Things Fall Apart

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Things Fall Apart

• Chinua Achebe

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Chinua Achebe

• Achebe was born in 1930 Albert Chinualumogu "God
  fought for me"--Chinua for short.
• village of Ogidi in Eastern Nigeria - went to
  missionary school (parents were Igbo
  missionaries)
• went to prestigious boarding school for high
  school - Government College at Umuahia (like an
  English public school) studied medicine and
  literature at the University of Ibadan wrote
  short stories

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The Writing of Things Fall Apart

• Things Fall Apart written in early 1950s during
  last years of university -- University College,
  Ibadan
• published 1958.
• was originally longer became two novels then a
  trilogy.
• received major international approval.
• Achebe explores traditional society both in its
  strengths and its weaknesses does portray Igbo
  as isolated but shows the complexity of
  cultural, social, and language traditions prior
  to arrival of the Europeans.
• beginning to be a sense of possibilities beyond
  colonial rule in Nigeria (Independence in 1960).

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Novel as Postcolonial Narrative

• beginning to be a sense of possibilities beyond
  colonial rule in Nigeria (Independence in 1960).
• 1967, Igboland and other south-east areas of
  Nigeria seceded as Biafra
• Nigeria attacked
• Achebe moved to Biafra house bombed
• British supported Nigerian elite Biafra
  surrendered 1970
• after Biafran conflict, Achebe became a professor
  at University of Nigeria

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What is meant by the title, Things Fall Apart?

• An allusion to W. B. Yeats, The Second Coming
  (1920).
• Yeats poem written in the wake of WW1
  modernist sense of civilization coming apart
  anti-teleological.
• Why does Achebe make reference to this poem?
• Bear in mind how much of the novel takes place
  before the Europeans arrive.

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Narrative Style, Language

• Igbo language derived from West African Kwa
  languages words can have several meanings
  numerous accents/dialects.
• Use of proverb proverbs are the palm-oil with
  which words are eaten basis of communication
  and social order.
• Use of fables, oral traditions of story-telling.
• Use of Igbo words throughout.
• Why write the novel in English?

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Structure of the Novel

• Thematic Sections
• Ikemefuna Women (Part One)
• Exile (Part Two)
• Return (Part Three)

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Story of Ikemefuna

• Ch. 1 - Intro - Okwonko was well known
• Ch. 2 - how Ikemefuna came to Umofia - a just
  war
• Ch. 3 - Ok.s loan of seed yams bad year for
  crops
• Ch. 4 - Ikem. arrives in Ok.s household
• Ok. breaks Week of Peace beating wife
• Ch. 5 - Feast of the New Yam - preparations
• Ch. 6 - Feast of the New Yam - wrestling match
• Ch. 7 - Ikemefuna cut down
• three years pass locusts arrive

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Umuofias Women

• Ch. 8 - Okwonko feels bad
• bride price negotiation at Obierikas
• Ch. 9 - Ezinma ill - hunt for iyi-awa flashback
• Ch. 10 - Beaten wife case before the egwugwu
• Ch. 11 - Ezinma to Agbala
• story of Tortoise and the Birds
• Ch. 12 - Obierikas daughters wedding feast
• Ch. 13 - Ezeudus funeral Ok. kills his son
  exile

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Exile

• Ch. 14 - Ok. at motherland Uchendus consoling
  speech re. mothers
• Ch. 15 - Obierikas visit news of massacre at
  Abame
• Ch. 16 - Missionarys speech in Mbante
• Ch. 17 - church built Nwoye joins church
• Ch. 18 - Church gains more converts (outcasts)
• Ch. 19 - Okwonkos preparations farewell feast

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Return

• Ch. 20 - Umofia has changed new District Court
  we have fallen apart
• Ch. 21 - Mr. Browns mission a success Okwonko
  grieves
• Ch. 22 - Enoch unmasks an egwugwu clan burns
  down the church
• Ch. 23 - Six Umofia leaders jailed,
• Ch. 24 - leaders freed Ok. kills kotma
• Ch. 25 - Ok. hangs himself