1. Things Fall Apart Notes
Rapert/AP Lit

2. “I would be quite satisfied if my novels…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…delivered them.”
Chinua Achebe

3. Chinua Achebe Bio 1930 Nigerian-still alive
Dad Christian and Ibo
Chinua worked as a broadcaster
Prof of lit at Bard College, NY
Founder of Nigerian literature
GOAL-not to imitate Euro novelists, but create African literature
Art is “at the service of man”, thus the writer must have a humanitarian purpose behind his art
Things-first novel- IN ENGLISH
1958
Dual inspiration
1. response to the humiliation visited on Africans by Europeans
2. response to the “moral worthlessness” of post colonial African culture
Classic in Africa-required reading in most schools
Refused to idealize Africans

4. Basic info to aid understanding
Nigeria-West Africa
Ibo (also Igbo) are 3rd largest ethnic group in Nigeria
Many US slaves were of Ibo lineage
Ibo have always been tribal, thus never united under 1 leader, thus easy prey for slavery
Tropical rainforest-2 seasons
Subsistence farmers
Villages/tribes/clans based on lineage-patriarchal

5. Nigerian history
British and French companies exploit area for slaves, palm oil, and wood in the 1700s
Arab traders become involved w/north around the same time
Christian missionaries enter late 1800s
1884 British claimed area
1906 British united north and south into a single British colony
Northern Nigeria was (and still is) Muslim and has always been in conflict w/both Euros and southern Nigerians
Official nationhood Independence from Britain 1960
Civil wars between Ibo and Yoruban clans
Tense stability today

6. Setting ch 1-5 Umofia clan Set up of cultural identity for reader
9 villages of this clan of Ibo
Mbaino is neighboring rival Ibo clan-murders Umofian woman
Set up of cultural identity for reader
Customs
Interclan rivalry and rules
Religion
Power structure
Familial set up

7. Conflict ch 1-5
Okonkwo vs self, father Unoka, other clansmen, nature, gods
Note archetypical heroic flaw of arrogance and conflict with the father
Ikefuma vs Nwoye/Nwoye vs Okonkwo
Male vs female (literally and figuratively)
Tradition vs situational necessity
Enzima vs nature/gods
Ekwefi vs gods

8. Characterization ch 1-5 Okonkwo-flawed hero? Unoka-opposite
Controlled by fear, insecurity, violence
Physical prowess
Social standing
Unoka-opposite
Ekwefi and Enzima-non traditional females
Ikemefuma-cultural scapegoat
Nwoye-outcast

9. Symbols, etc The Cave Evil Forest & abominations Colors and weather
Entry position
Priestess
Female earth
Womb----rebirth
Evil Forest & abominations
Colors and weather
Apocalyptic style

10. Things Ch 6-10 Feast of the Yam Ikemefuna
O shoots gun at Ekwefi in rage
Contrast of O’s vilence versus the softer side shown at the meal at chapter’s end
Ikemefuna
Loved and part of family
Nwoye’s admiration and reliance
Sacrificial murder
O advised NOT to take part
WHY DID HE???
Note final words of I—ala Christ (allusion)
Also note father denial of son
Foreshadows O’s fall---results in self-hatred (inability to eat is reaction)
Nwoye ISOLATED completely now

11. Things Ch 6-10 Ike murder contd.
Biblical allusion to Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac & crucifixtion of Christ
THEME: O’s excessive adherence to code and obsessive fear of weakness—Tragic flaw

12. Things Ch 6-10 Enzinma’s fever and Ogbanje
Belief in the changeling
Finding the stone
Ibo superstition/religion
O is a gentle father to Enz.-she is favored one-again crack in O’s façade
Concept of Justice-compare to ours