...V II-MA English Dr. Swaralipi Nandi 18-09-2014 Theme of Colonialism in ‘Things Fall Apart’ Introduction : Poet and novelist Chinua Achebe was one of the most important Africanwriters. He was also considered by many to be one of the most original literary artists writing in English during his lifetime. He is best known for his novel Things Fall Apart (1958). Born Albert Chinualumogo Achebe, Chinua Achebe was raised by Christian evangelical parents in the large village Ogidi, in Igboland, Eastern Nigeria. He received an early education in English, but grew up surrounded by a complex fusion of Igbo traditions and colonial legacy. He studied literature and medicine at the University of Ibadan; after graduating, he went to work for the Nigerian Broadcasting Company in Lagos and later studied at the British Broadcasting Corporation staff school in London. During this time, Achebe was developing work as a writer. Starting in the 1950s, he was central to a new Nigerian literary movement that drew on the oral traditions of Nigeria's indigenous tribes. Although Achebe wrote in English, he attempted to incorporate Igbo vocabulary and narratives. Things Fall Apart (1958) was his first novel, and remains his best-known work. It has been translated into at least forty-five languages, and has sold eight million copies worldwide. Chinua Achebe’s “African Trilogy” : Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, Arrow of God captures a society caught...
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...Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe gives a vivid portrayal of the African society before colonialism, during colonialism and after colonialism. It is centered on a tragic hero, Okonkwo, whose aim for success and fear of weakness drives his entire life and eventually leads to his fall. Achebe uses Umoufia, a land surrounded with strong traditions and culture as the case study to depict the effects of culture clash on a land where “Things Fall Apart; the center cannot hold” (Achebe, 2009). The title of this book is symbolic to the turnout of events in the story and foreshadows the inability of Umoufia to resist the pressures of change. In the novel, we see a clash between cultures and change that leads to the fall of the Igbo society, a clan that used to be strong and powerful before the white people came. The Igbo people face a dilemma on whether to accept the change, keep their way of life or better still balance both worlds in one. The way Achebe presents the arrival of the colonists and their imposition of change on the Igbo Society raises some thought to me on the true intention of colonialism i.e. did they come to spread Christianity or to acquire the land? The rapid unfold of events in the novel makes me harness the latter view; they took the stronghold of the Igbo society i.e. religion, turned it into a weakness, in the name of change, to enable them exploit the land. One thing that held the society together was their religion/tradition and once the colonists introduced...
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...1.)Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Nervous Conditions by…and Mine Boyby Peter Abrahams are all novels by African writers whom illustrate various cultural issues and universal issues within the dynamic continent of Africa. However, there was a focus on three major themes that contributed to the relevancy of the novels which are tradition vs. progress, gender inequality, and the “white dream”. Traditions vs. progress or change was one of the most poignant themes throughout all three novels. There have been several universal biases against Africa implying that Africa is a resilient country that opposes change and as a result of their stubborn ways suffer, living an expired life struggling in poverty and disease. As a result, the authors of the novels write in a way that demonstrates how Westerners imposing their industrialization, religion, and cultural views upon the African people have in some ways handicapped the actual African society from revolutionizing themselves. For example in Things Fall Apart Okonkwu constantly resisted change and eventually let his resistance become his demise by committing the moral crime of suicide. However the majority of his Igbo society transitioned to Christianity, denying their own culture and joining the oppressors whom mocked their culture. Nonetheless, this proves that Africa is a society that can change because of the lasting legacy of colonization in Africa. What are the postcolonial themes and concerns of the novels we have...
