Things Fall Apart: Chapters 19 - end

Achebe achieves a balanced and objective presentation of two cultures: the Igbo, and the Western Christian. The problem the text confronts is well expressed by Ajofia, speaking of the missionary Mr. Smith: ". . . he does not understand our customs, just as we do not understand his. We say he is foolish because he does not know our ways, and perhaps he says we are foolish because we do not know his" (191). The result is tragic confrontation.

Part Two ends with Okonkwo, his seven year exile completed, giving a great feast of gratitude for the people of Mbanta. An elder responds with a speech of gratitude to Okonkwo, and in it he expresses fear that their culture is giving way to that of "an abominable religion. Part Three shows how that is happening.

Back in Umuofia, Okonkwo determines to regain his former position of prestige and power as the strong man of the village. His hope resides in his five sons and his daughters, wanting them all to marry well. But, alas, all is not well in the village. Not only the outcast and lowly-born of the tribe have become Christian, but also some "worthy men," such as Obguefi Ugonna. Further, the white man is imposing his laws, and many of the men of the tribe have been thrown into his prison. Okonkwo is determined to fight the white man, but his friend Obierika tells him is too late for that. Too many of their own tribe have joined the white man's religion and government.

Why is it so? The people see the benefit of the mission schools, appreciate the medical clinic and how effective the white man's medicines are, and the village is receiving economic benefits from the new trading store. Not only so, but the missionary, Mr. Brown, has ingratiated himself to the tribe by showing respect for their traditional views, taking care not to provoke their wrath, and avoiding an over-zealousness on the part of his converts, while all the while presenting the Christian message.

But, alas, Mr. Brown's health breaks, and he is replaced by Mr. Smith, whose approach is quite different. He represents a certain mentality which characterizes all too many conservative Christians. He indeed knows the Scripture, and can quote it readily, but he applies its precepts without a sense of compassion and an effort to understand the thinking of those upon whom he would lead to Christianity. His approach is one of heavy-handed coercion with no respect for those to whom he would minister.

Smith's manner encourages the over-zealous members of his native congregation, vicious confrontation ensues, and the Christian church is burned down. Achebe is clearly showing that arrogance, ignorance, and prejudice have no place in missionary activity.

Okonkwo bitterly opposes the new religion and would summon the village to arms in an effort to rid it entirely of the white man and his ways. His anger is intensified when the District Commissioner, to whom Mr. Smith has appealed for justice when his church was destroyed, summons the strong men of the village to his court with the guise of friendly discussion, but then turns upon them, handcuffs and imprisons them, imposing a heavy fine.

Released, Okonkwo kills a messenger from the white man's government, but instead of igniting a village uprising, his fellow villagers look at him with dismay. "He knew that Umuofia would not go to war. He knew because they had let the other messengers escape. They had broken into tumult instead of action. He discerned fright in that tumult. He heard voices asking: 'Why did he do it?'" (205).

The question must be asked, Is Okonkwo heroic? In what sense? He is not noble; he is not especially intelligent. He indeed has strength and stubbornness, but these alone are hardly make a warrior heroic. He is more pathetic than tragic.

The irony compounds with his suicide and ignominious burial by strangers. He intended to defend the tribal tradition and the tradition itself betrays him, for committing suicide is taboo. No Igbo may even touch his body. The tribe will make sacrifices to cleanse the land from the desecration he has wrought.

The final irony is struck by the District Commissioner's response given in the final paragraph. He sees Okonkwo as a curiosity, to whom he will devote perhaps a paragraph in the book he is planning, one that will present the "pacification of the primitive tribes" in an effort to give an authoritative depiction to his Western readers back home. Achebe's ending pronounces a cutting disdain for a purely intellectual approach to colonization and missionary activity, one that assumes an understanding it does not begin to have, one that lacks human sympathy and fellow feeling, one that refuses to recognize the dignity and extend respect to a culture other than one's own.

Chapters 12 - 18

"A man's life from birth to death was a series of transition rites which brought him nearer and nearer to his ancestors" (122). In Chapters 12 and 13 Achebe presents some of the chief of these, the rites for betrothal and of death. Achebe is showing the basic dignity and humanity of his people. Such rituals make for the general well-being and health of a community, lend social organization, order, and harmony to relationships, invest life with seriousness, and are occasions for joy and celebration.

At Exudu's funeral, Okonkwo in an excess of masculine energy inadvertently kills a young fellow celebrant. In accord with tribal justice, he must flee from the village with his family, and all his possessions must be destroyed. It may be helpful to compare this procedure to that of the cities of refuge as outlined in Mosaic law. He flees with his family to Mbanta, the village of his mother's ancestors. The event breaks Okonkwo's spirit. "His life had been ruled by a great passion--to become one of the lords of the clan. That had been his life-spring. And he had all but achieved it. Then everything had been broken" (131). Given his excessive material interests and social ambitions, together with his past attitudes and actions, the reader has a limited sympathy for him at this point; one may feel his being broken is in order. His extreme reactions to the coming of the white men tend further to alienate him from the readers' sympathies.

