Critical Analysis of "The Things Fall Apart"
Name :-
Gohil Devangiba A.
Roll No. :-
14
M.A Sem. :-
4
Paper No. :
- 14 ( The African Literature )
Topic
:- Critical Analysis of "The Things Fall Apart"
Email id
:- devangibagohil786@gmail.com
Submitted to
Department of English Maharaja Krisnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
Critical Analysis of "The Things Fall Apart"
Things Fall Apart is
an English language novel writen by a Nigerian author Chinua
Achebe and published in 1958. This novel is widely read and studied
in English-speaking countries around the world. It is seen as the archetypal
modern African novel in English, and one of the first African novels
written in English to receive global critical acclaim.
Chinua Achebe put African literature on the
map with his first novel, Things Fall Apart. Frustrated with Western
novelists' depictions of Africa as a dark, savage continent, Achebe set out to
write a complex, thoughtful novel, one that would counter Western stereotypes
and give Africans a story with in which they could recognize themselves. Taking
its title from a line in W. B. Yeats's poem "The Second Coming,"
about the cultural dissipation of postwar Europe, Things Fall Apart
recounts the tragic life of an Igbo warrior and the collapse of his society
with the encroachment of colonialization. It became an international success
not long after its 1958 publication and has since exerted a tremendous influence
over other African writers who, like Achebe, have sought to re-create African
life in fiction.
Chinua Achebe put African literature on the
map with his first novel, Things Fall Apart. Frustrated with Western
novelists' depictions of Africa as a dark, savage continent, Achebe set out to
write a complex, thoughtful novel, one that would counter Western stereotypes
and give Africans a story with in which they could recognize themselves. Taking
its title from a line in W. B. Yeats's poem "The Second Coming,"
about the cultural dissipation of postwar Europe, Things Fall Apart
recounts the tragic life of an Igbo warrior and the collapse of his society
with the encroachment of colonialization. It became an international success not
long after its 1958 publication and has since exerted a tremendous influence
over other African writers who, like Achebe, have sought to re-create African
life in fiction.
Okonkwo is a leader and wrestling champion in his
village. He is known to be hard working and shows no weakness to anyone.
Although brusque with his family and neighbors, he is wealthy, courageous, and
powerful among the people of his village. He is a leader of his village, and
his place in that society is what he has striven for his entire life.
Because of his great esteem, Okonkwo
is selected to be the guardian of Ikemefuna, a boy taken prisoner by the
village as a peace settlement between two villages after his father killed an
Umuofian woman. Ikemefuna is to stay with Okonkwo for three years until the
Oracle instructs the elders to kill the boy. The oldest man in the village
warns Okonkwo, telling him to have nothing to do with the murder because it
would be like killing his own child. In fact, Okonkwo ignores the warning and
he himself strikes the killing blow as Ikemefuna begs him for protection in
order to doesn’t seem weak and feminine.
Shortly after Ikemefuna's death, Okonkwo
accidentally kills someone at a ritual funeral ceremony. So, he and his family
are sent into exile for seven years to appease the gods he has offended. While
Okonkwo is away in exile, white men begin coming to Umuofia and they peacefully
introduce their religion. As the number of converts increases, the foothold of
the white people grows beyond their religion and a new government is
introduced.
The novel’s structure, on the other hand, is
formal. There are twenty-five chapters: thirteen in book 1, six in book 2, and
six in book 3. The pivotal chapter about Okonkwo’s accidental shooting of a
young boy and his subsequent banishment is at the book’s center, in chapter 13.
Achebe establishes the nature of the Umuofian society and Okonkwo’s character
in book 1. In book 2 tension heightens as the outsiders appear. In book 3 the
conflict comes to a head when Okonkwo kills the clerk and his people retreat
before the power of the new government. The novel’s last page has the required
unexpected yet inevitable ending. The novel is a very orderly work.
This volume in the Critical Insights series,
edited and with an introduction by M. Keith Booker, James E. and Ellen Wadley
Roper Professor of English at the University of Arkansas, brings together a
wide variety of criticism on Achebe's seminal novel. In the opening section of
the volume, Booker's introduction reflects on Achebe's pioneering achievement,
and Petrina Crockford, writing for The Paris Review, evaluates the
enduring, international popularity of Things Fall Apart. A brief
biography of Achebe contextualizes the novel within his life and the course of
his career.
For readers studying Things Fall Apart
for the first time, a quartet of introductory essays provide a framework for
in-depth study. Joseph McLaren describes the culture of precolonial Nigeria and
the arrival of British colonialists to the region as well as the literary and
political movements that surrounded Achebe as he was writing his novel. Amy
Sickels surveys the major trends in criticism of Things Fall Apart.
Thomas Jay Lynn discusses Achebe's masterful use of language, and Matthew J.
Bolton compares Things Fall Apart to major literary works within the
Western cannon, such as the Odyssey, the Iliad, and the works of
Yeats, James Joyce, and T. S. Eliot.
Okonkwo’s character which shows his
injustices to his children and wives reevaluates the significance of not only
the pain of these women and children, but also their importance as individuals
within their community. But one of Achebe's great achievements is his ability
to keep alive our sympathy for Okonkwo despite the moral revulsion from some of
his violent, inhuman acts. Eventhough Okonkwo shows a bad moral by doing many
violence, but the way he strugle to achieve his success and be different from
his father gives the readers a message about the importance of hard work and
not being lazy. Opposite of Okonkwo, Nwoye (Okonkwo oldest
son) precisely similar to his grandfather Unoka. he's
being more callous, shows the feminine
side and doesn’t likeviolence.
The volume continues with a selection
of classic and contemporary criticism of the novel. Margaret Laurence and M.
Keith Booker offer overviews of the novel, and David Cook describes the novel's
portrayal of colonialization's effects on the Igbo. David Hoegberg and Carey
Snyder attend to cultural violence in both the novel and readers' responses to
it, and B. Eugene McCarthy and Richard Begam discuss Achebe's narrative
strategies. Biodun Jeyifo and Ada Uzoamaka Azodo address how gender is depicted
in Things Fall Apart, and Patrick C. Nnoromele and Alan R Friesen
consider whether Achebe's protagonist, Okonkwo, can be cast as a tragic hero.
For readers wishing to study the novel
in even greater detail, a chronology of Achebe's life, a list of his major
works, and a bibliography of helpful resources round out the volume.
In this novel, Ekwefi is
the repict of woman condition in that era where women
are viewed mainly as child bearers and help mates for their husbands. Woman
doesn’t have right to show their opinion. Besides that, Ekwefi represent the
figure of women as a good mother for their children.
As the conclusion,
overall this story convey the message to the reader that it is important to be
ambisious but when we couldn’t control our ambition, it will shatter ourselves.
It is important to be firm and strick but it mustbe balance with our
conscience. We also sould not too fanatical because everything needs a
changing.
Besides
that, the relation between character is this story tell the reader
that male and female roles are societal constructs, and
thus, male and female should behave accordance to their nature. Women are
taught to mother, while men are conditioned to dominate and control. Hence, we
know that men may also read as women, if they are willing to rethink their
positions, as well as women's positions within patriarchal constructs. For a
woman to play a role she constructs with reference to her identity as a woman,
and so does man.
SOURCES:
good job
ReplyDeleteI think it is a perfect explanation of things fall apart😊 thank you so much
ReplyDeletenice article , thanks for sharing , checkout my work on literary analysis essay writing .
ReplyDelete