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...“By comparing the 2 texts you have studied, how do they reflect the concerns of their time?” Texts are shaped by the concerns of their time and the comparison of texts provides an extensive insight into these ideologies. With the consideration of Chinua Achebe’s novel ‘Things Fall Apart’ (1958) and Niki Caro’s film ‘Whale Rider’ (2003) in tandem, the similarity in their didactic principles of the condemnation of ethnocentrism explores the impact of European imperialism upon Ibo and Maori societies. Both texts also criticise the suppression of females in the patriarchal view of the tribes, emphasizing the significance of gender recognition and together, they delineate the concerns that arise from 1900s colonialism Within Things Fall Apart (TFA), Achebe reprimands the subservience of traditional Nigerian Ibo culture through colonialism in the context of the nation’s independence in 1960. Presenting the loss of traditions resulting from imperialism, Achebe deliberately includes William Yeats’ “The Second Coming” in the epigraph to the novel as a foreshadowing of the imminent collapse of the Ibo tribe, thus immediately establishing the Greek tragedy convention. His use of proverbs where they are the “palm-oil which words are eaten” is an allegory that captures the intricacy of Ibo language, emending the European portrait of a ‘savage’ Africa which was a notion popularized at the time by Joseph Conrad’s “The Heart of Darkness” (1899). Furthermore, Achebe juxtaposes the Ibo’s...
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...Proponents of imperialism and colonialism sparked from the idea that it would improve the economic, political, and social portions of an environment. The design of European imperialism elicited political and diplomatic responses, and soon after it provoked military resistance. Both methods of so-called improvement kept nations from doing what could possibly help them thrive; cooperating to achieve shared goals. Without cooperation, places cannot improve and prosper on aspects that need refinement. Colonialism does not help the native populations because it overall divides previous peaceful co-existing portions of a society. Purposefully, colonization aimed to control land, labor, natural resources, and markets. Settlers need to occupy a country,...
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...Among them,fiction is any narrative,whether in prose or verse,which is invented instead of being an account of events that actually happened. The voice of Africa in the world of letters tries to emancipate Africa from its literary stereotype.Africa is no longer a gloomy phenomenon,a dark continent.Chinua Achebe, the major exponent of the modern African novel,is greatly concerned with the two realities of social man –his individual and group identity,the legacy of colonialism, and the shift in the system of values of life leading to rampant corruption- moral and monetary. He is also concerned with the use of English as the medium of expression of African experience defining the relevance of colonial and post-colonial experience to the present .Achebe’s novels are dialectic tranformation of experience, a new way of looking at tradition to create a different order of reality through universalizing imagination.Though he has followed the established tradition of novel writing in English, Achebe has put few things ‘African’ and has successfully employed certain narrative techniques of narration to give authenticity and African flavour to his novels in order to attract the native audience and overseas readers as well. Chinua Achebe , the doyen of African writing, the major exponent of modern African novel.His novels evolve through the fundamental theme with which he is concerned, the loss of dignity and the tragic disintegration of the Nigerian culture.Beginning with the advent...
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...“He does not understand our customs”: Narrating orality and empire in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart Jarica Linn Watts To cite this article: Jarica Linn Watts (2010) “He does not understand our customs”: Narrating orality and empire in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart , Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 46:1, 65-75, DOI: 10.1080/17449850903478189 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17449850903478189 Published online: 27 Jan 2010. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 501 View related articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rjpw20 Download by: [Indiana University Libraries] Date: 24 February 2016, At: 16:43 Journal of Postcolonial Writing Vol. 46, No. 1, February 2010, 65–75 “He does not understand our customs”: Narrating orality and empire in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart Jarica Linn Watts* University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA Downloaded by [Indiana University Libraries] at 16:43 24 February 2016 jarica.watts@utah.edu Jarica 0 100000February 46 2010 &Article OriginalofFrancis 1744-9855 (print)/1744-9863 JournalandPostcolonial 10.1080/17449850903478189(online) RJPW_A_448194.sgm TaylorLinnWatts 2010 Writing Francis This article delineates different strains of Achebe’s narrative technique in Things Fall Apart, arguing that earlier critics have failed to account fully for two fundamental principles...
