Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe

The Second Coming

• 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,The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhereThe ceremony of innocence is drowned;The best lack all conviction, while the worstAre full of passionate intensity.Surely some revelation is at hand;Surely the Second Coming is at hand.The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

• When a vast image out of i{Spiritus Mundi}Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desertA shape with lion body and the head of a man,A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,Is moving its slow thighs, while all about itReel shadows of the indignant desert birds.The darkness drops again; but now I knowThat twenty centuries of stony sleepWere vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,And what rough beast, its hour come round at laSt,Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Things Fall Apart is all about:

• Racial discrimination• Colonialism • Igbo Culture/ community

Misrepresentation of Africa:

• The story ‘mistold’ by Conrad in Heart of Darkness.• Many European writers have presented the continent as

a dark place inhabited by people with impenetrable, primitive minds.

• The last four or five hundred years of European contact with Africa produced a body of literature that presented Africa in a very bad light and Africans in very lurid terms. The reason for this had to do with the need to justify the slave trade and slavery. … This continued until the Africans themselves, in the middle of the twentieth century, took into their own hands the telling of their story.“ - (Chinua Achebe, "An African Voice")

Igbo Culture/ community in Things Fall Apart

• They have families, religion, honors and titles, music, economy, laws and a court system, complicated farming techniques, a tradition of wise sayings and the art of conversation; on top of this, they successfully practice an un-autocratic style of communal living that Western societies long for.

• 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.

Race discrimination

• Race discrimination means treating someone unfavorably .• Racism is usually defined as views, practices and actions

reflecting the belief that humanity is divided into distinct biological groups called races and that members of a certain race share certain attributes which make that group as a whole less desirable, more desirable, inferior or superior.

• Racism and racial discrimination are often used to describe discrimination on an ethnic or cultural basis, independent of whether these differences are described as racial.

• associated with race-based prejudice, violence, dislike, discrimination, or oppression

Colonialism:

• Colonialism is a practice of domination.• subjugation of one people to another• Colonialism is the establishment, exploitation, maintenance,

acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory.

Characters

• Okonkwo - • Nwoye - Okonkwo’s oldest son• Ezinma- The only child of Okonkwo’s second wife, Ekwefi. • Ikemefuna - A boy given to Okonkwo by a neighboring village.• Mr. Brown - The first white missionary to travel to Umuofia.• Reverend James Smith - The missionary who replaces Mr.

Brown. • Uchendu - The younger brother of Okonkwo’s mother.• The District Commissioner - An authority figure in the white

colonial government in Nigeria.• Unoka - Okonkwo’s father, of whom Okonkwo has been

ashamed since childhood.

• Obierika - Okonkwo’s close friend• Enoch - A fanatical convert to the Christian church in Umuofia• Ogbuefi Ezeudu - The oldest man in the village• Chielo - A priestess in Umuofia who is dedicated to the Oracle of the

goddess Agbala.• Akunna - A clan leader of Umuofia• Nwakibie - A wealthy clansmen• Mr. Kiaga - The native-turned-Christian missionary who arrives in

Mbanta and converts Nwoye and many others.• Okagbue Uyanwa - A famous medicine man • Maduka - Obierika’s son.• Obiageli - The daughter of Okonkwo’s first wife.• Ojiugo - Okonkwo’s third and youngest wife, and the mother of

Nkechi.

Chapters:

• Chapter- 1: General introduction of the Okonkwo and his family

• Chapter- 2: clansmen gather in the market - Ogbuefi Ezeugo, a noted orator, announces that someone from the village of Mbaino murdered the wife of an Umuofia tribesman while she was in their market - Okonkwo travels to Mbaino – war – Okonkwo is chosen to fight - Ikemefuna.

• Chapter- 3: Farming – hard time – industrious farmers…• Chapter- 4: Ikemefuna lives with Okonkwo- treated well by his

wife - an older brother to Nwoye – Okonkwo beats his youngest wife – punished – follows the priest’s order – preparation for farming.

• Chapter- 5: the village busy in celebration, preparation for farming, feast – Okonkwo beats his second wife Ekwefi - the annual wrestling contest - He was too poor to pay her bride-price then, but she later ran away from her husband to be with him.

• Chapter- 6 : The wrestling match takes place on the village ilo - Maduka, the son of Okonkwo’s friend Obierika, wins one match within seconds.

