03/28 ) Africa's Literary Shape-Shifter: Achebe’s Legacy

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March 25, 2013

Africa's Literary Shape-Shifter

Achebe’s Legacy

by CHARLES R. LARSON

Chinua Achebe—Africa’s greatest novelist—has died in a hospital near Boston.

When Achebe’s Things Fall Apart was published in 1958, Africa was quite a different continent than it is today. Most countries were on the cusp of independence, waiting—perhaps impatiently, as they had been since the end of World War II—for the day to arrive.  Other than the négritude poets in the Francophone areas, African writing was still in its infancy.  Literacy, rapidly increasing, would virtually explode during the next decade after independence, producing the necessary readers for a viable literary culture.  Economies were growing rapidly in anticipation of self-rule. The middle-class, also undergoing rapid expansion, could afford to buy books and newspapers to quench their thirst for knowledge.  Things Fall Apart burst forth in these contexts, though it would take a decade for its author to begin to gain the fame that would eventually transform him into the continent’s most famous and widely-read writer.

Chinua Achebe was born November 16, 1930, near Ogidi, a few miles east of Onitsha (a center of Igbo culture) in eastern Nigeria.  In Things Fall Apart (1958), Ogidi has been transformed into Umuofia.  The time frame for the story is the 1890s when Europeans first arrived in this remote community.  Until the novel was published, there had been nothing like it, nothing so devastatingly revealing of the impact of colonization from the African perspective.  As Achebe has suggested innumerable times, the Western reader’s sense of that encounter had been largely shaped by Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1902), a book that the writer called racist.

Things Fall Apart was quietly published by William Heinemann and followed by a sequel, No Longer at Ease, in 1960.  Both books were originally part of one narrative that the author had written during 1956 and 1957.  Since the second half was set in Nigeria in the 1950s, two generations after the earlier part, Heinemann convinced Achebe to divide the story into two segments.  According to his biographers, Achebe had sent the handwritten manuscript, along with £22, to a secretarial service in England, but half a year later hadn’t heard anything.  £22 was a significant amount of money for a Nigerian in the 1950s when yearly per capita income was not much beyond that.  Achebe has remarked that if the manuscript had been lost, he probably would never have become a published writer.

Achebe’s parents were Christians, his father a teacher and a minister.  Consequently, he attended mission schools—both in Ogidi and in Onitsha—and subsequently University College, Ibadan (1948-1953).  Unlike many African writers of the early years, he was not educated in Europe.  Publication of his first two novels did not pave the way for full-time writing for many years; he supported himself initially by teaching and broadcasting.

More than fifty years later, Achebe was among a handful of African writers who could live on the royalties from their books.  His success and fame evolved gradually, though predominantly from Things Fall Apart, which today is the most widely-read novel from the continent.  Sales have exceeded eleven million copies in English editions, with perhaps half of those copies sold in Africa.  The novel has also been translated into fifty languages.

Yet one of the major frustrations of being an African writer today is declining sales on the continent.  Reading for pleasure has largely disappeared; today, most Africans simply cannot afford to purchase books.  In the last few years, Things Fall Apart has had sales of only a few hundred copies annually in Nigeria—a microscopic number in a country with a population of 160 million.  By contrast, the American publisher has claimed that Things Fall Apart sells at a yearly rate of 100,000 copies.

On the continent, Achebe’s fame began to grow in 1962 when Heinemann took the unprecedented step and started “The African Writers Series,” beginning the series with Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease.  Achebe served as the advisory editor for the first hundred titles, a number that eventually tripled.  He read hundreds of manuscripts by writers from across the continent and almost single-handedly shaped the course of modern African writing, especially the novel. It is doubtful whether a writer anywhere else in the world has had a comparable influence on the literary development of an entire continent.  It is impossible to imagine what the map of contemporary African literature would look like without Achebe’s influence.  Our sense of twentieth-century world literature would be entirely different without Chinua Achebe’s skilled midwifery.

Two years after “The African Writers Series” was launched, Achebe’s third novel, Arrow of God (1964), was published.  The story fills in the historical gap between the author’s two earlier novels and completes his rumination on the African/European encounter.  Numerous critics consider Arrow of God the Nigerian writer’s most complex and accomplished work, though general readers will always prefer Things Fall Apart because of its depiction of that archetypal and fateful collision between Africa and the West.

Shortly after the publication of Arrow of God, when political stability in Nigeria had begun to deteriorate, Achebe’s work took an entirely new direction, beginning with the satire, A Man of the People (1966), his fourth novel.  Coup, counter-coup, and Civil War began to wrack the country, and Achebe—like so many other contemporary African writers—realized that he could not watch from the sidelines.  During the Nigerian Civil War (the Biafran War), he acted as a Minister without Portfolio, making frequent trips to Europe and America in an attempt to marshal support for the Biafran (Igbo) cause.  Achebe would not write about the Civil War until late last year when the published There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra.  Devastated by the collapse of Biafra in 1971, Achebe had to recover both emotionally and creatively.  In a holding pattern that lasted several years, he wrote poems and short stories, collected as Beware Soul Brother (1971) and Girls at War and Other Stories (1972).  During these years, he also published numerous critical essays; it was not until 1987 that he published another novel, Anthills of the Savannah, his final novel as it turned out. Angrier than his earlier work, the novel traces the mercurial rise of an African leader, a would-be President-for-Life if politics were not so unpredictable and foolhardy.

Before that novel, however, Achebe published a bold little treatise called The Trouble with Nigeria (1983), which—if it had appeared in almost any other African country–would have landed him in jail or worse (the fate of Achebe’s equally-outspoken compatriot, Ken Saro-Wiwa, murdered by the Nigerian government in 1995).  Fortunately, at the time,Nigeria had the semblance of a free press and Achebe, like other Nigerian intellectuals, was beginning to spend more time away from Nigeria than at home.  In the opening passage of The Trouble with Nigeria, he wrote,

The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership.  There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character.  There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else.  The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership.

The remaining sixty-three pages identify the country’s greatest threats: tribalism, corruption, lack of discipline, social injustice, and what he terms “the cult of mediocrity.”  Unfortunately, Nigeria’s leaders ignored Achebe’s prescient warnings, which were not fully appreciated for another dozen years until the ruthless dictator, Sani Abacha, nearly succeeded in destroying the country.

For the last two decades, Achebe lived in the United States, teaching at Bard College, in New York, and more recently, at Brown University.  His relocation to the United States followed a tragic automobile accident that left him a paraplegic.  Ironically, the accident occurred following celebrations for his sixtieth birthday in Enugu, in eastern Nigeria, in 1990: the steering-wheel of the vehicle in which he had been riding suddenly broke off and the driver lost control of the automobile.  Achebe was medevacted to Britain, where he remained in hospital for nearly half a year.  Yet for a man who had experienced such hell, he remained remarkably energetic and hearty and continued to write about a variety of issues.  Home and Exile, based on lectures that he delivered at Harvard, was published in 2000.  When he was awarded the Man Booker International Prize for lifetime achievement in 2007, he revealed that he was writing a new novel, but apparently the work was never completed.

My first encounter with Things Fall Apart was in the summer of 1962, three years after its appearance in the United States from an obscure publisher, when I read Achebe’s novel before I went to Nigeria  as a Peace Corps volunteer.  Little did I realize that the school where I would teach would not only be Igbo, but only seven miles from Ogidi, where Achebe spent his early years.  Since that time—until I retired—I taught Things Fall Apart nearly a hundred times, more frequently than any other work, two or three times a year.  Each new reading provided deeper understanding and insights into a novel that I initially believed was transparent and uncomplicated.  For many years when I taught the novel, my students had never heard of it, but in the final couple of decades, all that changed.  Things Fall Apart has become the token African novel, added to the curriculum of hundreds, if not thousands, of secondary schools and university courses in America and Britain.  This situation may have been good for Achebe, but it was not good for other African writers, whose books often languished unread on library shelves unless they were taught in specialty courses with a non-Western focus.