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...So many words have been uttered while discussing of postcolonial studies, as it is a post modern way of intellectual discourse which shows analysis of the cultural legacies of colonialism and imperialism. In simplest and most familiar way, the hyphenated term post colonial means post or after the colonial period and it indicates something that happened after the end of formal colonization. Post-colonial has become useful because it raises large and important questions. Therefore, the widest definition of post colonial fiction easily includes Chinua Achebe’s novels. Postcolonial study delineates all aspects of the colonial process from the beginning to the end of colonial contact. Chinua Achebe’s novels contain the experiences of Nigerian people after the end of British Empire. Achebe’s novels are the replication of African history as well. Therefore, his novels describe an archetypal post colonial era African country. Chinua Achebe is one of the finest Nigerian novelists of the twentieth century, whose novels show various post colonial aspects in them. Achebe throws light on the changes in African society and politics, His four novels cover the entire colonial history of Africa from the early days of European advent to the post colonial aspects like retrieval of an identity and own past, language liberty, cultural change, disestablishment of Eurocentric norms and complexes of this period of perplexity. Achebe wrote novels chronologically one is attached to another as, pre-colonial...
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...Things Fall Apart Important Quotations Explained Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. Explanation for Quotation 1 >> Achebe uses this opening stanza of William Butler Yeats’s poem “The Second Coming,” from which the title of the novel is taken, as an epigraph to the novel. In invoking these lines, Achebe hints at the chaos that arises when a system collapses. That “the center cannot hold” is an ironic reference to both the imminent collapse of the African tribal system, threatened by the rise of imperialist bureaucracies, and the imminent disintegration of the British Empire. Achebe, writing in 1959, had the benefit of retrospection in depicting Nigerian society and British colonialism in the 1890s. Yet Achebe’s allusion is not simply political, nor is it ironic on only one level. Yeats’s poem is about the Second Coming, a return and revelation of sorts. In Things Fall Apart, this revelation refers to the advent of the Christian missionaries (and the alleged revelation of their teachings), further satirizing their supposed benevolence in converting the Igbo. For an agricultural society accustomed to a series of cycles, including that of the locusts, the notion of return would be quite credible and familiar. The hyperbolic and even contradictory nature of the passage’s language suggests the inability of humankind to thwart...
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...in an era of such political correctness. Africa has deep and complex culture which is displayed in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, “Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal achievements” (Achebe 1). One of many aspects of African culture that are completely ignored by Conrad in Heart of Darkness is the intricate hierarchy of men and women in their societies and the effects of personal achievement on them. Conrad’s lack of inclusion or even simple recognition for African culture is abysmal, yet Achebe provides ample reason for Conrad to be exonerated from these charges as, “Travelers with closed minds can tell us little except about themselves” (Achebe Essay 257). Conrad’s blindness to African culture makes Heart of Darkness an unapt novel for study. A student would learn much more from a History textbook which would have biases, yet would provide multiple accounts from different sources of events that have occurred. Conrad encapsulates the effects of European colonialism on the European colonialists, yet the Africans are completely ignored. A comprehensive novel study of Heart of Darkness could easily be replaced by Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Things Fall Apart does not objectify or dehumanize any group of people while depicting the effects of European colonialism on both the colonial empire’s men and the colonialized Africans. “‘What has happened to that piece of land in dispute...
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...Interference: The Western Way Throughout History there has been a desire for main stream white culture to explore and expand to new areas with many different objectives in mind. Many were looking for new lands that had untold riches while others were spreading cultural or religious beliefs in an attempt to gain support for their beliefs. Sometimes this was a welcomed addition to foreign societies bringing them new technologies and ideas to improve their life, except it was just as likely that these new additions to their culture and society would have a negative effect causing many people's lives to be changed forever. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a perfect example of what the effect foreign interference and new ideas-technology can have on societies that have been isolated for generations and have created a unique culture. There were many changes that occurred when the white explorers came to Niger Area, now known as Nigeria. Umuofia Mbantu and the other local clans have been living in an isolated society and culture for generations giving them plenty of time to adapted and live in their environment efficiently. They had developed many different religious beliefs that were different from the white Christian culture that settled the area. "You say that there is one supreme God who made heaven and earth," said Akunna on one of Mr. Brown's visits. " We also believe in Him and call Him Chukwu. He made all the world and the other gods." (Achebe, 179). Even when trying...
