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Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart. What makes a culture? What changes a culture? What happens when change is too quick? Can one culture be “better” than another? Should one culture ever impose its values onto another culture?. Post-Colonial Literature. Epigraph: “Turning and turning in the widening gyre

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Things Fall Apart

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  1. Things Fall Apart What makes a culture? What changes a culture? What happens when change is too quick? Can one culture be “better” than another? Should one culture ever impose its values onto another culture?

  2. Post-Colonial Literature Epigraph: “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.” --W.B. Yeats, “The Second Coming”

  3. Literary Devices Allusions (they are ironic) • Title • Structure: Old Testament/New Testament • Greek Tragedy • Heart of Darkness

  4. Themes • Male/female aspects of a culture • Clash of cultures • Fate • Primitive vs. Civilized • Change • Traditions/Institutions that make a culture

  5. Structure • Part One = Umuofia (fatherland) • Part Two = Mbanta (motherland) • Part Three = No land (“things fall apart”)

  6. Characters • Okonkwo = “male pride” = our tragic hero (“Roaring Flame”=his nickname) • Mr. Brown and Mr. Smith (two basic white stereotypes) • The District Commissioner • Nwoye (“Isaac”) • Obierika = Okonkwo’s best friend=foil • Chielo = oracle of caves and hills • Ezinma = Okonkwo’s daughter

  7. Setting • Umuofia (gradual change; maintaining balance between male/female) • “The Evil Forest” • Mbanta (“Mother is Supreme”; Okonkwo’s 7-year exile=accelerated change in Umuofia) • Return to homeland=no culture • Not “African,” Not “Nigerian”—Ibo (Tribe is what matters)

  8. Key Passages • “A proud heart can survive a general failure because it does not prick his pride. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone.” (Unoka, O’s father) • “A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland…mother is supreme.” (Uchendu, O’s uncle) • “Living fire begets cold, impotent ash.” (Okonkwo’s regrets about his son, Nwoye) • “You do not know what it is to speak with one voice. And what is the result? An abominable religion has settled among you.” (Tribal elder to the younger generation)

  9. Symbolism and Foreshadow • Yams • Caves and Hills • Guns (accidental killing=“feminine”) • Hanging • Locusts

  10. Traditions/Cultural Institutions • Economic system (cowries) • Marriage (bride price) • Funerals • Justice System (“supreme court”=masked leaders of tribe) • Government/leaders=titles and oracle of caves and hills

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