For How Long Did Ikemefuna Live With Okonkwo and His Family

1958 novel by Chinua Achebe

"Ikemefuna" redirects hither. For the American football game player, see Ikemefuna Enemkpali.

Things Fall Autonomously

First edition
Author	Chinua Achebe
Country	Nigeria
Language	English
Publisher	William Heinemann Ltd.
Publication appointment	1958

Things Fall Apart is the debut novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, starting time published in 1958. It depicts pre-colonial life in the southeastern part of Nigeria and the invasion by Europeans during the late 19th century. Information technology is seen every bit the archetypal mod African novel in English, and one of the first to receive global critical acclaim. It is a staple book in schools throughout Africa and is widely read and studied in English-speaking countries effectually the world. The novel was first published in the Great britain in 1962 by William Heinemann Ltd, and became the first work published in Heinemann's African Writers Series.

The novel follows the life of Okonkwo, an Igbo ("Ibo" in the novel) man and local wrestling champion in the fictional Nigerian clan of Umuofia. The piece of work is split into three parts, with the first describing his family, personal history, and the customs and society of the Igbo, and the second and third sections introducing the influence of European colonialism and Christian missionaries on Okonkwo, his family unit, and the wider Igbo community.

Things Fall Apart was followed by a sequel, No Longer at Ease (1960), originally written as the 2d part of a larger work forth with Arrow of God (1964). Achebe states that his 2 afterward novels A Human of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987), while not featuring Okonkwo's descendants, are spiritual successors to the previous novels in chronicling African history.

Plot [edit]

Role one [edit]

The novel's protagonist, Okonkwo, is famous in the villages of Umuofia for beingness a wrestling champion, defeating a wrestler nicknamed "Amalinze The Cat" (because he never lands on his dorsum). Okonkwo is strong, hard-working, and strives to prove no weakness. He wants to dispel his father Unoka's tainted legacy of unpaid debts, a neglected married woman and children, and cowardice at the sight of blood. Okonkwo works to build his wealth entirely on his ain, every bit Unoka died a shameful death and left many unpaid debts. He is also obsessed with his masculinity, and any slight compromise to this is swiftly destroyed. As a upshot, he ofttimes beats his wives and children, and is unkind to his neighbours. Even so, his drive to escape the legacy of his begetter leads him to be wealthy, courageous, and powerful among the people of his hamlet. He is a leader of his village, having attained a position in his society for which he has striven all his life.^[1]

Okonkwo is selected past the elders to be the guardian of Ikemefuna, a boy taken by the clan as a peace settlement betwixt Umuofia and another clan later on Ikemefuna's male parent killed an Umuofian woman. The male child lives with Okonkwo's family and Okonkwo grows fond of him, although Okonkwo does non evidence his fondness so as not to appear weak. The boy looks up to Okonkwo and considers him a second father. The Oracle of Umuofia somewhen pronounces that the boy must be killed. Ezeudu, the oldest man in the hamlet, warns Okonkwo that he should have nil to do with the murder considering it would be like killing his own kid – but to avoid seeming weak and feminine to the other men of the village, Okonkwo disregards the alert from the old man, hit the killing blow himself even as Ikemefuna begs his "father" for protection. For many days after killing Ikemefuna, Okonkwo feels guilty and saddened.

Shortly after Ikemefuna'southward decease, things begin to go wrong for Okonkwo. He falls into a groovy low, as he has been greatly traumatized by the human action of murdering his ain adopted son. His sickly daughter Ezinma falls unexpectedly ill and it is feared she may die; during a gun salute at Ezeudu'south funeral, Okonkwo's gun accidentally explodes and kills Ezeudu's son. He and his family are exiled to his motherland, the nearby village Mbanta, for 7 years to gratify the gods he has offended.

