Philippines Women’s UniversityJunior Middle Division

Taft Avenue, Manila

“CHINUA ACHEBE’S ‘Things Fall Apart’”(A Book Review in English 2)

Analyzed by: Stacey Kate M. PosionSection: II-Courage

Presented to: Mrs. Editha G. CelisDate: 29th of February, year 2008

I. TITLE: “Things Fall Apart”

The title suited for the story because the connections of the whole village fell apart. The elder people seem divided in how to deal with the attack on their culture and their lives. The cultures, traditions and beliefs that held them together have fallen apart.

We learn that if we stick to our own pride, fear and ignorance, we could easily be overtaken and destructed by other forces.

II. Author’s profile

Chinua Achebe , born Albert Chinualumogu Achebe on November 16, 1930, is a Nigerian novelist, poet and critic. He is best known for his first novel, Things Fall Apart (1958), which is the most widely-read book in modern African literature.

Raised by Christian parents in the Igbo village of Ogidi in south Nigeria, Achebe excelled at school and won a scholarship for undergraduate studies. He became fascinated with world religions and traditional African cultures, and began writing stories as a university student. After graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service and soon moved to the metropolis of Lagos. He gained worldwide attention for Things Fall Apart in the late 1950s; his later novels include No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). Achebe wrote his novels in English and has defended the use of English, a language of colonisers, in African literature.

Achebe's parents, Isaiah Okafo Achebe and Janet Anaenechi Iloegbunam, were converts to the Protestant Church Mission Society (CMS) in Nigeria .The elder Achebe stopped practicing the religion of his ancestors, but he respected its traditions and sometimes incorporated elements of its rituals into his Christian practice. Chinua's unabbreviated name, Chinualumogu ("May God fight on my behalf"), was a prayer for divine protection and stability. The Achebe family had five other surviving children, named in a similar fusion of traditional words relating to their new religion: Frank Okwuofu, John Chukwuemeka Ifeanyichukwu, Zinobia Uzoma, Augustine Nduka, and Grace Nwanneka.

The colonial impact on the Igbo in Achebe's novels is often affected by individuals from Europe, but institutions and urban offices frequently serve a similar purpose. The courts and the position of District Commissioner in Things Fall Apart likewise clash with the traditions of the Igbo, and remove their ability to participate in structures of decision-making. The British colonialism in Africa is the reasons and factors he wrote such tragic novel endings. And it represented with the traditional influence of fate, individual and the society.

III. Setting:

The novel is set in a small village of Iguedo, district of Umuofia with nine villages, situated in Africa. The time period is in colonial history when the British were occupying and influencing Africa, economically, culturally, and politically. Umuofia is an Igbo village that gives importance in their cultures, traditions and ceremonies. It is a village that is respected by those around it as being strong, powerful and rich. Each person has a hut that is located in the center of a compound. The main source of living of the men is sowing and growing yams. And the form of their money is the cowry shells.

The place and seasons are stated in the story but the time is implied. The time of invasion of the village implies in the history, is set in the 1890s; I could guess the setting of time had happened many years before it was colonized. Their old and early activities had been there and implied by Achebe, the writer, through the customs and traditions of the village people.

IV. Characters: Major Character

Okonkwo is tall and big strong man. He is a brave, famous and the best wrestler at age eighteen, who brought honor to his village. He is forty years old, he has three wives and several children who all live in their own homes in his village compound. He is a strict father and most of his ambition for his family started from his father’s attitude and laziness. He is a farmer and very successful in growing yams. He is respected of his wealth and status, without any support from family. He is a major character and the protagonist of the novel. But in the later part of the novel, he is an antagonist. His characteristic is flat because he never changed his attitude towards their superstitious beliefs, customs, tradition and culture. He refuses to follow the Christian missionaries, even when almost the entire village has. His impatience and quick temper make him break the rules of his village for his rash behavior. He has his faults, and it is these faults that lead to his suicide. His impulsive and rash nature makes him break the rules of the sacred week of peace. It is his carelessness that results in his exile from his village for seven years. And in the end, it is his anger and rash temper which pushes him to kill a white man and pushes him to hang himself because he sees no way out of the situation with the white men.

Minor Characters

Nwoye is Okonkwo’s eldest son from his first wife. He is fifteen years old, an unhappy and lonely boy because of his father. He found happiness through the friendship of Ikemefuna, two years older, and felt like a real older brother to him. He is a sensitive young man who is against certain customs of the village. His confusion about Igbo customs such as the killing of Ikemefuna and leaving of the twins in the forest are all answered by this new faith. He changed his African name to a Christian name, Isaac. He stayed longer schooling at new college for teachers. His characteristic is round because he stood up for his own decision and belief.

Ikemefuna is a boy who is brought as an exchange of murdered Ogbuefi Ezeudu’s wife in Mbaino. He lives with Okonkwo and felt very proud like a real son for three years. He

is eighteen years old, tall and strong. He became a friend to Nwoye, like a real brother because he seems knew everything. But the Oracle had already decided Ikemefuna’s fate, he was to be killed and he is led into the forest along with a band of men including Okonkwo and killed.

