Things Fall Apart

The Title of the Novel

The title of Achebe's novel ''Things Fall Apart'' owes to W.B. Yeats' ''visionary' 'poem, ''The Second Coming''. Yeats speaks of the break-down of the ''old'' order and its displacement by a ''new'' order that rouses mixed feelings of revulsion and fascination in him.

''Turning and turning in the widening gyre

   The falcon cannot hear the falconer

Things Fall Apart; the centre cannot hold

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world''.

Achebe’s novel is too about a forcible break-up of an older and settled order. Achebe is preoccupied with the break-down of the ''old'' order under the relentless onslaught of the ''new'' order. The very title 'Things Fall Apart', highlights the process of disintegration of Ibo culture and society. Achebe looks back at his Ibo society specifically at the period the white man broke into it and 'mere anarchy' loosed upon the world of Umuofia. The novel shows that how British colonization and the conversion to Christianity of tribal people has destroyed an intricate and old pattern of life in Africa. Dealing with the theme of chaos and disruption, Achebe's selection of title is not only proper, suggestive and accurate but a true reflection and the mirror to its theme.

‘Things Fall Apart’, is about a clan which once thought like one, spoke like one, shared a common awareness and acted like one. The white man came and his coming broke this unity. As Obierika says, ''The white man is very clever.He came quitely wand peaceably with his religion.....Now he has won our brothers,and our clan can no longer act like one''. Achebe coolly analyses the ways of invaders that cause disintegration and so, ultimately things fall apart.

To avert their tragedy, impending doom the Abame people kill the white man. Consequently, the village is wiped out as Obierika asserts, ''Everybody is killed,except the old and the sick who were at home and a handful of men and women whose chi were wide awake...Even the sacred fish in their mysterious lake have fled and the lake has turned the colour of blood''. This fate of Abame stopes Mbanta people to do any act and consequently things became to fall apart at random.

The whiteman introduced Christianity which is all embracing. Any human being is acceptable even the Osu, the outcast clansman became converted. At first it is the efulefu and osu only. Moreover, new religion gives answer to some of the vague questions that have hitherto haunted some people. Thus Nwoye feels he has the answer to the death of Ikemefuna and the casting away of twins that cry in the bush until they die. In this way,the new religion gains ground and things fall apart instantly.

Moreover, the religion brings with itself a strong government and peaceful trade.The people become more prosperous.As Achebe says in the course of his narrative. ''The white man had indeed brought a lunatic religion,but he had also built a trading store and for the first time palm-oil and kernel became the things of great price, and much money flowed into Umofia''. The people prefer having the lucrative commerce to pointlessly attacking the whiteman and his religion. By and by they lost their devotion against invaders and consequently things fall apart.

Gradually, that people lost their unity. Obierika's remark is very significant and similar to the title: ''He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart''. And these things that held these people together are their local traditions, culture, religion of various gods and godesses, laws and a sense of belonging.

Some of these reasons are the rigid social structure which isolates the Osu, demarcation between a man's and a woman's role, the overconfidence of the tribal people in their attitude towards the ''new'' religion and the lack of unity. These drawbacks of their society lead to things fall apart.

‘Things Fall Apart’ opens at the height of Okonkwo's fame which he wins through ''Solid personal achievements'' and ends with his tragic death. The whole story revolves around Okonkwo. But this does not mean that the story is essentially about Okonkwo. It is about whole clan, a whole civilization. It is not the tragedy of a single man but of whole community of Umuofia. So there is no doubt about the appropriateness of the title, Things Fall Apart.

With the inroads of new European ideas into the Igbo Society. The old traditional pattern of society begins to flatter, things began to fall apart, traditional beliefs, old practices and beliefs begin to receive assaults at the hands of white people and society begins to break into pieces with opposing views and thus the ''Centre cannot hold''. All this explains the reason for Chinua Achebe's choice of the title ''Things Fall Apart''.