Part ii [edit]

While Okonkwo is away in Mbanta, he learns that white men are living in Umuofia with the intent of introducing their organized religion, Christianity. As the number of converts increases, the foothold of the white people grows and a new regime is introduced.^[2] The village is forced to respond with either appeasement or resistance to the imposition of the white people's nascent lodge. Okonkwo'southward son Nwoye starts getting curious about the missionaries and the new religion. After he is browbeaten by his male parent for the terminal time, he decides to leave his family behind and live independently. He wants to be with the missionaries because his beliefs have inverse while beingness introduced to Christianity by Mr. Brown. In the concluding yr of his exile, Okonkwo instructs his best friend Obierika to sell all of his yams and hire two men to build him two huts and then he tin can have a house to go dorsum to with his family. He also holds a nifty feast for his mother'due south kinsmen, where an elderly attendee bemoans the current state of their tribe and its future.

Part 3 [edit]

Returning from exile, Okonkwo finds his village changed past the presence of the white men. After a convert commits an evil act by unmasking an elder as he embodies an ancestral spirit of the clan, the village retaliates by destroying a local Christian church. In response, the District Commissioner representing the colonial government takes Okonkwo and several other native leaders prisoner pending payment of a fine of two hundred bags of cowries. Despite the District Commissioner'due south instructions to treat the leaders of Umuofia with respect, the native "court messengers" humiliate them, doing things such as shaving their heads and whipping them. As a result, the people of Umuofia finally gather for what could be a groovy uprising. Okonkwo, a warrior by nature and adamant about post-obit Umuofian custom and tradition, despises any grade of cowardice and advocates war against the white men. When messengers of the white government endeavor to stop the coming together, Okonkwo beheads one of them. Considering the crowd allows the other messengers to escape and does non fight alongside Okonkwo, he realizes with despair that the people of Umuofia are not going to fight to protect themselves – his society'south response to such a conflict, which for so long had been predictable and dictated by tradition, is changing. The District Commissioner Gregory Irwin then comes to Okonkwo'south firm to have him to courtroom, he finds that Okonkwo has hanged himself to avoid existence tried in a colonial court. Among his own people, Okonkwo's actions take tarnished his reputation and status, as it is strictly confronting the teachings of the Igbo to commit suicide. As Irwin and his men ready to bury Okonkwo, Irwin muses that Okonkwo's death will make an interesting chapter for his written book: "The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger."

Characters [edit]

• Okonkwo, the protagonist, has three wives and ten (total) children and becomes a leader of his clan. His father, Unoka, was weak and lazy, and Okonkwo resents him for his weaknesses: he enacts traditional masculinity. Okonkwo strives to make his style in a culture that traditionally values manliness.
• Ekwefi is Okonkwo's second wife. Although she falls in love with Okonkwo afterwards seeing him in a wrestling match, she marries another human considering Okonkwo is too poor to pay her bride price at that fourth dimension. 2 years afterward, she runs away to Okonkwo's compound ane night and later marries him. She receives severe beatings from Okonkwo merely similar his other wives; just unlike them, she is known to talk back to Okonkwo.
• Unoka is Okonkwo'due south father, who defied typical Igbo masculinity by neglecting to grow yams, accept intendance of his wives and children, and pay his debts before he dies.
• Nwoye is Okonkwo'due south son, about whom Okonkwo worries, fearing that he will become like Unoka. Similar to Unoka, Nwoye does non subscribe to the traditional Igbo view of masculinity being equated to violence; rather, he prefers the stories of his mother. Nwoye connects to Ikemefuna, who presents an alternative to Okonkwo'south rigid masculinity. He is i of the early converts to Christianity and takes on the Christian name Isaac, an act which Okonkwo views as a last betrayal.
• Ikemefuna is a boy from the Mbaino tribe. His begetter murders the wife of an Umuofia man, and in the resulting settlement of the affair, Ikemefuma is put into the care of Okonkwo. By the conclusion of Umuofia authorities, Ikemefuna is ultimately killed, an act which Okonkwo does not preclude, and even participates in, lest he seems feminine and weak. Ikemefuna became very close to Nwoye, and Okonkwo's determination to participate in Ikemefuna's death takes a price on Okonkwo'due south human relationship with Nwoye.
• Ezinma is Okonkwo's favorite daughter and the only kid of his wife Ekwefi. Ezinma, the Crystal Dazzler, is very much the antithesis of a normal woman within the civilization and Okonkwo routinely remarks that she would've fabricated a much amend boy than a girl, even wishing that she had been built-in as 1. Ezinma often contradicts and challenges her father, which wins his adoration, affection, and respect. She is very like to her father, and this is fabricated apparent when she matures into a beautiful young woman who refuses to marry during her family's exile, instead choosing to help her father regain his place of respect within guild.
• Obierika is Okonkwo's best friend from Umuofia. Dissimilar Okonkwo, Obierika thinks before he acts and is, therefore, less violent and big-headed than Okonkwo. He is considered the voice of reason in the book, and questions certain parts of their culture, such as the necessity to exile Okonkwo subsequently he unintentionally kills a boy. Obierika'southward own son, Maduka, is greatly admired by Okonkwo for his wrestling prowess.
• Ogbuefi Ezeudu is one of the elders of Umuofia.
• Mr. Brown is an English language missionary who comes to Umuofia. He shows kindness and compassion towards the villagers and makes an effort to understand the Igbo behavior.
• Mr. Smith is another English missionary sent to Umuofia to replace Mr. Brown later he falls ill. In stark dissimilarity to his predecessor, he remains strict and zealous towards the Africans.

