English Literature and Grammar: Things Fall Apart

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Culture of the Igbo society in “Things Fall Apart”

Question: ( 1 ): Elucidate the culture of the Igbo society in the light of the novel “Things Fall Apart”.

Answer: “Things Fall Apart” is a novel written in English by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. The novel depicts the life of Okonkwo, a leader and local wrestling champion in Umuofia - one of a fictional group of nine villages in Nigeria inhabited by the Igbo people. It focuses on his family and personal history, the customs and society of the Igbo and the influence of British colonialism and Christian missionaries on the Igbo community during the late nineteenth century.

Through Achebe's use of language, it is apparent how unique the Igbo's culture is. By using traditional Igbo words, folktales, and songs into English sentences, the author shows us that African languages are comprehensible. Achebe is noted for his inclusion of proverbs from Igbo oral culture into his writing:

"The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said

he would praise himself if no one else did."

Okonkwo, explains his capacity for hard work before Nwakibie, his sons and neighbors.

“The Feast of the New Yam” is an occasion of joy throughout Umuofia to convey thanks to Ani, the earth goddess. Every year the Igbo people celebrate the event before the harvest commences. On the occasion, a large number of people are fed with vegetables soup, fresh yam foo-foo and so on.

In the Igbo society, a man is known for his own achievement and activeness and here a man who fails to progress beyond the junior title is a man without status in the eyes of his people and such a man is called an ‘agbala’ meaning a woman. The father of the protagonist is called so as he attains no title. In the behaviour of the protagonist, the sense of self-respect is traceable.

Because of the great value placed on masculinity, women are, to a great extent, inferior to men in the Ibo society. Wives' main duty is to serve their husbands. Women's value is directly tied to their ability to produce children, as shown by the fact that the birth of children is “a woman's crowning glory”. Wife beating and domestic violence are very common practices. Okonkwo constantly beats his wives for some very trivial matters such as forgetting to prepare meals for him. In one occasion, Okonkwo nearly killed Ekwefi with his gun. Often women are merely properties of men who are even inferior to yams. The value of a man is measured by the number of yams and wives he has, with the former bearing more importance than the latter. When a man suits a woman, he negotiates a bride price using "a small bundle of short broomsticks," showing that women are only treated as properties and commodities in Ibo society.

They had a sharp sense of community, ‘The Week of Peace’ comes at the end of the carefree season and before the harvest and planting season. During the ‘Week of Peace’, Okonkwo breaks the peace and is punished, as is the custom, by Ezeani, the priest of the earth goddess. He told Okonkwo, even though his wife may have been at fault, he commits a great evil. During the ‘Week of Peace’ one has to live in complete peace no matter what the circumstances. The community fears that the evil he did could ruin the whole clan.

Many a superstition runs through the Igbo society as we observe regarding the twin-born babies. They believe that it is a sing of evil omen. For this reason, they cast away the twins in the ‘Evil Forest’ as soon as they are born. Similarly Okonkwo’s father’s aliment invites the same consequences and he is not buried with the traditional respect and rituals because a diseased person in the society is left in the forest to die.

The lives of the Ibo people revolve around great traditions and supreme beings. The Oracle in the mountain is greatly respected and feared by the villagers. His decisions are viewed as edicts that people who defy them will be damned. The powerful clan of Umuofia never goes to war unless its case was accepted by the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves. After the Oracle decrees Ikemefuna's death, Okonkwo, despite his affection for Ikemefuna, obeys and kills Ikemefuna. When Chielo the priestess, sent for by Agbala, comes to Okonkwo's hut to get Ezinma, even the fearless Okonkwo gives way after incessantly pleading Chielo to allow Ezinma stay.

Religion has been the integral part of the Igbo society, as they believe in a supreme god, Chukwu, who has created all things and demands obedience. In “Things Fall Apart”, the mask, the earth, the legends and the rituals all have significance in the history of the Igbo culture. According to Baldwin:

"Religion looms large in the life of primitive man.”

First, there is the use of the mask to draw the spirit of the gods into the body of a person. A great crime in the Igbo culture is to unmask or show disrespect to the immortality of an egwugwu, which represents an ancestral spirit. Toward the end of the novel, a Christian convert unmasks and kills one of his own ancestral spirits. The clan weeps, for "it seemed as if the very soul of the tribe wept for a great evil that was coming — its own death." They also believe in ‘chi’ a man personal god and many other gods and goddesses.

To conclude the discussion, it can be said that the Igbo society was much enriched but as soon as the colonisers came to their land, their society, and cultural values commenced falling apart and the old way of life gets disrupted.

