The title of Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, is a symbolic reference to the events that take place in the Ibo society. It alludes to the changes that disrupted the status-quo in society, occasioned by the introduction of Christianity and later on, colonialism. Consequently, long held traditions ‘fell apart’ as they gave in to a new culture.At character level, the new era marked a turning point in the lives of individuals, notably the protagonist Okonkwo.
Initially a prominent and respected man within the status quo, his ideals lost relevance in the new order.In reference to the events in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the paper examines how traditional institutions were disrupted by the new changes that took place, leading to a gradual falling apart of social life.In the Ibo community, the turning point was marked by the oracle’s demands for a human offering to avert an impending crisis. However, Ikemefuna, the boy by whose blood the community was to be saved, was struck by Okonkwo (it was an abomination since he was technically his father) before they reached the altar, as it were.This incidence was an ominous warning that their efforts had aborted, and that ‘things will fall apart’ at the ripe time. And it came sooner than anticipated: Ogbuefi Ezeudu, the village elder and embodiment of tradition, died suddenly, suggesting the ‘death’ of the society’s culture.
Then, during his funeral, Okonkwo’s gun goes off and kills the decease man’s teenage son.Okonkwo is banished from the community for his sacrilegious actions, and goes to live in his mother’s village. Going into exile was a sign that he had been uprooted from the community. Indeed, when he came back after seven years, it did not take him long before he killed another man and then committed suicide.Thus, by the end of the novel, the village idol who had once felled Amalinze the Cat in a duel was no more than a disgraced villain, whose corpse hung from a tree awaiting, not to be touched by his fellow clansmen, but by a stranger to bury it.
The community’s traditions were also assaulted by the new Christian ways. The missionaries undermined the Ibo culture by challenging and condemning their beliefs and practices.There was egwugwu, the masked spirit famed for its ability to pick out guilty villains. However, Enoch, a Christian convert, dared the gods and unmasked ‘the spirit’ during a hearing, which turned out to be a human being.
This discredited the reverence that people had for this superstitious figure. The said Enoch also killed the worshipped python, marking the end of the traditional rituals that defined Ibo religion.The introduction of western medicine for ailments previously without cures shifted people’s beliefs from the myth that one’s ‘chi’- a guardian angel and Chukwu (God) exposed people to harm for their evil deeds. In addition, when the missionaries asked for land to build a church, the elders offered them the evil forest.They believed that the spirits will come to haunt those who trespassed into their territory.
However, to their astonishment, the spirits seemed to give way to the missionaries. Gradually, the superstitious beliefs that people held concerning revered objects, animals and places crumpled in.Eventually, when the Christian missionaries accepted banished members into the church without any repercussions from ‘offended gods,’ the community’s beliefs and practices became irrelevant and got discarded.Nonetheless, the final blow was the introduction of formal education, which changed people’s perceptions that many wives and Ozo titles were the yardsticks of measuring success.
It particularly appealed to the youth, for instance Okonkwo’s son Nwoye, who abandoned tradition for Christianity and formal learning.By targeting the younger generation, the missionaries effectively severed the link of transmission of the Ibo culture, marking the beginning of its end. Thus, very gradually, the people’s way of life had fallen apart in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.ReferencesAchebe, C. (1996). Things Fall Apart.
New York: Heinemann.