Background [edit]

The championship is a quotation from "The Second Coming", a poem past West. B. Yeats.

Most of the story takes identify in the fictional village of Iguedo, which is in the Umuofia clan. The identify name Iguedo is only mentioned three times in the novel. Achebe more oft uses the name Umuofia to refer to Okonkwo'south home hamlet of Iguedo. Umuofia is located w of the actual urban center of Onitsha, on the east bank of the Niger River in Nigeria. The events of the novel unfold in the 1890s.^[3] The civilisation depicted, that of the Igbo people, is similar to that of Achebe'south birthplace of Ogidi, where Igbo-speaking people lived together in groups of independent villages ruled by titled elders. The customs described in the novel mirror those of the actual Onitsha people, who lived near Ogidi, and with whom Achebe was familiar.

Within forty years of the colonization of Nigeria, by the time Achebe was born in 1930, the missionaries were well established. He was influenced by Western culture merely he refused to change his Igbo name Chinua to Albert. Achebe's father Isaiah was among the first to exist converted in Ogidi, effectually the plough of the century. Isaiah Achebe himself was an orphan raised by his grandfather. His grandfather, far from opposing Isaiah'south conversion to Christianity, allowed his Christian wedlock to be celebrated in his compound.^[three]

Linguistic communication option [edit]

Achebe wrote his novels in English language because the written standard Igbo language was created by combining various dialects, creating a stilted written form. In a 1994 interview with The Paris Review, Achebe said, "the novel class seems to go with the English language. There is a problem with the Igbo language. Information technology suffers from a very serious inheritance which information technology received at the outset of this century from the Anglican mission. They sent out a missionary by the name of Dennis. Archdeacon Dennis. He was a scholar. He had this notion that the Igbo language—which had very many dissimilar dialects—should somehow manufacture a uniform dialect that would be used in writing to avoid all these dissimilar dialects. Considering the missionaries were powerful, what they wanted to practise they did. This became the police. But the standard version cannot sing. There's nothing yous can do with it to make it sing. It's heavy. It's wooden. It doesn't get anywhere."^[four]

Achebe's choice to write in English language has caused controversy. While both African and not-African critics agree that Achebe modelled Things Fall Autonomously on classic European literature, they disagree about whether his novel upholds a Western model, or, in fact, subverts or confronts it.^[5] Achebe connected to defend his decision: "English language is something you spend your lifetime acquiring, and so information technology would be foolish not to employ it. Likewise, in the logic of colonization and decolonization it is actually a very powerful weapon in the fight to regain what was yours. English was the linguistic communication of colonization itself. It is not just something you use because yous have information technology anyhow."^[half-dozen]

Achebe is noted for his inclusion of and weaving in of proverbs from Igbo oral culture into his writing.^[7] This influence was explicitly referenced by Achebe in Things Fall Apart: "Amid the Igbo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten."