• Chapter- 7: Ikemefuna stays with Okonkwo’s family for three years - He frequently invites the two into his obito listen to violent, masculine stories - Ogbuefi Ezeudu pays Okonkwo a visit, but he will not enter the hut to share the meal - he informs Okonkwo in private that the Oracle has decreed that Ikemefuna must be killed. He tells Okonkwo not to take part in the boy’s death, as Ikemefuna calls him “father.” Okonkwo lies to Ikemefuna, telling him that he will be returning to his home village. Nwoye bursts into tears.

• Ikemefuna killed.• Chapter-8: Okonkwo depressed – meets Obierika - bargaining

for the bride price - the polite term for leprosy is “the white skin.”

• Chapter- 9: Ezinma has a fever-Ekwefi’s nine other children died in infancy.

• Chapter- 10: The village holds a ceremonial gathering to administer justice-quarrel for the bride price.

• Chapter- 11: Ekwefi tells Ezinma a story about a greedy, cunning tortoise.

• Chapter- 12: Chielo exits the shrine with Ezinma on her back. Without saying a word, she takes Ezinma to Ekwefi’s hut and puts her to bed-Okonkwo’s family begins to prepare for Obierika’s daughter’s uri, a betrothal ceremony

• Chapter-13: Ogbuefi Ezeudu’s death is announced-Okonkwo’s gun accidentally goes off and kills Ezeudu’s sixteen-year-old son-Okonkwo exiled-takes his family to his mother’s natal village, Mbanta.

• Chapter-14: Okonkwo’s uncle, Uchendu, and the rest of his kinsmen receive him warmly-helped him-Uchendu himself has lost all but one of his six wives and buried twenty-two children. Even so, Uchendu tells Okonkwo, “I did not hang myself, and I am still alive.”

• Chapter-15: During the second year of Okonkwo’s exile, Obierika brings several bags of cowries to Okonkwo. He also brings bad news: a village named Abame has been destroyed-The villagers killed the white man and tied his bicycle to their sacred tree to prevent it from getting away and telling the white man’s friends- Obierika plans to continue to bring Okonkwo the money from his yams until Okonkwo returns to Iguedo.

• Chapter-16:Obierika returns to Mbanta-meets Okonkwo- has seen Nwoye with some of the Christian missionaries who have arrived-The missionaries have come, he tells his audience, to persuade the villagers to leave their false gods and accept the one true God. The villagers, however, do not understand how the Holy Trinity can be accepted as one God. They also cannot see how God can have a son and not a wife.

• Chapter-17: The missionaries request a piece of land on which to build a church-The village leaders and elders offer them a plot in the Evil Forest-church wins-One of Okonkwo’s cousins notices Nwoye among the Christians and informs Okonkwo.

• Chapter-18:The church wins many converts from the efulefu (titleless, worthless men).

• Chapter-19:Okonkwo’s seven years of exile in Mbanta are drawing to an end- Christianity is winning people away from their families and traditions.

• Chapter-20:Umuofia is much changed after seven years. The church has grown in strength and the white men subject the villagers to their judicial system and rules of government.

• Chapter-21: Many people of Umuofia are not entirely unhappy with the white men’s influence on their community-Akunna explains that the clan also has just one god, Chukwu, who created the world and the other gods. Mr. Brown replies that there are no other gods. He points to a carving and states that it is not a god but a piece of wood. Akunna agrees that it is a piece of wood, but wood created by Chukwu. Neither converts the other, but each leaves with a greater understanding of the other’s faith-Mr. Brown builds a hospital and a school-Okonkwo regrets the changes in his once warlike people.

• Chapter-22:James Smith replaces Mr. Brown-the villagers burn the church.

• Chapter-23: transformation of the village• Chapter-24: unnatural silence in the village-Ezinma takes

Okonkwo some food, and she and Obierika notice the whip marks on his back-the village laments the damage in the community-Okonkwo kills messanger.

• Chapter-25: the District Commissioner arrives at Okonkwo’s compound-Okonkwo hanged himself-the villagers are not ready to the ritual- the Commissioner ordered his men-As he departs, he congratulates himself for having added to his store of knowledge of African customs.

• The commissioner, who is in the middle of writing a book about Africa, imagines that the circumstances of Okonkwo’s death will make an interesting paragraph or two, if not an entire chapter. He has already chosen the title: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.

Reading as a Woman: Feministic analysis• What does it mean to read as a woman?• “to read as a woman is to avoid reading as a man, to identify

the specific defenses and distortions of male readings and provide correctives”

• The novel- colonial representation of South Africa• Okonkwo: the only major character in the novel• Pain of women, their importance in the family as

individuals…???• Women as child bearers • Help mates for their husbands• phallocentric notion• women are pivotal to the literal survival of community and

societal norms

• Women and their degrading stances in society• the dominance of the male character over the female character

(or characters), as well as the need of women and their role in society

• Deconstruction of Gender • Gender-identification crisis• Voiceless women character• The man who is not satisfied with his achievments and dont

have dignity in his social life, tries to establish domination over women through agression. Therefore masculanity is associated with agression and violence. And that situation leads to discrimination and conflict between the two genders.