Culture of the Igbo Society

The novel depicts the lives of the people of Umuofia - one of a fictional group of nine villages in Nigeria inhabited by the Igbo people. It focuses on the norms, customs and society of the Igbo during the late nineteenth century.

Through Achebe's use of language, it is apparent how unique the Igbo's culture is. By using traditional Igbo words, folktales, and songs into English sentences, the author shows us that African languages are comprehensible. Achebe is noted for his inclusion of proverbs from Igbo oral culture into his writing:  "The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no one else did."  

“The Feast of the New Yam” is an occasion of joy throughout Umuofia to convey thanks to Ani, the earth goddess. Every year the Igbo people celebrate the event before the harvest commences. On the occasion, a large number of people are fed with vegetables soup, fresh yam foo-foo and so on.

In the Igbo society, a man is known for his own achievement and activeness and here a man who fails to progress beyond the junior title is a man without status in the eyes of his people and such a man is called an ‘gbala’ meaning a woman. The father of the protagonist is called so as he attains no title. In the behaviour of the protagonist, the sense of self-respect is traceable. Okonkwo, explains his capacity for hard work before Nwakibie, his sons and neighbors.

Because of the great value placed on masculinity, women are, to a great extent, inferior to men in the Ibo society. Wives' main duty is to serve their husbands. Women's value is directly tied to their ability to produce children, as shown by the fact that the birth of children is “a woman's crowning glory”. Wife beating and domestic violence are very common practices. Okonkwo constantly beats his wives for some very trivial matters such as forgetting to prepare meals for him. In one occasion, Okonkwo nearly killed Ekwefi with his gun. Often women are merely properties of men who are even inferior to yams. The value of a man is measured by the number of yams and wives he has, with the former bearing more importance than the latter. When a man suits a woman, he negotiates a bride price using "a small bundle of short broomsticks," showing that women are only treated as properties and commodities in Ibo society.

They had a sharp sense of community, ‘The Week of Peace’ comes at the end of the carefree season and before the harvest and planting season. During the ‘Week of Peace’, Okonkwo breaks the peace and is punished, as is the custom, by Ezeani, the priest of the earth goddess. He told Okonkwo, even though his wife may have been at fault, he commits a great evil. During the ‘Week of Peace’ one has to live in complete peace no matter what the circumstances. The community fears that the evil he did could ruin the whole clan.

Many a superstition runs through the Igbo society as we observe regarding the twin-born babies. They believe that it is a sing of evil omen. For this reason, they cast away the twins in the ‘Evil Forest’ as soon as they are born. Similarly Okonkwo’s father’s aliment invites the same consequences and he is not buried with the traditional respect and rituals because a diseased person in the society is left in the forest to die.

The lives of the Ibo people revolve around great traditions and supreme beings. The Oracle in the mountain is greatly respected and feared by the villagers. His decisions are viewed as edicts that people who defy them will be damned. The powerful clan of Umuofia never goes to war unless its case was accepted by the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves. After the Oracle decrees Ikemefuna's death, Okonkwo, despite his affection for Ikemefuna, obeys and kills Ikemefuna. When Chielo the priestess, sent for by Agbala, comes to Okonkwo's hut to get Ezinma, even the fearless Okonkwo gives way after incessantly pleading Chielo to allow Ezinma stay.

Religion has been the integral part of the Igbo society, as they believe in a supreme god, Chukwu, who has created all things and demands obedience. In “Things Fall Apart”, the mask, the earth, the legends and the rituals all have significance in the history of the Igbo culture. According to Baldwin: "Religion looms large in the life of primitive man.”

First, there is the use of the mask to draw the spirit of the gods into the body of a person. A great crime in the Igbo culture is to unmask or show disrespect to the immortality of an egwugwu, which represents an ancestral spirit. Toward the end of the novel, a Christian convert unmasks and kills one of his own ancestral spirits. The clan weeps, for "it seemed as if the very soul of the tribe wept for a great evil that was coming — its own death." They also believe in ‘chi’ a man personal god and many other gods and goddesses. 

