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The unpolluted picture of Ibo people comes to life with the helps of such things as the detailed description of New Yam Festival that opens Chapter 5. While some things may appear corny and affected such as sentences like this one: "Drums beat violently, and men leaped up and down in a frenzy" [86], most of the comments are meant to highlight the true meaning of these otherwise demeaning observations. The author explains what beating of drums meant for the people and how it resonated with the true spirit and pulse of the village:
The drums were still beating, persistent and unchanging. Their sound was no longer a separate thing from the living village. It was like the pulse of its heart. It throbbed in the air, in the sunshine, and even in the trees, and filled the village with excitement [31].
Achebe also carefully studies tribal myths to understand their meaning and origin. The author clarifies that every single ritual and myth had a story and meaning attached to it. They were not hollow rituals meant for some evil purpose, as most people would have us believe. Instead they served some deep, ethereal and spiritual purpose such as connecting with the ancestors' spirits. The author explains:
The land of the living was not far removed from the domain of the ancestors. There was coming and going between them,...
A man's life from birth to death was a series of transition rites, which brought him nearer and nearer to his ancestors [86].
Similarly when the main character Okonkwo accidentally kills a clansman, the author asserts that villagers wanted to avenge the death of a clansman primarily because it was important to cleanse the land after such a horrible crime had been committed. Achebe informs us that after the accidental killing: "The only course open to Okonkwo was to flee from the clan. It was a crime against the earth goddess to kill a clansman, and a man who committed it must flee from the land." [88]. The organized destruction of Okonkwo's house is also seen as something more than mere revenge: "They had no hatred in their hearts against Okonkwo. His greatest friend Obierika was among them. They were merely cleansing the land which Okonkwo had polluted with the blood of a clansman" [88].
When we said that Achebe's account is at least original, this is what we had meant. His account is devoid of sentimentalism or cliched explanations. The author may not fully grasp the culture and its traditions but he certainly knew how to give it more original flavor by offering sensible explanation for otherwise senseless activities of the African tribe.
Things Fall Apart What falls apart and why? The title of Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart refers mainly to the integrity of the Nigerian tribal cultures: to their customs, traditions, and ways of life, all of which fall apart as the result of internal and external conflicts. In Okonkwo's personal life, a series of unfortunate events lead to his loss of personal integrity and his eventual psychological destruction. The gradual yet
Okonkwo seems full of passionate intensity to preserve things as they are, and to preserve his sense of masculine, patriarchal authority. But although this sense of passion seems to have its origin sense of nostalgia for traditional forms of control, it is also too tied up the man's ego to be called a conviction. A true conviction about justice is not self-interested. It is also worth remembering that Okonkwo's
" Okonkwo inflexible traditionalism pitted him against his gentle son Nwoye, who joined the Christian European missionaries. In the book, Oknokwo had to participate in a ceremonial human sacrifice and endure a seven-year exile after his gun accidentally killed the son of the deceased warrior Ezeudu. He also lost part of himself when he lost Ikemefuna. Upon returning to the village, he found it torn apart by Western Imperialism. Finally, he
Things Fall Apart Hubris and the Suicide of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart This novel by Chinua Achebe was first published in 1958. Set on the continent of Africa this is the story of Okonkwo, a member of the Umuofia clan, one of nine villages of a tribe in Nigeria. Okonkwo is an esteemed tribesman who, despite the stigma of his cowardly father who died in disgrace leaving many unsettled
Therefore, Okonkwo rejected his father, and hence, the womanly element of himself. He turned out to be a leading wrestler and warrior in his people to make available the facilities of life for his family at a very small age. Simultaneously, he established a new farm and began to collect his own riches, and ultimately a name. His uphill struggle confirms itself in his victory, and he rapidly became
Smith hates the Igbo faith so much that he equates it to the Baal and the followers of Baal in the Biblical Old Testament. He has strict policy over conversion to Christianity such that any elder to decides to get converted to Christian faith must immediately abandon the traditional ways and follow Christianity only. His cruelty and strictness to the abandoning of all Igbo traditional ways is seen when he