Things Fall Apart

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Things Fall Apart

• Chinua Achebe

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Activator

• Based on the title of the novel and the pictures
  seen in the first slide- What do you think this
  novel is going to be about?

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William Butler Yeats

• Turning and turning in the widening gyre The
  falcon cannot bear the falconer Things fall
  apart the center cannot hold Mere anarchy is
  loosed upon the world, The blood--dimmed tide is
  loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence
  is drowned The best lack all conviction, while
  the worst Are full of passionate intensity
• Poem that inspired novels title Things Fall
  Apart

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Chinua Achebe

• Born in Ogidi, Nigeria to missionary parents who
  raised him Protestant, though still preserving
  some of the aspects of their traditional Ibo
  culture.
• Studied literature and medicine at the University
  of Ibadan worked briefly as a teacher and then
  for the Nigerian Broadcasting Company.
• Things Fall Apart was his first novel- published
  in 1958.
• Many of his novels deal with the social and
  political problems of Nigeria.

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First African Novel

• Seminal novel of Africa- first and most important
• Most texts to come out of Africa centered around
  the European colonization and ideas- didnt
  represent true culture of Africa
• Profess Paul Brian writes Achebe is trying not
  only to inform the outside world about Ibo
  culture traditions, but to remind his own people
  of their past and to assert that it had contained
  much of value. All too many Africans in his time
  were ready to accept the European judgment that
  Africa had no history or culture worth
  considering.

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Archetypes (Themes Conflicts)

• Societal Culture Conflicts
• Culture Clashes
• Ethnocentrism- the tendency to believe ones
  ethnic or cultural group is centrally important,
  and that all other groups are measured in
  relation to ones own. The ethnocentric
  individual will judge groups relative to their
  own particular ethnic group or culture,
  especially with concern to language, behavior,
  customs, and religion
• Hero vs. Society
• Self Made Man
• Masculinity of Males
• Food as Cultural Component

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Setting of the novel

• Takes place in lower Nigerian tribal land-
  Umuofia
• Umuofia made up of 9 villages- takes place in
  Iguedo village
• Time Period Late 1800s- Early 1900s
• Main historical impact European colonization of
  Africa- imperialism

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Colonization of Africa
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Age of Imperialism

• Various European powers spreading domination in
  Africa for
• -Power
• -Control over trade goods unavailable in Europe -
  copper, cotton, rubber, palm oil, cocoa,
  diamonds, tea, and tin
• Desire to civilize what was viewed as savage
  lands
• Brought religion Christianity to polytheistic
  culture

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Importance of Food

• Yams- principal crop
• New Yam Festival marks the beginning of harvest
  system
• Still a respected custom in some Ibo cultures
• A man named Ibo sacrificed his son during a time
  of intense starvation in which yams sprouted from
  place where son was buried
• Tribe saw this as a sign to plant yams

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Gods of Ibo Culture

• Believed in many gods
• Referred to as stone gods by Europeans
• Made sacrifices to please gods
• Includes the sacrifices of children and the
  banishment of people
• Twins or any other rare occurrence was seen as
  evil, and children were destroyed
• Chi personal god- came from within your own
  self

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Women

• Multiple wives
• Patriarchal Society
• Did not intervene or voice opinions in important
  affairs
• Were meant to be obedient and passive or be
  physically punished
• Worked in the harvest with men
• Mans importance could be rated on how much
  property, wives, and children he had

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Men

• Masculine
• Fighters
• Defend against enemy clans
• Hard Workers
• Strong
• Okonkwo despises his father for his lack of
  warrior spirit and hard work
• Father is in debt but is a free spirit

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Style

• Achebe wrote novel in English to reach as many
  people as he could
• Used proverbs and African terms to stay true to
  his culture
• Proverbs These wise sayings are very important
  they are used to comment on human behavior and
  show the importance of oral communication within
  the community. Achebe uses them throughout the
  book, and they are drawn from Ibo experience.
• The sun will shine on those who stand before it
  shines on those who kneel under them.
• A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing.

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• People who live in glass houses shouldnt throw
  stones.
• The sun will shine on those who stand before it
  shines on those who kneel under them.
• A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing.
• A society grows great when old man plant tress
  whose shad hey know they shall never sit in.
• A dog is wiser than a woman, it does not bark at
  its master.
• Eneke the bird says that since men have learned
  to shoot without missing, he has learned to fly
  without perching.
• Proverbs are the palm oil which words are eaten.
• Let the kit perch and let the eagle perch too.
  If one says no to the other, let his wing break.
• A man who pays respect to the great paves the way
  for his own greatness.
• An old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are
  mentioned in proverbs.

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American Proverbs

• Dont put all of your eggs in one basket
• Dont bite off more than you can chew
• What comes around goes around
• You reap what you sow
• Keep your friends close and your enemies closer
• Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
• He who represents himself has a fool for a
  client

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Proverbs

• A dog is wiser than a woman it does not bark at
  its master. Russian Proverb
• A hungry man is an angry man. English Proverb
• A little too late, is much too late. German
  Proverb
• A man may well bring a horse to the water, but he
  cannot make him drink. John Heywood "The
  Proverbs of John Heywood" (1546)

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Proverbs

• A rumor goes in one ear and out many mouths.
  Chinese proverb
• An enemy will agree, but a friend will argue.
  Russian Proverb

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Proverbs

• As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool
  returneth to his folly. Bible - Proverbs 2611
• Appetite comes with eating. French Proverb
• Choose neither a woman nor linen by candlelight.
  Italian Proverb