To conclude the discussion, it can be said that the Igbo society was much enriched but as soon as the colonizers came to their land, their society, and cultural values commenced falling apart and the old way of life gets disrupted.

'Things Fall Apart' A Postcolonial Critique

In the novel, ‘Things Fall Apart’, the effects of colonialism are extremely evident in the Igbo society.  As the white Englanders moved into the native's land, their cultural values changed. These changes were evident in all aspects of the Igbo people's lives, in their religion, family life, children, and the dead.  ‘Things Fall Apart’ explores the struggles between the old traditions of the Igbo community and the effects of colonization on the people of different calibers within that society. The novel is told from the perspective of the native people of Ibo.

The novel takes place in Umuofia, in Nigeria, in an area where their culture is indigenous to the Ibo people. In "Things Fall Apart" it seems that the African Ibo culture was strong and functional, such as in its religious beliefs and customs, government, economic, and social coherence. The order of Ibo society became interrupted and began to unravel when the white missionaries entered and colonized Africa.

As the English began to colonize the Igbo society, there were few natives who opposed it, they others just felt that the English would come and go. Soon, the English began to introduce "white man's religion." This new religion was completely the opposite from what the natives were accustomed to. The colonial religion first attacked the outcasts, or osu, of the Ibo society in order to expand on the ideas of Christianity and how their belief system was not an accurate portrayal. The traditional belief system had been corrupted by the impact of the missionaries and there was encouragement of disavowing the traditional beliefs of the Ibo society. There were changes due to the entrance of the white man, it was no longer the same society that had been known to the Ibo people. The missionaries who came to Umuofia set out to reach everyone in order to convert him or her to Christianity. Kiaga approached two outcasts and told them they must shave their hair in order to let go of their heathen beliefs. The Christians even lived in the Evil Forest in order to prove that their belief system was not accurate.

The colonizers used religion as a tool of Conquest in Things Fall Apart. In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the white men who come to Umuofia find success in conquering the village by challenging Ibo religion. Because the first white men to appear in Umuofia were missionaries, the slaughter of Ibo society began with the challenging of the highly-regarded religion of the Ibo people. The white men began their religious assault by openly denouncing the many gods worshipped by the Ibo in order to convert them to the new faith. After accomplishing this, the white men set out to prove that the Christian religion was superior to all others by defying the powers of the Ibo gods when they built their church upon the cursed ground of the Evil Forest. With the Ibo religion being proved powerless, the converts began challenging their former religion by killing the sacred python, revered by the people of Umuofia. By attacking the fundamental teachings of the natives’ religion, the Christians were able to effectively conquer the Ibo people.

The biggest effect that colonialism had on the Igbo society was the way in which their dead and infants were treated. In the traditional society, those who killed themselves were thrown into the Evil Forest, as where twins and children who died at young ages. As Christianity began to grow the converts took the twins who were sent to the Evil Forest and gave them homes. Also, many of those who had twins or children who died while still infants looked at the situation much differently. 

Prior to the coming of the white the political life of the Igbo people was also very organic and strong. They were very loyal to their political leaders. After the entrance of colonial masters, the colonial religion, mostly replaces the traditional religion. When the white man arrives, however, they ignore the Igbo’s values and tries to enforce his own beliefs and religious practices. Missionaries would convince these tribesmen that their tribe worshipped false gods and that its false gods did not have the ability to punish them if they chose to join the mission. Like many others, Okonko’s son Nwoye is also affected by the colonial religion.

Obierika discusses discuss the invasion of white men into their community with Okonkwo, as he says, "The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart." His words clearly tie the destruction of the Igbo people's way of life to sneaky, divisive action on the part of European missionaries and imperialists.

