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3) Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)
Achebe was born on November 16, 1930, in Nigeria and he’s an author belonging to the post-colonial literature (second half of the 20 th^ century). He received his early education in English, and in 1950s, he was one of the founders of a Nigerian literary movement.
Around ‘60s several critics begun to modify the canon of the English literature, that for a long time, the idea of CANON, privileged some authors and works instead of others, and it was mainly man, high literature and British centred. A canon is created from a process of selection made by literary critics or the authors themselves. Concerning the Man centred, the gender criticism started to change (critica femminista per criticare gli aspetti più patriarcali del canone tradizionale e dare importanza autrici donne a lungo dimenticate e farle rientrare nel canone stesso). Gli anni 60 sono stati un periodo di rivoluzione culturale ma anche precedentemente si possono ritrovare accenni di feminist criticism (“A room of one’s own” by V. Woolf). High literature centred means literature with the capital L (romanzi, poesie, opere teatrali). The ‘60s were also characterized by the emergence of the cultural studies (the idea that I can study using the same methodology of critics). The founder of this kind of studies in Britain is Ian Chamber.
In 1959, he published Things Fall Apart as a response to novels, such as Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, that treat Africa as a primordial and cultureless foil for Europe. TFA is set in the 1890s and portrays the clash between Nigeria’s white colonial government and the traditional culture of the indigenous Igbo people. Achebe was careful to report every traditions of Igbo culture and their contrasts with Europeans, while not stereotyping them. Achebe’s education in English and exposure to European customs have allowed him to capture both the European and the African perspectives on colonial expansion, race and culture. He wanted to achieve a revitalization through the use of English and integrating Igbo vocabulary into the narrative.
In the novel, Achebe shows how villagers in general are caught between resisting and embracing change: many of them are excited about the new opportunities and techniques that the missionaries bring. This European influence is trying to extinguish the African traditions of farming, building and cooking.
The theme of the language is very important in Things Fall Apart: Achebe shows that Africa is not the silent or incomprehensible country that books such as Heart of Darkness made it out to be. He also points out that Africa has many different languages, but he decided to write it in English- language of colonial writers – in order to be read by West people, but including also proverbs, folktales and songs translated from the Igbo language. His goal was to critique the portrait of Africa that was painted by so many writers of the colonial period.
The concept of CHI is present in Okonkwo’s story, it’s an individual’s personal god, whose merit is determined by the individual’s good fortune or lack. An Igbo proverb says that “a man says yes his chi says also yes”, according to this, individuals will make their own destinies. Usually Okonkwo doesn’t follow his chi, when things are going well for him, he perceives himself as a master and maker of his destiny; when things go badly, he automatically disavows (rinnega) this responsibility.
Okonkwo: he’s the protagonist and an influential clan leader in Umuofia, who since he was young, was embarrassed about his lazy, poor and effeminate father. This brought him to adopt opposite ideas, driving himself to the success. He has a position of high status in his clan, and he attains wealth sufficient to support three wives and several children. Otherwise he’s a tragic hero: he has a superior
character, but he’s also unable to express his feelings; Okonkwo will execute his surrogate son simply because he’s afraid of appearing weak.
Nwoye: Okonkwo’s oldest son. His interests are different from Okonkwo’s and resemble more closely those of Unoka, his grandfather. He was influenced by the arrival of Ikemefuna, who becomes like an older brother and teaches him a form of masculinity, as Okonkwo curses (maledice) his lot (sorte) for having born so “effeminate” a son and disowns (rinnega) Nwoye.
Ezinma: Okonkwo’s favorite daughter and the only child of his second wife Ekwefi. He wishes she had been born a boy, since he considers her to have such a masculine spirit. She shows an approach similar to that of Okonkwo.
Mr. Brown: the first white missionary to travel to Umuofia, who institute a policy of compromise, understanding and non-aggression between his flock and the clan. He succeeded in winning a large number of converts because he listens to the villagers’ stories, beliefs and opinions. The surname Brown hints to his ability to navigate successfully the clear-out (palese) racial division between the colonizers and colonized.
