Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

Being one of post-colonial classics, Things Fall Apart, published in 1958, is the first of “African Trilogy” by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe, followed with No Longer at ease (1960) and Arrow of God (1964). Being a South African with British educational background, Achebe possesses the multiple identities which post-colonial scholars share a huge interest in. His works, then, are often found to contain subjects concern with identity and the sense of diaspora. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe tells a tragic story of the brave man Okonkuo, who strives hard to build his own name but later finds himself defeated by fate and his own hardheadedness.

The principle in categorizing a literary work as “postcolonial” is in itself complicated; therefore, theory beginners should start with identifying the postcolonial elements within literary works. Achebe, with his double identities, adapts western literary genre and infuses with it the traditional African oral tradition and themes, turning Things Fall Apart into a postcolonial work not only in its form but also subject matters. The beautifully written prose and verse that derives from African oral tradition, known as “orature”, compliments the story and allows the reader a deeper understanding of Africa and its cultures.

Achebe is almost pessimistic in his portrayal of diaspora in Things Fall Apart, as it suggests the inevitability of being uprooted and exiled. A doomed sense of diaspora looms in after the first part of the novel, where Okonkuo accidentally kills one villager and has to be sent into exile for one year. His banishment does not end there, for he comes back to his hometown Umuofia only to find it almost taken over by Westerners and their religion. Unable thus to secure the tradition which he tries his whole life to abide, Okonkuo took his own life and becomes the victim under colonialism.

The tragic tale of warrior Okonkuo is but a tip of the iceberg under the working of colonialism. As cultures from different origins clash, there are undoubtedly casualties. In shaping Okonkuo and his tragedy, Achebe exemplifies the anxiety, insecurity, animosity and fears that colonized people must find themselves experienced through. The great woe that Achebe ultimately laments on lies not merely in the tragic hero, but also in the culture that is forever lost to mankind. Things Fall Apart is a sentimental but true account of the past, and as it recalls the old time trauma, readers are nevertheless reminded of our own lost culture, the long-forgotten past, and, inevitably, our diaspora.