of present-day Nigeria. Slowly and hesitantly, the British occupied the rest of Nigeria.

Ultimately, the British were prompted to occupy Nigeria for more than the slave trade. The British were in competition with other Europeans for control of the natural wealth of West Africa. At the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 — a meeting arranged to settle rivalries among European powers — the British proclaimed Nigeria to be their territory. They bought palm oil, peanuts, rubber, cotton, and other agricultural products from the Nigerians. Indeed, trade in these products made some Nigerian traders very wealthy. In the early twentieth century, the British defined the collection of diverse ethnic groups as one country, Nigeria, and declared it a colony of the British Empire.

The British moved into Nigeria with a combination of government control, religious mission, and economic incentive. In the north, the British ruled indirectly, with the of the local Muslim leaders, who collected taxes and istered a government on behalf of the British. In the south, however, where communities (such as Umuofia in Things Fall Apart) were often not under one central authority, the British had to intervene directly and forcefully to control the local population.

For example, a real-life tragedy at the community of Ahiara serves as the historical model for the massacre of the village of Abame in Chapter 15 of Things Fall Apart. On November 16, 1905, a white man rode his bicycle into Ahiara and was killed by the natives. A month later, an expedition of British forces searched the villages in the area and killed many natives in reprisal.

The Ahiara incident led to the Bende-Onitsha Hinterland Expedition, a force created to eliminate Igbo opposition. The British destroyed the powerful Awka Oracle and killed all opposing Igbo groups. In 1912, the British instituted the Collective Punishment Ordinance, which stipulated punishment against an entire village or community for crimes committed by one or more persons against the white colonialists.

The British operated an efficient istrative system and introduced a form of British culture to Nigeria. They also sent many capable young Nigerians to England for education. The experience of Nigerians who lived overseas in the years preceding, during, and after World War II gave rise to a class of young, educated nationalists who agitated for independence from Great Britain. The British agreed to the Nigerians' demands and, in 1947, instituted a ten-year economic plan toward independence. Nigeria became an independent country on October 1, 1960, and became a republic in 1963.

With the British long gone from Nigeria, corruption and a lack of leadership continued to hamper Nigeria's quest for true democracy. A series of military coups and dictatorships in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s replaced the fragile democracy that Nigeria enjoyed in the early 1960s. In 1993, Nigeria held a democratic presidential election, which was followed by yet another bloodless coup. And so continues the political pattern for the troubled, violent, most populous country in Africa.Chapter 1

Summary:

We are introduced to Okonkwo, a great man among the Igbo tribe, well known in the nine villages and beyond. In his youth, he became famous when he defeated Amilinze the Cat, a great wrester. He is a formidable man, stern and intimidating in appearance; when angry, he stammers. The stammer makes him angrier, and he uses his fists. He has a hot temper. He has no patience for unsuccessful men; his father had been such a man. His father, a man by the name of Unoka, was a lazy do-nothing, who has died deep in debt. The narrator digresses to tell us about Unoka. Unoka was a great flute player in his youth, but he became a failure as an adult. He was constantly borrowing from his friends and neighbors, and his children and wife did not have enough to eat.

One day, a neighbor of Unoka, a man named Okoye, came to discuss the money Unoka owed him. The rituals of hospitality are described: the guest brings kola, a kind of food eaten during visits, and the men often speak in proverbs. Okoye was about take the thirdhighest title in the land, and he needed to collect resources. Unoka laughed him off, telling him that he had many other debts he needed to pay first.

Unoka dies deep in debt. But Okonkwo, though young, is already a great man. He has two barns full of yams, and he has fought bravely in two inter-tribal wars. He has taken two titles already. He has three wives. The narrator tells us that his high standing was the reason he was trusted to watch over the doomed boy who was sacrificed to Umuofia to avoid war. The doomed boy was named Ikemefuna.