Reverend James Smith: Mr. Brown’s successor, Reverend Smith, is small-minded, uncompromised and strict. He shows no respect for indigenous customs or culture, so he can be classified as the stereotypical white colonialist and in general, the problem of colonialism.
Chapter 1
The beginning is very significant, and the initial paragraph tells important things in order to understand the novel: the protagonist is Okonkwo, a wealthy and respected warrior of a clan that is part of nine connected villages, including his village, Iguedo. So, at the beginning are presented a specific environment, a group of villages, a cultural event, wrestling, which is taken very seriously in this community. In his youth Okonkwo had the honor to beat another man, in a wrestling contest.
There is also a reference to ANIMISM, when the old men of this village in order to describe an event or a scene, they make a reference to mythical facts about the origin of their village, for example in the expression “since the founder of their town engaged a spirit of the wild for 7 days and 7 nights”, it seems they were there during the event. So, the population creates a mix between myths and reality.
The first 13 chapters of this novel are set in pre-colonial tribes before the arrival of the Europeans. While the second part talks about the arrival of the colonialists and the changes they brought with them. Achebe comes from a culture called Ibo situated in the south-west Nigeria and in his novel he treats the INTERNAL PROSPECTIVE OF AFRICA: the cultural description of places and people, the local culture, that is described using typical African expressions of the IBO culture (ex. “ “harmattan”: vento proveniente dal sud Sahara che segnala l’arrivo della stagione secca) sometimes without translating them, or without notes or glossary, because he wanted to put his culture at the same level of the English one (è il lettore a dover comprendere dal contest il significato delle parole).
In the first part there is a description of Okonkwo’s character (angry, aggressive, violent with problems of communication), physic (“he was tall and huge”, “looking rough that strikes fear” – aspetto selvaggio che incute timore) and his caricature (“it was said that..”). We know that he had more than a wife (polygamous society), but they didn’t live with him, in fact, there were different houses and he had to choose where to sleep and which wife should prepare the food for him.
In the second part, a flash-back about his dad and his childhood is described. O, is completely unlike his dad, dead 10 years before, Unoka, who was a lazy man and was always borrowing and losing money,
good savage”), sometimes described as a place of barbarity. African was also romanticised by (francofoni delle colonie francesi) movements, for example Négritude (Senghor) during the 1940s.
Chapter 3
“O. didn’t have the start in life which many young men usually had. He didn’t inherit a barn (granaio) from his father”, so, O. built his fortune alone, earning hundreds of seed yams to start a farm, because his father was never able to have a successful harvest. When he visited the Oracle, Unoka was told that he failed because of his laziness. The Oracle was often consulted by collectivity in his novel, functional to the daily life (the oracle is not the same as used by Europeans, tempio, incarnating selvagy and Barbarity, place of human sacrificies).
This novel is carrying references to the oral societies, and the REPETITION was used to emphasize a very important point, in order to catch the attention. Otherwise repetitions in Europeans novels are usually considered as useless.
Chapter 4
The clan decides that Ikemefuna will stay with Okonkwo. Ikemefuna is scared at the beginning, but he becomes popular with the children, cause he knows many stories and games. During the week of peace O. noticed that his youngest wife has left her hut (riparo) to have her hair braided without having cooked dinner. So, he beats her, breaking the peace of the sacred week in a transgression known as nso- ani.
Chapter 5
The village holds the Feast of the New Yam (festa del nuovo raccolto) to give thanks to the earth goddess, Ani. Yam (igname) is a huge tuber, very tasty,and it’s part of the basic diet in west-african countries. The women decoreit their huts and paint their skin and that of their children with decorative designs. O. doesn’t care about feasts, he becomes angry and he beats another wife. This was considered as a crime and it was punished by religious authority. O. had to provide food and other products as an obligation.
This is not a book of anthropology or sociology, but a novel, so all these cultural, religious and economical details are always strictly related to the development of the book’s characters.
