THINGS FALL APART

Presented byUzma ShaukatResearch Scholar

“Turning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon cannot hear the falconer;Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

Chapter 20 pg 182 chapter 21pg 185

Title

The Second Coming William Butler Yeats

AS A RESPONSE TO HEART OF DARKNESSAND JOYCE CARRY’S MR JOHNSON Written in English

Abrogation (rejection of a normative concept of standard English by post colonial writers)

Appropriation (post colonial writers take those aspects of imperial culture i.e. language through which they can express their own social and cultural identities in order to capture widest possible audience

APPROPRIATION

(i) Glossing (obi)(ii)Parenthetical devices (efulefu, worthless)(iii)translation

AFRICAN LITERATURE

Chinua Achebe presents native African culture in his stunning work, Things Fall Apart.

SETTING OF THE NOVEL

Published in 1958

Setting is in late 1890’s Ibo society

By 1952, the period of colonial rule in Nigeria was entering its final phase after almost 100 years of colonial rule

Nigeria was decolonized in 1960

THEME

Clash between Ibo/Igbo culture and British colonialism

Okonkwo……representative of Ibo culture

Struggled hard to maintain cultural integrity of his people, against the over-whelming power of colonial rule

Committed suicide

Things Fall Apart, deals with the clash of cultures and the violent transitions in life and values brought about by the onset of British colonialism in Nigeria at the end of the nineteenth century.

PACE OF THE NOVEL

Early experience with colonialism from first contact with the British to the widespread British administration, trading post, court of law, school

MAIN CHARACTER

OkonkwoOkonkwo

FirstFirst WifeWife

EzinmaEzinma

EkwefiEkwefi OjiugoOjiugo

NwoyeNwoye ObiageliObiageli SonSon NkechiNkechi

IBO VILLAGE IN THE 1800S.IBO VILLAGE IN THE 1800S.

IBO CULTURE

Why did the writer give a detailed account of Ibo culture?

PEPPERED WITH PROVERBS Things Fall Apart combines Western linguistic

forms and literary traditions with Igbo (or Ibo) words and phrases, proverbs, fables, tales, and other elements of African oral and communal storytelling traditions.

This helps record and preserve African traditions as well as to overcome the colonialist language and culture.

AFRICAN LITERATURE

African literature develops from their extremely oral culture

Oral culture takes many forms: proverbs and riddles, epic narratives, praise poetry and songs, chants and rituals, stories, legends and folk tales.

Egwugwu Egwugwu (chapter 10)(chapter 10)

EKWE- TYPE OF DRUM

Oge- type of bell

Drums were a Drums were a very important very important

part of part of everyday life. everyday life.

They were part They were part of religious of religious ceremonies ceremonies

and ritualsand rituals..

YAMS ARE A STAPLE CROP.

Village Customs

Life in Umuofia was very structured and daily life had many important rituals.

There were important traditions for welcoming visitors, for attaining and respecting social status, for

treatment of women, for going to war, getting married, and for settling disputes. .

KOLA NUTKOLA NUTKola nut was

mixed with alligator pepper

and eaten. This was served

as an appetizer as part of the

welcoming ritual.

KOLA BOWLKOLA BOWLKOLA WAS MIXED AND SERVED IN THIS KOLA WAS MIXED AND SERVED IN THIS TYPE OF BOWL.TYPE OF BOWL.

When a guest arrived, the When a guest arrived, the host would ask the guest host would ask the guest

to break the kola nut. to break the kola nut.

They would politely argue They would politely argue about who should serve about who should serve the kola. Finally, the host the kola. Finally, the host would serve it.would serve it.

The guest would draw The guest would draw chalk lines on the floor chalk lines on the floor and paint his big toe and paint his big toe white with the chalk. white with the chalk.

Religious CeremoniesReligious CeremoniesThe people of Umuofia believed in many gods, ghosts, ancestral spirits, and even believed certain animals were sacred. They prayed to their ancestors and also had a chi or personal god. They revered the python as the most sacred animal and called a rainbow the python of the sky.

CEREMONIAL CEREMONIAL MASKSMASKS

The egwugwu were the leaders of the community.

The women would be afraid of the egwugwu, even though they knew their men were had to be the egwugwu.

Evil Forest was the lead

egwugwu in Things Fall Apart.

AN ELDER MEETINGAN ELDER MEETINGTHE EGWUGWU ARE IN MASKSTHE EGWUGWU ARE IN MASKS

EGWUGWU WEARING EGWUGWU WEARING CEREMONIAL MASKSCEREMONIAL MASKS

They would They would make make communal communal decisions for decisions for the Ibo people the Ibo people such as:such as: settling settling

property property disputes disputes

deciding deciding whether to go whether to go to warto war

DRINKING PALM WINE FROM A HUMAN SKULL WAS PART OF RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES

OKONKWO HAD FIVE SKULLS TO HIS CREDIT

Village LifeVillage Life

The villagers were warriors, farmers, and The villagers were warriors, farmers, and craftsmen. craftsmen.

The men’s crop was yam, the king of crops. The men’s crop was yam, the king of crops. Women’s crops were coco-yams, beans, and Women’s crops were coco-yams, beans, and

cassava. cassava.

OBIIbo HutsIbo Huts

BELIEF SYSTEM

Before Christianity belief system revolved around one particular god, named Chukwu Chukwu was all powerful and omnipresent God and representations, symbols and sanctuaries for him can be found almost anywhere.