Analysis:

Things Fall Apart is part tragedy and part documentary. It is the story of Okonkwo and his tragic death after the coming of the white man; it is also a piece of fiction that documents the world that the white man destroyed. Structure is important to tragedy, and by Aristotle's rules of tragedy all that is inessential to the central action should be removed. However, the tragedy of Okonkwo's death is seen as part of a greater tragedy: the defeat and forced transformation of a great people. Achebe's novel is both tragedy and memory. The narrative tends to digress; to understand the gravity of Okonkwo's tragedy, the reader must see him within the context of his world.

Achebe gives us detailed descriptions of Igbo traditions, customs, and beliefs. Memory is an important theme; here, this study guide uses memory as a broad term covering all documentary-style descriptions of Igbo life. By the end of the novel, the reader realizes that the he has just read is the story of a culture that has been irrevocably transformed. Another part of Achebe's project is to give a balanced and sensitive portrait of Igbo culture, as African tribal cultures were long dismissed by white scholars as barbaric and evil.

Digression is one of Achebe's most important tools. He takes any opportunity he can to tell us about a past incident which is only

indirectly connected to his central story. These digressions allow him to flesh out his portrait of tribal life.

Ambition and greatness are two closely connected themes. Okonkwo is determined to be the opposite of his father. He has already taken two titles (honorary titles that give a man status in the tribe) and he is quite rich. Success and honor are very important to Okonkwo. He has worked his whole life to win the respect of his people. His work ethic and his ambition also give rise to his faults: he is a harsh man, quick to anger and without humility.

Chapter 2

Summary:

One night as Okonkwo prepares for bed, he hears the town crier, beating on his hollow instrument and calling all the men of Umuofia to a meeting early tomorrow morning. The night is dark and moonless, and the narrator explains that darkness was frightening even for the bravest of the Igbo. The forest is a sinister place at night. Okonkwo suspects that a war might be brewing: he's a distinguished warrior, and war gives him a chance to win greater esteem.

The next morning, the ten thousand men of Umuofia gather in the marketplace. Ogbuefi Ezuogo, a powerful orator, gives the traditional opening: he faces four different directions, raising a clenched fist, and cries "Umuofia kwenu," to which the men all cry "Yaa!" He greets them this way a fifth time, and then he tells them that men from the neighboring village of Mbaino have killed a girl from Umuofia. The men discuss the situation, and decide to follow the normal course of action: the will issue an ultimatum, demanding

a boy and a virgin as compensation. The neighboring villages fear Umuofia, because its warriors and medicine-men are powerful. It's most powerful war medicine (magic) is agadi-nwayi, a magic enforced by the spirit of an old woman with one leg. The narrator tells us that in fairness to Umuofia, it should be said that the village never went to war without first trying a peaceful settlement, and even then it only went if the war was approved by the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves. And the Oracle often forbade war.

Okonkwo is chosen as emissary. He goes and is treated with respect, and he returns with the young boy and the virgin girl. The girl goes to the man whose wife was murdered. As for the boy, the village is in no hurry to decide his fate. His name is Ikemefuna. He goes to live with Okonkwo and his family.

The narrator describes Okonkwo and his family, as well as their living situation. Okonkwo has a separate hut, or obi, at the heart of their family compound. Each wife has her own hut. All is enclosed by a large red wall. Yams are the main crop for the Igbo, and the compound includes a barn for yam-storage. There is also a shrine, or "medicine house." Okonkwo is quick to anger. He rules his family like a tyrant. He fears failure, and hates the memory of his idle father; his oldest son Nwoye, shows signs of being like Okonkwo's father, and so Okonkwo is very hard on him. Ikemefuna is brought home with Okonkwo and given to Nwoye's mother. The boy is homesick and does not understand why he has been taken from his family.

