UGRC 160 – Introduction to Literature SESSION 6

The Novel – Part 2- Narrative Technique

Session Objectives At the end of the session, the student will Understand the complexity of the plot of the Novel vis-à-vis the Short story form. Gain a better understanding of how Point of View and other narrative strategies are employed in the novel.

The Complex Plot of the Novel Compare Things Fall Apart to any of the short stories already discussed in class. What can you say about Plot structure? Whose Story is being told in Things Fall Apart?

A WEB OF PLOTS – STORIES WITHIN A STORY Okonkwo and his father, Unoka Okonkwo and his household The Story of Ikemefuna The new Christian missionaries and their converts VS adherents of the local traditional faith A Story of Umuofia, an Igbo commune

THEMES “When the missionaries came, the Africans had the land and the Christians had the Bible. They taught us to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them they had the land and we had the Bible” - Jomo Kenyatta (in Mazrui 149-150)

The Struggle between Change and Tradition (Resisting OR Embracing Change) Varying Interpretations of Masculinity and Femininity Social Disintegration Greatness and Ambition Fate and Free will Complexity of Igbo Society Clash of Cultures

Achebe stated that he would be content if Things Fall Apart did “no more than teach my readers that their past—with all its imperfections—was not one long night of savagery from which the first Europeans acting on God’s behalf delivered them.”