Md. Saiful Alam

B. A. Honours and M. A. in English

Lecturer of English

Queen’s College, Dhaka

E-mail: suman64924@gmail.com

My affectionate Readers,

Please, never hesitate to comment and any correction or suggestion regarding my writings will be largely appreciated and valued and you can ask me any grammatical questions regarding English. I promise I would try my level best to assist you, all. Thank you very much.

Okonkwo is a tragic hero in "Things Fall Apart"

Question ( 2 ): Discuss Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe's “Things Fall Apart” is a tragic hero.

Answer: In Chinua Achebe’s novel “Things Fall Apart” Okonkwo is a tragic hero. Aristotle’s Poetics defines a Tragic Hero as a good man of high status who displays a tragic flaw ‘hamartia’ and experiences a dramatic reversal ‘peripeteia’, as well as an intense moment of recognition ‘anagnorisis’. Okonkwo is a leader and hardworking member of the Igbo community of Umuofia whose tragic flaw is his great fear of weakness and failure. Okonkwo’s fall from grace in the Igbo community and eventual suicide, makes Okonkwo a tragic hero by Aristotle’s definition.

Okonkwo is a man of action, a man of war and a member of high status in the Igbo village. He holds the prominent position of village clansman, due to the fact that, he had shown incredible prowess in two intertribal wars. Okonkwo’s hard work had made him a wealthy farmer and a recognized individual amongst the nine villages of Umuofia and beyond. Okonkwo’s tragic flaw is not that he was afraid of work, but rather his fear of weakness and failure that stems from his father’s, Unoka, unproductive life and disgraceful death.

“…his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness…….

It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself,

lest he should be found to resemble his father.”

Okonkwo’s father is a lazy, carefree man whom has a reputation of being poor and his wife and children have just barely enough to eat... they swear never to lend him any more money because he never paid back. Unoka has never taught Okonkwo what is right and wrong, and as a result Okonkwo has to interpret how to be a good man. Okonkwo’s self-interpretation leads him to conclude that a good man is someone who is the exact opposite of his father and therefore anything that his father does is weak and unnecessary.

Okonkwo’s fear leads him to treat members of his family harshly, in particular his son, Nwoye. Okonkwo often wonders how he, a man of great strength and work ethic, could have had a son who is degenerate and effeminate. Okonkwo things that,

"No matter how prosperous a man was,

if he was unable to rule his women and his children … he was not really a man"

Okonkwo wrestles with his fear that any sign of weakness will cause him to lose control of his family, position in the village, and even himself. Like many heroes of classical tragedy, Okonkwo’s tragic flaw, fear, also makes him excessively proud. Okonkwo’s downfall is a result of the changes created by the coming of the British Colonisers to Igbo. The introduction of the Colonisers into the novel causes Okonkwo’s tragic flaw to be exacerbated. Okonkwo construes change as weakness, and as a result of his interpretation, Okonkwo only knows how to react to change through anger and strength. He derives great satisfaction, “hubris” or proud arrogance, from the fact that he is a traditional, self made man and thinks that to change would mean submitting to an outside force (Christianity).

Following Okonkwo’s seven year exile, the village Okonkwo once knew has changed due to the influence of Christianity and the influence of the British missionaries and officers. Okonkwo’s initial reaction is to arm the clan against the Colonisers and drive the British people out of Igbo.

“He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart” (152).

Okonkwo has always used his strength and courage to protect the community from destabilizing forces, and as Okonkwo is a traditional man, the introduction of Christianity poses a threat to all the values, morals and beliefs he sought to protect. Okonkwo resists change at every step and instead resorts to violence toward anything he perceived as a threat to his culture or values.

Okonkwo’s arrogant pride makes him believe that the clan leaders would eventually reunite the clan and drive the British Colonisers out of Umuofia. Hoping that the clan will follow his lead, Okonkwo beheads a messenger of the British who is sent to break up a village meeting regarding the possibility of going to war. However, the clan instead of following Okonkwo’s symbolic action is shocked by Okonkwo’s brutality. Okonkwo recognizes (“anagnorisis”) that Umuofia would not go to war, because the clan “had broken into tumult instead of action”. Okonkwo knows that he must now face his disgrace alone.

The Igbo culture had made Okonkwo a hero, but the Igbo culture changed with the coming of the British Colonisers. Okonkwo, a hero, would rather die than be humiliated by his enemies and by committing suicide Okonkwo prevented the European Colonisers from getting revenge. Aristotle’s statement, “Man, when perfect, is the best of animals, but, when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all”, embodies the rise and fall of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s novel. Okonkwo, like many tragic heroes before him, maybe a hero but his tragic flaw prevents him from achieving true greatness as a human being.