Literary significance and reception [edit]

Things Fall Autonomously is regarded as a milestone in African literature. Information technology has come to be seen as the archetypal modernistic African novel in English,^{[three] [six]} and is read in Nigeria and throughout Africa. It is studied widely in Europe, India, and Due north America, where it has spawned numerous secondary and tertiary analytical works. Information technology has achieved similar status and repute in Commonwealth of australia and Oceania.^{[8] [three]} Considered Achebe's magnum opus, it has sold more than than twenty million copies worldwide.^[9] Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.^[10] The novel has been translated into more than 50 languages, and is ofttimes used in literature, world history, and African studies courses beyond the earth.

Achebe is at present considered to be the essential novelist on African identity, nationalism, and decolonization. Achebe's chief focus has been cultural ambivalence and contestation. The complexity of novels such as Things Autumn Autonomously depends on Achebe'due south ability to bring competing cultural systems and their languages to the aforementioned level of representation, dialogue, and contestation.^[six]

Reviewers have praised Achebe's neutral narration and accept described Things Fall Apart every bit a realistic novel. Much of the critical discussion about Things Fall Apart concentrates on the socio-political aspects of the novel, including the friction between the members of Igbo lodge equally they confront the intrusive and overpowering presence of Western authorities and beliefs. Ernest Northward. Emenyonu commented that "Things Autumn Autonomously is indeed a classic study of cantankerous-cultural misunderstanding and the consequences to the rest of humanity, when a argumentative culture or civilization, out of sheer arrogance and ethnocentrism, takes information technology upon itself to invade another civilisation, another civilization."^[11]

Achebe'due south writing well-nigh African society, in telling from an African point of view the story of the colonization of the Igbo, tends to extinguish the conception that African civilisation had been savage and primitive. In Things Autumn Apart, western culture is portrayed every bit being "arrogant and ethnocentric," insisting that the African culture needed a leader. As it had no kings or chiefs, Umuofian culture was vulnerable to invasion past western civilization. It is felt that the repression of the Igbo language at the terminate of the novel contributes greatly to the destruction of the culture. Although Achebe favours the African culture of the pre-western order, the writer attributes its destruction to the "weaknesses inside the native structure." Achebe portrays the civilisation as having a religion, a authorities, a system of money, and an creative tradition, also as a judicial system.^[12]

Influence and legacy [edit]

The publication of Achebe's Things Fall Autonomously helped pave the way for numerous other African writers. Novelists who published after Achebe were able to find an eloquent and effective mode for the expression of the detail social, historical, and cultural situation of modernistic Africa.^[5] Before Things Fall Autonomously was published, most of the novels almost Africa had been written by European authors, portraying Africans as savages who were in need of western enlightenment.

Achebe broke from this outsider view, by portraying Igbo society in a sympathetic light. This allows the reader to examine the effects of European colonialism from a different perspective.^[5] He commented: "The popularity of Things Autumn Apart in my own social club can be explained only ... this was the first time we were seeing ourselves, as autonomous individuals, rather than half-people, or equally Conrad would say, 'rudimentary souls'."^[vi] Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has described the work as "the first novel in English which spoke from the interior of the African character, rather than portraying the African as an exotic, as the white human being would meet him."^[13]

The language of the novel has not just intrigued critics just has also been a major factor in the emergence of the modern African novel. Considering Achebe wrote in English, portrayed Igbo life from the point of view of an African man, and used the language of his people, he was able to greatly influence African novelists, who viewed him as a mentor.^{[half dozen]}