Still, it is understandable why Things Fall Apart has achieved such iconic status.  As Africans across the continent and anywhere in the diaspora read the novel, they can say to themselves that what the villagers of Umuofia, and Okonkwo, the main character, experience is an archetypal situation, the same thing that happened to their own ancestors sometime in the past.  Equally important for readers around the world is Achebe’s depiction of the meeting–in fact, the collision–of civilizations and the unfortunate reality that two cultures rarely encounter each other on equal terms.  This theme has been a major issue in world history, especially during the last two centuries.  As Alberto Moravia wrote in Which Tribe Do You Belong To? (1974), “There is no greater suffering for man than to feel his cultural foundations giving way beneath him.”

Exploration; colonialism; migration; civil, regional, and global warfare; neo-colonialism; and illegal immigration and the mass movement of peoples from culture to culture and from nation to nation–all of these encounters with another people (sometimes familiar but often unfamiliar and bewildering) are foreseen in Achebe’s masterpiece.  The identification that readers in many parts of the world make with Okonkwo and Umuofia resonates with the situations that are specific, yet global, and sadly timeless today, whether they be newly-arrived immigrants in London, illegal aliens in the United States, American invaders of Iraq, Kenyans murdering one another after their elections.  A list of other examples would be endless, but they all imply one human failing: apprehension and misunderstanding of the Other.

At the beginning of Achebe’s novel, Okonkwo’s Umuofia is harmonious and Okonkwo is a revered member of his community.  “Community” is pivotal here, even if Okonkwo, himself, commits infractions against the social order.  There are rules and regulations that can be adjudicated by village elders when events with little precedent transpire; for minor offenses there are clearly-defined sanctions.  Moreover, there is respect for tradition and ritual, ceremonies that bring people together in their regard for others and for Mother Earth; many of the cyclical events are centered in animism, the traditional religion.  So how could these customs not be threatened by the arrival of intruders whose very presence upsets the traditional equilibrium?

When the novel first appeared, the Western reader’s confusion in response to Achebe’s story was mostly the result of the author’s avoidance of recognizable form, particularly plot.  Okonkwo himself is difficult to understand because we see him act but rarely observe him think.  Achebe tells us, “Okonkwo was not a man of thought but of action.”  Since we encounter little introspection, we draw the erroneous conclusion that the protagonist has little depth. These are the blinders Western readers unconsciously employ almost every day in encounters with the Other: what we do not understand  is deval‎ued.  The form and characterization in Things Fall Apart are unlike almost anything most Westerners have previously encountered; the main character fits into no easy niche and the story itself (with hundreds of influences and images drawn from oral tradition) is, at times, unrecognizable.  And, yet, this is the novel millions of readers around the world read and come to admire, recognizing  that Achebe has accomplished something extraordinarily bold and innovative: he has understood cultural encounters profoundly, even if we ourselves may still be grappling with them.

Even in the absence of introspection, Okonkwo is larger than life.  Rigid and inflexible, he believes that he can keep his traditional values intact.  When he accidentally murders a boy with a gun he barely knows how to use (and as a result of other rash acts), he must go into exile, thus severing himself from his community for seven years.  The exile, combined with the arrival of the Europeans during his absence, removes him even further from the center of his people’s evolving values.  Christianity and capitalism rapidly alter his people’s practices and beliefs.  So pervasive are the changes that when, after his return to Umuofia, Okonkwo kills a government messenger–hoping that his village will use force against the invaders—he is utterly shocked that his people do not support his action.  The narrator informs us, “He heard voices asking: ‘Why did he do it?’”

The problem for Okonkwo at the end of Things Fall Apart is that he has not changed but his villagers have. Perhaps they recognized the inevitability of change in a manner that Okonkwo did not.  Or perhaps it was simply a matter of conceding the superiority of a force that the Umuofian villagers knew they could not defeat.   While they will move into the future, Okonkwo will not.  Unwilling and unable to change, to accept the new dispensation, he commits suicide.  The once revered leader of the village has become a pariah figure who cannot even be given a proper burial. Okonkwo’s self-annihilation becomes an act of recognition that the traditional cohesiveness of his community no longer exists.

Few writers live to observe the fiftieth anniversary of their novels—let alone with increasing readership.  Given Chinua Achebe’s modesty, he was probably the most surprised by Things Fall Apart’s phenomenal success.  Nigerians on the street are certainly proud of the novel and of their compatriot’s fame; it is the one novel they are most likely to have read or at least to know about, especially those who were educated in the 1970s and 80s when it was required reading for the country’s school certificate examinations.  One can travel across the African continent and encounter used copies of the novel in bookstalls and newsstands everywhere.  Similarly, in the West, there is also no question about the novel’s iconic status—or about our high regard for its author.  Leon Botstein, president of Bard College, has observed that “Chinua Achebe is one of the great intellectual and ethical figures of our time.”  Few would disagree. Things Fall Apart has become not only the great African novel but one of the great narratives of the twentieth century.

Charles R. Larson is Emeritus Professor of Literature at American University, in Washington, D.C.  His books includeThe Emergence of African Fiction (1972), Under African Skies (1997), and The Ordeal of the African Writer (2001).

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/25/achebes-legacy/

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Turning and turning in the widening gyre. The falcon cannot hear the falconer;. Things Fall Apart; the centre cannot hold;. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world ...

Achebe’s Impact
Author Gave Africa its ‘First Authentic Voice'

By DONNA URSCHEL

Author Chinua Achebe

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Distinguished scholars gathered at the Library recently to discuss the impact and significance of one of the most important books in African literature, “Things Fall Apart.”

The day-long symposium on Nov. 3 celebrated the 50th anniversary of the novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, which he wrote in 1958 when he was 28 years old. It is one of the first African books written in English to receive worldwide acclaim, and is considered to be the book that launched the modern canon of African literature.

“Things Fall Apart” tells the story of Okonkwo, a leader in an Igbo village in Nigeria in the 1890s, as he deals with his own personal struggles as well as the impact of British colonialism. The book describes the rich culture and complexities of Igbo society, articulating an insider’s sense of the African experience.

“’Things Fall Apart’ is the greatest work of literature to come out of Africa,” said Nigerian Deputy Ambassador Baba Gana Wakil, in his opening remarks at the symposium. “The fact that this literary work remains fresh and exciting and generates interest 50 years later is a great tribute to Achebe.”

The book has sold more than 8 million copies and has been translated into 50 languages. It is a widely read and studied book in schools around the world. The Library’s African and Middle Eastern Division sponsored the symposium titled “Fifty Years of Chinua Achebe’s Celebrated Novel ‘Things Fall Apart.’” The program consisted of opening remarks by several experts; readings from the novel by students from The School Without Walls in Washington, D.C.; two 90-minute panels; and a keynote address by distinguished writer and academic Ali Mazrui.

The scholars discussed the book’s effect on a wide range of topics, including literature, anthropology and history.

According to R. Victoria Arana, a professor of English at Howard University, “Things Fall Apart” was a transformational novel. “It had a profound re-ordering of the imaginative consciousness for people in Africa,” she said. “The book was a part of the re-storying of people who had been knocked silent.”

The book’s penetrating account of tribal life from the inside ignited a generation of copycat village novels, evoking traditional cultural values and folk wisdom. The current, third generation of African writers, however, has abandoned the rural settings for urban environments. Nonetheless, the growth and popularity of the African novel continues today.

Ama Ata Aidoo, a visiting professor in the African Studies Department of Brown University, described how she had grown up studying “English literature and not literature in English,” mostly Chaucer, Spencer, Shakespeare, Keats and, if lucky, T.S. Eliot and John Osborne.

“You can imagine what a revelation and inspiration “Things Fall Apart” was for me,” said Aidoo. “I became aware not only of other literatures, but that I, too, could write it.”

Mbye B. Cham, chairman of the Department of African Studies at Howard University, examined Achebe’s use of English and his relationship to language. “Language in post-colonial Africa is a hot potato,” Cham said.

