Things Fall Apart Lit. Card
- Things Fall Apart was written in 1958.
- Things Fall Apart was taken place in the Umuofia and Mbanta villages of the Igbo tribe in
Nigeria, around 1900.
-Organized linearly, leading up to the fall of the Igbo people to the white men
-Characters:
● Okonkwo= Is an influential clan leader. Okonkwo' embarrassment about his lazy father
drives him to desire success. He gains high status in the clan by hard work and his
prowess in war. His main character flaw is the fear of looking weak, like his father, thus
gets his family and himself in a lot of unnecessary trouble.
● Nwoye= Is Okonkwo’s oldest son, which Okonkwo believes to weak and lazy. Okonkwo
continually best Nwoye, hoping to correct the faults that his father sees to him to commit
tries to exhibit more masculine behavior. Eventually however, Nwoye’s doubts about his
tribe and laws causes him to convert to christianity, an act that Okonkwo criticises
immensely. One of the things that revolves around Nwoye is Okonkwo’s view that
Nwoye is afflicted with the same weakness that his father possessed.
● Ezinma= The only child of Okonkwo’s second wife, Ekwefi. She is the center of her
mother’s world, Ezinma’s mother treats her as an equal. She is Okonkwo’s favorite child,
and understands him the most out of all his children. She also reminds Okonkwo of her
mother when her mother was the village beauty. Throughout the entire work, Okonkwo
wishes that Enzima was a boy, because she would have made the perfect son.
● Ikemefuna= is a boy that was given to Okonkwo by a neighboring village. He lives in
the hut of Okonkwo's first wife and all of Okonkwo's children love him. He develops a
very strong relationship with Okonkwo’s oldest son, Nwoye. Okonkwo becomes fond of
Ikemefuna, and would show affection unto him, but he does not wish to be perceived as
weak.
● Mr. Brown= Is the very first white missionary to travel to Umuofia. He institutes a
policy of compromise and understanding between his members and the clan. He even
befriends the prominent clansmen and builds a school and a hospital in Umuofia. He
attempts to appeal respectfully to the trice’s value system rather than harshly impose his
religion on it.
● Reverend James Smith= Is the missionary who is the polar opposite of Mr. Brown.
Instead of employing peaceful means like Mr. Brown and being understanding of the
clan’s indigenous ways, he demands that all those prior beliefs be disregarded. He is the
stereotypical white colonialist and his behavior epitomizes the problems of colonialism.
He incites anger in his congregation and encourages some fairly serious transgressions.
● Uchendu= Is the younger brother of Okonkwo’s mother. He receives Okonkwo and his
family warmly when they travel to Mbanta. He advises Okonkwo to be grateful for his
motherland, lest his anger the dead that reside there. He is a foil to Okonkwo, he has
suffered much, but he is a peaceful man. His actions are well thought out and deliberate,
whereas Okonkwo’s are rash and impetuous.
● Unoka= Is Okonkwo’s father, who Okonkwo is ashamed of. In the view of the clan
Unoka was a coward and a lazy man. He was deep in debt from borrowing from
neighbors and never paying them back. He was seen as a coward because he couldn’t
stand the sight of blood in battle. He was dreamer, and was a very gentle man. This is
what Okonkwo attributes to him viewed as weak-willed.
● Obierika= Is Okonkwo’s close friend, whose daughter’s wedding provides the
celebration in the beginning of the story. He looks out for Okonkwo and sells his yams
while he is in exile. He comforts Okonkwo when he is depressed. He too, along with
Nwoye, questions the tribes traditional values.
● Ekwefi= Is Okonkwo’s second wife, she ran away from her first husband to be with
Okonkwo. She has lost 9 children in infancy and fears throughout the entire book that she
will lose Enzima as well.
● Enoch= Is a convert to the christian church. He disrespects the clan’s culture by ripping
of a sacred mask during an annual ceremony to honor the earth deity. This causes the
climactic clash between the village people and the colonial people. Reverend Smith
approves of his zealotry.
● Akunna= Is a clan leader of Umuofia. He and Mr. Brown discuss their religious beliefs,
and Akunna draws articulate parallels between his style of worship and that of the
christian faith.
● Nwakibie= Is a wealthy clansmen who takes the risk of lending Okonkwo 800 yam
seeds. This begins Okonkwo’s personal wealth and status in the village.
● Ojiugo= Is Okonkwo’s third wife, she is the wife that Okonkwo beats during the week of
peace.
-Two Literary devices:
1. Okonkwo’s folk tales= The folk-tales that Okonkwo tells, especially those concerning
animals, is a symbol of femininity. The stories show a childish love for escaping and
provide few useful values or morals. Folktales were usually told by women as forms of
entertainment; and seeing as Okonkwo’s son Nwoye’s favorite form of entertainment is
folktales, Okonkwo fears that Nwoye is too effeminate.