To conclude, the colonialism of the Igbo society affected them in many different ways. Each aspect of their lives and culture were consumed by English's belief systems. Whether it was their religion, family life, children, or their dead—the white's beliefs and systematic way of life took over the traditional systems and beliefs. 

Okonkwo as a Tragic Hero in "Things Fall Apart"

In Chinua Achebe’s novel “Things Fall Apart” Okonkwo is a tragic hero. Aristotle’s Poetics defines a Tragic Hero as a good man of high status who displays a tragic flaw ‘hamartia’ and experiences a dramatic reversal ‘peripeteia’, as well as an intense moment of recognition ‘anagnorisis’. Okonkwo is a leader and hardworking member of the Igbo community of Umuofia whose tragic flaw is his great fear of weakness and failure. Okonkwo’s fall from grace in the Igbo community and eventual suicide, makes Okonkwo a tragic hero by Aristotle’s definition.

Okonkwo is a man of action, a man of war and a member of high status in the Igbo village. He holds the prominent position of village clansman, due to the fact that, he had shown incredible prowess in two intertribal wars. Okonkwo’s hard work had made him a wealthy farmer and a recognized individual amongst the nine villages of Umuofia and beyond. Okonkwo’s tragic flaw is not that he was afraid of work, but rather his fear of weakness and failure that stems from his father’s, Unoka, unproductive life and disgraceful death. “…his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and weakness……. It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.”

Okonkwo’s father is a lazy, carefree man whom has a reputation of being poor and his wife and children have just barely enough to eat... they swear never to lend him any more money because he never paid back. Unoka has never taught Okonkwo what is right and wrong, and as a result Okonkwo has to interpret how to be a good man. Okonkwo’s self-interpretation leads him to conclude that a good man is someone who is the exact opposite of his father and therefore anything that his father does is weak and unnecessary.

Okonkwo’s fear leads him to treat members of his family harshly, in particular his son, Nwoye. Okonkwo often wonders how he, a man of great strength and work ethic, could have had a son who is degenerate and effeminate. Okonkwo things that, "No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children … he was not really a man"

Okonkwo wrestles with his fear that any sign of weakness will cause him to lose control of his family, position in the village, and even himself. Like many heroes of classical tragedy, Okonkwo’s tragic flaw, fear, also makes him excessively proud. Okonkwo’s downfall is a result of the changes created by the coming of the British Colonizers to Igbo. The introduction of the Colonizers into the novel causes Okonkwo’s tragic flaw to be exacerbated. Okonkwo construes change as weakness, and as a result of his interpretation, Okonkwo only knows how to react to change through anger and strength. He derives great satisfaction, “hubris” or proud arrogance, from the fact that he is a traditional, self-made man and thinks that to change would mean submitting to an outside force (Christianity).

Following Okonkwo’s seven-year exile, the village Okonkwo once knew has changed due to the influence of Christianity and the influence of the British missionaries and officers. Okonkwo’s initial reaction is to arm the clan against the Colonizers and drive the British people out of Igbo.

“He  has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart”

Okonkwo has always used his strength and courage to protect the community from destabilizing forces, and as Okonkwo is a traditional man, the introduction of Christianity poses a threat to all the values, morals and beliefs he sought to protect. Okonkwo resists change at every step and instead resorts to violence toward anything he perceived as a threat to his culture or values.

Okonkwo’s arrogant pride makes him believe that the clan leaders would eventually reunite the clan and drive the British Colonizers out of Umuofia. Hoping that the clan will follow his lead, Okonkwo beheads a messenger of the British who is sent to break up a village meeting regarding the possibility of going to war. However, the clan instead of following Okonkwo’s symbolic action is shocked by Okonkwo’s brutality. Okonkwo recognizes that Umuofia would not go to war, because the clan “had broken into tumult instead of action”. Okonkwo knows that he must now face his disgrace alone.