“Africa is either cursed or blessed in languages,” said Cham. “There are 1,000 languages and dialects in Africa, and all these languages co-exist side by side. The absence of one common language is a major factor of disunity and conflict. It’s a burden that weighs down national, regional and continental integration.”

Although many African writers feel that African literature should be written in an African language, Achebe contends otherwise. According to Cham, Achebe thinks English is a viable tool and writers must consider the expediency and competence of the language. Cham quoted Achebe as once saying, “I have been given this language that is English and I intend to use it.”

Simon Gikandi, professor of English at Princeton University, said Achebe’s use of the English language in “Things Fall Apart” is unique. The author introduces words from the Igbo language and uses Nigerian proverbs, metaphors and speech rhythms.
“The English is vernacularized,” said Gikandi. “We think we are hearing him speaking in Igbo.”

The novel also had an impact on anthropology, according to Gwendolyn Mikell, professor of anthropology and foreign service at Georgetown University. “’Things Fall Apart’” is a dramatic and startling story of Africa in crisis,” she said. The novel got anthropologists thinking on how best to capture the data that described African societies. Interviewing techniques were added and information-gathering became more creative, resulting in more qualitative and holistic data.

African historians were affected by the novel too. Jeanne M. Toungara, a professor of history at Howard University, explained, “In the ‘60s (after the book came out), African scholars began to repossess and take sovereignty over their own history.”

From left, Library staff members Eve Ferguson, Mary-Jane Deeb, Marieta Harper, Charles Stanhope, Abdulahi Ahmed and Angel Batiste (seated) join in honoring Chinua Achebe, center. - Lili Iravani

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It became apparent that Europeans who had a jump on writing African history had been misinformed about African people and cultures. “Achebe’s work initiated an entire generation of scholars who fought to understand the complexities of African societies,” Toungara said.

The novel led scholars to the process of “deconstructing and analyzing the dynamics of African history.” Toungara said, “We set out to seek trends in the past and categorize and explain events in a way that made sense.”

Despite the novel’s critical acclaim and global recognition, the book was ignored by Random House when it developed a list in 1998 of “100 Best Novels.” According to Ali Mazrui, the symposium’s keynote speaker, the Random House list was far too “Anglo-Saxony.” Not one African author made the list.

That prompted Mazrui to take action. He advised African publishers to create their own list of 100 great African books of the last 100 years. “They took the idea seriously and before long the whole operation was underway,” said Mazrui, who is the Albert Schweitzer Professor in Humanities and director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He is also a professor-at-large at the University of Jos in Nigeria. “Africa’s 100 Best Books” list was released in 2002.

Other panelists at the symposium included Philip Uko Eflong, professor of English at the University of Maryland, and Eleanor Traylor, chairwoman of the Department of English at Howard University. Moderators included Renée Poussaint, a former award-winning network journalist and president of Poussaint Communications, and LaNisa S. Kitchinier, associate director for programs at the Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center at Howard University.

“I know we’ve been making extravagant claims about the book,” said Simon Gikandi, professor of English from Princeton. “But ‘Things Fall Apart’ was an awakening. It created new parameters of thinking about African literature.”

Donna Urschel is a public affairs specialist in the Library’s Public Affairs Office.

Back to December 2008 - Vol. 67, No. 12

http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0812/achebe.html

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart A Book Review

Posted by imd on Oct 16, 2012 in Global |

Okonkwo: A Life of Fear; A Life of Bravery

This summer (August 2005) I picked up Things Fall Apart, that famous novel by Chinua Achebe — first published 47 years ago in 1958 — and read it again, perhaps for the twentieth or perhaps hundredth time. I do not remember the last time, before now, when I read that book, but it had to have been at least twenty years ago. In any case, Things Fall Apart had been a standard text for our high school English literature class and that is more than 29 years ago. I believe it is still the standard text for some schools in Africa.

I was not surprised that Achebe’s novel still retained its power for me. I read it this time with the mature critical eye of another craftsman. I re-read the short, deceptively simple yet complete and descriptive sentences and was once again captivated by the beauty of this novelist’s craft. Achebe’s economy of words and ability to convey complete ideas and create whole mind-pictures in the reader make up part of his genius as a novelist. The whole tale of Okonkwo is told in a dense 148 pages of concise sentences that hold-in the gravity of a myriad of subject matter.

With just eleven words in the opening sentence of Things Fall Apart – “Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond” — Achebe had me hooked, imagining the nature of his protagonist. By the end of the third paragraph, I had formed a complete picture of Okonkwo the man — physically, a “tall and huge” fellow of a severe aspect on account of “bushy eyebrows and wide nose.” He is also a man of immense agility who walked as on springs with his heels hardly touching the ground. Achebe describes him as a man of quick temper who “had no patience with unsuccessful men.” His own father, Unoka, deceased for about ten years by the time we meet Okonkwo, is one such unsuccessful men. We shall return to Okonkwo’s father later.

We meet Okonkwo at about the age of 38 at the height of his fame. The foundation of this fame — his wrestling feats — are at least twenty years behind him and he had added to them by showing “incredible prowess in two inter-tribal wars.”

By the time he was 28 years old, Okonkwo was already a rich man — “a wealthy farmer” with “two barns full of yams” and three wives and had taken two titles.

Now nearing 40 Okonkwo was “one of the greatest men of his time.” Though he was still young, he had earned the right to associate with the elders. “Age was respected among his people, but achievement was revered. As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings. Okonkwo had clearly washed his hands and so he ate with kings and elders.” (p. 6)

As the novel quickly unfolds we slowly come to learn more about the flaws and vulnerabilities of Okonkwo. The failings of this powerful protagonist are wrapped firmly around the substance of his power, contemporary fame and successes.

A Life Dominated by Fear:

Okonkwo’s life was dominated by fear. This fear of being considered weak or a failure propelled his drive for success. It was a deep-seated fear of being like his father.

Achebe leads the reader to the understanding of how, due to this fear, Okonkwo had become a man of fiery temper, impatient with less successful men and unable to tolerate what he saw as weakness in others. Some of the consequences of Okonkwo’s temper are revealed beginning in the second chapter. His family lived in perpetual fear of his temper. In the fourth chapter it is related how he brusquely cut down an untitled man who interrupted him during a clan meeting, telling the man, “This meeting is for men.” It was okonkwo’s temper that caused him to transgress the “Week of Peace” by beating up his youngest wife, Ojiugo when she spent too long doing her hair and missed setting out dinner for her husband and kids. For that transgression Ezeani, priest of the earth goddess, fined him “one she-goat, one hen, a length of cloth and a hundred cowries”. During preparations for the New Yam festival, a restless Okonkwo had found an outlet for his restlessness by beating up his second wife, Ekwefi. And when she made a snide comment about his marksmanship following that beating, he had, in a rage, turned his gun on her and fired. Ekwefi had escaped by scampering over a half wall before Okonkwo’s gun discharged.

The Ikemefuna Episode:

One major subject matter in Things Fall Apart revolves around the episode of Ikemefuna, the ill-fated lad entrusted to Okonkwo’s care by the Umuofia council of elders. Ikemefuna was one of two young people from neighbouring Mbaino, handed over by his people in compensation for the death of “a daughter of Umuofia.” This daughter of Umuofia, the wife of one Ogbuefi Udo an elder, was killed while at a market in Mbaino. Achebe doesn’t say how she was killed, whether accidentally or in a deliberate homicide, but the reaction of the Umuofia people is made clear. They would make war – a war of revenge – on Mbaino unless the later paid compensation in the form of two of their own. Mbaino handed over the fifteen year-old Ikemefuna and another teenager, a virgin girl, to Umuofia to avert attack by the latter, reputed to be the more powerful community.