Analysis:

Achebe gives us a concise portrait of the social organization of the Igbo, on several levels. We see that the town is not ruled by a chief, but by a general assembly of all the men. In effect, the Igbo have a primitive democracy. We learn that yams are a staple, and a large store of yams indicates prosperity. We also learn that Umuofia

prizes justice, and does not wage wars of conquest. There is also a high level of social mobility. Note that while Unoka was a failure, Okonkwo has risen to become a great man among his people.

Okonkwo fears failure. The theme of ambition has its converse, and it is Okonkwo's fear of failure that makes him a harsh man. He is strong, but he fails to see that his wives and children are not as physically strong as he. Yet he drives them to work as hard as he does. All of his wives and children fear him. Okonkwo tries to help his son, Nwoye, by being doubly harsh on him. But this approach is turning Nwoye into a sad and resentful youth.

Chapter 3

Summary:

When Okonkwo was young, his father Unoka went to Agbala, the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves. He asked why he always had a miserable harvest, despite his prayers and offerings to the gods. The Oracle told him that the fault lay not in the gods, but in his laziness. Unoka died of swelling that the Igbo believe is an abomination to the earth goddess. Like others who died badly, he was left in the Evil Forest. Okonkwo lives in fear of the kind of failure and sad end that met his father.

Okonkwo did not inherit a barn full of seed yams. He had to start out as a sharecropper for a rich man named Nwakibie. Nwakibie was generous, but the first year Okonkwo planted was the worst planting year in Umuofia's living memory. Okonkwo, with superhuman determination, survived. His father was in his last days then. He gave Okonkwo encouraging praise, but it only tried Okonkwo's patience.

Analysis:

Okonkwo has overcome incredible diversity. His father's pathetic end and death tainted him with shame, and left him without inheritance. His rise to social power and wealth has been a triumph of stubbornness and will. Sharecropping is a difficult way to begin; moreover, the first year Okonkwo planted was a terrible harvest year. But Okonkwo was young and strong, and he was able to survive. The experience has been essential to the formation of his character. Central to Okonkwo's beliefs is not only a work ethic but a faith in the ability of the will to overcome adversity. He is confident that he can master his environment; he rules as a man, and he is fiercely proud of his people. Understanding these beliefs is key to understanding the tragedy that strikes Okonkwo later, after the coming of the white man.

Chapter 4

Summary:

Okonkwo shows few emotions openly, none of them tender ones. He once insulted a man at a town meeting, implying that the man was a woman. The man had no titles. Okonkwo was reprimanded, and a village elder said that the fortunate should show humility; yet Okonkwo has never been fortunate. Everything he has he has earned himself.

Ikemefuna is terribly homesick, but in time he finds a place among Okonkwo's family. Nwoye, two years younger, is inseparable from him; even Okonkwo grows fond of the boy, although he doesn't show it openly. Ikemefuna is a clever boy; he knows how to make flutes and traps for rodents. He begins to call Okonkwo "father."

During the Week of Peace, Okonkwo's youngest wife, Ojiugo, goes out to plait her hair and neglects to cook afternoon meal for him. When she returns, Okonkwo beats her savagely. This act is an abomination to the Igbo. No one is allowed even to speak unkindly to another during the Week of Peace; Okonkwo's transgression threatens the harvest of the whole clan. Ezeani, priest of the earth goddess, arrives before dusk. He scorns Okonkwo's traditional offer of kola nut and demands a stiff fine of goods and money from Okonkwo. Okonkwo pays it, inwardly repentant, but he is too proud to it openly to his neighbors that he is in error. His neighbors begin to say he has grown to proud.

It is soon time to plant; as they prepare the seed yams, Okonkwo is very harsh to Nwoye and Ikemefuna. Yam is a man's crop, and Okonkwo is very demanding. Yams, too, are a difficult crop to raise, sensitive and labor-intensive. The rainy season comes, during which children huddle by fires indoors, resting. With planting season over, the Igbo enjoy a resting period before the work of the harvest.

Ikemefuna and Nwoye have become very close; Nwoye loves the older boy, who is now like a brother to him. Ikemefuna has an endless supply of folktales, and hearing them makes Nwoye see the world in a new light.

