What does things fall apart mean




















After the clansman burn the Church building down, the District Commissioner asks the leaders of the clan, Okonkwo among them, to go and see him for a peaceful meeting. The leaders arrive, and are quickly seized. While they are in detention waiting for the fine to be collected from their people, they are beaten severely by the court messengers and their heads are shaved.

They are held in jail until the clan pays a heavy fine. Igbo Society Falls Apart:. Like Okonkwo his Igbo society also falls apart. In the first part of the book we see a socially, politically and religiously organic Igbo society. But this organic society becomes divided and virtually loses all energy at the end of the book.

Thus, the novel documents the falling apart of the Igbo tribe due to its own brutal rules as well as the coming of the Christian missionaries and the rule of the English government. At the beginning of the book we see that the Igbo people have a strong faith in their traditional religion.

The religion of the Igbos consisted in the belief that there is a suspense God, the creator of the universe and the lesser gods. The supreme God was called Chukwu. The other gods were made by Chukwu to act his messengers so that people could approach him through them. People made sacrifices to the smaller gods, but when the failed, the people turned to Chukwu. Ancestor worship was also an equally important feature of the religion of the Ibo people.

There were man superstitious ideas related with their religious belief. They believed in evil spirits and oracle. This incident underlines the superstitious brutality of traditional Igbo society. We also find the brutality, injustice and the inhuman activities in some other rituals or rules such as — people who are affected by some severe diseases are carried on the Evil Forest to die and they do not get any burial and twain babies are thrown out in the Evil Forest just after their birth.

Why does Okonkwo hang himself? Essays What Does the Ending Mean? Previous section Suggested Essay Topics. Popular pages: Things Fall Apart. Throughout Things Fall Apart Okonkwo struggles with repressing his emotions. He represses his emotions because, more than anything else, he fears appearing weak and effeminate.

The narrator comments on this internal tug-of-war frequently. To show affection was a sign of weakness; the only thing worth demonstrating was strength. This act deepens an already-existing wound between Okonkwo and Nwoye, one that never gets healed. Throughout the novel, emotional repression leads to damaging—and eventually, for Okonkwo, tragic—outbursts of anger and violence.

Drums play an important role in Umuofia. Drums often signal the initiation of a ceremony. It was like the pulsation of its heart. It was the ekwe talking to the clan. By transcribing the drum language, the narrator elevates it to a status similar to the other languages that appear in the novel: English and Igbo.

At several points in the novel, the narrator, who otherwise seems fully immersed in Igbo culture, takes a step back in order to explain certain aspects of the Igbo world to the reader. They never answered yes for fear it might be an evil spirit calling. Throughout the book the narrator uses ethnographic distance to clarify elements of Igbo culture to a non-Igbo reader.

The narrator borders two worlds: one African and one European. Ace your assignments with our guide to Things Fall Apart! SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. For Achebe, the novel concludes with the end of the Igbo society, and the death of the main character. In the face of the chaos caused by the incursion of Christianity, Okonkwo becomes a murderer and then hangs himself.

His world has literally fallen apart, and the rough beast that rears its head in Nigerian society is not anti-Christian, but specifically Christian.



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