The Igbo culture had made Okonkwo a hero, but the Igbo culture changed with the coming of the British Colonizers. Okonkwo, a hero, would rather die than be humiliated by his enemies and by committing suicide Okonkwo prevented the European Colonizers from getting revenge. Aristotle’s statement, “Man, when perfect, is the best of animals, but, when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all”, embodies the rise and fall of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s novel. Okonkwo, like many tragic heroes before him, maybe a hero but his tragic flaw prevents him from achieving true greatness as a human being.

 The Place of Women in Ibo Society

Despite familiarizing us with the Ibo society and culture, Achebe also expounds the role of women in pre-colonial Africa.

Achebe shows that the Ibo woman had important roles in the society. For instance, women painted the houses of the egwugwu. Furthermore, the first wife of a man in the Ibo society is paid some respect. This reference is illustrated by the palm wine ceremony at Nwakibie's Obi. Anasi, Nwakibie's first wife had not yet arrived and "the others [other wives] could not drink before her." The importance of women's role appears when Okonkwo is exiled to his motherland. His uncle Uchendu noticing Okonkwo's distress, eloquently explains how Okonkwo should view his exile: "A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness, he finds refuge in his motherland." A man has both joy and sorrow in his life and when the bad times come his mother is always there to comfort him. Thus, comes the saying, "Mother is supreme."

Achebe in his novel ‘Things Fall Apart’ depicted women dominated by man. They had no important role to play passively. Most of the women characters were combined to domestic duties. They were born in society to obey their husbands and never to question their authority. They were fated to satisfy men's lust for sex, give birth to children and bring up them. In addition to her womanly duties, she had to work with men during sowing and harvesting seasons. Man's crop was Yam and woman's crop were maize, beans and vegetables. She reared poultry and gots to cater to the family food-supply. It was her duty to clean, whitewash and to decorate their houses on the occasion of festivals and ceremonies. She had to go to market to make purchases of household commodities.

According to the custom of the clan, a man could marry several women. There was a tradition of paying bride-price to the parents of the girls from the suitor's side. Okonkwo could not marry Ekwefi in the first instance because, he was too poor to pay bride-price then. If a woman wanted to give up her husband, her parents had to give back the bride price. Before marriage, girls had sexual freedom. Giving birth to twins was considered to be ill omen and the twins were thrown into the Evil Forest. Making preparation for marriage ceremoney fell with the sphere of women's duties. Several wives of a man lived in full co-operation with one another. They were one to share the joys and sorrows of the family. When the husband beat or ill treated any of his wives, other wives of the same husband came forward to check his wrath. But above is the dismal phase of women's fate as painted by Achebe. If we study the Ibo African history, we would find women enjoying high status in the society.

Women controlled certain spheres of community life, just as men controlled other spheres. Women were perceived to possess superior spiritual well-being and headed many of the traditional cults and shrines. In Achebe's novel, for example, the oracle is served by a priestess. Women also gained status by amassing wealth through trading, farming or weaving and were treated as ndi ogalanya, wealthy women married other women, and 'fathered' their own children.

In keeping with the Ibo view of female nature, the tribe allowed wife beating, the novel describes two instances when Okonkwo beats his second wife, once when she did not come home to make his meal, he beat her severely and was punished by the priest but only because he beat her during the week of peace. He beat her again when she referred to him as one of those "guns that never shot." When a case of wife beating comes before the egwugwu, he found in favour of the wife, bid at the trial a man wondered, "Why such a trifle should come before the egwugwu."

Like an Ibo man, every Ibo woman began her life as an apprentice. From a very young age a girl assisted her mother at home, on the farm, or in the market place. As she grew older, she learned from experience that hard work, marriage, and membership of certain associations enabled women to advance socially. One of the most important women's associations was Otu Omu (the Omu society). The members of the Omu society acted as a pressure group in political matters and imposed fines on men and women who disturbed the peace of the market place. They punished quarrelsome women and those who broke certain taboos, like those prohibiting incest and adultery. It was perilous for any man, no matter how influential, to provoke the anger of this association. Ibo women's associations upheld gender balance and quality. Their political and social activities were very useful though man occasionally felt they were contentious.