The text gives us three male characters whom we admire more than Okonkwo: Obierika, Uchendu, and Nwoye. Obierika is a friend of the truest kind: he has given sound and thoughtful advice, shown his sympathy and understanding, and in Okonkwo's absence from Umuofia tends his fields, harvests and sells his yams, and brings great sacks full of the money to Okonkwo in Mbanta. Uchendu attracts us by his kindly reception of Okonkwo and his family and his imparting of wise advice. But the reader's sympathies are especially with Nwoye. We have sympathized with his dismay at the tribal practice of abandoning new-born twins to die in the wilderness; we have deeply empathized with him in his sense of utter loss in the killing of Ikemefuna; and we agree with his early preference for his mother's folk-tales over his father's stories of war.

Therefore, when the missionaries come to Umuofia and Nwoye is one of their earliest converts, desiring to take advantage of their newly instituted school to learn to read and write, the reader is inclined to think favorably towards the introduction of Christianity, in spite of some of the missionaries' methods, some of which are misinformed and awkward. The initial advent of the colonialists, with their massacring an entire village, is deplorable.

The text shows the steady growth of the mission effort in spite of the clash between the white man's ways and the tribes' general reaction to them, offering a thoughtful critique which implies mistakes and misunderstandings on both sides. Nwoye is shown attracted and won first not by the doctrines of Christianity as such, but by something which appeals to the depths of his being. Achebe writes: "It was not the mad logic of the Trinity that captivated him. He did not understand it. It was the poetry of the new religion, something felt in the marrow. The hymn about brothers who sat in darkness and in fear seemed to answer a vague and persistent question that haunted his young soul---the question of the twins crying in the bush and the question of Ikemefuna who was killed. He felt a relief within as the hymn poured into his parched soul. The words of the hymn were like the drops of frozen rain melting on the dry palate of the panting earth. Nwoye's callow mind was great puzzled" (147). The appeal is first to his heart, not his head.

Things Fall Apart: Chapters 7 - 11

Having established the humanity and cultural sophistication of his people, Achebe takes us into the harsh realities of their cultural and religious practices. He is committed to presenting a full view of the Igbo culture with the traditions of its past before he introduces the advent of colonialism and missionary activity, which we will begin to see in our next reading.

The title, Things Fall Apart, suggests a departure from these ancient tribal practices. But the Igbo past includes a great deal of tribal violence. Okonkwo is an incarnation of that past. Achebe is indicating that three forces made for the departure from these violent practices: the sentiment of the village, Okonkwo's own inner humanity and sense of right, and the introduction of Judeo-Christian values.

Such are the realities that a Christian missionary must confront and work to replace with God-centered worship and values. The practices that the text presents fall under the strong Biblical condemnations of and warnings concerning idol worship. The tragedy is of course compounded when the white man comes to exploit the peoples for his own material gain (as so often happened under colonial rule), and when Christian emissaries takes an uninformed and heavy-handed approach to their task.

In the very first chapter, speaking of Okonkwo's father, we read: "Okoye said the next half a dozen sentences in proverbs. Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten" (7). We also note in the text the insertion in italics of Igbo terms. Note what this indicates about the Igbo people. They have a linguistic sophistication and a vivid imagination. Attractive as these qualities may be, their imaginative activity generates much superstitious speculation concerning the spirit world. In this they fall prey to Satanic suggestions and practices.

Chapter 7 presents the heart-wrenching episode of the killing of Ikemefuna. We are first told of how thoroughly the boy has been integrated into his adopted family and become an object of the strong affections of Nwoye and also of Okonkwo. The fact that he had been brought into the family from another tribe as a compensation for that tribe having killed one of the Igbo girls, and that his presence was an alternative to an act of revenge, seems forgotten. But the law of an "eye for an eye" must be satisfied, and Ezeudu, a village elder, comes to announce that the time had come for Ikemefuna's killing. The Oracle had so decreed. Although stunned by the announcement, Okonkwo capitulates, joins the procession of village warriors that takes Ikemefuna to his fate, and in fact himself executes the child. Why would he do this? The decree of the Oracle must be obeyed, and he must maintain his image as the village strong man.

The text dwells upon the sense of shock and severe reactions of both Nwoye and Okonkwo. What is being suggested about Achebe's own attitude? He seems to be highlighting the severe affront which such practices offer to natural human emotions and sense of right.

Chapters 8 and 10 show tribal practices in settling issues and disputes. The first has to do with the negotiations between the respective families of a bride and groom that arrive at a bride-price agreeable to both. Chapter Ten presents the Igbo version of a court of justice, in which nine egwugwus meet in a designated house, elaborately costumed, to settle a dispute between a violent husband and a frequently beaten wife. The mystery surrounding the egwugwu house and the frightening costumes of the judges enforce the significance and authority of the judgments rendered.

Among the superstitions the Igbo's entertain to explain some of the occurrences of life is that of the ogbanje: when a mother loses a baby, the explanation is felt to be that the spirit of the child was one that desired to return to the spirit world. Ekwefi, one of Okonkwo's wives, has had the misfortune of losing several babies, and when Ezinma is born she is especially solicitous concerning the child. Ezinma becomes a favorite child of Okonkwo as well. Both hope that at last the child's spirit, the ogbanje, will decide to stay, because the child's iyi-uwa had been found by the village medicine man (80, 81). The scene of the mystified child leading the procession by a circuitous route, imaginatively supposing where the mysterious stone must lie simply because she has been commanded to do so, has a whimsy and charm of its own.

