Things Fall Apart

Thanking Activities: 

 Things Fall Apart by   Achebe

Achebe was born Albert Chinualumogu Achebe in 1930, in the region of southeastern Nigeria known as Igboland. (He dropped his first name, a “tribute to Victorian England,” in college.) Ezenwa-Ohaeto, the author of the first comprehensive biography of Achebe, writes that the young Chinua was raised at a cultural “crossroads”: his parents were converts to Christianity, but other relatives practiced the traditional Igbo faith, in which people worship a panoply of gods, and are believed to have their own personal guiding spirit, called a chi. Achebe was fascinated by the “heathen” religion of his neighbors.

Question

1. What is historical context of Things Fall Apart?

The historical and cultural context of the publication of Things Fall Apart (1958) by Chinua Achebe. Before the release of this work by Achebe, the vast majority of literary writings on Africa and its inhabitants were produced by Western writers who offered a distorted view of the black continent and of its inhabitants. In response to this misrepresentation of Africa and Africans in colonial novels, Chinua Achebe and other African writers stood out as the voice of a self-centered narrative of Africa and its inhabitants, narrated from an African perspective. These committed African nationalist writers committed themselves to the deconstruction of the primal, ape image of Africa and Africans. This analysis aims to show that by presenting a false image of Africa, the colonial novels had the merit of making Africans aware of the need to write their own history, thus triggering the publication of Things Fall Apart and the other literary productions of the time that started the fight for real recognition of African culture and traditions in the rest of the world. In a critical postcolonial approach, the study positions an unsatisfied Chinua Achebe at the heart of the battle for the acknowledgement of Igbo / African culture and traditions. It interprets Things Fall Apart as an Afro-centric image offered to the European reader for a change of outlook on African culture and traditions.

2. What is the significant of the title?

The very title ‘Things Fall Apart’ foreshadows the tragedy which takes place at the end of the novel. The novel depicts the tragedy of an individual as well as the tragedy of a society. The protagonist of the novel Okonkwo who was rich and respectable at the beginning of the novel meets a tragic fate at the end of the novel. Achebe portrays how an ambitious, well known, and respected African Okonkwo’s life falls apart. But when he suffers, his whole tribe also suffers. At the beginning of the novel, the Ibo society was a peaceful, organic society, but at the end of the novel it falls into pieces. Thus, the novel records not only falling apart of Okonkwo’s life but also his whole society.The phrase "things fall apart" is taken from the poem, “The Second Coming” by W.B Yeats, which Achebe quotes more extensively in the epigraph.

Things fall apart" can be said when something we believed would last forever, comes to an end. The title Things Fall Apart refers to the fact that without proper balance, things do fall apart. The notion of balance in the novel is an important theme throughout the book. Beginning with the excerpt from Yeats' poem, the concept of balance is stressed as important; for without balance, order is lost. In the novel, there is a system of balance, which the Igbo culture seems but at the end of the novel the society people can not listen to the leader, so a chaotic situation is created.At the beginning of the novel we see Okonkwo as a prosperous leader of the Igbo people. But the novel ends with his tragic end. Thus, we can say that the novel Things Fall Apart depicts how Okonkwo’s life falls apart. Okonkwo is definitely a man of importance for his society. He is a well-known person throughout the nine villages and beyond. He is a warrior and wrestler who gains respect through his athletics. He is a fierce-free individual. He hasn’t lost one fight or any battles. And for this the people of the village love him. He is also respected because of his wealth.

3. Write a brief note on the concept of 'Chi' in Things Fall Apart?

Okonkwo's shifting beliefs about the chi are important in understanding the end of the novel. Okonkwo at various times blames his chi for bad luck, but at other times he claims personal credit for his good luck. When Okonkwo commits suicide at the end of Things Fall Apart, his bad chi could be faulted.The Igbo believe that an individual's fate and abilities for the coming life are assigned to the chi, and each individual is given a chi by the Creator (Chukwu) at the moment of conception.Interpret this proverb, spoken of Okonkwo: “When a man says yes his chi says yes also. ” What role does Okonkwo's chi play in shaping his destiny? ... There is an African proverb that says, “When a man says yes his chi says yes also.The concept of chi is that it is the basic component of all things that exists. Chi provides energy or power similar to a fresh breath of air which is considered as life in all living things. Qi or chi is the main reason for the existence of human life and a proponent that dictates the quality of health of the human body.The ideology of Chi originated in ancient China.

