Literary Analysis: Storytelling

When Nigerian Independence was in sight, Chinua Achebe “knew that something needed to be done” (PBS, 2013). He grew up in the Postcolonial Era, attended European-style school, knew English, and tells people that he started to notice a “gap” in his heritage, his history, as if a “book had been taken out of the bookshelf” (PBS, 2013). After several conversations with family members and people in his village, he decided to write a novel for his people from their perspective to fill that gap on the bookshelf of history. His novel, Things Fall Apart, has been criticized and praised by various scholars (Damrosch, p. 765). Some claim it is not African enough, while others claim it is a literary masterpiece. Not only does he clearly explain his desire “to get it right” (PBS, 2013) and truthfully represent people from Igbo and European descent during Colonialism, but he also wanted to use literary elements in an extraordinary way that represented both cultures. As a new college graduate in 1954 with an education influenced primarily from European culture, he certainly knew how to write and tell a story in the European way. But something the reader learns very early in his novel is the value of words in Igbo culture, specifically the value placed on oral tradition. Formal schools did not exist before Colonialism in Igbo culture (Ubah, 1980). Children learned about the Igbo religion, history and values from oral tradition. Things Fall Apart combines elements of Igbo oral tradition with classical European literary elements.

The novel’s structure primarily follows the European plot structure. Shakespeare is credited with perfecting and normalizing the European way of telling stories by following the plot diagram, even though he learned it from studying many ancient playwrights and poets. Each of his plays consists of five acts to clearly communicate the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution. Choosing to open the entire novel devoted to life before the Europeans serves as the exposition of the novel. The first sentence of the entire novel introduces the main character, Okonkwo—the one “well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond” (Achebe, 3). The first chapter explains how he became well known. It also summarizes the entire novel and even reveals a few key details, like “how [Okonkwo] came to look after the doomed lad who was sacrificed to the village of Umuofia” (Achebe, 8). Telling the reader immediately in chapter one that a key character is going to die directly mirrors Shakespeare announcing details in the prologue of his plays. Although chapter one clearly explained Unoka as a man that did not embody his culture’s values, chapter three provides even more clarity to Okonkwo and Unoka’s relationship with a particular emphasis on why Okonkwo is the way he is within the story Things Fall Apart tells. Chapter three could be called “Okonkwo’s backstory,” or if it was a movie, it would be the “flashback” of Okonkwo’s younger life. Direct characterization is especially prominent in the exposition of European writing, again, similar to Shakespeare. Tucked in chapter three is a key phrase that arguably serves as the major conflict of the entire novel and thus the beginning of the rising action: “And indeed [Okonkwo] was possessed by the fear of his father’s contemptible life and shameful death” (Achebe, 18).

The rising action consists of various actions Okonkwo takes due to his fear of becoming like his father. In chapter four, Okonkwo beat his youngest wife. He was technically justified in his anger according to their culture, but he ignored their higher cultural custom—the Week or Peace. During this week, Okonkwo was not allowed to beat his wife; but because he was consumed with fear of becoming like his father, he beat her anyway (Achebe, 29-30). This decisive action not only serves as the first example of Okonkwo making decisions based on his fear, but it is also the first indication the reader gets that bad things are coming to Okonkwo. Later that evening, “Ezeani . . . priest of the earth goddess, Ani” rebuked Okonkwo because he is “not a stranger in Umuofia” and knows that “before we plant any crops in the earth we should observe a week in which a man does not say a harsh word to his neighbor” because they need Ani’s blessing or else the “crops will not grow” (Achebe, 30). The immediate harvest proved well for Okonkwo, but Ezeani’s words certainly foreshadow Okonkwo’s plight later in the novel. Perhaps, they even speak figuratively to Okonkwo’s inability to grow as an individual, to forever put his father’s behavior in the past. Again, it is his father’s fear that leads Okonkwo to murder Ikemefuna in chapter seven even though Ezeudu, “the oldest man in this quarter of Umuofia,” told Okonkwo to “not bear a hand in [Ikemefuna’s] death” since the “boy calls you father” (Achebe, 57). Ikemefuna’s death also serves as the starting point of Nwoye’s development in the rising action of the novel’s plot. As soon as Okonkwo came home, “Nwoye knew that Ikemefuna has been killed, and something seemed to give way inside him, like the snapping of a tightened bow” (Achebe, 61). From that point on, Nwoye never seeks his father’s approval. In fact, Nwoye begins to question his culture’s customs, the first being that of sacrificing twins (Achebe, 61). This anger and injustice he feels is what leads him to being so open to Christianity when the Europeans come to Umuofia.

