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Things Fall Apart: A Novel (平装)
by Chinua Achebe
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Fiction |
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| MSL Pointer Review:
A masterpiece highly praised for its intelligent and realistic treatment of tribal beliefs and of psychological disintegration coincident with social unraveling. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 9 items |
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H. Marcus (MSL quote), UK
<2007-01-10 00:00>
A big claim to make perhaps, but the rich, deceptively simple prose of Things Fall Apart packs an incredible punch, particularly with the devastating final chapter. For the first 100 pages, Achebe has given his people (he was born in Nigeria with an Ibo background) back their history, reclaiming the Nigerian identity: far from Joseph Conrad's Africans in Heart Of Darkness (quaint, godless, ignorant black people with long limbs and scary, rolling eyes) Achebe presents a culture of depth, traditions and parables that rival any Christian's in complexity, and people with unique personalities and (sometimes unpredictable) reactions. I almost screamed in disbelief when someone complained Achebe was being "biased" against white people: when you're describing the subjugation of a race, you don't qualify yourself with an "Oh well, I'm sure the white man thought he knew what was best for us," or a "Really, we black folks had it coming anyway."
And the final chapter: if such a thing as genius exists, it is here. Throughout Achebe has claimed the English language for himself, infusing it with an African-ness that sets it completely aside from an Englishman's prose. Yet the style of the last chapter is unmistakably English, could even have been lifted from 'Heart of Darkness'. Achebe shows WITHIN THE TEXT how the voice of the white colonisers silences, represses, and denies the voice of the colonised. The greatest evil done to Africa, Achebe argues, is that it was not allowed to tell its own story; that robbing people of their voice is the absolute oppression, and absolute enslavment. |
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Mary Comer (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
Throughout most of Things Fall Apart Achebe describes the many traditions, rituals, and everyday happenings that occur in the villages of Ummuofia. For instance yams are of very high importance in the village, they even have yam festivals. Some of their beliefs seem strange, such as the belief in digging up a stone to cure an ogbanje, a dead child who returns to the other to be reborn. Others seem to coincide with our own laws, such as punishment for murder and distinction between murder and manslaughter. The main character, Okonkwo, accidentally commits murder and so he and his family are banished from the clan for seven years. After his banishment the "white men" come to his village. They are Christians who come with churches to try and convert the "heathens", but they also come with guns.
While the beginning of the book focused mainly on the many rituals of the clan, it was still quite interesting to read. Many of their ways seemed to coincide with ours. The way to treat iba, the fever, was to use medicinal steam and today the same idea is used in Vicks' humidifiers. Of course other remedies seem stranger, like digging up a rock to cure constant miscarriage, which surprisingly worked. It seemed the whole beginning half of the book was to slowly pull you into the story and have you feel you were part of the village. Around the fifteenth chapter the book begins to talk about the "white men" and the attempts the early church made to gain followers. This was the most exciting part of the book, especially the unrest in the villages building up until the people find that they must determine what to do now.
Outside of the book I would immediately say that imperialism hurt the Africans. However Things Fall Apart seems to portray other sides of imperealism. The District Commisioner and his aides seem as mean and horrible as you would expect them to be. Yet the missionaries seem much more. For instance Mr. Kiaga accepts osu, or outcasts, into the church and Mr. Brown sat with villagers to learn about their Gods and traditions. Even when the villagers assaulted some of the converts, the missionaries told them to be patient and not fight back. Aside from the ultimate suicide of Okonkwo, imperialism overall helped the people of Ibo. |
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Elijia Chingosho (MSL quote), Kenya
<2007-01-10 00:00>
I read Things Fall Apart in my school days in the then Rhodesia. I immediately fell in love with the book because I could relate a lot with tribal life in my village and the various forces that were impacting on it. The customs, rituals and beliefs were very similar. The impact of white missionaries on the lives of people in my village was also very powerful and caused a lot of clashes with the local people's way of life. Things all around us were changing, exposing the fragility of our culture, resulting in inevitable conflicts.
The main character, Okonkwo, was a respected and powerful village hero. However, as we progress with reading the book, he is struck with tragedies which ultimately consume him because of his inability to cope with change. This book had a profound influence on me and made me appreciate the intellectual talent within the continent.
The book is a must read for people on the African continent where strong traditional beliefs still have a firm hold in a time of breathtaking changes wrought about by the unstoppable globalization process. The ability of African people to stop or significantly influence the pace, direction and extend of change is very limited. The tragedies that befell Okonkwo are continuing but in different forms on the continent. This is largely due to the failure to adapt to change and failure to appreciate that, however much we firmly hold and justify some of our beliefs, we cannot force others to agree with us and if we try, we will fail anyway.