The virgin became a replacement for the dead wife of Ogbuefi Udo, while Ikemefuna came to live as a member of Okonkwo’s household. Ikemefuna’s stay in Okonkwo’s home was supposed to be a temporary arrangement — until the clan decided what was to be done with him — but he ended up living as a member of the family for three years. He became “wholly absorbed into his new family.” In that time he became a mentor and “was like an elder brother to Nwoye,” Okonkwo’s first son who, in his father’s disappointed view, was taking on traits of his indolent grandfather. Under Ikemefuna’s influence, however, Nwoye blossomed. Ikemefuna made Nwoye “feel grown-up” to his father’s secret pleasure. “Okonkwo was inwardly pleased at his son’s development, and he knew it was due to Ikemefuna.”

After three years, Ikemefuna had begun to call Okonkwo ‘father’ but the day came when the oracle pronounced on the boy’s fate. Ikemefuna was to be sacrificed to Agbala. On the appointed day, some men of Umuofia including Okonkwo took the boy into the forest on a pretext of taking him home to his people. Someone else inflicted the first blow, but when the boy cried and ran to his ‘father’, Okonkwo inflicted the fatal cut with his machete. Okonkwo was afraid to be thought weak by his fellows if he showed compassion to the boy who knew him as a father and so he killed the boy.

Okonkwo suffered for the act, but only barely. He did not eat for two days after the death of Ikemefuna. He stayed drunk and could not sleep at night. On the third day he forced himself to get over it and went to attend the bride-price ceremony of a friend’s daughter. There they bantered and gossiped about current events.

Okonkwo in Exile:

When Okonkwo’s gun accidentally explodes during the burial ceremony of Ogbuefi Ezeudu and a piece of shrapnel lodges in one of the mourning sons of the dead Ezeudu killing him, justice in this case, was exile for Okonkwo and his family and the razing of their home in Umuofia by members of the Ezeudu clan, “dressed in garbs of war.” Okonkwo’s seven-year exile is spent with his maternal relatives in Mbanta.

Okonkwo, in exile, is a depressed man. Even though he lacks nothing materially — he has a home, farmland and ample seedlings, which he has planted, courtesy of his uncle and cousins — he still laments his loss of place in Umuofia. “It was like beginning life anew without the vigour and enthusiasm of youth…”

Tales of the White Man:

Two years into exile, Okonkwo is visited by Obierika, who brings news of the arrival of white men and their destruction of a place called Abame. The Abame people had killed the first white man who arrived there on a bicycle (iron horse) after their oracle tells them that “the stranger would break their clan and spread destruction among them.” Some months later, three other white men came with a troop of soldiers and wiped out the Abame people. Both Okonkwo and his uncle, Uchendu think the Abame people were fools not to have taken precautions concerning the white man. Uchendu called them fools for killing the first white man that came into their midst. They should have tried to find out more about him before deciding what to do. Okonkwo calls them fools for not preparing for war, even after being warned that the presence of the white man portended danger.

Another two years go bye. Obierika arrives for a second visit with the exile. The presence of the white men had reached into Mbanta and Umuofia. Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye, had joined the white men. Nwoye was a young man very much in the sensitive mould of his grandfather. Nwoye has been sighted in Umuofia where the whites have built churches and established missions from where to spread their gospel.

The End of Exile and Return to Umuofia:

The end of Okonkwo’s seven years of exile draws near. The white men and their Christian foothold have grown stronger. The Mbanta community adjusts to the new situation. Okonkwo is contemptuous of his mother’s people’s accommodating response to the ever-growing strength of the new Christian community. Eagerly he makes preparation for his return to his fatherland. He throws a feast during which one of the elders in attendance makes a speech commenting on the changes taking place in their midst due to the arrival of the white men and the Christians.
“I fear for the younger generation… because you do not understand how strong is the bond of kinship. You do not know what it is to speak with one voice… An abominable religion has settled among you. A man can now leave his father and his brothers. He can curse the gods of his fathers and his ancestors, like a hunter’s dog that suddenly goes mad and turns on his master. I fear for you; I fear for the clan.” (p. 118)

Before he returns to Umuofia, Okonkwo disowns his first son Nwoye and enjoins the remaining five to stay faithful. In Umuofia he discovers everything changed. Many men of title had converted and joined the Christians. The White men had not only sought converts and built churches, they also had set up a government and a court system. It was a system that did not respect their traditions or social order. Now the white men’s prison in Umuofia held many titled men and put them to menial labour, a condition that was clearly beneath them. When an Umuofia man killed another in a land dispute, the white men’s government, with information supplied by their Christian converts, supplanted traditional authority and hung the killer.

Okonkwo is sad and perplexed by these changes. He does not understand why his people had lost the power to fight. Obierika tells him that it is too late to fight the way he (Okonkwo) envisioned. Umuofia’s own sons were among the ranks of the strangers who uphold the white men’s government. The white men say Umuofia customs are bad and do not respect them; their Umuofia converts agree and aid their destruction of traditions and customs. Obierika muses:
“The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” (pp. 124-125)

The Umuofia Okonkwo returned to after exile was greatly changed from the one he knew seven years earlier. Contrary to his expectations the men of Umuofia had not dealt boldly with the white men and their religion. He was in an increasingly small minority with his views. Most of the others did not agree completely with the white men’s ways, but many were willing to compromise. Apart from their government and religion, the white men had also built a trading post in Umuofia. This made it possible for farmers to get good prices for their palm kernels and other goods. With the arrival of a new missionary in charge, Mr. Brown, the church had also learned to be less confrontational, which gained them more attention. The missionaries encouraged people to send their children to school so that it would be their own people, not strangers, who manned the many administrative openings in the white men’s government in Umuofia.

But Okonkwo was not moved by any of their arguments. He drove away Mr. Brown when the later tried to pay him a visit after having sent Okonkwo’s son Nwoye to teacher training school in Umuru to the south.

After Mr. Brown, a Rev. Smith, a man of markedly different disposition, became the missionary in charge, and compromise and conciliation gave way to confrontation. Things come to a head when an ancestral spirit is ‘killed’ when Enoch, a convert, unmasks an Egwugwu. This has never happened before. All the Egwugwus gather and, in retaliation, Enoch’s house is burnt down, the church is also burnt down.

These acts of revenge were the sort of acts Okonkwo understood. For the first time since his return, Okonkwo feels something close to happiness. He and the other men of Umuofia do not want to be caught unprepared like the people of Abame. They go about armed. The district commissioner summons Umuofia leaders. They go. Okonkwo is among them. It is a ruse. The men are surrounded, captured handcuffed and jailed. They suffer humiliation. Their heads are shaven and they are beaten. They will not be released until 250 bags of cowries are paid for the burnt church and house. The money is paid. They are let go.

A Final Act of Defiance and Despair

Later when Umuofia is at a meeting the DC’s messengers arrive to order the meeting dispersed. The angry Okonkwo confronts them, draws his sword and beheads their leader. The rest run away. Umuofia does not attempt to stop them. The meeting is disrupted. Okonkwo realises that Umuofia will not fight. He cleans his bloody sword in the sand and silently goes away. He is not seen alive again.

In a final act of despair, Okonkwo commits suicide by hanging himself from a tree behind his house. Even in death, he was still rejecting what his father, Unoka, stood for. Many years before, when he was still a young and up-and-coming farmer Okonkwo had suffered his first economic disaster in a general bad harvest. Most farmers despaired in that disaster. One farmer in particular hung himself after his livelihood was wiped out in the bad harvest. Then the aging and ailing Unoka had comforted and counselled his son: “Do not despair. I know you will not despair. You have a manly and proud heart. A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone.” (p. 18)

It was as if Unoka anticipated his son’s destiny and sought to avert it. Even though what confronted Okonkwo at last was a general failure, it was a general failure that pricked his proud heart. He had taken everything about the clan in a personal way and had acted accordingly. It is certain that if Unoka’s words came to him moments or even hours before he raised his sword against the DC’s messenger, Okonkwo did not consider it. He had clung to a tiny desperate hope that the clan shall redeem itself by following his example to act like brave warriors. But that small hope was disappointed. In the end he lost all faith in the world around him and did not care to live in it any more. He took the general failure of the clan personally and, like a martyr, chose to die alone.