In the rest of this chapter, there are many details about the preparation for this festival, which is centered on wrestling matches (very important art and activity in this society) and people should relax and enjoy. O. is not able to join the festival because his mind is always obsessed with work: he’s workaholic. In this chapter we are also told about Okonkwo second wife, Ekwefi Ezinma, and his daughter and the role of women in this society. Okonkwo is very fond of his daughter but he has problems demonstrating it, probably because she’s a girl while he wishes for a son. In many parts of the novel we find O. wishing Ezinma could be a son rather than a daughter.
Chapter 6 : Description of the wrestling match during the festival.
Chapter 7
In this chapter there is a key event and a tourning point (punto di svolta per la trama). Ikemefuna stays with O. for 3 years, and he knows he had a positive influence on O.’s first son Nwoye. He frequently invites the two into his obi to listen violent and masculine stories. Although Nwoye misses his mother’s stories, he knows that he pleases his father when he expresses disdain for women (theme of story- telling).
O. is visited by the Oracle, informing him that Ikemefuna must be killed, without explanation. O. becomes dominated by his fear to be considered weak as his father. So, not only he doesn’t protest but he accepts to take part in the ritual even if he has not been asked to do it.
At the end of the chapter there’s the description of the killing. After hours of walking home, a man attacked Ikemefuna with a machete, he cries to O. for help, but O. doesn’t wish to look weak, so he cuts the boy down. Before this there’s a song in Ibo language, not translated by Achebe, because he wants to remind us the otherness of Ibo culture, and even without explaining the meaning of the song. When O. returns home, Nwoye intuits that his friend is dead. “a sudden hush (silenzio) has fallen on the women, who had been talking…” means that some women didn’t want to talk about the death of I.
Chaper 8
Okonkwo is depressed, he feels weak and he cannot sleep or eat, suffering for what he has done. There’s a long dialogue between Okonkwo and Obierika, his best friend and he’s a secondary character who criticizes against the negative aspects of Ibo pre-colonial society. He says “the Oracle didn’t ask me to carry out its decision”. In the rest of the chapter there is a description of Obierika’s daughter and her engagement, talking about different customs in other villages about weddings, the creation of a family (patrilinear -agricultural societies - and matrilineal) and children.
From chapter 9 to the end of chapter 13 we are given several details about Ibo society, one of them is the believe to be related to about Ogbanje children that are children who are believed to die in their early years and reborn again from the same mother. The rate of infant mortality was very high, so the existence of Obange was a supernatural way of explaining Infants mortality. These children were believed to belong to the spirit world. So, there were some rites to break this link between children and the spirit world. Ezinma is believed to be one of these children, and this cultural element involves directly Okonkwo’s family.
Chapter 10
The village holds a ceremonial gathering to administer justice. In particular there is a long description about an ancestral masquerade called Egwugwu, coming back from the land of the dead in order to express their judgement about disputes. This figure is taken as real, but they sense that it’s just a man impersonating spirits. People even know that the 2 nd^ member of this group could be O. and the Evil Forest is the first and most important member. Il processo segue tutta una serie di riti e frasi formulate. Questo conferma il fatto che questa società fosse fondata sul legame tra i viventi e gli antenati, rappresentati come esseri soprannaturali che intervengono nella vita quotidiana, ma anche su un equilibrio tra l’elemento maschile e quello femminile (“it’s not bravery when a man fights with a woman”).
Chapter 11
It’s an example of story-telling session, where there is a trickster (burlone) a standard protagonist in the stories that usually makes negative actions and crimes, however it has a positive attitude. In the case of Ibo this was a tortoise.
Chapter 12: There’s a description of a celebration concerning marriage.
Chapter 13
We are faced with the funeral of Ezeudu, the oldest man in his village, which death is announced to the surrounding villages with the ekwe, a musical instrument. The funeral is another rite of passage,
In order to be more effective, the white man employs a simile that is part of Ibo life, a local image that everyone can understand: palm oil as carburant. The first immediate reaction of the natives is to not to take him seriously, to make fun of him. But little by little these believes will become part of their culture.
This event opens the way to the arrival of white men and also to Ibo people who wants to be converted by these missionaries. O. thinks that these newcomers must be insane, but Nwoye is instantly captivated. Nwoye is one of the first as he’s young so he’s more easily converted than others, but also because this religion seems to answer his questions about the deaths of Ikemefuna.
This shows how Christianity exploited the fragility of this society in order to open his way. What Achebe introduces in this novel is also the fact that colonialism has been, for some natives (for example natives, the mothers of baby twins, and other categories of people how are relegated to the margins of this society) a sort of liberation.
Chapter 17
In this chapter we find another important historical detail: the British colonization was based on an indirect govern, always supported by the local leaders, so they can limitate contacts with natives. Otherwise, in the African Culture was impossible to find a single ruling person (it isn’t a vertical hierarchy), that’s why when they arrived, they asked about a king.
The rest of this chapter mentions other people who are fascinated by this religion and who are easily converted. White men established their own religious buildings and institutions. Of course, Okonkwo reacted really badly at the news that his son had converted, he almost killed him and Nwoye abandons his family. Okonkwo’s many fears about the arrival of European people has to do with the way of Ibo culture was structured: a continuity of generations. But if the descendants stop keeping alive the memory of the previous generation this continuity is going to be broken forever and the society will “fall apart” (that’s where the title comes from). Un’intera società che cade a pezzi perché la sua continuità secolare tra una generazione e l’altra viene spezzata in un brevissimo tempo dall’arrivo degli europei.
Chapter 18
It’s about the converts of many efulefu, who were underprivileged in the Ibo society and so they converted to Christianity in a great number.
Chapter 19
Okonkwo’s seven years of exile is finished. Before he returns to Umuofia, he provides a large feast for his mother’s kinsmen. He’s grateful to them, but secretly regrets the missed opportunity to have further increased his status among his own clan. He also regrets having spent time with such un-masculine people.
PART 3
Chapter 20
O. has planned to rebuild his compound on a larger scale, with 2 new wives and a title for his sons. However, Umuofia is much changed after 7 years. The church has grown, and they settled a juridical, political and religious structure. O. cannot believe that his clan has not driven the white men out, and most of them are now on the white man’s side.
Chapter 21
This chapter is about the new economic system brought by Europeans based on the institutionalization of the Europeans trade, with money instead of fruits of the land. It’s described Arrival of Mr Brow, a white missionary, an example of cultural and religious tolerance. Probably his name is symbolic: he’s not black and neither white, but he’s brown. He really wants to approach the local belief in a tolerant way. During these conversation, Akuna and Mr Brown realize that these two cultures are not so different, because neither convert the other about religion, but they both have a greater understanding of the other’s faith.
Mr. Brown builds a hospital and a school: that if they don’t send their children to school they will be ruled by other people, the only way to acquire power is to go to school and get an education in order to become part of the colonial system. So, this chapter also talks about a radical transformation of this culture, from transmitting the culture orally to written communication and written learning.
Chapters 22 – 23 – 24 – 25
Reverend James Smith, a strict and intolerant man, replaces Mr.Brown, because he has to go back to Europe. It’s only at the end of the book that we have the district commissioner (figure of the white colonial government in Nigeria, the prototypical racist colonialist that thinks to understand everything about Native African customs), that returns from his tour and requests that the leaders meet him, to talk about the church’s burning as a friend. But, no sooner have they put their machete on the floor that a group of soldiers surprise them and thrown in a jail for several days.
When the District Commissioner arrives at O.’s compound, he finds a small group of men sitting outside. He asks for Okonkwo and they lead him to O., where they discover that O. has hanged himself. Obierika explains that suicide is a grave sin and his clansmen cannot touch O.’s body, because it’s evil now for them, and only strangers can touch him. The commissioner so, decided to include few paragraphs about Okonkwo’s death in the book that he was writing about Africa, giving the title: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.
La conquista violenta è descritta come pacificazione da parte del DC, che decide di relegare la vita di O. solamente in pochi paragrafi, esattamente l’opposto di Achebe che dedica tutto il libro a questo personaggio e solo 3 pagine al DC (capovolgimento strutturale, culturale e storico).