Chi is referred to the flow of energy which pertains to all living things such as trees, plants, humans and animals. Relatively synonymous to ‘life force’ is the ultimate principle being carried out in ancient Chinese traditional medicine and in Martial Arts. Another interpretation of the word “qi” or “chi” is breath or air which is the literal meaning of the word.The concept of chi is that it is the basic component of all things that exists. Chi provides energy or power similar to a fresh breath of air which is considered as life in all living things. Qi or chi is the main reason for the existence of human life and a proponent that dictates the quality of health of the human body. It is believed that there is a healthy balance of chi in every one of us and health is determined by harmonious flow of chi.

4. What do you think about the incident of Ikemefuna? How does it help to understand the Ibo culture in more specific ways?

Ikemefuna comes to Umuofia early in the book, as settlement for a dispute with a nearby village. Not knowing what else to do with him, Okonkwo lets Ikemefuna live with his first wife. Ikemefuna quickly becomes a well-loved member of the family. He serves as a role model for Okonkwo’s eldest son, Nwoye, and over time he also earns Okonkwo’s respect. But more important than the role he plays in Okonkwo’s family is the effect his death has on the unfolding events of the novel.

When the village elders decide the time has come to kill Ikemefuna and finally settle the dispute with the neighboring village, Okonkwo insists on taking part in the execution, despite the fact that the boy calls him “father.” Okonkwo ends up killing Ikemefuna himself out of fear that his failure to take responsibility would make him look weak. Ikefuma’s death irreversibly harms the relationship between Okonkwo and Nwoye. His death is also a bad omen that has a symbolic connection to Okonkwo’s later exiled from Umuofia. In this sense, the death of Ikemefuna signals the start of things falling apart.Ikemefuna's death irreversibly harms the relationship between Okonkwo and Nwoye. His death is also a bad omen that has a symbolic connection to Okonkwo's later exile from Umuofia. In this sense, the death of Ikemefuna signals the start of things falling apart.

5. Write a brief note on Ibo people's belief in the world of spirits.

Throughout the book Achebe gives his characters names with hidden meanings; for example, Okonkwo's name implies male pride and stubbornness. When Achebe adds British characters, he gives two of them common and unremarkable British names, Brown and Smith. His third British character, the District Commissioner, is known only by his title. The choice of names, and lack thereof, is in itself a commentary by Achebe on the incoming faceless strangers.

Achebe portrays Mr. Smith as a stereotype of the inflexible Christian missionary in Africa. He is a fire-and-brimstone type of preacher, who likens Igbo religion to the pagan prophets of Baal of the Old Testament and brands traditional Igbo beliefs as the work of the devil. Achebe suggests that the issue between Mr. Smith and the local people may be more than one of religion: "[Mr. Smith] saw things as black and white. And black was evil."

Mr. Smith preaches an uncompromising interpretation of the scriptures. He suspends a woman convert who allows an old Igbo belief about the ogbanje to contaminate her new Christian way of life. He labels this incident as "pouring new wine into old bottles," an act prohibited in the New Testament of the Christian Bible "Neither do men put new wine into old bottles"The reference to the Mother of Spirits is another foreshadowing of the decline of the Umuofians. Her wailing and crying signals the death of "the very soul of the tribe." Enoch's unmasking of the egwugwu and the subsequent destruction of the church by the Igbo represent the climax of confrontation between traditional Igbo religious beliefs and British colonial Christianity, and, to a great extent, these events symbolize the broader cultural confrontation.