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...Christy Mondesir Mrs. Shah English 11 6 April 2015 Learning to let go of mommy’s hand: Nothing is more special than the relationship between a mother and a daughter, but nothing is more tragic than when that relationship falls apart. Jamaica Kincaid’s “Annie John” is about the relationship between a mother and a daughter that slowly breaks apart in postcolonial Antigua. Their relationship deteriorates, because Annie (Miss Annie Victoria John's daughter) is coming of age and is exposed to death at a young age, which causes her to become distant from her mother since she does not tell Annie much about death and Annie is eager to know. Kincaid shows that death, coming of age, and post colonialism are important themes that are explored throughout...
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...Bibliographic Citation: Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1996. Things fall apart is a book written by Chinua Achebe to serve the purpose of answering inaccurate stereotypes which colonial countries have about Africans. Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian born author who is widely known and recognized as the father of African literature. He was born on November 16, 1930, in Ogidi, a large village in Nigeria and recently passed away on March 21st 2013 at the age of 82 years old. He was the child of a protestant missionary and received early education in English. His upbringing was multicultural where he got to understand some of the cultural aspects of the inhabitants of Ogidi who still had some aspects of Igbo culture. Achebe was one of the founders of the Nigerian literary movement formed in the 1950’s which had a goal of identifying traditional oral culture of its indigenous people. In 1959 Chinua Achebe published the book things fall apart. The book was to serve as a response to Joseph’s Conrad book “heart of darkness” which portrayed Africa as a primordial and cultureless foil for Europe. Achebe sort out to set the record straight and clear the air from any misconceptions that Africans were a primitive, socially backward and language-less. He sorts to give room to the understanding of the African culture and give a voice to the underrepresented at a time when the continent was still suffering from colonialism. In the book Achebe also exploits the ever...
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...“Things Fall apart” is an English novel made by Chinua Achebe, an African author in the year 1958. The book is a story about Okonkwo, a leader and a well-known man in Umuofia - one out of nine villages in Africa, inhabited by the Ibo people. The book talks about his family and history, also about the customs of the Ibo people and their society, it also talks about the British colonialism and Christian missionaries that went to the Ibo community. Due to the culture and the colonialism of the Ibo, different social groups are made; some from the old customs of the Ibo and some form the colonialism. There are a few social groups and one of the most respected are the men. In this culture, the men are treated as if they are god, as if they control how things are going to happen and that they are what keep the whole world spinning. In the book, it is said that men can do more things that women cant. For example, how it says that a child belongs to its father and his family and not its mother and her family. These men are treated with all the leisure things and with all respect, due to them being stronger than women physically, they are put as the head of the family, they make decisions and they get to have a hut just for themselves. But being the man, they have to do most of the work by themselves, they have to farm and build huts by themselves as men. Women in the other hand are treated as useless things, all they are good for are cooking and to please the men. They do not have...
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...Although the novels The Poisonwood Bible, Heart of Darkness, and Things Fall Apart, written by Barbara Kingsolver, Joseph Conrad, and Chinua Achebe, respectively, have related themes, settings, and historical contexts, differing approaches to narration and description render each book highly distinct. It should be noted that some elements of setting are not shared, Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart take place during the early waves of colonialism, around the year 1900, while The Poisonwood Bible is set more than half a century later. Additionally, Things Fall Apart is set in what is now Nigeria, while both other novels occur in the Congo. However, these differences are insignificant compared to the effects of the vastly different attitudes of the narrators. Conrad’s Marlow presents a European perspective of Africa, which while...
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