Analysis:

Maculinity is one of Okonkwo's obsessions. He sees any tender emotion as feminine and therefore weak. His culture is as patriarchal as any other, but in his need to be strong Okonkwo carries the preoccupation with manliness to an extreme. He has not learned restraint. His beating of Ojiugo is the first concrete incident in the book during which we watch Okonkwo lose control. Although he begins the beating having forgotten that it is the Week of Peace, when reminded he does not stop. He is not a man to do anything half-way, even if he knows there are consequences. Later, this

hubris destroys him. His neighbors notice his pride. Even when Okonkwo feels penitent, he takes great pains to hide it. This drive and fierce pride have made him a great man, but they are also the source of all of his faults.

In his sincere desire to see his son Nwoye become great, he has made the boy extremely unhappy. Okonkwo is not exactly a typical Igbo male: though Achebe sets up Okonkwo's fall as parallel to the fall of his people, he also shows us that Okonkwo is an extraordinary man among the Igbo, in ways both good and bad. In other men of the village, we see restraint and humility. We see in Ikemefuna a role model that Nwoye has lacked. Fearful of his brutal father, Nwoye now has a kind older brother to look up to. We also see that Nwoye is a thoughtful boy: his responses to Ikemefuna's folktales are imaginative and beautiful.

Chapter 5

Summary:

The Feast of the New Yam approaches. It marks the beginning of harvest season. All old yams are disposed of, and new and tasty yams are eaten for the feasts. The New Yam marks the start of a new year, and the beginning of a season of plenty.

Okonkwo, like all rich men, always invites a huge number of guests for the feast. But he himself is rather impatient with holidays, and would prefer to be working on his farm. Preparation for the festival makes him testy. Three days before the festival, he becomes furious when he sees that a few leaves have been cut from the banana tree (banana leaves are used to wrap food in many tropical countries). When his second wife its to the act, he beats her brutally. He then decides to go hunting. Though a great man, Okonkwo is not a great hunter. The wife who was just beaten makes a snide comment

about guns that never shoot, and he tries to shoot her. He misses. Despite these disturbances, the festival is celebrated happily.

The second day of the new year is the day for wrestling. Ekwefi, Okonkwo's second wife, loves the wrestling matches. It was watching Okonkwo defeat the Cat that she fell in love with him. She married another man, but a few years after that she ran away from him and came to live with Okonkwo. In those days, she was the great beauty of the village. That was thirty years ago. Ekwefi has only had one child, her daughter Ezinma. Ezinma is a charming, pretty, and clever young girl, one of her father's favorites, though he rarely shows it. We see her helping the other wives, doing chores for her mother, and bringing Okonkwo his food.

Analysis:

Chapter 5 fleshes out the portrait of Okonkwo's family life. His three wives live together peacefully, and seem to have great affection for one another. Ezinma is well-beloved, not only by Ekwefi and Okonkwo, but by the other wives as well. The children live together as brothers and sisters. Ikemefuna has been fully absorbed into the family.

But Okonkwo rules with fear. His anger over the banana tree is completely unfounded; he uses it as an excuse to beat someone. He is madly self-absorbed, and does not see fit to learn constraint for the sake of his family.

Igbo society is patriarchal, but this chapter focuses on female characters. Ekwefi is far from timid: fresh from a beating, she makes fun of her husband. We also meet her daughter Ezinma, one of book's most likable characters. Okonkwo's treatment of her humanizes him, balancing his harsh treatment of Nwoye. One of the reasons for his gentleness with Ezinma is her gender: as a girl, the

expectations on her are different. Okonkwo often wishes that she were a boy, but the wish seems benign next to his merciless treatment of Nwoye. We see that Okonkwo is at least capable of tenderness. Because he does not have the same terrible expectations of a girl as he does of his son, he can treat her with at least a little gentleness.

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