An important lesson from this book is the echoing of Charles Darwin's conclusion that it is not the strongest of the species or the most intelligent that will survive in a changing environment, but those species that can best adapt to change. |
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Cecelia Connally (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
This book was recommended to me while I was visiting Africa. I subsequently found out that it is widely used in highschools, colleges and universitites. I have to admit that ordering the Cliff Notes along with the book was a wise decision and you can note from my many other reviews on Amazon that I am a sophisticated reader. Things Fall Apart is not always easy to follow. Reading the Cliff Notes along with the book helped me with some of the underlying meanings and also verified that I had to correct understanding of some of the situations.
I believe that if there is one major theme in the book, its the clash of cultures. We as westerners always identify with the westerners who make first contact with people of other cultures. As a result it hard to identify with other cultures. Things Fall Apart gives you that chance to understand other religions and how other people life. But it also gives you the opportunity to think about basic concepts of right and wrong. While the book takes place in Africa, the situations can be compared to other religions and other clashes of culture.
At first glance we think it absurd for the tribe to blindly follow the word of the oracles. But then think of situations in other religions and other times when people blindly followed the directions of a dictator or religious leaders. The bottom line is that there is much room for discussion in this book.
It is unfortunate that a few students wrote reviews of this book panning it. Apparently they did only did a superficial reading of the book. Or possibly did not get a good background lecture from their teachers.
This would be a great book for discussion in a book club. It is for the serious reader. It makes the reader reflect on his or her own life and culture and wonder what decisions you would make if faced with the same situation. Are there basic concepts of right and wrong that go beyond the demands of culture? Did Okonkwo's failure come about as a result of his going against those basic conflicts? Read the book and make up your own mind.
Although this is a book about early contact between Europeans and primitive African peoples it is not about first contact. You will note that Okonkwo has a gun which he obviously got from a European. That gun contributes significantly to his down fall. A good topic for discussion is the influence of guns in the story. |
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Brenda (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart concentrates on the effects of colonialism. His novel invokes the question of whether it is justified for one culture to impose their beliefs on another culture because they have a different set of morals and values.
Achebe's novel illustrates the response of an African tribe to the invasion by white Christian missionaries. The Ibo tribe has many problems deeply rooted in its culture. For one, the tribe is very sexist. The main character and the leader of the tribe, Okonkwo, holds a very high reverence for male dominance and his belief that "no matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man" (53). Okonkwo also has several wives in which he rules "with a heavy hand" (13). For Christians, polygamy is morally wrong. This is where Achebe asks the question of whether the missionaries' intent to change the tribe's culture is justified. It's a very difficult question to answer but in my opinion, Achebe seems to say no. At one point Uchendu says in response to Obierka, "the world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with other. We have albinos among us. Do you not think that they have strayed from their way to a land where everybody is like them" (141). From this, I interpret that Achebe believes that there is no point in trying to conform every culture to be like your own because the world is so massive and so diverse that it would be impossible to convert everyone to one uniform culture and in attempting to do so, there will only be bloodshed. Although I found the novel to be slow at first, over time my respect for Achebe has increased as I find myself referring back to this question of humanity and where my beliefs side. |
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Bernard Patten (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
Thanks Chinua Achebe. Your title reminded me of my favorite poet W.B. Yeats as I recognize that you took your title from "The Second Coming." A more complete quote: Things fall apart / the center will not hold / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. Your ending came as a surprise and is perfect offering as it does an alternative title for your work, "The pacification of the primitive tribes of the lower Niger." What impact that new title has for a political novel! Let me evaluate your book according to an essay by Wallace Stevens, Notes for a Supreme Fiction. Stevens claims fiction should provide three things: pleasure, abstraction, and change. The story and the ease of reading your short sentences provided pleasure. The abstract ideas abound and come to the reader like the snows of winter piling up one on another. Or do the ideas blow across the page the way the harmattan blows across West Africa? Through the eyes of Okonkwo I experience and learn about the human condition as reflected in the culture of the (your?) Ibo tribe. Their money is cowries, their drug the kola nut, their religion spiritism, but the humanity remains clear and strong. In fact, their morality exceeds that of the British although that fact is never stated, just shown. The changes are enormous: The major character dies, the tribe breaks up, and the land falls into the hands of the enemy. By these Wallace Stevens standards, I believe you have written a perfect novel. |
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An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
I am an author and a poet and am stating unequivocally that this book is a must read. This book was a required reading for one of the classes taken in African-American Literature. Reading the pages is just absolutely amazing. The symbols used by the author are lessons themselves to follow. The filtering of Nigerian words makes the reading even more interesting. The character of Okonkwo is exciting. Reading about the Yam Festival and Rice Wine as parts of the African culture is touching and really down to earth. The eneke-nti-oba bird is a lesson in it self. The story of the mosquito and buzzing in the ears is very humorous. Also, the storyline regarding the Tortoise and the cracked shell will have you rolling on the ground. Deception is also at play in this book. This is a must read. Get it now!!! |
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Melinda Szell (MSL quote) , USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
Eyes have this odd tendency to skim across words without any comprehension when reading dull pages. This book, with its complete lack of plot, confusing character names, boring details, and unlikable characters, is the perfect example. You can read pages and pages of this book without absorbing a word. Both the poor writing style and context will turn anyone off.