• In Nigerian community women led a domestic life, being in charge of breeding their children, cooking and serving to their husbands as well as not being able to participate the social life and ceremonies, while the men are in charge of taking all decisions about the community.( Chapter 10, pages 77-78 )

• A man’s power was measured by his physical strength. If one hasn’t got a name by bloodshed he was called as agbala which also means woman. As a consequence of being a strong men, they frequently beat and threaten their wives.

• Since a woman is not valuable herself, she is always described whether as a daughter or a wife of a man.

• “The elders, or ndichie, met to hear a report of Okonkwo’s mission. At the end they decided, as everybody knew they would, that the girl should go to Ogbuefi Udo to replace his murdered wife. As for the boy, he belonged to the clan as a whole, and there was no hurry to decide his fate.” (2.11)

• “Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper […]” (2.12)

• “Even as a little boy he had resented his father’s failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father wasagbala. That was how Okonkwo first came to know thatagbala was not only another name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken to title. (2.12)”

• “He belongs to the clan,” he told her [Okonkwo’s eldest wife]. “So look after him.”“Is he staying long with us?” she asked.

“Do what you are told, woman,” Okonkwo thundered, and stammered. “When did you become one of the ndichie of Umuofia?”

And so Nwoye’s mother took Ikemefuna to her hut and asked no more questions. (2.16-19)

• His mother and sisters worked hard enough, but they grew women’s crops, like coco-yams, beans and cassava. Yam, the king of crops, was a man’s crop. (3.28)

• Only a week ago a man had contradicted him at a kindred meeting which they held to discuss the next ancestral feast. Without looking at the man Okonkwo had said. “This meeting is for men.” The man who had contradicted him had no titles. That was why he had called him a woman. Okonkwo knew how to kill a man’s spirit. (4.1)

• Inwardly Okonkwo knew that the boys were still too young to understand fully the difficult art of preparing seed-yams. But he thought that one could not begin too early. Yam stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one gravest to another was a very great man indeed. Okonkwo wanted his son to be a great farmer and a great man. He would stamp out the disquieting signs of laziness which he thought he already saw in him. (4.32)

• Okonkwo]: “I will not have a son who cannot hold up his head in the gathering of the clan. I would sooner strangle him with my own hands.” (4.33)

• As a matter of fact the tree was very much alive. Okonkwo’s second wife had merely cut a few leaves off it to wrap some food, and she said so. Without further argument, Okonkwo gave her a sound beating and left her and her only daughter weeping. Neither of the other wives dared to interfere beyond an occasional and tentative, “It is enough, Okonkwo,” pleaded from a reasonable distance. (5.10)

• “Sit like a woman!” Okonkwo shouted at her. Ezinma brought her two legs together and stretched them in front of her. (5.56)

• "No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man."- Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Ch. 7

• "'When did you become a shivering old woman,' Okonkwo asked himself, 'you, who are known in all the nine villages for your valor in war? How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number? Okonkwo, you have become a woman indeed.'“

• "'Beware Okonkwo!' she warned. 'Beware of exchanging words with Agbala. Does a man speak when a god speaks? Beware!'"- Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Ch. 11

Achebe’s style of writing:

• For general reader the novel is to tell a story• It’s about the tradition of Ibo religion and culture• The novel is a record of the destruction of a civilization as the

title suggests.• Things Fall Apart records the end of the non-Christian era in

Eastern Nigeria• The novel seems very simple but it’s very deceptive because it

is dealing with multiple aspects.• It’s about love, compassion, colonialism, achievement, honor

and individualism.• Achebe employs devices such as proverbs, folktales, rituals and

juxtaposition of characters to provide a double view of Ibo society.

• Achebe has adopted the western narrative technique to tell his story

• Or it’s the juxtaposition of the western narrative technique and Igbo narrative technique

• The novel is with a beginning, a middle and an end with exposition, climax and denouement

• Part-1• Part-2 • Part-3• Things Fall Apart symbolizes disintegration, breaking into

pieces, disorderliness and disruption. The arrival of the white men with their religion, different social values and different attitude in the traditional Igbo society brings about disintegrating effects on the stable society of the Igbos.

