Unit: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

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Unit Things Fall Apartby Chinua Achebe

• Historical Background

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Western Africa
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West African History

• 1800s European scramble for Africa
• Reasons
• Wanted to civilize the savages
• Natural resources ()
• Expose the Africans to Christianity.
• Lasted until late 1800s when countries started
  to gain independence

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Early Exploration

• Nations claiming ownership Portugal, Spain,
  Dutch, France, Netherlands, England and others
  soon followed
• Main commodities slaves, gold, ivory, rubber
  plants, diamonds and spices

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Africa Divided
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European Views of Africa

• During this time, most Europeans thought that
  Africa was a dangerous country, full of
  cannibals. Explorers brought back stories of
  strange traditions, people and customs.
• Africa was known as the
• dark continent

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The Dark Continent

• Considered Dark for several reasons
• The skin color of the people
• Dark in jungle areas (due to overgrowth, trees,
  etc.
• Dark because customs seemed barbaric.
• Dark because lack of Christianity (Showing them
  the light of God

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Heart of Darkness

• Short novel, written by Polish born writer,
  Joseph Conrad
• Fiction, but based on
• his travels through
• Africa on the Congo
• river

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Summary

• Published in 1902, the story follows Charles
  Marlow, a ferry boat captain who was hired by a
  Belgian trading company to travel into the Congo
  in an attempt to transport ivory downriver.

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Summary Cont.

• On his journey, he is also responsible for
  finding a large supply of ivory that the previous
  captain is holding captive.
• As he continues to travel down the Congo river,
  Conrad instills fear in the reader by describing
  the Africans and their customs.

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Summary Cont.

• As Marlow travels down the Congo river, he gives
  details of how the native people live.
• He creates an atmosphere of fear and mystery
  while describing various stories along the way.

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Summary Cont.

• Marlow eventually discovers that Kurtz has found
  power in leading the Africans, rather than taking
  their ivory. They look to him as a God, and he
  finds himself battling his European views and the
  realities of traveling through Africa.

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Dark Continent

• Conrad spends a lot of time discussing how dark
  the Africans were, how dark their customs were,
  the barbarism of the African ways and hints to
  the fact that some of this might be because they
  are not Christians.

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Quote

• It was unearthly, and the men wereNo, they were
  not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst
  of itthe suspicion of their not being inhuman.
  It would come slowly to one. They howled and
  leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces but what
  thrilled you was just the thought of their
  humanitylike yoursthe thought of your remote
  kinship with this wild and passionate uproar.
  Ugly.

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Publication

• Heart of Darkness was very popular when first
  published.
• Many European countries sent missionaries to
  Africa.
• The novel confirmed their ideas of what Africa
  and Africans were like.

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Chinua Achebe

• Born in Nigeria in 1930
• Worked as a radio producer
• Awarded over 25 honorary doctorates from
  Universities throughout the world.

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Chinua Achabe

• Achabe, felt that Heart of Darkness is a racist
  novel and that its author, Joseph Conrad was a
  racist.
• He wrote Things Fall Apart (1959) in an attempt
  to show that what Europeans thought was strange,
  actually had meaning and importance.

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Today

• Things Fall Apart is read worldwide in high
  schools and colleges.
• Its story of a man who falls apart as his
  culture is destroyed by the views and ways of
  white settlers.

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Setting

• Nigeria
• End of 1800s, right before the arrival of white
  men
• Centers around the Ibo tribe.
• Told in 3 parts

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Style

• Simple sentences simplicity of life
• Imagery metaphors and similes
• Proverbs used to comment on human behavior,
  importance of oral communication.
• Folk Tales show values of society

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Religious Beliefs

• Different than Christianity
• Supreme God Chukwu
• Represented by many minor gods
• Personal Gods Chi
• In control of personal destiny
• Ancestors
• Represented by masked men at social gatherings.
  Highly respected and worshipped, provides
  interaction between the worlds of living and dead