Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - Book Report/Review Example

 Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Love for truth, painful experiences, sticking to the grassroots realities, imagination based on the practical vision make a brilliant writer. Some write for making a career and some for the sake of upholding the truth and to lend solid support for the common man and societal values. Chinua Achebe is a writer with all the positive qualities clubbed in appropriate proportions. The writings of such writers become a joke to some intellectuals and to the wise ones, they are like scriptural revelations. “Things Fall Apart” is a legacy-defining novel.1890s is the worst period in the history of slavery. Slavery in its most inhuman form is practiced then. The hero of the story Okonkwo, an Igbo man kills a white colonist. Killing a white man is not an ordinary event in those times, and finally the killer hangs himself than undergo the tortuous trial for that murder and face certain death as punishment. The contents of the book are the befitting answer to Joseph Conrad’s book, “Heart of Darkness” whom Achebe dubs as “a thoroughgoing racist.” Achebe exposes the English colonial attitudes towards the Africans. Even for getting his manuscript typed, he undergoes untold hassles. Finally when the manuscript is typed, the report on the novel is one of the shortest, cryptic and revealing comments. It reads, “The best first novel since the war.” African versus Western cultural values: One who is unfamiliar with the African cultural traditions, fierce tribal loyalties and revengeful attitudes, the story may be unbelievable. But the man how has written it is not a biased western historian, but a genuine African, who is well-versed with the culture of tribes. The title gives broad hints about the plot of the story. It highlights the challenges between the traditional values of African tribes and the changes sought to be imposed on them by the Christian missionaries, who are educated, and consider all other forms of religious practices as the sign of backwardness. As per their style of preaching, whatever they say is correct and their discourses are the ultimate revelations of God. Any intended change affects the society as well as the leaders of the existing setup. It is the normal tendency with the leaders that they are not willing to abdicate the chair-power and the privileges of their authority. Whether the intended changes have some merit, is the secondary issue. Okonkwo has two reasons to resist the change. He thinks that they are not manly in the first instance. Secondly it is a challenge to his manliness if he follows them or joins them willingly or under compulsion. He is not willing to sacrifice his own societal status. The British missionaries play their cards well, with their traditional practice of ‘divide and rule.’ They wear the mask of innocence and profess peace and simplicity but they have a hidden agenda always for morally subduing the spirit of the man in front of them. The clan, of which Okonkwo is the head, is plagued with the imbalanced practice of high and low cast members. The clan’s outcasts see this as the golden opportunity to improve their social status and embrace Christianity. Igbo cultural values have placed them below everyone else. But the Christian influence, enticed through economic incentives, if accepted would result in the total eradication of the traditions of the clan. The village elders are in a dilemma whether to accept the changes or not. They are excited about the prospect of new lifestyles promised by the missionaries by changing their methods of farming, building and cooking. They seek to impose English language and the demise of Igbo language invites total cultural disaster for the clan. Slavery through language: Achebe is well aware of the importance of language and how the missionaries are trying to establish their base and break the traditional clan, by imposing English language through persuasion and pressure. Achebe chooses to write his book in English not because of his love for that language. He nevertheless makes liberal use of Igbo language words. The fixed mindset of the Europeans will not be able to understand the complex language of Igbo and their culture. The colonists conquer the African territories by crude force and impose their culture. Now it is the turn of African intellectuals, Achebe surmises, to conquer the hearts of the west, without conquering their territories! That is possible by introducing them to the authentic African culture, not the one distorted and painted by the British and other western historians and writers. It is with this perspective, that he advocates the use of English language for the African writers, and uses English as the medium to express his viewpoint in “Things Fall Apart.” His liberal use of folktales, proverbs and songs translated from Igbo language demonstrate how rich and profound his language is! The novel also epitomizes the incompatibility of colonialist and indigenous values. Chi-sounds like the profound scriptural revelation: Chi is not the concept of the novice as made out by the ones who have no deep understanding of the mindset of the African clans. Chi is an individual’s personal God, and the measuring scale of that entity is decided by one’s good fortune or otherwise. This means, an individual is the creator of one’s destiny and not the victim and his actions have a direct bearing on the fructification of the resultant reactions. This is the profound truth revealed by the realized souls of the Eastern philosophies. Some of the western philosophers also have favorably commented upon this revelation. This shows that Igbo traditional values have deep hidden meanings and Achebe has highlighted this aspect. Even in the death of Okonkwo the British commissioner sees his self-interest in writing an interesting account of his rebellion and the mode of death. Obierika offers a detailed explanation, “It is against our custom, it is an abomination for a man to take his own life. It is an offense against the Earth, and a man who commits it will not be buried by his clansmen. His body is evil, and only strangers may touch it." (178) He is excited to know that suicide is grave sin and none of Okonkwo’s clansmen may touch his body. Works Cited Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart; Anchor, 1994 Read More