His friend, Obierika, gave his final epitaph: “That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia…” Obierika told the district commissioner who had come with a posse of men to arrest Okonkwo.

http://imdiversity.com/villages/global/chinua-achebes-things-fall-apart-a-book-review/

Stereotypes in Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart

Merz L-SAW 2010

Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart illustrate the different ways of presenting Africa in literature. In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad shows Africa through the perspective of the colonizing Europeans, who tend to depict all the natives as savages. In response to Conrad's stereotypical depiction of Africans, Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart through the point of view of the natives to show Africans, not as primitives, but as members of a thriving society. Things Fall Apart follows Okonkwo's life as he strives for prestige in his community. When European missionaries come to Umuofia, Okonkwo's clan, Okonkwo tries to protect the culture that the missionaries would destroy in the name of "civilizing" the natives. However his rigid mentality and violent behavior has the opposite of its intended effect, perpetuating the stereotype of the wild African in the eyes of the European readers.

European prejudice against Africans is clearly present in Heart of Darkness. In traveling through Africa, the protagonist, Marlow, describes all the natives he encounters as savages, comparing them to animals or the wilderness of the jungle itself. In one instance, Marlow discovers a death pitliterally an open grove where natives go to die. He describes the men there saying,

Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees, leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth in all attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair they were nothing earthly now, nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation One of these creatures rose to his hands and knees and went off on all fours towards the river to drink. (Conrad 17)

This portrayal shows the natives as "shadows" and unearthly "creatures," not as dying men. The men are not individuals, but rather formless shapes with no humanizing characteristic to distinguish one man from another. None of the men are shown personally and so it is difficult to discern where one man ends and the next begins. This creates the effect that the men are nothing more than elements of an amorphous form. Marlow's depictions originate from a stereotype that says all Africans are made of the same, non-descript characteristics, unlike the descriptions of Europeans who are expressed in great detail.

Furthermore, the way in which the man crawls on hands and knees to the river to drink is animal-like and degrading. To Marlow, not only are the Africans indiscernible from each other they are also all inhuman. The man crawls on the ground like an animal walking on all fours to drink from a river, whereas a European would never drink from anything but a well or a tap. Marlow also compares the natives to animals in describing one of the workers on the ship. He says that "to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat walking on his hind legs" (Conrad 36). This man demonstrates that the savages might be tamed because, "He ought to have been clapping his hands and stamping his feet on the bank" (37). Yet he has been domesticated in the way one would train a dog to do a trick. According to Marlow, despite this native's knowledge, he is still an animal pretending to be civilized. Marlow assumes that the worker is the same as the other natives: he is too crude to be truly sophisticated like a European. Marlow continually generalizes the barbarian nature of the natives to describe one individual in a way consistent with his preconceived beliefsthe very definition of a stereotype.

Marlow further belittles Africans by depicting the natives as prehistoric and simple. "The prehistoric man was cursing us, praying to us, welcoming uswho could tell?... we glided past like phantoms, wondering and secretly appalled, as sane men would be before an enthusiastic outbreak in a mad house" (Conrad 35). The natives are so primitive that they are denied language. Marlow resigns to wondering "who could tell?" instead of attempting to understand the native's message because he believes the man's thoughts are either too trivial to be taken seriously or that the native is too insane to have anything legitimate to say. For most of the novel, "In the place of speech, [the natives] made 'a violent babble of uncouth sounds'" instead of expressing their opinions (Achebe, Image 341). Conrad chose to exclude native dialogue because, like his character Marlow, he may have been influenced by the European stereotype of Africans. This omission of language suggests that the Africans are not sophisticated enough to have anything important to contribute to the plot. During the few moments where the natives do speak, they discuss subjects that further imply their barbarianism, such as cannibalism: "In the case of the cannibals the incomprehensible grunts that had thus served them for speech suddenly proved inadequate for Conrad's purpose of letting the European glimpse the unspeakable craving in their hearts" (341). Generally, the Africans of Heart of Darkness are too underdeveloped to control language. Only during moments where language can support the image of the savage native does the reader hear the Africans speak. Conrad's technique of limited exposure to native voices ignores anything that might contest the stereotype and presents only the moments that support it.

Marlow combines the ideas that Africans are indistinguishable, savage, and primitive and reflects this image in the representation of Africa. Like the stereotype that all Africans are indistinguishable formless shapes, so too is Africa a structure-less continent. Marlow describes Africa with references to the banks "rotting into mud, whose waters, thickened into slime, invaded [by] the contorted mangroves that seemed to writhe at us in the extremity of an impotent despair" (14). Like the men, Africa is comprised, not of clear or distinct lines, but of formless elements like mud, sludge, and roots and both Africa and the Africans are portrayed in terms of death ( "rotting" mud) and disease (the epidemic-like take over of the roots). Since Africa and Africans are only framed in this context of death, Marlow creates the stereotype that Africa is constantly in a wild and deplorable state. In fact, in his critique on Heart of Darkness, Achebe wrote, Africa is "setting and backdrop which eliminates the African as human factor... devoid of all recognizable humanity, into which the wandering European enters at his peril" (Achebe, Image 343-4). Marlow's description removes distinguishing characteristics, like the depiction of the Africans themselves. Instead, the Africans are nothing more than duplicates of each other who serve no other purpose than to be a part of the scenery for the Europeans.

In response to the European's stereotypical depiction of Africans, Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart, which portrays Africans in a structured and civilized society. Although the clan defies the European stereotype, the protagonist, Okonkwo, does notconfirm‎ing the European beliefs more than contradicting them. While Igbo culture reveres strength and masculinity, Okonkwo's behavior is hyper masculine, typically manifesting itself through violence (Iyasere 378). Okonkwo is described as "a man of action, a man of war" (Achebe, Things 8), and while his achievements are honored, his violent nature is extreme. Also, Okonkwo is entirely inflexible. He believes that "one is either a man or a woman: there can be no compromise, no composite" (Iyasere 380). Combining this obsession with masculinity and the inability to be both masculine and feminine creates a character that fears anything feminine:

[H]is whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father. Even as a little boy, he resented his father's failure and weakness And so Okonkwo was ruled by one passionto hate everything that his father Unoka had loved. One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness. (Achebe, Things 10)

This fear of anything feminine explains Okonkwo's constant need for action and distaste for "idleness." In fact, Okonkwo is unable to deal appropriately with situations that call for such a balance and so it seems as though he cannot act in any other way but with violence, further supporting the European stereotype of Africans as violent and savage.

Contrary to this strict adherence to masculine values, the village of Umuofia is able to be flexible and compromise between masculine and feminine. "Many of the qualities which to Okonkwo were marks of femininity and weakness are the same qualities that were respected by the society Okonkwo wished to champion" (Iyasere 377). For instance, although Umuofia's laws are clear, the people "can adapt their code to accommodate the less successful, even effeminate men, like Okonkwo's father" (374), demonstrating Umuofia's tolerance where Okonkwo would never accept such "weakness." Also, whereas Okonkwo is resistant to change, Umuofia is more open and responsive, as later demonstrated by Umuofia's reaction to the missionaries in comparison to Okonkwo's. Umuofia is able to determine whether action or thought or compromise is needed. This is a capacity that Okonkwo does not share with his clan and these moments of disagreement result in Okonkwo's exile from the rest of the clan.

One such clash of ideals between Okonkwo and Umuofia is the stern way in which Okonkwo treats his wives and family. Okonkwo beats his family without restraint. The tone used in narrating the beatings of his wives and children suggests that this practice was fairly commonplace in Umuofia, but extreme violence was not tolerated. When Okonkwo beats his wife during Umuofia's Week of Peace, it is sacrilege: "Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody half-way through, not even for fear of a goddess It was unheard-of to beat somebody during the sacred week" (Achebe, Things 19). His complete disregard for a practice that is so significant to the clan further illustrates the conflict between Umuofia and Okonkwo. Unlike his clan, which places importance on peace, Okonkwo is unable to deviate from his strict code of punishment for even a week, especially when confronted by a feminine force such as his wife. His masculinity and fear of inactivity are so ingrained in him that he needs to punish his wife although he knows that this breaks a very important practice. From the European perspective of Heart of Darkness, this lack of self-control is one of the elements that makes Africans savage.

