title of things fall apart

 

title of things fall apart 

Title of Things Fall Apart

Things break wrong in "Chinua Achebe," a novel whose title encapsulates the work's core premise. The title "things break apart" foreshadows the tragedy that occurs at the novel's conclusion. The story illustrates both an individual's sorrow and a society's tragedy.

The title of Achebe's novel is derived from William Butler Yeats' 1921 "visionary" poem "the second coming," which Achebe heavily references in the epigraph. The following are the crucial lines:

"Turning and turning …… anarchy is loosed upon the world." 

Years speaks about the "old" order collapsing and being replaced by a "new" one, which elicits a mixture of horror and curiosity in him. As a result, the title pays homage to Yeats' mysticism.

The fundamental theme of the poem is change, and it argues that society falls apart due to a lack of cohesiveness that binds its citizens together. There are numerous parallels and similarities between the novel and the poem. The major idea of the poem serves as the basis for the title of China Achebe's novel.

The epigraph's specifics are quite important to "Things Fall Apart" in general. The poem begins with the picture of a "falcon" flying away from its human master's earshot (falconer). The falcon is said to be "spinning" in a "widening gyre" until it can't "hear the falconer any more." The idea of a spiral with its circular movement that extends outward as it rises comes to mind when we think of the "widening gyre." Years frequently employs the image of a gyre to represent history's progress toward chaos and instability. It also conjures up the notion of a planet spinning outward, unable to recall its beginning. Every beginning has an end, and every end has a beginning in this circular flow of history and time.

The 'falcon' represents the Igbo people, and the 'falconer' who loses his connection with them is their religion and culture, according to "Things Fall Apart." Christianity stokes the fire between people and their ideas, leading them to desert their kin and, eventually, 'Things Fall Apart' when this "center cannot hold".

The poem and Achebe's novel both depict the effects of a lack of unity within their civilizations, and both are founded on a calamitous transition. In "The Second Coming," Yeats discusses the horrific events that occurred in his society at the time, such as World War I and the Russian Revolution. Instead of unifying, Europeans have turned against one another, resulting in conflict and destruction. . When the white men arrived in Okonkwo's community, the villagers turned on each other, just as they did in the novel. With the infiltration of these new European ideas into Igbo society, the old traditional pattern of society begins to falter.

The above briefly explains why Chinua Achebe chose the title "Things Fall Apart." 

The title alludes to the reality that things break apart when they are out of balance, because without balance, order is lost. "Things Fall Apart" refers to the loss of order due to a lack of adequate balance. "Things Fall Apart" is a metaphor for change on a variety of levels, including societal, political, personal, and religious. Things break apart at all of these levels due to external pressures as well as internal tensions. "Things Fall Apart" is about a family that used to think, speak, and share as one. Obierika locates the sense of things going apart in his allegation of the white guy.

"The white man is very clever. He came quietly ….  our clan can no longer act like one." 

The British administration's knife, which was supporting the missionary drive, fell on the culture of the Igbo people, slicing it into pieces, causing it to bleed and die. The invasion of external forces into Igbo territory tainted every part of the Igbo people's pleasant lives. Obierika's comment is very significant and similar to the title:

"He has put a knife …. we have fallen apart." 

Set in this historical context, Achebe's novel develops the theme of "traditional change" and offers, as Palmer observes, 

" a powerful presentation of beauty, strength, and validity of traditional life and values and the disruptiveness of change" 

At the end of the book, the organic society that was described in the first part of the book has become fragmented and has nearly lost all of its vigor. Robert Mc Dowell offers: 

"Chinua Achebe creates in this novel a coherent picture of coherence being lost of the tragic consequences of the African-European collision."

 

 Aside from external influences, Igbo society disintegrates owing to flaws that reach their apex, or the wide end of the gyre. Disintegration occurs when a society moves toward the narrow end of the gyre and begins to come apart for a variety of reasons.

