Things Fall Apart

A story with the title that says it all, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, is a novel of a man’s life falling apart. The publisher of Things Fall Apart is by the Anchor Books and the book was first published in the year 1959. This novel is a tragedy of a historical fiction story. Things Fall Apart has multiple themes such as the struggle between tradition and change, varying interpretations of masculinity, and languages as a sign of cultural difference. Things Fall Apart portrays the life of Okonkwo, a leader and the infamous wrestling champion in Umuofia. It focuses on his family, his culture, and how the British colonialism and Christian missionaries influenced his community.
One of Achebe’s purpose of Things Fall Apart was to explain the other side of history of the Africans. He believed a lot of people misunderstood about Africa and inaccurately portrays African culture. He carefully portrays the traditions of the Igbo culture to its contact with Europeans; however, he is careful not to stereotype the Europeans. Things Fall Apart sets in the lower Nigerian villages of Iguedo and Mbanta in the 1890s where the conflict is between Nigeria’s white colonial government and the traditional culture of the Igbo villagers. The narration is in third person who focuses on Okonkwo, the protagonist, but also switches often from character to character of their thoughts and motives such as Ezinma, Nwoye, and Mr. Brown. The tone is ironic, tragic, satirical, and fablelike. The mood is usually somber and tragic with moments of joy during celebrations. Since the novel focuses on the downfall of Okonkwo, it conveys a sense of loss and extremely dramatic.
Okonkwo is a respected warrior of the Umuofia clam. Unoka, Okonkwo’s father, died with unsettled debts and was a failture. Okonkwo, because of his father, became to hate the lazy and weak. Okonkwo considers his oldest son, Nwoye, lazy and worries that his son will end up in a failure like Unoka. Umuofia wins a boy, Ikemefuna, from a neighboring tribe. Okonkwo finds the boy as an ideal son, but does not show any affection because Okonkwo believes affection is weakness. During the Week of Peace, Okonkwo severely beats his youngest wife breaking the rules of peace during the sacred week. With his act during the Week of Peace, he had shocked his whole community. After three years, the Oracle stated Ikemefuna to be killed, and Okonkwo, not wanting to look weak, killed Ikemefuna. Ikemefuna’s death left Nwoye in tears and Okonkwo in depression but later Okonkwo gains his confidence back. Okonkwo’s daughter Ezinma falls ill, but eventually recovers after Okonkwo gathers leaves for her medicine. The death of Ogbeufi Ezeudu, one of the oldest and important elders, was announced. At the funeral, tragedy happens when Okonkwo’s gun explodes and kills Ezeudu’s son. Okonkwo had to take his family into exile to his mother’s village, Mbanta, for seven years. Okonkwo reconciles himself in his motherland with the help of his kinmen and Obierika. Obierika mentioned that Abame, another village, was destroyed by white men. After Okonkwo comes back to his village, a missionary leader, Mr. Brown came to speak about Christianity. Mr. Brown is quite benevolent, but he becomes ill and is replaced by Reverend James Smith who is zealous, small-minded, and controlling. Without Mr. Brown’s restraint, one convert, Enoch, unmasks an egwugwu which was like killing an ancestral spirit. So the egwugwu burned Enoch’s compound and Reverend Smith’s church. Upset, the District Commissioner requests that the leaders of Umuofia meet; however, the leaders were handcuffed and thrown to jail. The prisoners were released and held a meeting to discuss their situation. During the meeting, five court messengers approached them to desist. Okonkwo killed their leader, expecting his clansmen to join him to fight; however, the other men were not willing to go to war. The angry District Commissioner arrived at Okonkwo’s compound, and Obierika and other men lead him to Okonkwo’s hanged body. Obierika explained that suicide was a sin and the clansmen could not touch his body so the Commissioner put Okonkwo down. Later, he believed that Okonkwo’s rebellion and death will make an interesting paragraph or two for the book, The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.
The book’s climax was when Okonkwo committed suicide when he realized his village’s weakness. Then the resolution became that the District Commissioner slowly led the clansmen out of the village and described Okonkwo’s rebellion to be interesting only for a small part of his novel while the clan was devastated with his death. There were three symbols: the locusts, fire, and drums. While the locusts slowly fell on the village, it symbolized and foreshadowed the white colonists descending upon the village. Fire represents Okonkwo’s behavior of being destructive by both physically and emotionally by killing people and only showing anger and coldness towards people. The drums is the symbol of the connection of the community of how the drum beats in unison, it also unites the villagers. As the author describes Ikemefuna as an ill-fated boy, it foreshadowed that he would be murdered by Okonkwo. Also Obierika’s suggestion that Okonkwo kill himself, foretold Okonkwo’s suicide. Achebe achieved his purpose for this novel. He kept his writing simple, directly to the point, and centered on nature. The novel shows how the white colonists have changed the villagers’ lives, but I think that Achebe should have wrote more how the colonists influenced the traditional culture. I enjoyed the novel because of its tragedy. Of course, happy endings are my favorites, but Things Fall Apart is about the lives of African villagers and the influence of the white colonists. Achebe writes Okonkwo as a strict and fierce character; however, I can feel Okonkwo is an attractive and generous character. When Achebe wrote, “Even Okonkwo himself became very fond of the boy- inwardly of course… But there was no doubt that he liked the boy” and when Ezinma was taken by the Agbala and Ezinma’s mother, Ekwefi, followed the Agbala, Okonkwo was worried. Achebe wrote, “He had felt very anxious but did not show it. When he thought he had waited long enough he again returned to the shrine. But the Hills and the Caves were as silent as death. It was only on his fourth trip that he had found Ekwefi, and by then he had become gravely worried.” He’s indeed a kindhearted person but doesn’t want to show it in case it made him seem weak. Okonkwo can be both my least favorite character and my favorite character. I only hoped that Okonkwo decided to show his feelings to the outside.
Overall, Things Fall Apart was an interesting book that moved my heart and I learned much more about the culture and tribes of Africa. I would recommend this book to other people if they are interested in historical fiction and tragedy. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a great novel in my opinion. Achebe’s purpose was clearly written in the ending where the Commission took Okonkwo’s actions to be least of his life. The white colonists did not know much about the African lives and misunderstood them, so Achebe succeeded in showing that. The readers would be grasped into Things Fall Apart.