This is my first book review for the Classics Club
Challenge. As I have said earlier, I started the challenge with "The Moonstone".
It’s interesting and I am going slowly. Meanwhile I finished Things Fall
Apart, hardly 150 pages.
Book – Things Fall Apart
Author – Chinua Achebe
Country – Nigeria
Genre – Historical Fiction
Publisher – William Heinmann Ltd
Publication Date – 1958
(Source: Wikipedia)
The title of the novel is taken from the poem “The Second
Coming” by W.B. Yeats which foretells the end of the world. Chinua Achebe wrote
this novel to shatter the wrong portrayal of Africans in earlier novels (Heart
of Darkness and Mr. Johnson) by Europeans. Both Conrad and Joyce Cary portray
Africans as savages.
Things fall apart is a gripping tale written in simple
language. I had at first difficulty with the names but then I got over it. It’s
a tale about a man named Okonkwo who lived in Umuofia. Umuofia is a cluster of
nine villages in the outskirts of present Nigeria. Okonkwo had earned name and
fame at a younger age. His father Unoka was called Agbala (means effeminate) by
his playmate when he was young and he was still haunted by this bitter memory.
Unoka was a lazy man and was always in debts. He died a shameful death. Okonkwo
strives hard not to be like his father. He hated his father and despised
everything his father liked- one of the thing was gentleness and another was
idleness. According to Okonkwo, manliness means being strong and aggressive. He
often used to beat his wives and children. Being kind and compassionate are
according to him being effeminate. He hated his eldest son Nwoye, who according
to him is not showing signs of manliness. As a peace settlement with a
neighbouring village, a young lad named Ikemefuna was left under his care. He
becomes fond of him, but he doesn’t express it for he thinks, expressing affection is a sign of
weakness. Later when the village oracle tells that Ikemefuna should be
sacrificed, he even kills Ikemefuna to show his clan that he is not weak.
However he feels guilty and becomes depressed for many days. Later, Okonkwa and his
family are exiled for seven years because he shoots a lad at a funeral, accidentally though. While in exile he hears from his friend that white Missionaries have
entered a nearby village. When Okonkwo returns to Umuofia after exile, he finds
the white Missionaries had damaged his long valued traditions and customs. The rest of the tale tells the fate of Okonkwo amidst all the changes around him.
Through the tale of Okonkwo, Achebe portrays the daily life
of Nigerian people in the late 19th century and the culture and tradition of Igbo society. The society
is well organized and led by a group of village elders. Though there are some
tradition and customs which are not digestible, he points out the Igbo society
would have evolved on its own like any other society in the world. Though the
British colonialism had brought some reforms nevertheless it had let to the
devastation of the Ibo culture and tradition and the Igbo society had fallen
apart.
Achebe’s writing is powerful and brilliant in bringing the
daily life of Ibo people, Igbo culture and tradition before our eyes.
Okonkwo is not a lovable character but a character with who
I can sympathize with.
“Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole
life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper
and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the
fear of the forest and of the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and
claw. Okonkwo’s fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep
within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble
his father.”
