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Art and Culture
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Folklore |
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Foreign Language
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Other |
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History and Social Studies
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World History - Africa |
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Literature and Language Arts
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Fiction |
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World |
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| Time Required |
| | Four class periods |
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| Skills |
| | Close reading and analysis of texts
Comparing and contrasting
Drawing conclusions
Note-taking
Research, analysis, and synthesis of ideas
Writing analytic and expository essays
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| Additional Data |
| | Date Created: 05/23/02 |
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| Author(s) |
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Lisa Bernstein
NEH
Washington, DC
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| Date Posted |
| | 5/23/2002 |
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Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart: Oral and Literary Strategies
“I believe in the complexity of the human story, and that there’s no way you can tell that story in one way and say, ‘this is it.’ Always there will be someone who can tell it differently depending on where they are standing … this is the way I think the world’s stories should be told: from many different perspectives.”
(“Chinua Achebe: The Art of Fiction CXXXVIV,” interviewed by Jerome Brooks in The Paris Review, Issue #133 (Winter 1994-5)
Introduction
Chinua Achebe is one of the most well-known contemporary writers from Africa. His first novel, Things Fall Apart, deals with the clash of cultures and the violent transitions in life and values brought about by the onset of British colonialism in Nigeria at the end of the nineteenth century. Published in 1958, just before Nigerian independence, the novel recounts the life of the village hero Okonkwo and describes the arrival of white missionaries in Nigeria and its impact on traditional Igbo society during the late 1800s.
Things Fall Apart interposes Western linguistic forms and literary traditions with Igbo words and phrases, proverbs, fables, tales, and other elements of African oral and communal storytelling traditions in order to record and preserve African oral traditions as well as to subvert the colonialist language and culture. After situating the novel in its historical and literary context, students will identify the text’s linguistic and literary techniques and analyze the relationship of oral elements to the meanings and messages of the novel.
This lesson introduces students to Achebe’s first novel and to strategies of close reading and textual analysis. It can be used alone or in conjunction with the related lesson Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart: Teaching Through the Novel.
Guiding Questions:
What linguistic strategies does Achebe use to convey the Igbo and British missionary cultures presented in the novel? How does the text combine European linguistic and literary forms with African oral traditions? How does Achebe’s incorporation of oral elements into Things Fall Apart contribute to the projects of telling one’s own story and creating a new view of the world?
Learning Objectives
- Describe some elements of European and African literary traditions
- Explain
aspects of Nigerian culture and history
- Understand how historical events
are represented in fiction
- Identify literary devices and orality in literature
- Understand narrative and audience perspective as culturally-positioned
- Recognize strategies that authors use to invoke and speak to specific
audiences
Lesson 1 Historical Context: Pre-Colonial Igbo Society and Nigeria Under British Rule
One of the main themes running through Things Fall Apart and all of Achebe’s work is that all knowledge is specific and culturally situated. To give students an idea of the way in which each of our perspectives shapes how we see the world, assign the class the following mapping activity. Have students draw a world map with all of the continents. Within this map, ask students to fill in the map of Africa. Use the “What Do We Know About Africa Video Curriculum Guide” activity, “Mental Maps of Africa,” available from the EDSITEment-reviewed Web site African Studies WWW, to have students complete the following task:
"Have students draw a map of Africa from their own without referring to any sources. They should add to it any political (cities and countries), physical (mountains, deserts, rivers, oceans, vegetation types etc.), economic (resources, crops...) and historic (religions, events, wars, people, current events, leaders...) details that they know of."
Next, present students with copies of the world map from the Atlas on the EDSITEment-reviewed resource National Geographic Society Xpeditions.
After each student has finished creating his or her individual map, the class can describe the relative position and size of the African continent and countries within the student world maps, as well as discussing the differences between students’ perceptions and the actual size, location, and relation of Africa to other continents.
To give students an overview of Nigerian history and cultural geography, locate Nigeria on a map of Africa from the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Art and Life in Africa Online: Countries’ Resources. Then present a map of Nigeria itself on the Nigeria Information page , and point out the Igbo area. This page provides a map and general information about Nigeria, including descriptions of its four main ethnic groups: Yoruba, Igbo, Fulani, and Hausa, and the Igbo Information page from the People’s Resources section of the site offers information about the ethnic group described in Things Fall Apart.
Lesson 2 Literary Context: Taking Back the Narrative of the So-Called “Dark Continent”
In an interview in the 1994-95 issue of The Paris Review, Chinua Achebe
states that he became a writer in order to tell his story and the story of his
people from his own viewpoint. He explains the danger of not having one's own
stories through the following proverb: "until the lions have their own historians,
the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." Critics and Achebe's
own essays have portrayed Things Fall Apart as a response to the ideologies and
discursive strategies of colonial texts such as Joyce Cary's Mister Johnson
and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
While reading Things
Fall Apart, students should ask themselves in what ways Achebe's novel subverts
this discourse and constitutes a different story or counter-narrative to the European
texts and what narrative and linguistic strategies in the text help create a new
perspective and new story of Nigerian and African history?
Two interviews
in which Achebe discusses the origins and purposes of his writing are "Chinua
Achebe: The Art of Fiction CXXXVIV," interviewed by Jerome Brooks in The
Paris Review, Issue #133 (Winter 1994-5) and "An
African Voice" Interview in The Atlantic Online (August 2, 2000). You may
wish to assign students the interviews or excerpts to read online or in printed
copies.
