An Introduction to Things Fall Apart

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An Introduction to Things Fall Apart
Thanks to Highland Park Senior High, wherever you
may be. You guys should really take credit for
your work!
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Chinua Achebe(Shinwa Ach-ab-ba)

• Born 1930 in Nigeria
• Writes about the breakdown of traditional
  African Culture in the face of European
  Colonization in the 1800s.
• Sought to educate his fellow Nigerians about
  their culture and traditions.

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Authors Purpose
His first novel, Things Fall Apart, depicts the
confrontation between the Igbo people of
Southeast Nigeria and the British who came to
colonize them. Achebe tells the story from an
African point of view, showing that the Igbo were
not "savages needing to be civilized, as the
European conquerors believed, but intelligent
human beings with a stable, ordered society and
rich tradition.
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Authors Background

• Achebe was raised as a devout Christian.
• His father was a teacher in a missionary school.
• Achebe recalls that his family called themselves
  the people of the church and thought of
  non-Christians including Achebes uncle, who
  still practiced traditional religion as
  heathen or the people of nothing.
• Achebe later rejected this thought, along with
  his European name Albert.

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Authors Work

• Achebe left during the Nigerian Civil War of
  Independence (1967) to travel Europe and America
  to educate people about the cause.
• In 1990, a car accident in Nigeria leaves Achebe
  paralyzed. He accepts a position to teach
  college in New York state.
• He extends his stay in the U.S., due to the
  military coups in Nigeria in 1993 and recent
  corruption in the government.

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Background on Nigeria

• History dates to Nok culture of 400 B.C.
• The Niger River divides country into three major
  regions. The country is as large as Texas,
  Louisiana and Mississippi combined.

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Nigeria! Maps
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Background on Nigeria

• There are over 100 million people in Nigeria
  today. The Igbo people are the third largest
  ethnic group.
• The Igbo people live in the eastern region
  where Things Fall Apart is set near town of
  Onitsha.
• The Yoruba live in the west and the Hausa-Fulani,
  an Islamic people, live in the north.

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Background on Nigeria

• Nigeria was a center of the European slave trade
  for many years a dangerous and lucrative
  business.
• It was colonized by Great Britain during the time
  of imperialism (18th and 19th centuries) and
  finally granted its independence by Great Britain
  in 1914.

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Europe Colonizes Africa
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The Igbo

• Third most populous ethnic group in Nigeria (16
  of population)
• Live in southeastern part of country in tropical
  rain forests (deal with rainy season and dry
  winds)
• Subsistence farmers raise their own crops
• Yam, cassava, taro, corn, etc.
• Palm trees for oil and fiber
• Crafts and manual labor also
• provide income

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Igbo Culture

• It is a patriarchal society. Decision making
  involves males only
• Men grow yams and women grow other crops
• Live in villages based on male lineage male
  heads of household all related on fathers side
  (approximately 5,000 people per clan)
• Women go to live with husbands prosperous
  men have 2 or 3 wives
• Each wife lives in her own hut in the family
  compound

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Igbo Images

• Traditional
• Obi hut or
• family compound
• under construction

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Igbo Society

• No single leader, elders lead
• Social mobility Titles earned (not inherited).
  High value placed on individual acheivement.
• Hospitality very important
• Some Igbos owned slaves captured in war or as
  payment for debt.
• Proximity to West African ports means many Igbo
  were taken in slave trade

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Ibo Religion

• Chukwu supreme god, creator of world
• The will of gods was revealed through oracles.
• Each clan, village, and household had protective
  ancestral spirits
  

• Chi personal guardian spirit affects ones
  destiny, can be influenced through individual
  actions and rituals.
• Egwugwu masked, ancestral spirits of the clan
  who appear during certain rituals.

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Igbo Images

• Villager performing
• role of egwugwu

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Igbo Images

• Traditional dibia, a medicine man or healer.

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Achebes Style

• Achebe blends a formal European style of writing
  (the novel) with African story-telling
• He influenced other African writers and
  pioneered a new literary style using
• Traditional idioms
• Folk tales
• Proverbs

• Achebe is a social novelist. He believes in
  the power of literature to create social change.

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Home

• As you complete the conflict chart and are
  locating quotes to cite, do you best to focus on
  examples wherein words, language, and rituals are
  being used or being threatened.

• Achebe is a social novelist. He believes in
  the power of literature to create social change.

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Achebes Novel Key Facts
FULL TITLE    Things Fall Apart AUTHOR   Chinua
Achebe TYPE OF WORK   Novel GENRE   Postcolon
ial critique tragedy LANGUAGE   English TIME
AND PLACE WRITTEN   1959, Nigeria DATE OF
FIRST PUBLICATION   1959 PUBLISHER   Heineman
n Educational Books

• Achebe uses traditional African idiom in his
  work
• See Pronunciation of Igbo Names and Words in
  Cliffsnotes

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Achebes Novel Key Facts
NARRATOR   The narrator is anonymous but shows
sympathy for the various residents of
Umuofia. POINT OF VIEW   The narration is in
the third person, by an omniscient figure who
focuses on Okonkwo but switches from character to
character to detail the thoughts and motives of
various individuals. TONE   Ironic, tragic,
satirical, fablelike TENSE   Past SETTING
(TIME)   1890s SETTING (PLACE)   Lower
Nigerian villages, Iguedo and Mbanta in
particular PROTAGONIST   Okonkwo

• Achebe includes African folk tales in his work
  See Chapter 11, the story of the cunning
  tortoise, which explains why tortoises shell is
  not smooth.

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Achebes Novel Key Facts
MAJOR CONFLICT   On one level, the conflict is
between the traditional society of Umuofia and
the new customs brought by the whites, which are
in turn adopted by many of the villagers. Okonkwo
also struggles to be as different from his
deceased father as possible. He believes his
father to have been weak, effeminate, lazy,
ignominious, and poor. Consequently, Okonkwo
strives to be strong, masculine, industrious,
respected, and wealthy. RISING ACTION   Enochs
unmasking of an egwugwu, the egwugwus burning of
the church, and the District Commissioners
sneaky arrest of Umuofian leaders force the
tension between Umuofia and the colonizers to a
breaking point. CLIMAX   Okonkwos murder,
or uchu, of a court messenger

• Achebe uses African proverbs to capture the mind
  of his culture
• A man who pays respect to the great paves the way
  for his own greatness.

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Achebes Novel Key Facts
FALLING ACTION   The villagers allow the white
governments messengers to escape, and Okonkwo,
realizing the weakness of his clan, commits
suicide. THEMES   The struggle between
tradition and change varying interpre-tations of
masculinity language as a sign of cultural
difference MOTIFS    Chi, animal imagery
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Achebes Novel Key Facts
SYMBOLS   The novel is highly symbolic, and it
asks to be read in symbolic terms. Two of the
main symbols are the locusts and fire. The
locusts symbolize the white colonists descending
upon the Africans, seeming to augur good but
actually portending troublesome encounters. Fire
epitomizes Okonkwos naturehe is fierce and
destructive. A third symbol, the drums,
represents the physical connection of the
community of clansmen in Umuofia, and acts as a
metaphorical heartbeat that beats in unison,
uniting all the village members. For example
name symbols used by characters, read the
Sparknotes Summary of Chapter 9
FORESHADOWING   The authors initial
description of Ikemefuna as an ill-fated boy,
which presages his eventual murder by Okonkwo
the arrival of the locusts, which symbolizes the
eventual arrival of the colonizers Obierikas
suggestion that Okonkwo kill himself, which
foretells Okonkwos eventual suicide