Proverbs:

• Proverbs according to Akporobaro, F.B.O. (2008) is a short popular saying usually in the form of a moral advice or truth expressed in a concise form. He goes further to describe it as a means by which ideas could be vividly expressed and illustrated.

• Yisa, K.Y. (1998) opines that proverb is a short repeated witty statement of experience which is used to further a social end.

• Longman Dictionary of contemporary English (2008) defines proverb as short well-known statement that is generally true.

• Crystal David (1995:184) comments on the nature of the proverbs: The effectiveness of a proverb lies largely in its brevity and directness. The syntax is simple, the images vivid, and thus easy to understand. Memorability is aided through the use of alliteration, rhyme, and rhythm.

• p. 19. "A man who pays respect to the great paves the way for his own greatness.“ Okonkwo explaining why he has come to Nwakibie.

• p. 21. "An old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb.“ Okonkwo remembering his own father. In context of a joke about someone who refused to honor his fathers shrine with a fowl.

• p. 21. "The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no one else did.“ Okonkwo, explaining his capacity for hard work before Nwakibie, his sons and neighbors.

• p. 26. "Those whose palm-kernels were cracked for them by a benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble." - Okonkwo's arrogance in calling Osugo a "woman" at the meeting of the people.

• p. 151. "Living fire begets cold, impotent ash." Okonkwo's analysis of the conversion of his "degenerate and effeminate" son, Nwoye.

• p. 185. "A man danced so the drums were beaten for him." Rev. Smith’s intransigence and hostility towards anything traditional.

• p. 203. "Whenever you see a toad jumping in broad daylight, then you know that something is after its life." Said at the meeting of Umuohia after the imprisonment of the six elders.

• p. 26. "Those whose palm-kernels were cracked for them by a benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble." - Okonkwo's arrogance in calling Osugo a "woman" at the meeting of the people.

• The sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them. (p.6)

• The proverb makes reference to a cosmic body, the sun, with a view to evoking its sense – that those who strive and work (by remaining standing)will benefit from the fruit of their work before those who depend on them (by kneeling or deriving succor from them). While the inference of discouraging dependency can be made, the message is mainly that those who do not face the challenges of life and work assiduously defying sunshine should satisfy themselves with the crumbs that fall from the table of the hardworking ones. The proverb discourages laziness and implies the need for everyone to be hard-working.

• If a child washed his hands, he could eat with kings. P. 6

• The proverb portrays the honor and dignity attributed to cleanliness and responsibility. It thematizes hands washing, a good character training and hygienic way of eating. We infer that if a person does the right thing at the right time, as the proverb entails good fortune, honor, reverence, esteem and credit will be his, just like eating together with kings. The pragmatic understanding of how really high the Nigerians rate their traditional rulers provides a further clue to the semantic import of the proverb

• When the moon is shining, the cripple becomes hungry for a walk. P.9• Reference is made to another cosmic body, the moon, in this

proverb, as “shining” collocates with “the moon” and “cripple” collocates metaphorically with “walk”. The sense of the proverb lies in the cause-effect theory that if motivation is given, action arises. In essence, night is conventionally taken as a period of rest but in a situation where there is moon-light, not only the able-bodied feels the need to walk or work in the night but even the cripple does. Night is implied and not stated for stylistic purposes while “hungry”, a marked word that ordinarily does not apply to “walk”, is also used for stylistic effect. The underlining message is that a good cause or motivation occasions a good effect or line of action.

• A man who pays respect to the great paves the way for his own greatness.

• There is a tact advice almost coinciding with the English proverb, “one good turn deserves another” here. If a person accords honor or reverence to the successful ones, it is likely that he is also going to be successful. In other words, the sense of the proverb is that a person who helps another man helps himself indirectly as he gets familiar with what that man engages in – and this will ultimately lead him also to greatness, directly or indirectly.

• A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing.• The proverb tasks our mental conception or general knowledge of the toad

as a nocturnal animal. If such an animal therefore does “run” (a lexical item preferred by the author for metaphorical or stylistic effect, against the normal collocative word, “jump”) in the day, there must be some thing. The sense of the proverb is that there is a cause for anything strange that happens; there must be a reason, at least “no smoke without fire”. A toad running in daytime is probably pursuing something or certainly something is pursuing it. It has to do with the “cause-effect” relationship.