Achebe's fiction and criticism go on to inspire and influence writers around the earth. Hilary Mantel, the Booker Prize-winning novelist in a 7 May 2012 article in Newsweek, "Hilary Mantel'due south Favorite Historical Fictions", lists Things Fall Autonomously every bit one of her five favourite novels in this genre. A whole new generation of African writers – Caine Prize winners Binyavanga Wainaina (current director of the Chinua Achebe Center at Bard College) and Helon Habila (Waiting for an Angel [2004] and Measuring Time [2007]), every bit well every bit Uzodinma Iweala (Beasts of No Nation [2005]), and Professor Okey Ndibe (Arrows of Rain [2000]) count Chinua Achebe as a pregnant influence. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the writer of the popular and critically acclaimed novels Purple Hibiscus (2003) and Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), commented in a 2006 interview: "Chinua Achebe will ever exist of import to me because his work influenced not and so much my style every bit my writing philosophy: reading him emboldened me, gave me permission to write well-nigh the things I knew well."^[half-dozen]

Things Autumn Apart was listed past Encyclopædia Britannica every bit one of "12 Novels Considered the 'Greatest Volume Always Written'".^[14]

The 60th ceremony of the first publication of Things Fall Apart was celebrated at the Due south Bank Heart in London, UK, on 15 Apr 2018 with live readings from the book by Femi Elufowoju Jr, Adesua Etomi, Yomi Sode, Lucian Msamati, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Chibundu Onuzo, Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, Ben Okri, and Margaret Busby.^{[15] [16]}

On Nov 5, 2019, the BBC News listed Things Autumn Apart on its list of the 100 most influential novels.^[17]

Film, television, music and theatrical adaptations [edit]

A radio drama called Okonkwo was fabricated of the novel in April 1961 by the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. Information technology featured Wole Soyinka in a supporting part.^[18]

In 1970, the novel was made into a film starring Princess Elizabeth of Toro, Johnny Sekka and Orlando Martins by Francis Oladele and Wolf Schmidt, executive producers Hollywood lawyer Edward Mosk and his wife Fern, who wrote the screenplay. Directed by Jason Pohland.^{[19] [Flimportal 1]}

In 1987, the book was fabricated into a very successful miniseries directed by David Orere and broadcast on Nigerian television past the Nigerian Television Authority. It starred several established moving-picture show actors, including Pete Edochie, Nkem Owoh, and Sam Loco Efe.^[20]

In 1999, the American hip-hop ring The Roots released their fourth studio anthology Things Fall Apart in reference to Achebe'southward novel. A theatrical production of Things Fall Apart, adjusted by Biyi Bandele, took identify at the Kennedy Centre that year too.^[21]

In 2019, the lyrics of "No Holiday for Madiba", a vocal honoring Nelson Mandela include the phrase, "things fall apart", in reference to the volume'southward title.

Publication data [edit]

• Achebe, Chinua. The African Trilogy. (London: Everyman's Library, 2010) ISBN 9781841593272. Edited with an introduction by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The volume collects Things Fall Autonomously, No Longer at Ease, and Arrow of God in one volume.

See also [edit]

• Eye of Darkness

References [edit]