Also believed in many smaller deities that would compete among themselves CHI was a god seen as individually personalized by its followers. The people believed strongly in ones ability to improve status in the present world through change.

COWRY SHELLSCOWRY SHELLS

Cowry shells were used Cowry shells were used as money in Africa. as money in Africa. They were small They were small enough to carry and enough to carry and

were scarce enough to were scarce enough to be valuable. be valuable.

25 bags of cowry shells 25 bags of cowry shells were paid as bride price were paid as bride price during the engagement during the engagement ceremony in the novel. ceremony in the novel.

"PROVERBS ARE THE PALM-"PROVERBS ARE THE PALM-OIL WITH WHICH WORDS OIL WITH WHICH WORDS

ARE EATEN."ARE EATEN."

Among the Ibo people, the art of conversation was very highly regarded.

They received their news from the town crier.

Proverbs were very important to the Ibo people.

With the period of Colonization, African traditions and culture came under serious threat from outside sources.   

Europeans, justifying themselves with the Christian ethics, tried to destroy the "primitive" culture of the Africans, to make them more pliable slaves.

LOCUSTSLOCUSTS Locusts are related

to grasshoppers. They swarm and can destroy whole fields and crops.

The Umuofians considered them to be a delicacy.

They gathered them in baskets and then roasted them and ate them.

Pounding YamsPounding Yams

PATRIARCHY

Androcentric world where man is everything and woman nothing

Crops were manly and womanly Sins were male and female Due to their marginalized role, they were

easily attracted by new religion

However, their roles changed towards the end of the novel

WOMENFOLK

Rural work force Life giving power Nneka… mother is supreme, said by Uchendu

(chapter 13, pg 157) Women know the secret of life, since they are

the source of life A child belongs to his father ……(chapter 13,

page 157)

VARYING INTERPRETATION OF MASCULINITY

Manliness judged by the ability to grow yams. His father’s life shapes much of his violent

nature He thought of his father as weak and effeminate Fear of failure Agbala--- man with no title or a woman He associates manliness with aggression Men became “fearful women”

His idea of manliness is his own, not the clan’s(chapter 10. evil forest says, it is not bravery

when a man fights with a woman)

STRUGGLE BETWEEN CULTURE AND CHANGE. WHO RESISTED AND WHO EMBRACED?

Okonkwo resists as he thinks they are not manly

He himself will not be manly Fear of losing societal status His sense of self worth is dependent upon the

traditional standards by which society judges him

He aspires to win the fourth title, which would be denied to him with the new trends in society

OUTCASTS EMBRACED THE NEW RELIGION

They were enjoying a more elevated status They found a refuge in Christian value

system

Women also embraced the new values

LANGUAGE AS A SIGN OF CULTURE

Traditions are based on story telling and language

How quickly the abandonment of Igbo language for English could lead to eradication of these traditions

Peppered with Igbo words to show superiority of African language

Igbo language is too complex for direct translation into English

Achebe intended it to be read by the West, than his fellow Nigerians

SYMBOLS

Locusts chapter 7 page 109 Achebe depicts the locusts that descend

upon the village in highly allegorical terms that prefigure the arrival of white settlers, who will eat on and exploit the resources of the Igbo

The fact that Ibo people eat them shows how harmless they take them to be

Harbinger to survey the land pg 110 They “SETTLED” page 111 whites compared with locusts chapter 15

page 160

SYMBOL OF FIRE CHAPTER 17 PAGE 169

Roaring flame

Flaming fire

Living fire begets cold, impotent ash

OKONKWO: PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY DESTRUCTIVE

Physically:(i) kills Ikemefuna(ii)Ezeudu’s son(iii)Head messenger(iv)Himself

o Emotionallyo (i) suppresses his fondness for Ikemefuna

and Ezinma, in favor of a colder and masculine aura

IMPORTANCE OF KINSHIP

Which things fall apart? Chapter 15 page 159 Chapter 19 pg 176 Pg 177

DEPICTION OF WHITE MEN

Piece of chalk + leprosy. Page 121 (two instances)

Albino Page 159 (last lines) Locusts Page 160 Green men Page 162

CHI

If a man says yes, his Chi says yes A man cannot rise above the status of his Chi

ANIMAL IMAGERY

Animal anecdotes Love for python

CONFLICTSGenerational:

Okonkwo vs. UnokaOkonkwo vs. Nwoye

CulturalIbo vs. WesternTradition vs. ChristianityAssimilation vs. purity

GenderOkonkwo vs. his wives

InnerOkonkwo vs. himself

CLASH WITH HIS OWN CULTURE HE SO DEARLY LOVES

Beat Ojiugo during week of peace Killed Ikemefuna Killed messenger Suicide despite his culture’s admonition

against this act

THE TRAGIC HERO1. enjoys an exalted position in society

either by birth or extraordinary achievements

2. demonstrates wisdom, moral or philosophical greatness -- sometimes physical prowess

3. adheres to and exemplifies a code of conduct including reverence toward the laws of God

4. possesses a flaw in personality or psyche that ultimately brings about total destruction.

TRAGIC FLAW

The quality that ultimately defeats a noble hero.

Okonkwo’s flaw:Uncontrollable AngerInflexibilityRash behaviour

An epic hero, like Odysseus, is typically set apart from other characters by his capacity to endure many trials and tests.

A tragic hero, like Oedipus, is typically a man of consequence brought down by an inner conflict, or through his own weakness.

Is Okonkwo an epic hero, a tragic hero, or is he a hero at all?

?

Thanks for your attention and patience