While the novel does primarily follow the European plot diagram, it is blended with African oral tradition. One key element of oral tradition is repetition, which depicts more of a cyclical structure. Chapters one through three demonstrate this repetition exceptionally well, just as several chapters in Part Two and Part Three do when Okonkwo is exiled and humbled. Chapters one through three specifically alternate past tense and present tense. At a first glance, it may be difficult for the reader to follow, but understanding African oral tradition in a cyclical structure helps the reader to better follow the story. This cyclical structure also makes it difficult to precisely locate the climax of this novel, which is debated amongst scholars.

Chapter eleven shows, perhaps, the clearest example of African oral tradition when Ewefi shares a unique story about Tortoise and the Birds. This story seems to directly foreshadow Okonkwo’s downfall, but it is unclear what exactly is Okonkwo’s downfall. Is it his exile to Mbanta? Is it his conflict with Missionary Smith and some of his own people? Is it when he kills the church’s messenger? Or is it finally when he hangs himself? Any of these could be true, but the last few are problematic if Okonkwo’s fall is indeed the climax. The controversy over the climax is precisely one of the ways Things Fall Apart balances European literary devices and African oral tradition. Much of oral tradition is repetitive and cyclical. So the fact that the climax is difficult to locate and it seems Okonkwo has falls multiple times points more towards African oral tradition than the European plot structure.

Apart from chapter divisions, the novel is also divided into three distinct parts. Part One shows what life was like before the Europeans arrived in Umuofia; Part Two shows what life was like in Umuofia when the Europeans began settling; and Part Three shows the effects of the Europeans settling in Umuofia. In other words, Things Fall Apart progresses from pre-colonialism to colonialism to imperialism. The overall structure in three parts instead of five parts also makes it difficult to determine the exact start of the falling action. The resolution of the novel, however, is clear. If the primary conflict of the novel is indeed Okonkwo’s fear, then the conflict is resolved when he commits suicide (Achebe, 207). Okonkwo resolves that his people have lost their heritage because “they had broken into tumult instead of action” (Achebe, 205). He believes the Europeans have won the people and changed them so much that there is no more hope, so he succumbs to the very weakness he was afraid of and dies a shameful death. Obierika tells the District Commissioner that suicide is “against our custom . . . an abomination for a man to take his own life . . . an offense against the Earth,” so a “man who commits it will not be buried by his clansmen” (Achebe, 207). The District Commissioner’s final words confirm Okonkwo’s suspicions: the Igbo have been forever changed by the Europeans. The fact that the Igbo and the Europeans are no longer in conflict confirms the resolution of the novel.

The novel incorporates elements of epics and tragedies. One of the most critical pieces of an epic is the epic hero. An epic hero epitomizes a culture’s beliefs and values (Needham, 2018). Things Fall Apart clearly communicates in the novel’s exposition that Okonkwo epitomizes the Igbo culture. The whole town of Umuofia was proud of him and his accomplishments. He “had won fame as the greatest wrestler in the nine villages, . . . was a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams and had just married his third wife.” He had also “taken two titles and had shown incredible prowess in two inter-tribal wars” (Achebe, 8). Much of his fame and accomplishments is what had earned him the privilege of looking after Ikemefuna from Mbaino. Furthermore, the novel contrasts Okonkwo with the foil character in the novel, his father Unoka. Describing both characters in the same chapters helps the reader to understand the culture better. Authors often use foil characters to emphasize something in the novel; in this case, Achebe is emphasizing Okonkwo’s fatal flaw. Although the novel calls it fear, pride is ultimately the root of Okonkwo’s fear. Therefore, Okonkwo truly fits the epic hero archetype since he exhibits hamartia.

