Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe

The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats Turning and turning in the widening gyre    The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere    The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst    Are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand.    The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out    When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert    A shape with lion body and the head of a man,    A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,    Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it    Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.    The darkness drops again; but now I know    That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,    And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,    Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Achebe, about African Literature “The reason African Literature came into existence is because these things that were supposed to represent [Africans] were inaccurate. There was a vacuum, a gap to be filled” ~Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe - brief biography Born 1930 in a Christian family in Ogidi in Eastern Nigeria Novelist, poet, critic & professor Received the Nigerian National merit Award in 1987 By 1995 over 8 million copies of Things Fall Apart were sold

Igbo Society Social & Political Structures Lack of centralized political structures Lived in autonomous villages & towns, ruled by their elders Organized in patrilineages Democracy was obtained through a council of elders, age groups, councils of chiefs, women’s associations, and secret societies

Igbo Society Marriage Customs Marriages were discussed in depth as they brought families & entire villages together Most husbands practiced polygamy Igbo women lived in separate houses, cooked for themselves, and raised their own children Unhappy women could leave a marriage

Igbo Society Igbo Religion (polytheistic) Chukwu - (the supreme being) is everywhere at the same time--therefore there are no shrines or altars for worship Ekwensu - trickster god who caused problems Ikenga - a wooden carving that symbolizes a man’s strength & success--a priest invokes a spirit into it & the men consult it for advice Chi - a person’s personal god…follows you throughout life and can be either malevolent or benevolent…but chi does not control destiny

Things Fall Apart - background Story is set between 1860 & 1890--written between 1952 & 1958; a time when Nigeria was finally ending colonial rule Central themes – Destiny Hero cycle / tragic hero Religion / Spirituality Cultural clash / colonialism