Another instance of Okonkwo in conflict with Umuofia's wisdom is when he kills Ikemefuna, who has come to regard Okonkwo as a father figure. Okonkwo is warned not to take part in Ikemefuna's death. Ikemefuna is not killed for any wrong he has committed against Okonkwo; he is killed for an offence that occurred between the tribes that was unrelated to Okonkwo, so it is not necessary for Okonkwo to participate. However, "he is forced by his own dogged insistence of masculinity to deal the fatal blow" (Iyasere 378). He refuses to listen to the advice not to participate because he "was afraid of being thought weak" (Achebe, Things 38). Despite the fact that Ikemefuna looked to him as a father, and Okonkwo may have even felt a bond with Ikemefuna, his beliefs towards strength are so inflexible that he feels that he needs to kill Ikemefuna.

Okonkwo's friend Obierika presents the more logical and less violent perspective on this situation. Obierika says, "You know very well, Okonkwo, that I am not afraid of blood; and if anyone tells you that I am, he is telling a lie. And let me tell you one thing, my friend. If I were you I would have stayed at home If the Oracle had said that my son should be killed I would neither dispute it nor be the one to do it" (41). Obierika shows that he has the masculine traits revered by Igbo culture yet action is not always his first instinct. Okonkwo is incapable of "blending the masculine and feminine" like Obierika he believes that Okerika's "idleness" is weakness, so he must always act and usually act violently (Iyasere 378). This uncontrollable need for violence and inability to logically balance male and female thought adds to the European stereotype that Africans are unsophisticated brutes.

Finally, Okonkwo's last attempt to save Umuofia from the Christian Missionaries actually completely severs ties between Okonkwo and Umuofia. As in earlier scenarios, Okonkwo looks to violence as his answer. After hearing of the Abame massacre, Okonkwo says, "They were foolsThey had been warned that danger was ahead. They should have armed themselves with their guns and their machets even when they went to the market" (Achebe, Things 81). However, since the Missionaries had said nothing on arrival, Umuofia wisdom says, "Never kill a man who says nothing. Those men of Abame [who reacted violently] were fools 'There is nothing to fear from someone who shouts'" (81). Okonkwo does not see the wisdom in refraining from action before knowing the full extent of the threat and so the only lesson he learns from the massacre is that, in dealing with missionaries, it is better to preemptively defend himself.

Once the missionaries come to Umuofia, Okonkwo is completely unwilling to compromise. In fact, "He mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart, and he mourned for the warlike men of Umuofia, who had so unaccountably become soft like women" (104). He sees the clan's attempts at peaceful co-existence as weak because it does not take an active role in eliminating what he perceives as a threat. When confronted with a European messenger, Okonkwo kills him in hopes of starting a noble war against the missionaries, but rather than rally to the attack, his clan only asks, "Why did he do it?" (116), illustrating that Okonkwo's beliefs are so different than the clan's that the clan has pushed him away.

Although the ties between Okonkwo and Umuofia are severed, Okonkwo's image is what comes across the strongest to the Europeans. After Okonkwo fails in uniting his clan against the missionaries, he hangs himself. When the European District Commissioner sees his body, his thoughts are described: "In the book which he planned to write The story of this man who had killed a messenger and hanged himself would make interesting reading He had already chosen the title of the book, after much thought: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger" (117)." The very title "The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes" demonstrates that the District Commissioner is already prejudiced against the native Africans. Africans in Heart of Darkness are also described as "primitive" beings that must be "pacified," illustrating that the European's stereotype of Africans is universal enough to be portrayed identically in two separate works.

Furthermore, if this scene is what makes "interesting reading" then it will be included in a book that will, presumably, be published throughout Europe. With the publication of this book, Okonkwo's violent, and perceivably savage, actions will be read all throughout Europe, thus spreading this stereotypical image. Based on earlier interactions between the missionaries and Umuofia, it can be assumed that Europeans rarely take the initiative to explore Igbo culture. Their only exposure to this culture is what they already believe to be true (the stereotypes) and moments that affect themselves. Typically, the actions that involve confronting the Europeans, such as killing a messenger, only enforce the stereotype of the primitive native. Europeans are never exposed to elements of Igbo culture that defy the stereotype, like Obierika's sophisticated balance between masculine and feminine situations.

Heart of Darkness illustrates the European notions that all Africans are the same: savage, primitive, and inhuman. To contrast this stereotype, Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart, showing a civilized and structured African society. Unfortunately, the protagonist of Things Fall Apart was not an accurate representation of a civilized African. Yet, since he was a prominent member of society, rather than destroy the stereotype, his violent behavior and unwillingness to yield merely strengthens the European's beliefs about the natives.

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Heart of Darkness. Ed. Paul B. Armstrong. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2006. 336-349.

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. W. W. Norton & Company: New York, 2009.

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. W. W. Norton & Company: New York, 2006.

Iyasere, Solomon O. "Narrative Techniques in Things Fall Apart." Things Fall Apart. Ed. Francis Abiola Irele. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2009. 370-385.

http://lsaw.lib.lehigh.edu/index.php/williams/article/view/28/37

Things Fall Apart is an English-language novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe published in 1958. 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. It is a staple book in schools throughout Africa and widely read and studied in English-speaking countries around the world. The title of the novel comes from William Butler Yeats' poem "The Second Coming".^[1]

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 people (in the novel, "Ibo"). It describes his family and personal history, the customs and society of the Igbo, and the influence of British colonialism and Christian missionaries on the Igbo 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, are spiritual successors to the previous novels in chronicling African history.

Contents

 [hide] 

• 1 Plot
• 2 Characters
• 3 Background
  • 3.1 Language choice
• 4 Themes and motifs
  • 4.1 Culture
  • 4.2 Gender
  • 4.3 Religion, myth and history
• 5 Literary significance and reception
  • 5.1 Influence
• 6 Film, television, and theatrical adaptations
• 7 See also
• 8 Footnotes
• 9 References
• 10 External links

[edit] Plot

Set in pre-colonial Nigeria in the 1890s Things Fall Apart highlights the clash between colonialism and traditional culture. The protagonist Okonkwo is strong, hard-working, and strives to show no weakness. Okonkwo wants to dispel his father Unoka’s tainted legacy of being cheap (borrowed/lost money, neglected wives/children) and cowardly (feared the sight of blood). Okonkwo works to build his wealth entirely on his own, as Unoka died a shameful death and left many unpaid debts. Although brusque with his three wives, children, and neighbours, he is wealthy, courageous, and powerful among the people of his village. He is a leader of his village, and he has attained a position in his society for which he has striven all his life.

Because of the great esteem in which the village holds him, 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 Ikemefuna's 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. The Oracle of Umuofia eventually pronounces that the boy must be killed. Ezeudu, the oldest man in the village, warns Okonkwo that he should 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 his "father" for protection.

Shortly after Ikemefuna's death, things begin to go wrong for Okonkwo. During a gun salute at Ezeudu's funeral, Okonkwo's gun explodes and kills Ezeudu's son. He and his family are sent into exile for seven years to appease the gods he has offended. While Okonkwo is away, white men begin to arrive in Umuofia with the intent of introducing their religion. As the number of converts increases, the foothold of the white people grows and a new government is introduced. The village is forced to respond to the imposition of the white people's nascent society—whether by appeasement or through conflict.

Returning from exile, Okonkwo finds his village 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, a warrior by nature and adamant about 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 — his society's response to such a conflict, so long predictable and dictated by tradition, is changing.

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. He ultimately commits suicide rather than be tried in a colonial court for killing a white man. Among his own people, Okonkwo's action has ruined his reputation and status, as it is strictly against the teachings of the Igbo to commit suicide.