6. How is the difference between the father land and the mother land is described in Things Fall Apart?

Things Fall Apart takes place sometime in the final decade of the nineteenth century in Igboland, which occupies the southeastern portion of what is now known as Nigeria. Most of the action unfolds prior to the arrival of European missionaries. Accordingly, the geography of the novel is dictated by pre colonial norms of political and social organization. In Igboland, clusters of villages band together to protect each other and guarantee their own safety. The action of Things Fall Apart centers on the fictional village of Umuofia, which is part of a larger political entity made up by the so-called “nine villages.”

In Igboland, geography takes on gendered aspects depending on where a person’s parents were born. For instance, Umuofia is Okonkwo’s father’s home village, which makes it Okonkwo’s fatherland. When Okonkwo gets exiled for the crime of manslaughter, he and his family travel to another of the nine villages, Mbanta, which is Okonkwo’s motherland, that is, the village where his mother was born. The gendering of geography plays an important symbolic role in the novel, since Okonkwo sees his seven-year exile in the motherland as an emasculating threat to his reputation.

7. Write a brief note on the concept of Nativism and Native identity in Things Fall Apart.

 Nativism is the political policy of promoting the interests of native inhabitants against those of immigrants including the support of immigration-restriction measures.

In scholarly studies, nativism is a standard technical term, although those who hold this political view do not typically accept the label. Oezguer Dindar wrote, "do not consider themselves [to be] nativists. For them it is a negative term and they rather consider themselves as 'Patriots.

8. Point out the important points of Things Fall Apart which can be compared with Kanthapura by Raja Rao.

Raja Rao and Chinua Achebe through the depiction of the respective philosophies in their novels Kanthapura and '' Things Fall Apart brings out the perception of social, cultural and traditional aspects of Nigerian village Umuofiaand Indian village of Kanthapura. Moreover, both the authors through these philosophies put light on the issue of colonization which the African natives and Indian natives suffered at the hands of white missionaries andBritishers. Rao who was an ardent follower of Mahatma Gandhi, paid respect to him by writing and adopting about the Civil Disobedience Movement and Non Violence Movement that Gandhi implemented against the ruling colonial government in his novel Kanthapura. Similarly, Achebe also adopted the philosophy of Igbo culture, their traditions, their festivals and folklores. He as a true religious believer of his culture and social practices wrote about the Igbo community and cosmological dimensions of the Nigerian lives in his novel Things Fall Apart. Both The author wrote for their respective nations and highlighted the major issues in the novel through these thematic philosophy of Gandhian Ideology treasured by Rao in Kanthapura and Igbo life philosophy by Achebe in Things Fall Apart.The centrality and the plot of the novel Kanthapura revolves around the Gandhian Philosophy which illustrate the commencement of Indian Freedom Struggle by Mahatma Gandhi in the early 20th century which left a great impact on the people of India and Rao is one of them who used it to aware its reader worldwide.

 Gandhian Philosophy is very well depicted in the novel which in reality impacted and affected many villages and parts ofIndia. Similarly, Achebe in his first novel Things Fall Apart portrayed the cosmological and cultural philosophy ofIgbo life. He wanted to emphasize in his novel mainly about the homegrown people of Umaro who caught themselves in the clutches of high functioning of the western culture, who not only captured their religious beliefs but also being in the minority they somehow dominated the majority natives of Africa. As Edward said quotes,“what I left out of Orientalism was that response to western dominance which culminated in the great movement of decolonization all across the Third World'' Therefore, things started to fall when the westernculture through their ways of life forced the lives of Igbo hence distorted their cultural and religious belief altogether which created the major destruction within the community by ruining their peace. 

So, the commonality in both the novels lies with the dominance of the western world over the eastern world which is portrayed by adapting the major issues of philosophy by both Rao and Achebe intelligently in the respective novels.Mahatma Gandhi through his ideology of non-violence, non-cooperation, peace, truth and love inspired many writers like Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx as well as Indian writers. And all these writers through their immense inspiration and passion made their readers think persistently about the issues and protest that Gandhi made in real life during Indian Freedom Struggle. He aroused the devotion and belief of many Indians for the independence through his ideologies to fight for freedom not with a war but with a protest.