Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe

1699 Words4 Pages

Chinua Achebe is a well known contemporary writer from Africa. In his first novel, Things Fall Apart, deals with the conflict of cultures and the violent changes and values brought upon by the British colonialism of Nigeria. Critics say that Achebe book “Things Fall Apart” was influenced by Yeats’s view of history and time in his poem, “The Second Coming” and his use of Irish Folklore. A.G. Stock commented that Achebe was influenced by Yeats’s use of Irish legends to produce his understanding of the chronological process. Several similarities between the Irish legend and Achebe’s novel were inspired by Yeats’s version of the legend in comparing Yeats’s poem with Achebe’s novel. Achebe’s novel hero, Okonkwo, is built as a parallel to Yeats’s version of the Yeatsian tragic hero.

From the Ulster cycle of Irish folklore, “The Death of Aife’s One Son” was an inspiration that inspired Nigerian novelist. The legend is told about a warrior queen, Aife, whom Cuchulainn, a hero trained by Scathach, defeated within a single combat. Aife agreed to accept Cuchulainn’s baby in exchange for her life. Aife was told to name the child Connla, give the child the ring when the boy’s finger fits it and send him to Ulster before Cuchulainn departed from Aife. After Connla was born, Aife discovered that Cuchulainn had a marriage with another woman. Becoming jealous and outraged with the thought of it, she vowed to get revenge upon Cuchulainn. Aife puts Connla to be trained by Scathach just as his father had, possessing extraordinary strength and ability. When Cuchulainn finished his training he was sent to Ulster and given three commands. Once Connla arrived at the shore of Ulster he had refused to give his name and was challenged to single combats b...

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93. Literature Resource Center. Web. 6 Mar. 2011.

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Anyadike, Chima. “Duality and Resilience in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.” Philosophia

Africana. 10.1 (Mar. 2007): 49-58. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffery

W. Hunter. Vol. 278. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Literature Resource Center. Web. 16 Feb.

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Begam, Richard. “Achebe’s Sense of an Ending: History and Tragedy in Things Fall Apart.”

Studies in the novel 29.3 (Fall 1997): 396-411. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism.

Ed. Jeffery Hunter. Vol. 127. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000. Literary Resource Center. Web.