Chapter Eleven begins with a pleasant family scene of evening story-telling. But it is suddenly interrupted by Chielo, the village priestess of the earth god Agbala, who demands to take Ezinma to present her to the god. Mother and father are both seized with great consternation and protest the child is sleeping and should not be disturbed. But the priestess will not be deterred, and takes the child on a lengthy journey into the night, with the frightened mother following, as also, we learn later, did the father. To their great relief, the priestess returns Ezinma unharmed.

Given the agony and fear that such practices create among the people, how is it that the tyrannous commands of the gods are so slavishly obeyed? The answer lies in our fallen humanity. The book of Ecclesiastes tells us that God put eternity in the heart of man: people have a deep psychological need to be at peace with the supernatural. Human nature is such that it seeks for the meaning and significance of life, for inner satisfaction, and for a sense of security, and these must come from outside the self. Pagan peoples on this quest, under demonic suggestions, imagine their idols and are deeply convinced that meaning, satisfaction, and security are to be found in obeying them, or horrendous consequences will follow.

Christians have Biblical Revelation, and find true meaning, satisfaction, and security in their relationship with God in Christ. They also have the command to share the Revealed Truth. Hence Christian missionary activity. Our reading underscores its importance.

Things Fall Apart: Chapters 1 - 6

Things Fall Apart, truly a ground-breaking work, was first published in London in 1958. By its 50th anniversary, it had old over 11 million copies, and continues to be widely read today. It is the first novel written by an African about Africa to achieve international acclaim, but many have followed in its wake. With its success, Heinemann publishers brought out Achebe's sequel, No Longer at Ease, and launched the African Writers Series, with Chinua Achebe as its first editor.

Achebe was born in Ogidi, a large Ibo village in Nigeria, in 1930. As his father was a teacher-catechist for the Church Missionary Society, Achebe was raised in a Christian home and educated in a Christian mission school. However, since his grandparents and other relatives followed traditional Ibo tribal practices, he was acutely aware of his Ibo tribal heritage.

Intending to become a doctor, he entered the University of Ibadan and, changing his major to literature, took his B. A. degree in 1953. He read widely in such classical English authors as Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Joyce, Hemingway and Conrad. Appalled by the image of the African people in The Heart of Darkness, he determined that the story of Africa needed to be told by an African and began writing stories on what was to become his signature theme, the conflict between traditional African and Western cultures. Achebe came to the United States in 1972 to teach literature at the University of Massachusetts, and has been a visiting professor in various universities in the New England area.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

Chapter One introduces us to Okonkwo by contrasting him with his father Unoka. In Chapter Two, when an Ibo girl is murdered by a neighboring tribe, Okonkwo is chosen as an emissary of war to Mbaino, and is given a young boy, Ikemefuna, and a young virgin, in return for peace. Chapter Three contrasts the farming practices of Unoka and Okonkwo, contrasting the father's easy-going ways with his son's intense ambition to become a great farmer. Chapters Four and Five give further insights into family life, showing Okonkwo sternly beating his wives and sons. That Okonkow's manner is not appreciated by the village at large is evident in their rebuke of his manner (26), and the limits of his power are evident is his subservient attitude towards the village priest (31). Chapter Six shows village and family life during the Feast of the New Yam, underscoring the importance of rituals in tribal life.

WHAT IS THE POINT OF THE STRONG CONTRAST BETWEEN OKONKWO AND UNOKA?

Okonkow's ruling motivation is to be different from his father, and most of his characteristics derive from this determination (13). Achebe is showing his people as varied and diverse as any other ethnic group. Africans are not to be defined by stereotypes. Their lives are shaped by psychological reactions that arise from their personal interrelationships, in much the same way as the lives of other people's. Achebe is striving to present an authentic picture. He avoids romanticizing or otherwise idealizing his hero. Okonkow may well be compared to Homer's Achilles, who likewise has many unadmirable characteristics.

The reaction of the village to him (26) shows that others take exception to some of Okonkow's attitudes. His subservience to the village priest, receiving his rebuke (30), also shows that he recognizes certain limitations on his behavior. In spite of his beating and shooting at his wife for a trivial offense, the family has a joyous celebration of the Feast of the New Yam, suggesting their accommodation to him, as well as his compliance, although he does not enjoy such feasting (37).

Chinua Achebe wrote: "The Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as 'the other world,' the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where man's vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality." He remarked that Conrad's Africa was a "metaphysical battlefield devoid of all recognizable humanity." Note how his text strives to correct this view, showing the Africans as an intelligent, dignified people with a well-established, well-ordered culture. They have many traits very similar to peoples everywhere.

The Igbo's frequent use of proverbs (7) and the insertion in the text of Igbo terms shows them to be an imaginative people with a keen sense of metaphor. Aristotle remarked that the ability to see metaphor was the essence of genius.