Model answer on Things Fall Apart
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Choose your question carefully! Make sure it is suitable for the text you wish to write
upon. Identify the key words and underline these terms on the exam paper-always
answer both parts to the question.
Make a plan
Follow the topic sentence, statement, quotation, analysis structure (TSQA)
2009/10 P & N paper
Choose a novel or short story in which the human frailties of a main character are
important to your understanding of the text as a whole.
Explain how the writer makes you aware of these frailties and show they are an important
factor in your understanding of the text as a whole.
Plan
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Okonkwo protagonist- a tragic hero, inversion of Shakespearean hero (Hamlet)
human frailty (fatal flaw) of ambition/ fear of being seen as weak.
Title and epigraph- relate to okonkwo
How he is characterised at the beginning- man of action
Use of symbolism “roaring flame”- consumed by his ambition and passion
How he represents community as a whole- personal tragedy symptomatic of the wider
community tragedy and informs our understanding of whole text
At end reduced to a paragraph in colonial history *key point*
Show personal engagement/evaluation (your understanding)
A novel where a main character exemplifies human frailties, which in turn is essential to
our understanding of the novel and its thematic concerns, is “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua
Achebe. This essay will explore how the writer characterises the protagonist’s fatal flaw
through various techniques. This personal tragedy can be seen to represent a wider tragedy
within the community, so the character’s demise can be said to encapsulate broader issues
which make the reader aware of the precarious position humanity inhabits: the human
frailties that are symptomatic of the human condition.
The novel is set in the Niger delta, in the 1890s, at the point where the native inhabitants
were coming increasingly into contact with white Europeans. It is divided into three parts
which broadly correspond to an initial section which is set, largely, in pre-European times; a
second part which catalogues the increasing pace of colonisation; and a third climatic section
which depicts the ultimate collapse of the existing social structure as the colonists consolidate
control over the country and its people. The protagonist, Okonkwo, is a powerful man in his
community who is held in deep respect by his clan. He is wealthy, physically strong and has
an overpowering personality. He also has three wives and numerous children. At the start of
the novel, in part 1, he is at the zenith of his power, but his overwhelming ambition and fear
of appearing weak- the human frailties that he is guilty of- ultimately lead to his death. Part 1
closes with Okonkwo accidentally shooting the son of a respected elder which leads to him
being exiled for seven years. During this time Okonkwo broods on his fall from grace and
plots his triumphant return to his ancestral village. Meanwhile, the white colonists increase
their standing within the community and Okonkwo can do nothing about it. In part 3 he
returns to his fatherland with ambitious plans to marry his two daughters to powerful men,
obtain high status for his sons by initiating them to the ozo society and rid the community of
the parasitic colonists. However, his grand plans come to naught and when his attempt to
incite the village to rise up fail, he finally realises that times have changed- things have
indeed fallen apart- and he hangs himself. Clearly, his fatal flaw led to his own downfall, but
as one of the most respected men in his community it can be seen to symbolise the collapse of
the old way of life. This criticism of colonial corruption was a central theme to Achebe’s
novel.
Achebe’s use of imagery is striking and is central to his depiction of the human frailties
that lie at the heart of Okonkwo and a successful understanding of the wider text. A recurring
image in the novel is taken from W.B Yates’ poem “The Second Coming” and is used in the
title and as the epigraph for the text:
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold”
By choosing to use this metaphorical image as the title and epigraph to his novel, Achebe is
drawing upon the same meaning implied by Yates in his apocalyptical poem. This line means
that once “things”- such as society, culture and civilisation start to break up, the pace of
disintegration will gather pace until the whole central authority which held society together
cannot retain control and disaster and increased collapse will follow. Of course, the centre
and the edges are in dynamic tension and cannot exist without each other. As Okonkwo is
the protagonist we can see him as symbolising the ‘centre’ of the community that he
represents. Therefore, when he loses control because of his human frailty, falls apart as an
individual we can see this as being representative of the wider collapse of society giving us a
deeper understanding of the novel. The image from Yates’ poem is alluded to subsequently in
the novel when Achebe states:
“ He mourned for the clan, which he saw breaking up and falling apart”
Achebe’s use of 3rd person omniscient narrator allows the reader to gain access to Okonkwo’s
innermost thoughts and feelings. When Okonkwo shows that he is aware of the imminent
death of the clan and its way of life by referring to the line from Yeats’ poem we can interpret
this as an example of foreshadowing. Okonkwo is already in mourning for what he sees as
inevitable: the disintegration of a noble and complex society, just as Yeats was mourning
what he saw as the inevitiable collapse of his complex society after the horrors of WWI.