16. Feb. 2011.

The Odyssey, Phaedra and Things Fall Appart: Similarities
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Okpewho, Isidore. Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart: A Casebook. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Print.
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The Untouchables in Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe
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Many people see other people as equal or lower than or higher than them. This includes by wealth, knowledge or rights. Few people know about the caste system in India, but many people are able to point out the untouchables. Why? Is it because everyone knows that they are better than the untouchables? Some people feel that the untouchables are strictly only in India, but they don’t realize that even bigger countries have untouchables; they are just called something else. Many tribes in Africa also have untouchables, including the Igbo tribe.
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Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe
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“Tragedy arouses not only pity but also fear…” Things Fall Apart doesn’t tell you what “has” happened it shows you what is going to happen. In Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe is dramatizing what may happen and what was happening. The District commissioner suggested a book title at the end of the book. I think the book title’s main purpose was to suggest what may happen.”…The Pacification of the Lower Niger Tribes.”
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Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
371 Words | 1 Pages
Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" presents its readers with an African tribe and its culture. Okonkwo, a well-respected member of the tribe, has some very interesting attributes. Specifically, he has an undying desire to be manly at all times complimented by a deeply rooted fear of being thought of as weak. Okonkwo has a very short, violent temper that is immediately triggered in response to actions that he deems to be weak. Okonkwo basically lived by the phrase, act first and think it through later. Unfortunately, almost every time that Okonkwo lets loose his violent temper in his manly way, he brings trouble upon himself, as well as those around him. One way to explain his actions and the misfortunes that usually follow is to conclude that Okonkwo has bad luck. Another way of looking at this fact is to say that the events are a result of coincidence. However, I disagree with these views, and instead assert that Achebe deliberately made sure that after each of Okonkwo's outbursts, a tragedy befell him and those around him. I think that Achebe could have been trying to hint to the reader that placing too much emphasis on acting manly is bad.
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Okonkwo the Hero
939 Words | 2 Pages
Criswell, Stephen. “Okonkwo As Yeatsian Hero: The Influence of W.B. Yeats on Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.” The Literary Criterion 30.4: 1-14. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 127. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000. Literature Resource Center. Web. 3 Feb. 2014
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Okonkwo as Tragic Hero in Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe
1149 Words | 3 Pages
Criswell, Stephen. "Okonkwo As Yeatsian Hero: The Influence of W. B. Yeats on Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart." The Literary Criterion 30.4: 1-14. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 127. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000. Literature Resource Center. Web. 8 Apr. 2010.
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A Single Story Of African Culture In Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe
1675 Words | 4 Pages
As wise John Berger once said,“Never again shall a single story be told as though it were the only one”. A “single story” is the story of a culture that we learn from stereotypes and conspiracies developed throughout time in our society. In “Things Fall Apart”, Chinua Achebe defies the single story of African culture while still tying their native language in to show the importance between a physical differentiation of culture, and the similarities with morals and values they have in common. Through gender roles and proverbs used in the language of this book, we have a cultural insight of Nigeria through a new set of eyes given to us by Achebe that detures us from the single stories that we were taught to by our society.
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Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
966 Words | 2 Pages
In the book, Things Fall Apart, there are a couple of folktales that are extended throughout the book. These folktales contributes to and comments on the central narrative of the story. Animals and folktales were important to the Igbo people. They used animals in fables and stories to demonstrate their beliefs and rituals. With all rituals, animals and symbols play a crucial role in Igbo society. The fable of the Tortoise and the Birds has uncanny similarities with Okonkwo and his rise and fall. The tortoise’s strength and cunningness eventually gets to be too much, which ends up crushing him. And Okonkwo’s inability to adapt to change leads to his demise. Both the tortoise and Okonkwo’s seek to be strong in society and they both want to be known as important. That is why I believe that the fable, The Tortoise and the Birds, is the closest fable to the central narrative of the story.
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Comparison Between Things Fall Apart by Achebe and The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats
887 Words | 2 Pages
When people and scholars read “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats, many are shocked by the stunning and frightening description of what he perceives will happen during the “second coming”. He describes violent and terrifying images, describes the world he lives in, as well as the judgment it will receive. While the purpose and meaning of Yeats’ poem has never been fully understood, a connection can be made between “The Second Coming”, and a more recent novel, Chinchua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Things Fall Apart is a novel published in 1958 that describes the conflict between tribe of Nigerian people and white missionaries. While there is a distinct contrast in writing style and subject between these two pieces of literature, there is a discernible correlation between them. At the ending of Yeats’ poem, he presents a question: “…And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?”. Achebe’s novel in many different ways is a direct response to Yeats’ question.
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Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
946 Words | 2 Pages
Umuofia is a village in Africa, and the inhabitants there are usually united. However, when the Christians arrive and permeate the village, the clan changes but also falls apart. The novel in which this story takes place is called Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The story is about a well-respected man named Okonkwo who has three wives and many children, the oldest being Nwoye. Okonkwo is banished for seven years from Umuofia, and during those seven years, Umuofia is changed fundamentally by the Christian faith. Many people are converted, but the whole clan is in conflict. This novel demonstrates that Christianity destroys but also guides the Ibo culture in Umuofia.
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Chinua Achebe
1502 Words | 4 Pages
Chinua Achebe is said to be “one of the most influential writers” of the century not only in Nigeria, his homeland but also throughout the world (Albany). Chinua Achebe was born in Ogidi, Nigeria on November 16, 1930. He was born a son of a Chrisitan Churchman, Isaiah Okafo and Janet N. Achebe. Achebe was raised an Ibo Christian, which made him stand out among his fellow peers. Achebe’s lifestyle was different than that of other people living in his village because of his religious background and upbringing. When Achebe was fourteen he began schooling at Government Albany College in Umuahia for three years. He then attended the University of Ibadan from 1948 through 1953. Following his education at the University of Ibandan Achebe earned his Bachelors Degree from London University in 1953. It was a year later when Achebe was named Talk Producer of the Nigerian Broadcasting Service. Then in 1956 Achebe began to study broadcasting at the British Broadcasting Corporation in London. (Critical Survey of Short Fiction) Finally in 1958, Achebe’s first novel, Things Fall Apart was published. (Albany) Following the completion of his first book, Achebe became the founding editor of Heinemann’s African Writers Series. Since writing his first novel Achebe has won many awards and honors for his publications. Among these awards and honors are the Commonwealth Prize, and the highest award for intellectual achievement in his native country Nigeria. (Albany)
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People Fall Apart in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Karl Marx believed that all of history could be reduced to two tiny words: class struggle. In any period of time, a dominant class exploits a weaker class. Marx defines a dominant class as one who owns or controls the means of production. The weaker class consists of those who don't. In Marx's day, the age of Almighty Industry, the means of production were factories.
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2235 Words | 5 Pages
In 1958 Chinua Achebe published his first and most widely acclaimed novel, Things Fall Apart. This work-commonly acknowledged as the single most well known African novel in the world-depicts an image of Africa that humanizes both the continent and the people. Achebe once said, "Reading Heart of Darkness . . . I realized that I was one of those savages jumping up and down on the beach. Once that kind of enlightenment comes to you, you realize that someone has to write a different story" (Gikandi 8-9); Achebe openly admits that he wrote Things Fall Apart because of the horrible characterization of Africans in many European works, especially Heart of Darkness. In many ways, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart can be seen as an Afrocentric rebuttal to the Eurocentric depi...
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Achebe writes Things Fall Apart to revise the history that has been misplaced. He writes to the European and Western culture. This fact is evident because the book is written in English and it shows us the side of the African culture we wouldn’t normally see. Achebe is constantly ...
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Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe

The Odyssey, Phaedra and Things Fall Appart: Similarities

The Untouchables in Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe