We will watch a few film clips about this in class and after reading the novel, discuss if you think his apology was enough when compared to Achebe's text.
Some questions to consider:
As we see in Part I of Things Fall Apart, the Ibo culture was centuries-old and well functioning before the coming of the Europeans. Point out 3 or more aspects of the culture that we can admire.
What do you think of Okonkwo?
Yeats' "The Second Coming"
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,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
My Response:
The great story of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart consist of three parts helps the audience comprehend the story but perhaps more importantly understand the time period. The first part is the umuofia, or the idea that things are in place (for example Okonkwo is a good representation of culture), the second part is mbanta, or things are out of place, specifically through Okonkwo's exile, and lastly umuofia, when all things fall apart. There are many characters in this book including:
· Okonkwo -central character
· Unoka -Okonkwo's father
· Nwoye -Okonkwo's oldest son (of first wife)
· Ikemefuna -Okonkwo's "adopted" son
· Ekwefi-okonkwo's second and probably favorite wife
· Ezinma- Okonkwo's and Ekwefi's daughter
· Nwakibie- an elder who gives Oknonkwo his first seed yams, to start his new life
· Obierka- Okonkwo's best friend, though they are opposites
· Ezeudu- an elder who gives Okonkwo advice about Ikemefuna
· Uchendu- Okonkwo's uncle
· Mr. Brown- a British missionary
· Rev. Smith- a British missionary
· District Commissioner- a British government official and judge
Overall, Achebe depicted Okonkwo as corresponding to the situation of the culture at that time and in addition as a strong individual faced with tough situations. For example, when he kills his adopted son, Ikemefuna because of the tribe's rules and when he beats his wife during peace week he is describing the mbanta where things are out of place. Lastly, as all things fall apart, he is exiled for seven years after killing a tribe member at a ceremony and comes back to exclusion and the lifestyle everyone had without him, thus leading him to commit suicide. This exile was to his motherland, which brings a comparison between the lands he lived in, his father's (Umuofia), versus the exile to the motherland (Mbanta). The motherland is more passive and comforting, whereas the fatherland is filled with strength and great struggle. It is also important to recognize the cultures before and after the Europeans invaded. This Igbo culture has attributes that make them a great society of people such as: making their own houses and growing their own food, having stories to teach life lessons (example: the tortoise), and the dedication to keep to their routine lives.
Lastly, comparing it to Yeats' poem "The Second Coming" and Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness, Things Fall Apart showed similarities and differences with these texts, specifically because Things Fall Apart was written as a response to Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Yeats' poem depicts his view that history will just repeat itself. An important line in the poem is, "The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned," which illustrates the innocence of the constant killings, but perhaps more importantly the spread of Christianity and the innocence of the culture that is being destroyed and challenged. Next, Joseph Conrad who was a steamboat captain during the colonization of Africa wrote a novel depicting the hardship; however, he did it as an apology. It is said that Conrad is racist as he use all tribes together and describes them as primitive, or "unhappy savages." Though I do not encourage this language, it is possible that Conrad was sincerely trying to be apologetic, however just used the language around him, thus making him sound ignorant.
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