The assassination of Ikemefuna exemplifies one of the Igbo people's unsatisfactory customs. Those were the days when ritual killings were frequent. Achebe appears to be saying that such a ritual will not be permitted to exist by the younger generation by making Nwoye inwardly rebellious against it.

"...… Nwoye knew that Ikemefuna had been killed, and something seemed to give way inside him, like the snapping of a tightened bow." 

 

This quote signals the start of everything unravelling. Nwoye is described as the " falcon who cannot hear the falconer." in this chapter. Nwoye's discourse with Obierika portrays him as "breaking free "from his father and clan and following in the footsteps of white missionaries. "I am one of them," Nwoye declares. To Obeirika's question about his father, Nwoye unhappily replies: 

"I do not know, he is not my father." 

 Another key factor for Igbo society's disintegration is the situation of women, who are marginalized in this community. Women are expected to be seen, but not to be heard. They exclusively produce foo as a rural workforce, who are reprimanded and punished before disappearing behind their compound's huts.

Untitled people have no place in this Igbo community, either. They have been labelled as outcasts. The Igbo people are plagued by a variety of phobias. They are persons who believe in superstitions. The entire "old system" of Umofia continues to exist in a semblance, with its superstitions and practises founded on ignorance rather than the light of modernity. All of this contributed to the Igbo community's increasing division.

On an individual level, we have fragmentation as well. Both the clan and the protagonist, Okonkwo, are caught in a dance of fate. "Things Fall Apart" begins with Okonkwo at the pinnacle of his renown, which he achieved by "strong personal achievements," and ends with his untimely demise. Okonkwo is the Umofia clan's representative. He shot his wife out of rage. Because he was frightened of becoming weak, he drew his machete and hacked down Ikemefuna. Then there's Ezeudu's sixteen-year-old son's murder, which, while being a female crime, carries a lot of punishment and the ruin of everything Okonkwo has built up, so everything falls apart. "The only course open to Okonkwo was to flee the clan….he had committed a female crime." 

After the atonement of his crime, Okonkwo returns to Umofia with great hopes. But Umofia has changed during these years of exile, and Okonkwo soon realizes it when he says:

"Seven years was a long time ….As soon as he left, someone had risen and filled it" 

This passage shows the constant change of culture, a culture lost in the "widening gyre" and "centre cannot hold." From this Okonkwo's hopes and dreams have "fallen apart." Okonkwo says in sadness and despair: 

"Perhaps I have too long."

 Okonkwo has an unyielding will, and his rashness leads to the disintegration of his family in the form of a seven-year exile, as well as his murder of the administrator's messenger and, finally, his irreversible self-punishment by hanging himself. As a tangible symbol of his civilization, Okonkwo's fall or suicide is unavoidable.

Things fall apart as a result of how the "new religion" sows seeds of discontent, dissension, and strife in the tribe, pitting son (Nwoye) against father (Osu), and untitled people against integrated Igbo. In this context Obeirika remarked.

"Our men …… have joined his religion and …… uphold his government" 

In the same way, the missionary and the trader are the colonial power's advance guard. Acts of violation against "traditional" and rural religious beliefs are increasingly on the rise, resulting in problems of instability and social unrest. "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold", the resulting "anarchy," the turmoil in the social and religious values system, "releases" upon the Igbo world-order, confusion, and anarchy, as son against father. With the arrival of the missionaries, a new cycle of the circle begins.

Finally, the novel's title reveals a great deal. Okonkwo's world has crumbled, figuratively representing the disintegration of Igbo society. The title is evocative of the subject matter. With the knife of its governance mixed with missionaries and campaigns, the external force was successful in breaking the Igbo culture. Religious ideas and social values are at the "heart" of any community and individual. This centre was attacked by colonial power and missionaries. According to Achebe, the "anarchy loosed upon the world," is the horrors of imperialism, and "things do fall apart" in this anarchic scenario.