2. The Symbol of Ash= Ash is seen as impotent, cold and lifeless. Okonkwo adds to this
definition, by thinking of it as em-masculine. He compares his son Nwoye to ash, but the
court messengers are also called “Ashy-Buttocks”- a comment on the color of their shorts
as well as their masculinity.
-Plot Summary:
Though Okonkwo is a respected leader in the Umuofia tribe of the Igbo people, he lives in fear
of becoming his father – a man known for his laziness and cowardice. Throughout his life,
Okonkwo attempts to be his father’s polar opposite. From an early age, he builds his home and
reputation as a precocious wrestler and hard-working farmer. Okonkwo’s efforts pay off big time
and he becomes wealthy through his crops and scores three wives. Okonkwo’s life is shaken up a
when an accidental murder takes place and Okonkwo ends up adopting a boy from another
village. The boy is named Ikemefuna and Okonkwo comes to love him like a son. In fact, he
loves him more than his natural son, Nwoye. After three years, though, the tribe decides that
Ikemefuna must die. When the men of Umuofia take Ikemefuna into the forest to slaughter him,
Okonkwo actually participates in the murder. Although he’s just killed his adoptive son,
Okonkwo shows no emotion because he wants to be seen as Mr. Macho and not be weak like his
own father was. Inside, though, Okonkwo feels painful guilt and regret. But since Okonkwo was
so wrapped up in being tough and emotionless, he alienates himself from Nwoye, who was like a
brother to Ikemefuna.
Point of View of the Narrator: The narrator tells the story through the role of 3rd person
omniscient. Even though most of the story focuses on Okonkwo, there are times when other
characters are included in narration as well as allowing more than one type of thought from the
Igbo people, removing any suspect of homogenous group opinion (meaning the entire group
can’t be characterized by one character).
-Themes:
Clash of Cultures: Against Achebe's theme of Igbo cultural complexity is his theme of the clash
of cultures. This collision of cultures occurs at the individual and societal levels, and the cultural
misunderstanding cuts both ways: Just as the uncompromising Reverend Smith views Africans
as "heathens," the Igbo initially criticize the Christians and the missionaries as "foolish." For
Achebe, the Africans' misperceptions of themselves and of Europeans need realignment as much
as do the misperceptions of Africans by the West. Writing as an African who had been
"Europeanized," Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart as "an act of atonement with [his] past, the
ritual return and homage of a prodigal son." By his own act, he encourages other Africans,
especially ones with Western educations, to realize that they may misperceive their native
culture.
Destiny: The arrival of a new culture only hastens Okonkwo's tragic fate. Two other characters
contrast with Okonkwo in this regard: Mr. Brown, the first missionary, and Obierika, Okonkwo's
good friend. Whereas Okonkwo is an unyielding man of action, the other two are more open and
adaptable men of thought. Mr. Brown wins converts by first respecting the traditions and beliefs
of the Igbo and subsequently allowing some accommodation in the conversion process. Like
Brown, Obierika is also a reasonable and thinking person. He does not advocate the use of force
to counter the colonizers and the opposition. Rather, he has an open mind about changing values
and foreign culture: "Who knows what may happen tomorrow?" he comments about the arrival
of foreigners. Obierika's receptive and adaptable nature may be more representative of the spirit
of Umuofia than Okonkwo's unquestioning rigidity.
The Struggle Between Change and Tradition: Things Fall Apart deals with how the prospect and
reality of change affect various characters. The tension about whether change should be
privileged over tradition often involves questions of personal status. Okonkwo, for example,
resists the new political and religious orders because he feels that they are not manly and that he
himself will not be manly if he consents to join or even tolerate them. To some extent,
Okonkwo’s resistance of cultural change is also due to his fear of losing societal status. His sense
of self-worth is dependent upon the traditional standards by which society judges him. This
system of evaluating the self inspires many of the clan’s outcasts to embrace Christianity. Long
scorned, these outcasts find in the Christian value system a refuge from the Igbo cultural values
that place them below everyone else. In their new community, these converts enjoy a more
elevated status.
Quotes:
1. “The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were
amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our
clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and
we have fallen apart.” (Chapter 20). Obierika recognizes and regrets white man’s conquer
of the Igbo people. He recognizes that the nature of the Europeans to be sneaky in
breaking apart the strength of his people and forcing them to fall apart.
2. “Okonkwo never showed any emotion openly, unless it be the emotion of anger. To show
affection was a sign of weakness; the only thing worth demonstrating was strength.” This
shows Okonkwo’s character in that he proves strong and shows strength as a superior
character even though it tragically became his downfall.
3. “When Okonkwo heard that he [Ikemefuna] would not eat any food he came into the hut
with a big stick in his hand and stood over him while he swallowed his yams, trembling.
A few moments later he went behind the hut and began to vomit painfully.” (Chapter 4).
This exemplifies the theme of fear by narrating the typical household dynamic.
Okonkwo’s reign of fear is shown by scaring his child into eating. It is also introduced
that his wives would sneak around the house, fearing beating, elsewhere.