[edit] Characters

This section requires expansion. (March 2012)

• Okonkwo is the novel's protagonist. He has three wives and eight children, and is a brave and rash Umuofian (Nigerian) warrior and a clan leader. Unlike most, he cares more for his daughter (Enzima) than his son, Nwoye (who is later called Isaac), whom he believes is weak. Okonkwo is the son of the effeminate and lazy Unoka, a man he resents for his weaknesses. Okonkwo strives to make his way in a culture that traditionally values manliness. As a young man he defeated the village's best wrestler, earning him lasting prestige. He therefore rejects everything for which he believes his father stood; Unoka was idle, poor, profligate, cowardly, gentle, and interested in music and conversation. Okonkwo consciously adopts opposite ideals and becomes productive, wealthy, brave, violent, and opposed to music and anything else that he regards as "soft," such as conversation and emotion. He is stoic to a fault. He is also the hardest-working member of his clan. Okonkwo's life is dominated by fear of failure and of weakness—the fear that he will resemble his father. Ironically, in all his efforts not to end up like his father, he commits suicide, becoming in his culture an abomination to the Earth and rebuked by the tribe as his father was (Unoka died from swelling and was likewise considered an abomination). Okonkwo's suicide represents not only his culture's rejection of him, but his rejection of the changes in his people's culture, as he realizes that the Igbo society that he so valued has been forever altered by the Christian missionaries.

• Unoka is Okonkwo's father who lived a life in contrast to typical Igbo masculinity. He loved language and music, the flute in particular. He is lazy and miserly, neglecting to take care of his wives and children and even dies with unpaid debts. Okonkwo spends his life trying not to become a failure like his father Unoka.

• Nwoye is Okonkwo's son, about whom Okonkwo worries, fearing that he will become like Unoka. Similar to Unoka, Nwoye does not ascribe to the traditional Igbo view of masculinity being equated to violence; rather, he prefers the stories of his mother. Nwoye connects to Ikemefuma who presents an alternative to Okonkwo's rigid masculinity. He is one of the early converts to Christianity with the arrival of the missionaries, an act which Okonkwo views as a final betrayal.

• Ikemefuma is a boy from the Mbaino tribe. He is given to Okonkwo in a settlement when an Mbaino tribesman murders the wife of an Umofian. Ikemefuma is ultimately murdered, an act which Okonkwo does not prevent for fear of seeming not masculine.

• Ezinma is Okonkwo's favorite daughter, and the only child of his wife Ekwefi. Ezinma is very much so the antithesis of a normal woman within the culture and Okonkwo routinely remarks that she would've made a much better boy than a girl, even wishing that this was the case of her birth. Ezinma often contradicts and challenges her father, which wins his adoration, affection, and respect. She is very similar to her father, and this is made apparent when she matures into a beautiful young woman who refuses to marry during her family's exile, instead choosing to help her father regain his place of respect within society.

[edit] Background

Most of the story takes place in the village of Umuofia, located west of the actual city of Onitsha, on the east bank of the Niger River in Nigeria. The events of the novel unfold in the 1890s.^[2] The culture depicted, that of the Igbo people, 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 arrival of the British, 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 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.^[2]

[edit] Language choice

Achebe writes his novels in English because written Standard Igbo was created by combining various dialects, creating a stilted written form. In a 1994 interview with The Paris Review, Achebe said, "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."^[3]

Achebe's choice to write in English has 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.^[4] Achebe has continued to 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."^[5]

Achebe is noted for his inclusion of and weaving in of proverbs from Igbo oral culture into his writing.^[6] This influence was explicitly referenced by Achebe in Things Fall Apart: "Among the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten."

[edit] Themes and motifs

This section requires expansion. (March 2012)

Themes in the novel include the relationship between the individual (Okonkwo) and his culture, and the effect of one culture visited upon another.

1. Individuals gain strength from their society or community, and societies derive strength from the individuals who belong to them. In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo builds his titles and strength with the support of his society's customs. Likewise, Okonkwo's community profits from his hard work and willpower to remain strong.
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 result 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 price he has paid to uphold it, i.e. killing Ikemefuna and moving to Mbanta). The Christian teachings render these considerable 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. Culture is not static; change is continual, and flexibility is necessary for successful adaptation. Because Okonkwo cannot accept the change the Christians bring, he cannot adapt.^[7]
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 refuse to join Okonkwo as he strikes down the white man's messenger, a kotma, at the end. Perhaps Okonkwo is not so much bothered by change, but the idea of losing everything he has built up, such as his fortune, prestige, and title, which will be replaced by new values. It is evidenced throughout the book that he cares deeply about these things, exemplified in his feelings of regret that he has lacked a "respectable" father figure from whom he could have inherited them.^[7] 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 plea for the Igbo culture to be upheld. In the same way that his father's failure motivated Okonkwo to reach a high standing in the Igbo society, Okonkwo's suicide leads Obierika and fellow Umuofia men to recognize the long-held custom of refraining from a man who commits suicide and from performing the customary rituals. This interpretation is further emphasized with Obierika's comment on Okonkwo as a great man driven to kill himself as a result of the pain springing from the loss of his society's traditions. Thus, Okonkwo's killing of the messenger and subsequent suicide embodies the internal struggle between change and tradition.
7. The role of culture in society. With the death of Ikemefuna, Okonkwo's expulsion due to events beyond his control and the journey of Ezinma with Chielo, Achebe questions, particularly through Obierika, whether adherence to culture is for the benefit of society when it brings about so many hardships and sacrifices on the part of Okonkwo and his family.
8. Notion of success and failure. Okonkwo's personal ambition to avoid a life of "failure" similar to his father, Unoka, leads to his high title and affluence in the community. He ardently tries to avoid failure. The notion of failure draws a parallel with the idea of cultural alteration in Umuofia and a shift in cultural values. Failure, for Okonkwo, is societal reform. Hence Okonkwo's drastic and at times unpredictable, exploits in opposition of anything foreign or lacking in what he perceives to be masculine traits.
9. 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.

[edit] Culture

Prior to British colonization, the Igbo people as depicted in Things Fall Apart lived in a patriarchal collective political system. Decisions were not made by a chief or by any individual but rather 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, their enduring influence 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's becoming a British protectorate in 1901. The arrival of the British slowly began to destroy the traditional society. The British government would intervene in tribal disputes rather than allow 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.

Despite converting to Christianity himself, Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart not only in response to the then-common misrepresentations of his native people, but to show the dignity of the Igbo to his fellow citizens. His depiction of the Igbo people's democratic institutions and culture allow them to be tested "against the goals of modern liberal democracy and to have set out to show how the Igbo meet those standards."^[8] 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 that "what is good among one people is an abomination with others" (p. 129).

However, the novel does not idealize the Igbo people; Achebe also intends to show readers what fractures existed within their culture. He "presents its weaknesses which require change and which aid in its destruction."^[8] For example, he depicts the injustices of Igbo society. No more or less than Victorian England of the same era, the Igbo are a patriarchal society. They 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. Achebe "chooses to ignore the evidence of what Izevbaye calls 'rich material civilization' in Africa in order to portray the Igbo as isolated and unique, evolving their own 'humanistic civilization'."^[9] This suggests that Achebe intended to show readers the changes that the Igbo culture could have made in order to survive in future years.^[10]

Achebe shows that European sentiments toward Africans are mistaken. According to Diana Akers Rhoads, "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."^[11] By contrast, the Igbo follow a democracy which judges each man according to his personal merit.

[edit] Gender

Definitions of masculinity vary in different societies. 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."^[12] Okonkwo flees 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."^[13]

The second half of the novel can be characterized as the feminization of Okonkwo. After his transition to his mother land Okonkwo is stripped of what he believes is his manhood. He has lost power over his family and his people which are crucial to be considered a man. Okonkwo's suicide can be seen as his final feminine act because he gives up and decides not to persevere through his struggles as he did in the first half of the novel.