Ekwefi is very beautiful young girl when he married Okonkwo. She feels very excited and always happy when she watches a wrestling match. She had fallen in love to Okonkwo, the first time she watched him wrestled and won the match. She is forty-five years old and a good cook. She is the second wife and the mother of Ezinma, her only living child, whom she will do anything for even if that means not to follow their tradition. She had ten children but the other nine died.

Ezinma is the only child of Ekwefi and Okonkwo. She is ten years old and all her nine brothers and sisters had died. She had always been a sickly child at young age and her mother treated her with love and caring. Her father is fond of her and often wishes that ‘she were a boy.’ Ezinma is not a major character of the novel

Obierika is Okonkwo’s best and loyal friend. He helps him with the crops and sends him the money during his period of exile, and keeps him informed of the changes taking place in the village. He is a thoughtful man, who questions the traditions of society. He is also Maduka and Ekuke’s father.

Mr. Brown is a white missionary, who works very hard in introducing Christianity to the village people. He is a kind and understanding man who is friendly and helpful towards the people. He changed the people slowly. He built a school and a little hospital. He encourages the people to read and write. He became ill and left the village forever in the later part of the novel.

Mr. Smith is Mr. Brown’s successor, but very different from him. He openly dislikes Mr. Brown’s ways of treating the village people. He is one of the antagonists of the Christian missionaries who wish to invade all the villages of Umuofia with their way of thinking and forced many people to convert into Christian. He is always rude and disrespectful towards the leaders of the village. He invites Okonkwo with five other leaders and then handcuffs them. The leaders are beaten and their hair shaved off. Because of Okonkwo’s anger he had killed one of his messengers, who had been sent to stop a meeting of the village people.

District Commissioner is the antagonist man who brought a new kind of government and built a court in the village. He judged people who disobeyed the new laws. He ordered to handcuff the six leaders of the village and imprisons them. He is heartless and only concerned about the material things. At the end, he orders his men to take down the dead body of Okonkwo from the tree, and bury it.

Uchendu is Okonkwo’s uncle, and the eldest of his mother’s family. He is an old wise man with whom he spends seven years of his exile, along with his family.

Chielo is the priestess of Agbala, the Oracle of the Hills and Caves, who carries Ezinma on her back to the caves, saying that Agbala wants to see her. She is a special servant of a god. They do things that the god tells them to do. They also tell the people what the god wants them to do.

Eziani is the priest of the Earth Goddess. He is a special servant of a god. They do things that the god tells them to do. They also tell the people what the god wants them to do.

Unoka is Okonkwo’s father. He is very lazy and did not like work. He is poor, has no money because of drinking palm wine, and had passed his time by playing the flute. He is afraid of fighting but very happy with music and during drinking and singing songs.

Maduka is Obierika’s son who joins and wins the wrestling match.

Ogbuefi Ezendu is the oldest and respected man in Umuofia. His wife had been killed by Mbaino. He warned Okonkwo not to get too close to Ikemefuna, since the Oracle had pronounced his death already and then tells him not to join in his death. He dies a respected warrior.

Enoch is a rude African convert who tears off the leader’s mask of the egwugwu--the masked spirits of the ancestors, at a very important religious ceremony, creating conflict in the village.

Agbala is the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves, a god who speaks to the people through the mouth of its priest or priestess and tells the people what to do and she advices the life in the village of Umuofia. No one has ever beheld Agbala, except his priestess.

Ojiubo is Okonkwo’s third wife and mother of his other children.

Okika is the man who speaks against the white men and African missionaries in the market meeting.

Osu person is a man who follows a different god. He can not talk and marry an ordinary person. He has a long hair and dirty. He can never be a ruler in the clan.

I like Nwoye’s characteristics the best because he changed for good and followed his view of life and decision. He questions with their customs and traditions that he can not understand. When he found a new religion that opened his mind he converted and followed it.

The least character I like is Okonkwo, his attitude and perception about life depends on his pride. He does not show his love to his wives and children. He does not care for their feelings of his family and the village people.

These two characters personality and attitude does exist in real life. There are people who seek to change for good and there are other people who stayed for what they believed because of greed that makes our society a bad image.

V. Summary

The story describes the life of Okonkwo. He is ambitious and powerful leader of an Igbo tribe. He is proud on his physical strength and courage. His compound is large, he has no problems with his three wives, his garden grows yams, and he is respected by his fellow villagers. When Okonkwo accidentally kills a clansman, he left his clan for seven years as a punishment. Okonkwo and his family stayed in Mbanta, after seven years they went back to Umuofia. The white missionaries came and built a church and converted the village people to Christians. And then, they were forced by the District Commissioner to follow the new religion and new law. Okonkwo is destroyed and killed himself because of his unwillingness to change and made him separate from the community and he is fighting alone against the British government.

a. THEME

The theme of the novel is the colonization and conversion to Christianity of tribal peoples has destroyed their culture and traditional way of life in Africa. The missionaries enforced and imposed on the cultures to be civilized but in effect of being cruel and rude government. They moved the tribe peoples away from the superstitious practices and convert them to Christian.