Another key characteristic of an epic is that it starts most often in medias res. While Things Fall Apart does not start in the middle of the story, it also does not start at the very beginning. In fact, throughout the entire novel, the narrator gives the reader glimpses of the past. Chapter three is a prime example of Okonkwo’s past, but so is chapter nine. The narrator explains the uniqueness of Okonkwo and Ekwefi’s relationship and why Ezinma is so special to Okonkwo. These examples along with others throughout the novel definitely reflect an epic. It is interesting, though, to remember that epics started as recited poems and plays, especially in Ancient Greece. It should not be surprising, then, that a Nigerian author whose culture values oral tradition should incorporate elements similarly found in that of epics. Many of the epic-like, structural elements more closely support African oral tradition than the European plot structure.

Similarly to epics, one of the key qualities of a tragedy is the tragic hero. Most scholars agree that Things Fall Apart is a unique version of a tragedy. It cannot be determined a true European tragedy like that of Shakespeare, but it certainly meets the classical tragedy standards according to Aristotle’s Poetics. He teaches that “tragedy involves a protagonist of high estate who falls from prosperity to misery . . . as a result of a ‘tragic flaw’” and that tragedies ought to evoke “catharsis” (Schwartz, 2005). Okonkwo exhibits many elements of the tragic hero. He is revered in his tribe, but he has a tragic flaw. Hypothetically, he would never have suffered the way he did if it were not for his tragic flaw—“possessed by the fear of his father’s contemptible life and shameful death” (Achebe, 18). The other element of tragedy that Things Fall Apart certainly possesses is catharsis. Aristotle believed that a tragedy should move an audience to pity the character while also reflecting on their own lives to determine where they shared in the character’s life and needed to thus improve their own life. Okonkwo worked diligently to build a life for himself that was better than that of his father’s, which is honorable. His bitterness towards his father, however, is what prohibited him from truly loving, seeing reason, and succeeding.

Achebe incorporates pieces of African storytelling and European literary devices in his novel, Things Fall Apart, to tell a specific story universally recognized. Because Achebe’s main purposes for writing this novel were to challenge European stereotypes of Africans as “savages” thanks to authors like Joseph Conrad and “to help my society to regain belief in itself and put away the complexes of years of denigration and self-abasement” (Amuta, 1989) it is appropriate for him to blend African and European methods of storytelling into one literary masterpiece. Choosing to write the novel in English and primarily after the European’s literary structure broadened the scope of readers. Even women in a Korean college wrote Achebe thanking him for writing a novel about their people (PBS, 2013). They saw the universal themes of colonialism, self-abasement and internal struggles with identity in Things Fall Apart that they, and so many others around the world and throughout history, have experienced. Choosing to use both literary methods of storytelling shows the harmony Achebe experienced that is possible between people and entire cultures.

References

Amuta, C. (1989). The Theory of African Literature, Zed Books Ltd.

Damrosch, D. (2009). The longman anthology of world literature 2nd. Pearson Education.

PBS. (2013, March 22). Achebe Discusses Africa 50 Years After 'Things Fall Apart' [Video]. Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHF_w0gkyiI

Ubah, C. (1980). Western education in africa: the igbo experience, 1900-1960. Comparative Education

Review 24(3), pp. 371-388. Accessed 15 November, 2020: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1187793

Schwartz, D. (2005). Shakespeare’s Plays: Tragedy. College of Liberal Arts: Cal Poly. Accessed 29

November, 2020: http://cola.calpoly.edu/~dschwart/engl339/tragedy.html