The book has many flaws, the first of which is its inability to interest the reader. The storyline is lacking: boring, full of inconsequential details, ceremony after ceremony, none of which are given any significance in the book. The shallow, one-sided characters are impossible to relate to, and the main character, Okonkwo, is simply appalling. He beats his wife, kills his adopted son, and will do anything to preserve the image he wants to maintain. He and other characters are static, far too predictable, and lacking any sort of depth.
This book is often touted as an example of brilliant African literature, but rather than glorify Africa and Africans, it in fact degrades them. More detail below...
Disproving the Western image of Africans as savages is in fact one of author Achebe's purposes in writing the book (or so we learn in English class), but in his unbalanced portrayal of Ibo culture he in fact strengthens rather than weakens this stereotype. One of Achebe's first depictions of Ibo culture is when he illustrates how murder is perceived in Umuofia. He describes the honor and admiration that can come with it, such as the status Okonkwo gains with his "trophies" from war. These "trophies" may come as a shock to readers.
"In Umuofia's latest war he was the first to bring home a human head. That was his fifth head; and he was not an old man yet. On great occasions as the funeral of a village celebrity he drank his palm-wine from his first human head."
He shows the killing of other people as an honorable act in Ibo culture, even though he later changes his mind and attempts to claim murder can also be dishonorable. Rather than stressing the more peaceful aspect of their culture, Achebe paints an image distasteful to most Western readers. Drinking palm-wine out of heads? Certainly not a good way to destroy the stereotype of the bloodthirsty African savage.
But not only does he reinforce the stereotype, but Achebe also manages to show Africans as heathens. In the egwugwu ceremony (yet another ceremony), Achebe portrays the villagers as disbelieving in this own gods. At times Achebe gives examples to prove that the Ibo believe in their gods, but with much contradicting evidence, such as the fact the women recognize that their "god" is Okonkwo in disguise but say nothing), the claim is not very convincing. Instead, he shows how they cling to gods they know are false and thus insults the Ibo culture by portraying the people as disbelievers in their own gods.
He describes all their cruel practices. For example, Nwoye has heard that twins are put in earthenware pots and thrown away in the forest, a practice not only repugnant to Western readers, but also mentioned in the context of faults with the Ibo culture. Leaving innocent babies to die in a forest has no excuses in Western culture; it is wrong. They not only would die a slow, painful death of starvation, but also face the risk of being eaten alive or brutally attacked by wild animals.
In a book little more than 200 pages, Achebe could have filled the pages with the positive - and lesser-known - aspects of the Ibo culture. Instead, he chooses to include all the values and attitudes that would appear immoral and criminal to Western readers. He shows that Nwoye does not agree with these brutal practices, but it does little help, since Achebe makes Nwoye renounce his old ways and become a Christian. This sends the message that the morals of the British are superior to those of the Ibo people, who are cast aside as heartless villains. Near the end of the book, Achebe suddenly attempts to make things fair; he portrays the British as unkind and merciless as well. However, this cannot make up for his consistent focus on more "savage" ways of the Ibo people. Therefore, Achebe simply reinforces negative and xenophobic stereotypes, not only of the Ibo - but of any culture that is different than one's own. Horror stories of African savages are nothing new to Westerners, and Achebe does no more than provide a few more, in the place of a fresh, enlightening view that would instead emphasize the best aspects of Ibo culture.
Please, don't read this book. Schools have not yet realized the truth about it and continue to portray it as a celebration of African literature, not the terrible piece of writing it is, so if you are forced at school to read, I offer my deepest sympathies. If, however, you wish to read it for fun, I warn you yet again: This is an awful book.
(A negative review. MSL remarks.)
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David Burks (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
I enjoyed this book but found it underwhelming - initially. I wondered if I missed the point so decided to check out what others thought about it. Seems like many experienced this book as a profound and gut wrenching story of the destruction of a way of life. No doubt it is, but Achebe's ambiguous rendering of it left me with mixed feelings. I now believe this is his intent, and the genius of the story. This is not some sob story about the destruction of the noble savage, nor does it show, as some have written, that the imperialists are "better" than the backward Africans. (These are the folks that actually missed the point.) This story is simply about things falling apart, which is what they tend to do. Achebe leaves the judging and moralizing to the reader, but I think I'll not commit that sin. I wondered why I am so uncomfortable with ambiguity when that is actually the way everything unfolds... or falls apart. This book is good because it approaches the truth rather than attempting to package it for us. |
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1 Total 1 pages 9 items |
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