Okonkwo, who is ambitious and hardworking and he believes strongly in his traditions. He wishes to achieve the highest position in his village but his rash and quick temper leads to his downfall. He refuses to break away from his traditional and religious values, which results in his own death.

b. MOOD/TONE

The ancestral spirits showed a dark, sad and scary mood. The tone is ironic, tragic, fablelike but there are times of celebration and joy during festival seasons with the wrestling contests and the Week of Peace. The villagers have strong faith and deep beliefs and do not allow any kind of carelessness with their customs.

c. CONFLICT

The external conflict arises when the encounter between Igbo tradition and Christian religion. With the invasion of the Christians, the villagers find themselves at a loss. The Christians even begin living in the evil forest, in order to prove to the villagers that all their beliefs about its evilness are baseless. Twins and osu were allowed to enter into their church.

The internal conflict when his manhood overpowers everything feminine in his life, including his own conscience. For example, when he feels bad after killing his adopted son, he asks himself: “When did you become a shivering old woman?” He dislikes all feminine things, because they remind him of his father's laziness and cowardice.

d. CLIMAX

The climax point in the novel arises when, Okonkwo, without realizing it, accidentally shoots a young member of his community and kills him. It was an accident, he has to follow with the law, and he should be exiled from his village for seven years. He has to live in exile for seven long years of his life in his mother’s land, Mbanta.

Another climax in the novel is when the missionaries enforce the new law in the lives of the villagers. Until then the people were governed only by the traditional Igbo culture, tradition and custom. But the invasion of the missionaries changes the lives of the villagers largely.

e. DENOUMENT/ENDING

The missionaries provided many good services to the villagers. They build a church, a hospital, a school and also a court and trading store for the villagers. Their culture has been changed as well as social well being of the village is gone forever.

Okonkwo discovers that everything has changed when he returned to his village after his exile. All of the customs, values and beliefs of the village have been changed and fell apart, he felt alone that resulted to his tragic death.

f. STYLE

The author created an impact in the novel through the use of stream consciousness. His friend Obierika’s words describe the tragedy most powerful “That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog.”

The narrator is anonymous in the various villagers of Umuofia. The narration is in the third person point of view, who focuses on Okonkwo but switches from character to character to detail the thoughts and motives of various individuals.

The Oracle clan god serves as a foreshadowing in the story that foretells the destiny or path of life of a person or event in the village.

There is local color whereas Achebe’s use of Igbo words like egwugwu and ogbanje that is translated in the novel itself but briefly explained in the story or glossary.

Uchendu, Okonkwo’s uncle used a figurative language when he said: “For whom is it well, for whom is it well? There is no one for whom it is well,” encouraging to shake Okonkwo out of his self-pity, to be happy with his wives and children in his mother’s land.

Okonkwo’s characterization is the dominant element in the novel from the beginning to the end. The whole story focuses on his attitude and perception and his disposition and decision towards life.

The wrestling match of the festival is the most interesting part of the story for me because I like watching the WWF (Worldwide Wrestling Federation). Although my mother tells me that it is too violent for me, I still like the sense of sportsmanship, strength and braveness of contestants of the match.

VI. Standard values

Factual value:

I learned that their story against their colonizer is almost the same with our story. Like Dr. Jose Rizal’s works and novels, we have experienced the same situation. I could relate to the story of Africans.

Achebe, like Dr. Rizal is trying not only to inform the outside world about Igbo and Filipino cultural traditions, but to remind us, his own people of their past and it had contained much of value through their works and novels.

Psychological value:

The people in Umuofia learned to live in harmony with the nature. They have a culture based on religion and nature. They worshipped many different gods and goddesses who represented elements of the natural world; Earth and Heaven, Water, Hills and Caves. They had priests and priestesses who are capable of physical and psychic healing, Oracles who could foretell the future, and spirits of ancestors who controlled traditions, gave orders and guided the tribe at time of crises. This system of control worked very well for many years for them.

Symbolical value:

Okonkwo’s suicide is symbolic of the self-destruction of the tribe, for he was the symbol of power and pride that the tribe had and with its death, the tribe’s culture and traditions gave way to a more dominant one. With his death, the old way of life is gone forever.

Ethical value:

There are two kinds of crime against the Earth Goddess: the male crime is a crime when the crime was not an accident, and the other one is female crime when there was an accident. It is the same with the crimes of murder with intention to put death and homicide with no intention to kill a person.

VII. Reaction and suggestions

The story in the beginning part is a little bit boring. But in the later part, I find their traditions inhuman and frightening. The story made an impact on me when the Oracle ordered that they should kill a human being, even if it is his family or relative. God gave us life and no one or anything should tell that someone must die.

I would not change the ending of the story because it fits him or his personality. The ending of the novel serves an eye opener that we should not rely on our pride and rash to our decisions and tempers.

I would encourage other readers who have not read this novel to read the whole book from beginning to end. This would give them a good picture what had happened to other countries that is been invaded and colonized by other countries.

It also serves a good example for those people who are greedy in power and relies only with their pride. This would serves as a warning not to follow their desires without keeping in mind their family and loved ones.