The Tragedy of an Individual or the Tragedy of Society?

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a tragedy of an individual as well as the society. The protagonist of the novel, Okonko who was rich and respectable at the beginning of the novel meets a tragic fate at the end of the novel. But when he suffers, his whole tribe also suffers. At the beginning of the novel, the Ibo society was a peaceful, organic society, but at the end of the novel it falls into pieces. Thus the novel records not only the sufferings of Okonko but also his whole society.

At the beginning of the play we see Okonko as a prosperous leader of the Ibo people. But the novel ends with his tragic end. Thus, we can say that the novel Things fall apart is a depiction of Okonko’s tragic fall. Okonko was definitely a man of importance for his society. He was a well-known person throughout the nine villages and beyond. He was a warrior ad wrestler who gained respect through his athletics. He was a fierce-free individual. He hadn’t lost one fight or any battles. And for this the people of the village loved him. He was also respected because of his wealth. 

Okonko had three wives and many children. He was able to take care of his wives and children. But suddenly a disaster takes place in his life. He unconsciously kills the son of a man who had warned him not to kill Ikemefune. Although the killing was an accident, Okonko and his family are forced before nightfall to flee to his distant native village to Manta. When they are gone his compound and his possessions are destroyed by his fellow tribesman in a ritual cleansing and purification of his sin.  When Okonko came back to his village he found that everything was changed. After the clansman burn the Church building down, the District Commissioner asks the leaders of the clan, Okonko 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 shaved. They are held in jail until the clan pays a heavy fine.

Embittered and grieving for the destruction of his clan’s independence, and fearing the humiliation of dying under white law, Okonko ends his life. The District Commissioner and his messengers arrive at Umuofia to find Okonko has hanged himself. They are asked to take down his body, since Ibo mores forbid clan members to touch it, as suicide is regarded as a ac of weakness and as attack against nature.

Like Okonko his Ibo society also meets a tragic fate. In the first part of the book we see a socially, politically and religiously organic Ibo society. But this organic society becomes divided and virtually loses all energy at the end of the book. At the beginning of the book we see that the Ibo people have a strong faith in their traditional religion. The religion of the Ibos 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. One of such Oracles is responsible for Okonko’s sacrifice of Ikemefuna. This incident underlines the superstitious brutality of traditional Ibo society. Thus we find a very strong and extremely detailed picture of Ibo life society prior to the coming of the white man.

But later the Christianity, the colonial religion, mostly replaces the traditional religion. When the white man arrives, however, he ignores the Ibo’s values and tries to enforce his own beliefs and religious practices. Missionaries would convince these tribesmen that their tribe worshipped false gods and that its false gods did not have the ability to punish them if they chose to join the mission. Like many others, Okonko’s son is also affected by the colonial religion.

Prior to the coming of the white the political life of the Ibo people was also very organic and strong. They were very loyal to their political leaders. The colonial politics affects the Ibo society. Okonko’s life is also affected by the colonial politics. The Ibo people become the victims of the colonial politics and many people die as a result of colonialism. The same things happen to him.

When conflicts came up between villages, the white government would intervene instead of allowing villagers to settle them themselves. In the novel when the white man’s government has come to Umuofia, the clan is no longer free to judge its own; a district commissioner, backed by armed power, judge cases in ignorance of tribal custom.

Things Fall Apart chronicles the double tragedies of the deaths of Okonkwo, a revered warrior, and the Ibo, the tribe to which Okonkwo belongs. In literature, tragedy often describes the downfall of a great individual which is caused by a flaw in the person's character. Okonkwo's personal flaw is his unreasonable anger, and his tragedy occurs when the tribe bans him for accidentally killing a young tribesman, and he returns to find a tribe that has changed beyond recognition. The Ibo's public demise results from the destruction of one culture by another, but their tragedy is caused by their turning away from their tribal gods.