“Chi” in Things Fall Apart

• The Igbo concept, Chi, has a religious background even though it occupies an enviable position in Igbo sapiential framework. It is used in various forms. Ralph Madu postulates two forms: it could mean simply day as in chi abola (it is day break); from a more sacred origin, it means personal god—divine afflatus—the spirit that animates human beings (33). Theophilus Okere corroborates that chi is really a personal god. It is the supreme God shared by each individual but more specifically in his aspect as giver and author of destiny (142). For Madu, destiny is the philosophy and belief of the traditional sage that every life is unique in significant way and is subject to series of unforeseeable hazards and unexpected rewards all mapped out by chi.

• The concept of chi 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.

• It is said of Unoka that, “He had a bad chi or personal god, and evil fortune followed him to the grave, or rather to his death, for he had no grave.” Thus, it seems that in the case of Unoka a lack of hard-work coincided with a bad chi.

• "A man could not rise above the destiny of his chi. The saying of the elders was not true - that if a man said yea his chi was also affirmed. Here was a man whose chi said nay despite his own affirmation." pg 114

• "As the years of exile passed one by one it seemed to him that his chi might now be making amends for the past disaster.“ pg 147

Wisdom and Age: The Narratological stance

• The word “narratology” is an anglicization of the French word “narratologie”. The word is coined by Tzvetan Todorov in his Grammaire du Decameron (1969).

• Wisdom is an abstract phenomenon that presents an “individuals with hypothetical problems to respond to”.

• Achebe sketches his hero, Okonkwo, as one measuring up to this idea. He is an embodiment of Igbo tribal aspirations and one whom the Igbo could take by the hand and lifting it shout in typical Igbo parlance…. There is a piece of Okonkwo in every Igbo man whether he is preparing to take the Ozo title or preparing to take his orals for the PhD (the new passport to elitism, the new symbol of achievement). The Igbo in a figurative and literal sense is a writer all his life in.

• Things Fall Apart opens at the height of Okonkwo fame, which he won through ‘Solid personal achievement’, like when he threw Amalinze the cat at the age of eighteen. From then on it was clear that he was destined for great things.

• Narratologists love to categorize and to taxonomize, which has led to a plethora of terms to explain the complicated nature of narrative form. Given the prevalence and importance of narrativemedia in our life. Narratology is also a useful foundation to have before one begins to analyze popular culture (Kafalenos, 2001:62).

• In the narrative, there is a representation of complex life experiences, emotions, actions and motivations are integral part of the narrative.

• In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo strives for wisdom by changing the trend which has preoccupied the family. The trend includes nothingness, poverty and improvidence.

• Okonkwo, at his tender age uses wisdom to achieve greatness in order to change his status quo. The opening words in the novel demonstrate this assertion:

• Okonkwo 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 honour to his village by throwing Amalinze the cat. Amalinze was the great wrester who of 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 man agreed was one of the fiercest since the founder of their town engaged a spirit of the wild for seven days and seven nights (TFA, 3).

• it is evident that Okonkwo, despite his tender age applies the instrument of wisdom to changing his class for good. Believing in “Solid personal achievements” is akin to wisdom. Okonkwo uses his wisdom to address strength, energy disposition and quest for new innovation. Because Okonkwo positions himself in a wise dimension he grows from strength to strength.

• Okonkwo’s prosperity was visible in his household. He had a large compound enclosed by a thick wall of red earth. His own hut, or Obi, stood immediately behind the only gate… The barn was built against one end of the red wells… (10).

• Okonkwo uses great wisdom in the handling of his family affairs. Thus, when he brings Ikemefuna home, he uses wisdom in presenting the case by telling his most senior wife that Ikemefuna “belongs to the clan” “so look after him” And when the senior wife asks too many questions, Okonkwo snaps “do what you are told woman”.

• Wisdom and age according to McAdams is “context-dependent”. Many events in Things Fall Apart show “that the balance between people and their environment depends on their apt knowledge of their encountered life context”. Okonkwo understands the Igbo society and how it entails to grow, so he uses all the forces within his own personal and collective will to actualize good results. When the district commissioner sends an emissary to the men of Umuofia, Okonkwo advises the men to be circumspect in their transaction with strangers.

• Okonkwo warned the others to be fully armed.“An Umuofia man does not refuse a call” he said. ‘He may refuse to do what he is asked; he does not refuse to be asked. But the times have changed, and we must be fully prepared’ (TFA 136).

• As age increases in the narrative so wisdom does. Okonkwo manifests wisdom with time and space. He exemplifies the notion that wisdom and age is context dependent. In the narrative, Okonkwo too notices that change is inevitable and it has to be handled with caution. From the ongoing, it is clear that “wisdom is also gained through life experience”.

• "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." Narrator Pg. 5