Paper #2

Stories often form an important part of the culture of a people. It is through stories that ideas, moral beliefs and everyday life can be preserved most easily. In a culture with no form of written language, such as Achebe’s Igbo culture, story-telling becomes the most practical way to convey knowledge to the younger generations. In his novel Things Fall Apart, Achebe makes good use of various stories and myths of the Igbo culture to create a genuine depiction of his own culture, which in turn allows his readers to not only better understand the Igbo culture, but to entirely immerse oneself into Achebe’s fictional village of Umuofia.

Achebe shows us just how important stories are in Igbo culture by showing us a story made up by Ekwefi, who is telling it to Ezinma. Ekwefi’s story carries a moral that she intends to teach to her daughter. She uses the story as a method of education. Ekwefi then asks Ezinma to create her own story, a task which she finds to be harder than what her mother made it look like. The use of stories as a form of education and the encouragement for young members of the population to be trained in the art of making stories from a young age shows us that in Igbo culture stories are the main way of transmitting knowledge and of educating the population. Achebe also shows us that this transmission of knowledge was something more than just a mere moral lesson. It was also used to shape the Igbo society itself. This can be seen when we see that Okonkwo’s male sons are told stories by him while his daughters are only told stories by their mothers. This shows that stories were used to determine the gender roles within the Igbo society, since there would be a separation as to what stories the boys would hear and what stories the girls would hear. And as remarked by Achebe through Nwoye’s opinions of the difference between Okonkwo’s and his mother’s stories, these stories would differ in content, the male ones usually being more violent than those told by the mothers.

Another example of an Igbo legend used by Achebe, and in this case one that has a visible effect within the culture is the legend of the Ogbanje. The Ogbanje is a demon child that keeps dying young and being reborn into the womb of the same mother. In Things Fall Apart, Ezinma is considered to be an Ogbanje, since Ekwefi has had many children before her, but they have all died young, thus she was thought to be plagued by an Ogbanje for a long time. At one point in the novel, the members of the village even harass Ezinma so that she gives off the location of the small pebble that is supposed to be the link between the Ogbanje and the physical world, in order to make sure that Ekwefi would not be tortured anymore. Achebe, writing for a contemporary audience, would have known that there is a scientific explanation for this phenomenon which the Igbo mythology attributed to supernatural forces, and that his audience would have known this as well. The fact that the reader knows that this is indeed nothing more than a legend may cause some confusion or misjudgment of the Igbo culture, but Achebe tries to stay as true to the culture as possible and show his readers exactly what the culture was like. And to this end, he shows us the extreme extent that these legends would impact the behavior of the Igbo people.

Another example of a myth that would directly impact the lifestyle of the Igbo people was their belief of having a very strong connection to Ani, the earth goddess in Igbo religion. Throughout Things Fall Apart Ani is the most mentioned deity, since many of the actions taken by the people in the village have consequences that are directly related to her. An example of this can be seen when Okonkwo accidentally kills Ogbuefi Ezeudo’s son with his faulty gun. Killing a fellow clansman is considered to be an offense to Ani, and thus Okonkwo is forced into exile in order to prevent the earth goddess from doing anything too rash. Okonkwo’s house, all of his crops and his animals are also destroyed in order to please the earth goddess. This shows that the Igbo people had a very deep belief in their religion and that it heavily affected the way they lived. Achebe might have intended to make special emphasis on this aspect of the Igbo culture in order to make an indirect comparison with the Christian church, where a lot of people do not take religion as much into account during all of their lives, and thus portray the Igbo people as a culture that may be more religious than the colonizers themselves. This would have caused the western readers of the time of the novels release to question the religious aspects of their own lives.

Passage Analysis Chapter 21 (Things Fall Apart)

Summary of Chapter 21:



At this point in the story, the majority of the Umofian people are quite pleased with the changes taking place in Umofia as they have set-up trading posts and wealth as a result of that started flowing into the village. Mr. Brown (the white missionary) and Akunna (one of the clan’s elders) meet often to debate about their own cultural and religious views in attempt to convince one another to convert religions. However; that was not Mr. Brown’s sole intention, he persistently visited Akunna to acquire additional information regarding the flaws of Umofia’s religion in order to convey that the flaws of the Igbo religion are the advantages of Christianity. Using this information Mr. Brown goes on and builds a hospital and a school and argues that “strangers who can read and write will come to rule them”. His arguments are fairly effective and his hospital wins praise for its treatments.




Various power factors that impact the major events in the novel:


The missionaries seemed to acquire and provide the Umofians with advantages lacking in the Igbo culture. Firstly he provides the well-established members of Umofia with new opportunities for wealth (Trading), Secondly the impotent members find find acceptance in Christianity that they didn't experience in the so-called old ways, and finally Mr. Brown builds a school and a much-needed hospital in Umuofia; both institutions produce immediate and impressive results which attracts even more converts to side with the missionaries.

Paper #2

The Igbo people rely on success, in order to determine how well a person should be respected and recognized. Social status in Things Fall Apart plays an impacting role on the various themes originated by Achebe. It is one of the most important factors that as a result, character's actions were driven with their traits. Social status was used as a tool of characterization, as Achebe managed to relate titles character traits. In Igbo culture, a man's social status is based on merit rather than inheritance. A man is capable of gaining respect by committing to hard work, bravery and war skills. Hence, when men have a couple of titles, it means that they have earned a rather high status in their society. Achebe kept the audience updated and informed of the titles earned by characters. Okwonko has earned two titles; this signifies his physical capabilities and his hard working inflated ego. On the other hand Unoka, Okwonko's father, has not earned any titles throughout his lifetime, this is a symbol of the ideologies stating that Unoka is a lazy character and incompetent.

Ezeudu, the oldest man in the village and considered to be one of the most important clan elders and leaders, had a high status in Umofia. Because of his significant titles, “he was to be buried after dark with only a glowing brand to light the sacred ceremony" (page 123). This further enriches the idea that relates titles to social status and characterization. Unoka, unlike Ezeudu, had no titles. Which resulted in him dying a rather shameful death as he was left in the evil forest to die there alone.

Those who were old were given a lot of respect by their society. This is because respect is associated with experience, wealth and social status. Assuming that old people have the most experience, and as a result they gained respect. However, the tribe valued achievement and accomplishment more than how much age was concerned. This is determined after perceiving that Okwonko was a fine young warrior in contrast with the respect he gained from his people, as he was an achiever and hardworking.

Women did not play a huge role in society and were only good at raising their husband’s children, thus men with no titles were referred to as women, as they did not play a role in society and deemed to be lazy and unworthy in terms of their social status.

"There was a wealthy man in Okonkwo's village who had three huge barns, nine wives, and thirty children. His name was Nwakibie and he had taken the highest but one title which a man could take in the clan" (page 18-19). This enhances the ideas of titles and success. The more titles an individual has, then the more respect he will earn from his tribe, showing that a character is an accomplished citizen of Umofia.

In conclusion, social status shaped the character’s actions and limited their character traits as discussed in the previous analytical response. As characters were introduced in terms of how many titles each has, then resulting in a creation of an idea surrounding the character and his actions relating to his social status.