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 novel can be taken as a demonstration of the limited value of women. The portrayal 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 a man has affects social status further depicts women as possessions of men. The freedom enjoyed by men to beat their wives adds to this idea. Okonkwo's wish that his favorite child, Ezinma, were a boy further exemplifies the inequality between the genders in Nigeria at the time. Also, the definition of masculinity as defined by Okonkwo as to not display emotions, being overly aggressive (traits believed to only belong to men)and own property as well as to have a title expresses how the Igbo culture believed women were the weaker vessel. Okonkwo displayed this male bravado when he murdered Ikemefuna, a boy he actually saw as a son, to prove his masculinity. Okonkwo's overcompensation revealed to the audience that men in the Igbo culture,Okonkwo in particular, had an unrealistic definition of what a man was supposed to be, a definition that made Igbo men seem to be not human.^[14]

[edit] Religion, myth and history

The analysis of cultural history involves myths, religion, totems, superstitions, rituals, festivals, and icons. In Things Fall Apart, the mask, the earth, the legends and the rituals all have significance in the story as well as in the history of the Igbo culture. 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."^[15]

First, there is the use of the mask to draw the spirit of the gods into the body of a person. A great crime in Ibo culture is to unmask or show disrespect to the immortality of an egwugwu, which represents an ancestral spirit. Toward the end of the novel, a warrior converted into a Christian unmasks and kills one of his own ancestral spirits. The clan weeps, for "it seemed as if the very soul of the tribe wept for a great evil that was coming — its own death."^[16]

In the cultural history of Nigeria complex rituals also played a large part in the daily life of the people. Achebe's story reflects this 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 paternal feelings towards the boy. Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna because "he was afraid of being thought weak."^[17] Yet, afterwards he cannot eat or sleep; "he felt like a drunken giant walking with the limbs of a mosquito."^[18] The space between an individual identity and his ancestors is narrow. In fact, Achebe goes so far as to say: "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."^[19]

There are several legends and myths told in Things Fall Apart: the earth and the sky;^[20] the mosquito and the ear;^[21] the tortoise and the birds.^[22] According to Rosenberg, "myths symbolize human experience and embody the spiritual values of a culture."^[23] The values and views of the world spread through mythology is important to the survival of every society's culture.^[24] Myths are instructional as well as entertaining. 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)."^[25] In Things Fall Apart, the use of language shares the functions of myths; "Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten."^[26] Proverbs and myths are both ways of conveying a meaning without directly force-feeding the words to the listener. Achebe is showing the importance of stories even within the story he is telling in Things Fall Apart.

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 to 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 value system. Those who commit suicide lose their place in the ancestor-worshipping traditional society, to the extent that they may not even be touched in order to receive 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 be 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.^[27]

[edit] Literary significance and reception

Things Fall Apart is a milestone in African literature. It has come to be seen as the archetypal modern African novel in English,^[2][5] and is read in Nigeria and throughout Africa. Of all of Achebe's works, Things Fall Apart is the one read most often, and has generated the most critical response, examination, and literary criticism. 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, Australia and Oceania.^[2] Considered Achebe's magnum opus, it has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide.^[28] Time Magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.^[29] The novel has been translated into more than fifty languages, and is often used in literature, world history, and African studies courses across the world.

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.^[5]

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 confront 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."^[30]

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.

[edit] Influence

The 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.^[4] 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.^[4] He commented, "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'."^[5]

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 him as a mentor.^[5]

Achebe's fiction and criticism continue to inspire and influence writers around the world. Hilary Mantel, the Booker Prize-winning novelist in a May 7, 2012 article in Newsweek, "Hilary Mantel's Favorite Historical Fictions", lists Things Fall Apart as one of her five favorite novels in this genre. A whole new generation of African writers - Caine prize winners Binyavanga Wainaina (current director of the Chinua Achebe Center at Bard College) and Helon Habila (Waiting for an Angel [2004] and Measuring Tme [2007]); as well as Uzodinma Iweala (Beasts of No Nation [2005]); and Professor Okey Ndibe (Arrows of Rain [2000]) count Chinua Achebe as a significant influence. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the author of the popular and critically acclaimed novels 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."^[5]

[edit] 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.^[31]

In 1987, the book was made into a very successful miniseries directed by David Orere and broadcast on Nigerian television by the Nigerian Television Authority. It starred several established film actors, including Pete Edochie, Nkem Owoh and Sam Loco.

[edit] See also

Novels portal

• Heart of Darkness
• Weep Not, Child
• Death and the King's Horseman

[edit] Footnotes

1. ^ Washington State University study guide
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Kwame Anthony Appiah (1992), "Introduction" to the Everyman's Library edition.
3. ^ Jerome Brooks, "Chinua Achebe, The Art of Fiction No. 139" (Winter 1994) The Paris Review No. 133
4. ^ ^{a b c} Booker (2003), p 7.
5. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Sickels, Amy. "The Critical Reception of Things Fall Apart", in Booker (2011)
6. ^ http://www.postcolonialweb.org/achebe/jvrao1.html
7. ^ ^{a b} "Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe: Introduction." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 152. Gale Cengage, 2002. eNotes.com. 2006. 12 Jan, 2009 <[1]>
8. ^ ^{a b} Rhoads, p. 61
9. ^ Lindfors, Bernth ed. Approaches to Teaching Achebe's Things Fall Apart. New York. 1991
10. ^ Rhoads, p. 62
11. ^ Rhoads, p. 63
12. ^ Achebe^{[page needed]}
13. ^ Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. EMC Corporation. 2003.
14. ^ Achebe, Chinua "Things Fall Apart"
15. ^ Baldwin pp. 196-197.
16. ^ Achebe, pp. 186-187
17. ^ Achebe p. 61.
18. ^ Achebe p. 63.
19. ^ Achebe p. 122.
20. ^ Achebe p. 53
21. ^ Achebe p. 75
22. ^ Achebe pp. 99-96
23. ^ Rosenberg p. xv
24. ^ Rosenberg p. xv.
25. ^ Rosenberg p. xvi.
26. ^ Achebe p. 7.
27. ^ Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. EMC Corporation. 2004. Noodle
28. ^ Random House Teacher's Guide
29. ^ ALL TIME 100 Novels, Time magazine
30. ^ Whittaker, David. "Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart" pp 59. New York 2007
31. ^ Ezenwa-Ohaeto (1997). Chinua Achebe: A Biography Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-33342-3. P. 81.

[edit] References

• Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor Books, 1994. ISBN 0-385-47454-7
• Baldwin, Gordon. Strange Peoples and Stranger Customs. New York: W.W. Norton and Company Inc, 1967.
• Booker, M. Keith. The Chinua Achebe Encyclopedia. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0-325-07063-6
• Booker, M. Keith. Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe [Critical Insights]. Pasadena, Calif: Salem Press, 2011. ISBN 978-1-58765-711-5
• Frazer, Sir James George. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1942.
• Girard, Rene. Violence and the Sacred. Trans. Patrick Gregory. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977. ISBN 0-8018-1963-6
• Rhoads, Diana Akers (September 1993). "Culture in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart". African Studies Review. 36(2): 61–72.
• Roberts, J.M. A Short History of the World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
• Rosenberg, Donna. World Mythology: An Anthology of the Great Myths and Epics. Lincolnwood, Illinois: NTC Publishing Group, 1994. ISBN 978-0-8442-5765-5

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Chinua Achebe

• 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
• 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]

[hide] v t e Works by Chinua Achebe
Novels	Things Fall Apart (1958) No Longer at Ease (1960) Arrow of God (1964) A Man of the People (1966) Anthills of the Savannah (1987)
Short stories	"Civil Peace" (1971) "Vengeful Creditor" (1972)
Short story collections	The Sacrificial Egg and Other Stories (1962) Girls at War and Other Stories (1973) African Short Stories (1985) Heinemann Book of Contemporary African Short Stories (1992)
Children's stories	Chike and the River (1966) How the Leopard Got His Claws (1972) The Flute (1975) The Drum (1978)
Non-fiction	Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays (1988), including "An Image of Africa" (1975) "The Trouble with Nigeria" (1983)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things_Fall_Apart