Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, and

¶ … Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, and "Tintern Abbey," by William Wordsworth. Specifically, it will analyze imagery (metaphor, simile, symbol, etc.), and discuss the ways in which the imagery of these texts creates relationships either between humans and nature, or between humans and the divine.

What kind of relationship is created by the imagery in each case, and how? How do the details of the two texts' imagery create differences and/or similarities in the relationships you're discussing? Imagery in a piece of writing may not be apparent at first, it may hide underneath the theme and structure of the piece, but unlike landscape to a blind eye, imagery can be seen by reading a little more closely, and taking the time to really think about what the author was trying to say with his or her work.

LANDSCAPE TO A BLIND MAN Imagery plays an important part in much of fiction, and especially as fiction relates to the natural world around us, as both these texts clearly demonstrate. Well-written imagery in fiction can evoke memories, create memories, and give a greater understanding of the world around us. In "Things Fall Apart," Achebe writes about a culture that is far different from our own, and so he must use imagery to invoke understanding in the reader.

Much of the story involves the natives attempting to get along with their white colonial invaders, and Achebe uses local folklore, especially as it relates to nature, to showing the moving dilemma facing the native Nigerians. He uses this metaphor of the kite and the eagle to illustrate how everyone should try to get along with each other: "Let the kite perch and let the eagle perch too. If one says no to the other, let his wing break" (Achebe 21-22).

Later, Uchendu says, "The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others. We have albinos among us. Do you not think that they came by mistake, that they have strayed from their way to a land where everybody is like them?" (Achebe 130).

Here again, the imagery is clear, the natives must make way for the white men to survive, and their beautiful folklore and language help to keep the theme in the novel at the forefront, while bringing the culture of these people out in the open to be admired. The natural world is foremost in the Ibo's life, and Achebe illustrates this again and again throughout the story. Here, he uses a simile to show how a corn cob is like the face of an old woman.

"The name for a corn cob with only a few scattered grains was eze-agadi-nwayi, or the teeth of an old woman" (Achebe 36). Because the imagery is so beautiful and descriptive, the reader is immediately aware of the old woman, missing teeth, just like the corn cob with the "scattered grains." It is a reference to the natural world that is common enough for everyone to understand and picture in their minds.

The music and rhythm of the drums also portrays how the people identify with the rhythm of their lives, when they are "possessed by the spirit of the drums" (Achebe 33) and the drums' "frantic rhythm was.. The very heart-beat of the people" (Achebe 35-36). This imagery of the drums and their rhythm continues throughout the story, and continually ties the people to their culture and beliefs, which can do nothing but alter with the advent of the white man.

This is probably some of the most effective and important imagery in the text, because it carries forward the theme of the natives against the white man, while clearly illustrating how at home the natives are with their lives and their culture. They are happy, but their happiness, just as their way of life, will not last forever, however, their images and memories will.

Whitman uses a lovely and clearly defined form of imagery in his writings on nature, as this stanza from "Tintern Abbey" visibly shows: These beauteous forms, Through a long absence, have not been to me As is a landscape to a blind man's eye: (Wordsworth). Here he compares the absence of beauty to the eye of a blind man, who of course cannot see the beauty around him, but he can certainly feel a warm summer breeze, or smell the aroma of new mown hay.

Wordsworth is saying that although these things are absent from him, they are not forgotten, and this is the way of all our memories, they may lay dormant, but many are never forgotten, especially as they relate to nature and the natural world. We remember a beautiful sunset, or a happy summer day, and the vivid imagery of a well-written poem can bring those memories rushing back to us, just as they did to Wordsworth.

While with an eye made quiet by the power Of harmony, and the deep power of joy, We see into the life of things (Wordsworth). Both pieces are similar in how they use imagery to portray the beauty and importance of the natural world in our lives. The Ibo people live closely with nature, and this is clearly illustrated in their folklore and language, which depends heavily on imagery to portray their culture and beliefs, and they use this imagery every day to convey information and beliefs to the clan.

For example, efulefu, a worthless individual, is defined as follows: "The imagery of an efulefu in the language of the clan was a man who sold his machete and wore the sheath to battle" (Achebe 133). The book contains countless examples such as this one, with sharp and vivid images making their way of life, and its eventual demise, seem all the more poignant and special.

Wordsworth is not trying to convey culture with his work, but he certainly conveys equally vivid images of nature, that remain with the reader long after reading the poem. Perhaps the most important imagery Wordsworth uses is the stanza that seems to describe each of our daily lives. If this Be but a vain belief, yet, oh! how oft- In darkness and amid the many shapes Of joyless daylight; when the fretful stir Unprofitable, and the fever of the world, Have hung upon the beatings of.