The Fall of Traditional Igbo Society and Culture

At the first part of the novel, Achebe presents the Igbo society as harmonious, coherent and peaceful and illustrates various aspects of the traditional way of life of the Ibo people. There are so many features of their culture that indicate harmony among the clansmen. The language of the people of Umuofia is enriched and full of proverbs and literary and rhetorical devices. Among the Igbo . . . proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten.”

The Igbo culture is an institution full of traditional festivals. Individual display of prowess is valued in Igbo culture. The best example is Okonkwo who attains a position of wealth and prestige in spite of his low and shameful origin. Moreover, the belief in the chi, an individual’s personal god, also smooths possible tensions in the Igbo community. When a man says yes his chi says yes also. Okonkwo said yes strongly; so his chi agreed. The Igbo culture is fairly democratic in nature.

However, Achebe also questions some drawbacks of the traditional Igbo culture, though the Igbo people feel content in them. Ikemefuna is an innocent sufferer of the irrationality of the society. He was ordered by the Oracle to be killed except by his father, but Okonkwo himself killed Ikemefuna, because, he was afraid of being thought weak.

The society is also profoundly patriarchal. Okonnkwo is punished not solely for beating his wife but for beating in the Week of Peace. However, the reflection of Obierika, Okonnkwo’s best friend, at the last of the first part echoes the general question of the order of the society, “why should a man [Okonkwo] suffer so grievously for an offence he had committed inadvertently? … He remembered his wife’s twin children, what crime had they committed?”

In the Second Part of the novel, Achebe shows that two sorts of forces are responsible for the falling of the society: external forces and external. The external force is the arrival of the colonial culture of missionaries, bureaucracy and white officialdom. The initial result is, as Obierika informs Okonkwo: The missionaries had come to Umuofia. They had built their church there, won a handful of converts.

Some internal factors of Igbo culture also contribute to the fall of the society. The drawbacks and questions discussed previously symbolically get answers in Christianity, through the converted character, Nowoye: “The hymn about brothers who sat in darkness and in fear seemed to answer … the question of the twins crying in the bush and the question of Ikemefuna who was killed.”

One of the oldest members of the unumna expresses his extreme agony at the deplorable condition of the village as a result of the arrival of the colonizers in African societies: “An abominable religion has settled among you. A man … can curse the gods of his fathers and his ancestors, like a hunter’s dog that suddenly goes mad and runs on his master.”

The third part of the novel accounts how the white people’s law, education, power and economics strangle and destroy the whole Ibo culture. The colonizers gradually take control over all the social institutions which is described in the novel the white man is very cleaver. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. …[and]… a government. They had built a court where the District Commissioner judged cases in ignorance.

Resultantly, “Umufia [is] thrown into confusion” and a large scale conflict and “anarchy” between the colonizer and the colonized after Enoch, a converted Christian, has attacked the traditional culture by killing an ancestral spirit.

The next day, while the villagers are meeting, some messengers from District Commissioner come to stop the meeting. Okonkwo attacks and kills one of them, “Okonkwo’s matchet decended twice and the man’s head lay beside his uniformed body.” But, Okonkwo finds that the society has already fallen apart from the traditional unity and they don’t associate him. Eventually Okonkwo commits suicide.

Okonkwo’s death is here symbolic, for he represents the traditional culture. Obierika indicates that the traditional Igbo culture does no longer survive. It has already fallen apart. “That man was one of the greatest men in Umiofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog.”

To sum up, though Achebe shows some drawbacks of his traditional culture, actually he attacks the colonizers as responsible for spoiling their traditional culture. The unified and uncorrupted culture of the Igbo society doomed to disintegration owing to the intervention of the colonizers and its own drawbacks.