Prompt #1: Write a detailed summary of the first half of your
book; explain the author’s purpose and your reaction to that purpose.
Things Fall Apart was written in a time
when most English literature represented Africa as an antisocial continent deserving
of Western colonization and rule.
Chinua Achebe was born of a Protestant missionary in Nigeria and
received an English education while absorbing tribal culture, such as oral
storytelling. Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart in order to portray the
overwhelming complexities of one region’s tribal culture to an ignorant world.
The
novel begins with a thorough examination of Okonkwo, a native warrior of the
Umuofia tribe and the main character.
He lives his life trying to get out of Unkoa’s shadow. Unkoa was his father, who lived for
music and love but left his family in poverty. “Fortunately, among these people a man was judged according
to his worth and not according to the worth of his father.” Okonkwo builds himself up in the
community through his own actions and becomes the opposite of his father. He is a famous wrestler with a barn
full of “yams, the king of crops,” a hut for each of his wives and an obi, or large living quarter, for
himself. The importance of
language in the tribe is mentioned several times but Okonkwo is known to
stammer when he is angry, unable to get his words out fast enough.
One
night before Okonkwo goes to bed he hears the village crier’s gong and receives
the message that all men must appear at the market place for a meeting the next
day. At the meeting a strong
public speaker tells the men that a neighboring clansmen has murdered a local
daughter. The orator sends Okonkwo
as their fiercest warrior to deliver an ultimatum to the other clan; either
offer a boy and a girl of there own or go to war. Here it is known that, “Umuofia was feared by all its
neighbors. It was powerful in war and in magic, and its priests and medicine
men were feared in all the surrounding country… so the neighboring clans who
naturally knew of these things feared Umuofia, and would not go to war against
it without first trying a peaceful settlement.” Okonkwo’s journey is successful. He delivers the two
captives to his village where they give the girl to the victim’s husband. Although he belongs to the clan, the
tribe allows the boy, Ikemefuna, to live with Okonkwo until the gods decide his
fate.
In
the next chapter Achebe presents the rich and complicated culture of tribal
Nigeria. He describes multiple
shrines in different settings. One
in Okonkwo’s hut designated to worship of his personal gods and ancestors. One in the center of town designated to
an old woman who perfected the medicine of war. And one, which could only be
entered crawling on your belly, designated to the Oracle of the Hills and the
Caves who communicated with the Gods.
People came to this last shrine for answers, to find out what the future
held or why the past happened in such ways. This last shrine is presented in a story in which Unkoa goes
to find out why his harvests had been continually unsuccessful only to be told
he must work harder, that the gods have not harmed them. We then learn that Okonkwo’s father was
looked down upon even in death. “He
died of the swelling which was an abomination to the earth goddess. When a man was afflicted with the
swelling in the stomach and the limbs he was not allowed die in the house. He was carried away to the Evil Forest
and left to die there…He died and rotted away above the earth, and was not
given the first or the second burial.”
The Evil Forest is another part of their complex culture. In order not to curse their land they
banish those who could upset the gods, such as twin babies and those who commit
suicide, to the Evil Forest.
After
his father’s shameful death Okonkwo becomes motivated to live a prosperous
life. He goes to the home of the wealthiest
man in town, Nwakibie, and goes through the motions of a formal meeting to ask
for a loan. These motions are are
another example of the rich culture presented by Achebe.
“He
took a pot of palm-wine and a cock to Nwakibie. Two elderly neighbors were sent for, and Nwakibie’s two
grown-up sons were also present in his obi. He presented a kola nut and an
alligator pepper, which were passed round for all to see and then returned to
him. He broke the nut saying: ‘We
all shall live. We pray for life,
children, a goof harvest and happiness…’
“After
the kola nut had been eaten Okonkwo brought his palm-wine from the corner of
the hut where it had been placed and stood it in the center of the group. He addressed Nwakibie, calling him ‘Our
father.’…The younger of [Nwakibie’s] sons…began to pour the wine. The first cup went to Okwonkwo, who
must taste his wine before anyone else. Then the group drank, beginning with
the eldest man.”
The drinking of palm wine
and the splitting of kola nut are repeated almost every time a man enters
another’s home. To me these
customs represent a society that cares for each other. Presenting the social characteristics
of this misrepresented region forces the reader to re-imagine its people and
history.
This is getting really long so its time to focus more on plot than purpose. In the Umuofia tribe farming is the way most families eat
and they place a lot of its outcome on the gods. They practice a week of peace to calm the land before each
planting season and before the harvest they celebrate with the Feast of the New
Yam to give thanks to the Earth Goddess.
In a bit of foreshadowing, Okonkwo breaks the week of peace by beating
his wife after she prepares his dinner late. After following a priest’s demands he is forgiven of his
misstep. His inability to control himself when commanded to is what will lead
elder named Ezeudu visits him. Ezeudu takes him from his obi and says, “That boy calls you father. Do not beat a hand in his
death…Umuofia has decided to kill him… They will take him outside Umuofia as is
the custom, and kill him there.
But I want you to have nothing to do with it. He calls you his father.” When the men come to take Ikemefuna away they act as if he
will be taken back to his village so as not to scare him. Okonkwo is forced to
come along to avoid suspicion.
When the precession is in earshot of his village a man takes his machete
to Ikemefuna but he survives the blow.
The boy runs to the back of the line, towards Okonkwo, screaming for his
father. “Dazed with fear, Okonkwo
dew his machete and cut him down.
He was afraid of being thought weak.” Ikemefuna’s death brings the first half of the story to an end