1. ^ Irele, F. Abiola, "The Crisis of Cultural Memory in Chinua Achebe'due south Things Fall Apart", African Studies Quarterly, Book 4, Issue 3, Fall 2000, pp. one–forty.
2. ^ Smuthkochorn, Sutassi (2013). "Things Fall Autonomously". Journal of the Humanities. 31: 1–ii.
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Kwame Anthony Appiah (1992), "Introduction" to the Lowest's Library edition.
4. ^ Brooks, Jerome, "Chinua Achebe, The Art of Fiction No. 139", The Paris Review No. 133 (Winter 1994).
5. ^ ^{a b c} Booker (2003), p. vii.
6. ^ ^{a b c d east f} Sickels, Amy. "The Disquisitional Reception of Things Autumn Apart", in Booker (2011).
7. ^ Jayalakshmi V. Rao, Mrs A. Five. N. College, "Proverb and Culture in the Novels of Chinua Achebe", African Postcolonial Literature in English language.
8. ^ admin (2015-xi-sixteen). "Chinua Achebe". BOOK OF DAYS TALES . Retrieved 2020-10-18 .
9. ^ THINGS Autumn Apart by Chinua Achebe | PenguinRandomHouse.com.
10. ^ "All-Time 100 Novels| Full list", Time, 16 October 2005.
11. ^ Whittaker, David, "Chinua Achebe'south Things Fall Apart", New York, 2007, p. 59.
12. ^ Achebe, Chinua (1994). Things Fall Apart. London: Penguin Books. pp. 8. ISBN0385474547.
13. ^ The Periodical of Blacks in Higher Teaching 2001, pp. 28–29.
14. ^ Hogeback, Jonathan, "12 Novels Considered the 'Greatest Book Ever Written'", Encyclopædia Britannica.
15. ^ Murua, James, "Chinua Achebe'south 'Things Fall Apart' at 60 historic", James Murua'due south Literature Web log, 24 April 2018.
16. ^ Hewitt, Eddie, "Brnging Achebe'south Masterpiece to Life", Breakable Paper, 24 Apr 2018.
17. ^ "100 'most inspiring' novels revealed by BBC Arts". BBC News. 2019-xi-05. Retrieved 2019-xi-10 . The reveal kickstarts the BBC's year-long celebration of literature.
18. ^ Ezenwa-Ohaeto (1997). Chinua Achebe: A Biography Bloomington: Indiana University Press, p. 81. ISBN 0-253-33342-3.
19. ^ David Chioni Moore, Analee Heath and Chinua Achebe (2008). "A Conversation with Chinua Achebe". Transition. 100 (100): 23. JSTOR 20542537.
20. ^ "African movies direct and entertainment online". www.africanmoviesdirect.com . Retrieved 10 December 2017.
21. ^ Triplett, William (1999-02-06). "Ane-Dimensional 'Things'". Washington Post . Retrieved 2020-09-14 .

Grouped References

1. ^ Filmportal. "Things Fall Apart".

Sources [edit]

• "Chinua Achebe of Bard College". The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. 33 (33): 28–29. Autumn 2001. doi:10.2307/2678893. JSTOR 2678893.

Farther reading [edit]

• Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor Books, 1994. ISBN 0385474547
• Baldwin, Gordon. Strange Peoples and Stranger Community. New York: W. Due west. Norton and Company Inc, 1967.
• Booker, K. Keith. The Chinua Achebe Encyclopedia. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0-325-07063-half dozen
• Booker, Grand. Keith. Things Autumn Autonomously, by Chinua Achebe [Critical Insights]. Pasadena, Calif: Salem Press, 2011. ISBN 978-1-58765-711-v
• Frazer, Sir James George. The Golden Bender: A Written report in Magic and Faith. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1942.
• Girard, Rene. Violence and the Sacred. Trans. Patrick Gregory. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Academy Press, 1977. ISBN 0-8018-1963-6
• Islam, Md. Manirul. Chinua Achebe'south 'Things Fall Autonomously' and 'No Longer at Ease': Critical Perspectives. Germany: Lambert Bookish Publishing, 2019. ISBN 978-620-0-48315-seven
• Rhoads, Diana Akers (September 1993). "Culture in Chinua Achebe'due south Things Fall Apart". African Studies Review. 36(two): 61–72.
• Roberts, J. One thousand. A Short History of the World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
• Rosenberg, Donna. Globe Mythology: An Anthology of the Great Myths and Epics. Lincolnwood, Illinois: NTC Publishing Group, 1994. ISBN 978-0-8442-5765-v

External links [edit]

• Chinua Achebe discusses Things Autumn Autonomously on the BBC World Book Club
• Instructor's Guide at Random Business firm
• A "New English" in Chinua Achebe'southward Things Fall Apart
• Study Resource for writing about Things Autumn Apart
• Study guide
• Words nowadays in the novel used in past SATs. Includes definitions, words in social club from the book, and three different tests.
• Things Fall Autonomously Reviews
• Things Fall Autonomously on Wiki Summaries
• Things Fall Apart report guide, themes, analysis, teacher resources
• Things Fall Apart Igbo Culture Guide, Igbo Proverbs
• Things Fall Apart Summary

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