Things Fall Apart

For the 1999 hip hop album by The Roots, see Things Fall Apart (album).

Things Fall Apart is a seminal novel written in 1958 by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. It concerns the life of Okonkwo, a leader and local wrestling champion throughout the nine villages of Igboland, his three wives, his children (mainly concerning Nwoye and Ezinma), and the influences of British colonialism and Christian missionaries on his traditional Ibo (also spelled Igbo) community.

Note: Published in the United States in 1959. 2 million copies sold. Over 8 million worldwide.

Plot summary

Okonkwo's father, Unoka, was a failure and, after his death, Okonkwo works hard to attain wealth and respect in his village. This is how he comes to take care of Ikemefuna, a boy that was sent to Umuofia as a result of an ultimatum. That boy was to be sacrificed to the goddess of the earth and even though Okonkwo and his family know that they, especially Nwoye, become very attached to him. After Ikemefuna has been sacrificed, Okonkwo accidently kills Ezeudo's son at a funeral and thus he is exiled to his mother's homeland for seven years. When he returns, he finds that his clan has changed with the coming of colonialism. Okonkwo's story ends with his suicide - which is, to his culture, an abomination. It's this ironic twist at the end of the book that leads to the issue of negative effects of colonialism. Okonkwo had been a symbol of his culture's values and beliefs; essentially, his culture as a whole. In reality, this book's African culture could not hold up under the onslaught of the domineering European culture, and its values and beliefs had to be pushed aside for the white culture's. Okonkwo's suicide represents his culture's inability to resist the European culture and then his culture's subsequent demise.

Things Fall Apart is considered one of the major works in African postcolonial literature because it presents the life, culture, and complexities of a traditional African people with honesty, dignity, and humanity. The story of Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart has been compared in western countries to Greek tragedy, as the very characteristics that make Okonkwo a great leader in his clan (strength, inflexibility) lead ultimately to his death.

This book provides significant value to the understanding of African history and even human nature.

The title

The title of the book comes from a poem, "The Second Coming," by William Butler Yeats, and is quoted in the frontpiece of the book:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer

Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

This poem hinted at racism.

Literary significance

Things Fall Apart is considered by many to have been a milestone in African literature. It was followed by three sequels, No Longer at Ease (1960, originally written as the second part of a larger work together with Things Fall Apart), The Arrow of God (1964), and A Man of the People (1966), all featuring the descendants of Okonkwo and the problems they face under colonialism.

As in his other works, Achebe attempts to counter the common Western belief and view of the traditional African society (that of disorganized, barbaric tribes). Things Fall Apart, which has sold millions of copies, is by far his most famous and award-winning work.

Literary Analysis

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart concentrates on the effects of colonialism by documenting the response of an African tribe (Ibo tribe) to the invasion by English Christian missionaries. His novel invokes the question of whether it is justified for one culture to impose their belief on another culture because they have a different set of morals and values. The Ibo tribe has many problems deeply rooted in its culture. For one, the tribe is very sexist. The main character and the leader of the tribe, Okonkwo, holds a very high reverence for male dominance and his belief that “no matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man” (53). Okonkwo also has several wives in which he rules “with a heavy hand” (13). For Christians, polygamy is morally wrong. This is where Achebe asks the question of whether the missionaries’ intent to change the tribe’s culture is justified. It’s a very difficult question to answer but Achebe seems to say no. At one point Uchendu says in response to Obierika, “the world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with other. We have albinos among us. Do you not think that they have strayed from their way to a land where everybody is like (141).

External link

• Teacher's Guide at Random House
• Study guide