Ironically, Okonkwo does not appear to be aware of his own death hurtling towards himpossibly due to his being blinded by his own ambition and self-belief (his frailty), but we as
readers are aware because Achebe has characterised Okonkwo as the central character- the
mythical centre at the heart of the title, epigraph and novel.
Achebe uses symbolism to develop the idea of Okonkwo as a central character who is a tragic
hero that will be destroyed by his own fatal flaw. He is a man who is so driven by
overweening ambition and fear of being seen as weak, a classic example of human frailty,
that he is consumed by it. He is characterised as a “Roaring flame” which suggests that he
shares the properties of fire: namely that it burns with a fierce intensity which will ultimately
destroy the medium that it feeds upon: wood, coal etc is reduced to ash, as are houses and
cities when the fire goes out of control. Okonkwo burns with such an intensity and
symbolises the fierce heart of the community that will be destroyed by colonial rule, which
aids our understanding of the novel as a whole. While he is not of noble birth, he is a noble
character with all the heroic qualities of a tragic hero. Achebe characterises him as:
“not a man of thought but of action”
Throughout the novel he is depicted as a character that never pauses to consider his actions,
but rather must continue on the course that he feels is correct. As such he can be read as an
inversion of the classic Shakespearean tragic hero- of noble birth- and more specifically of
Hamlet who was paralysed by too much thought and not enough action. However, the lack of
awareness of the situation that Okonkwo finds himself in leads him and his community to a
tragic end thus giving the reader a deeper understanding of the novel and its central concerns.
The final scene in the novel is a powerful evocation of how Okonkwo’s life- and the entire
life of his community- has been reduced to a meaningless footnote in a colonial history book.
When the district commissioner, who has gained control of the community by driving
Okonkwo to take his own life states:
“One could almost write a whole chapter on him. Perhaps not a whole chapter...”
Achebe uses the omniscient narrative viewpoint to show the reader how the commissioner,
and by extension the entire colonial enterprise, sees the lives of Okonkwo and the community
he represents. This narrative stance is in stark contrast to the viewpoint we encounter at the
start of the novel where Okonkwo and the indigenous population’s viewpoint is given
prominence. The author has used a clever and dramatic shift in narrative perspective to show
how the balance of power has shifted. Indeed, history is written by the conquerors. So the
writer has clearly used the central character’s frailties,
Ultimately, Okonkwo’s human frailties, which have been depicted through, imagery,
characterisation, symbolism and narrative viewpoint, led to his own tragic end but also
represented the collapse of the wider community. Through the reader’s engagement with the
central character we obtain a deeper understanding of the novel. Okonkwo is the very human
face, with all his imperfections and frailties that lets the reader see how tragedy underpinned
the colonisation of this part of Africa which would become known as Nigeria. Achebe
successfully uses his craft to show how tragedy and frailty lie at the heart of the human
condition and our understanding of the novel as a whole hinges upon this engagement with
his central character.
Using this model:
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You cannot use this in your exam- your essay must relate to the question
Use the essay as a guideline for your own critical essays
Pay particular attention to:
How each paragraph refers back to the question at the end
The structure that is used (SQUAT)
The depth of analysis and focus on ideas and theme
Identification of techniques
Quality of language and variation of sentences
Analyse this model in depth and underline and highlight key parts- make annotations