If your students have not had exposure to colonial literature,
you may want to have them read a short story or poem that shows a typical colonial
view of "native population," in order to help them understand the implications
of colonial rule. Two examples are Rudyard Kipling's poems "Gunga
Din", in which the narrator describes an Indian water carrier for a British
Indian regiment, and "The
White Man's Burden", both available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource
Academy of American Poets. To view these poems online, go to the Poems by Rudyard Kipling web site and click on the letter of the desired poem. For background
on Kipling's belief in the superiority of the British Empire, see the short essay,
"Kipling's
Imperialism" on the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Victorian
Web.
As an example of the ways in which Achebe has taken up European
literary works and reframed the issues they raise, have the class examine William
Butler Yeats' poem, "The
Second Coming," available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Academy
of American Poets. The title of Achebe's novel is a literary allusion to Yeats'
poem.
Read aloud with the class William Butler Yeats' poem "The Second
Coming," the origin of the title of Achebe's novel, published in 1921 and available
in annotated version online at Paul Brians' Chinua
Achebe: Things Fall Apart Study Guide, through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource
Learner.Org:
William
Butler Yeats: "The Second Coming" (1921)
Turning and turning in the
widening gyre (1)
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
hings fall
apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The
blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming (2) is
at hand;
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out
of Spiritus Mundi (3)
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the
desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and
pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel
shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I
know
That twenty centuries (4)
of stony sleep
Were vexed to
nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at
last
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Notes:
(1) Spiral, making the figure of a cone.
(2) Second Coming refers to the
promised return of Christ on Doomsday, the end of the world; but in Revelation
13 Doomsday is also marked by the appearance of a monstrous beast.
(3) Spirit
of the World.
(4) 2,000 years; the creature has been held back since the birth
of Christ. Yeats imagines that the great heritage of Western European civilization
is collapsing, and that the world will be swept by a tide of savagery from the
"uncivilized" portions of the globe. As you read this novel, try to understand
how Achebe's work is in part an answer to this poem. (from Chinua
Achebe: Things Fall Apart Study Guide, by Paul Brians, Department of English,
Washington State University, Pullman 99164-5020.)
Ask students the following
questions: - What is the meaning of the phrase "Things Fall Apart" within
Yeats' poem?
- What does the Second Coming refer to in general?
- What
does the Second Coming refer to in Yeats' poem?
- As you read Things
Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, note how the novel both takes up and changes
Yeats' version of the Second Coming. Who or what in the novel represents a "rough
beast" that "slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"
One important theme
in Things Fall Apart is the irreconcilable difference between Christianity's
focus on individual salvation and the tribal vision of the group's salvation being
dependent on the actions of individuals that Achebe portrays within his novel.
You might point out this cultural and religious difference as you discuss the
"The Second Coming," and its allusion to the Bible and Christian thought, in relation
to way that Achebe applies the poem's line "things fall apart" within the novel.
In the class' subsequent analysis of the text, you can ask students to pursue
the grave implications of these incompatible views for Igbo society as Umuofia's
citizens confront the British missionaries and their accompanying colonial government.
Lesson 3 Linguistic and Literary Strategies in Things Fall Apart
From
the title through to the end of the novel, Achebe integrates and appropriates
a mixture of traditional African and modern Western cultural and literary elements.
Achebe writes in English, the language of the colonizer, but incorporates idioms,
proverbs, and imagery that invoke the Igbo tradition and culture into his prose
in order to convey the experience of African society under colonization and to
force the reader to accept the story he tells on his own terms. Achebe writes
in a 1974 essay, "Chi in Igbo Cosmology": "Since Igbo people did not construct
a rigid and closely argued system of thought to explain the universe and the place
of man in it, preferring the metaphor of myth and poetry, anyone seeking an insight
into their world must seek it along their own way. Some of these ways are folk
tales, proverbs, proper names, rituals, and festivals" ("Chi in Igbo Cosmology"
161). How does this passage relate to Achebe's choice of form and narrative structures
within the novel? In preparation for this lesson, have students perform a close
reading of the novel. Have them pay particular attention to the verbal cues Achebe
includes in the text, which explain unfamiliar vocabulary in context and clarify
the novel's themes.
(A) Provide each student with a copy of the
Igbo Vocabulary and Concept Log (provided in pdf format), to be kept while reading
the novel. Ask students record Igbo vocabulary words, cultural concepts and traditions
within the narrative. Have students use the textual clues to provide definitions
for the vocabulary words and explanations of the concepts and ceremonies. In the
last column, have them suggest a purpose of the vocabulary word or concept as
it functions within the novel.
Examples of Igbo Vocabulary:
Agbala - woman, or man without title
Bride-price - converse of dowry;
the bridegroom's family pays cash or goods to the bride's family
Chi - personal
spirit
Egwugwu - a masquerader who represents the ancestral spirits of the
village at trials and ceremonies. The egwugwu ceremony of the Ibo (chapter
10)
Ekwe - wooden drum Foo-foo - pounded yam, traditional staple food of Igbo
Harmattan - dry, dusty wind that blows along the northwest coast of Africa
Ilo - village playground
Jigida - waist beads
Kola nut - seed pod of evergreen
trees common in Western Africa, which contains caffeine and is offered as a gesture
of friendship and hospitality. Matchet - large knife (Spanish machete).
Obi - male living quarters Ogene - a type of gong Osu - outcasts Ozo - a rank
or title Palm oil - oil pressed from the fruit of palm trees that is used for
fuel and cooking Uli- dye for skin painting Udu- a drum made from pottery
Examples
of Igbo Cultural Concepts and Traditions:
Bride price
Dry Season
Egwugwu ceremony
Engagement ceremony
Funeral ceremony
Evil Forest
Feast of the New Year
Kola-nut ceremony
Palm-wine tapping
Polygamy
Rainy Season
Titles
Week of Peace
Point out to students that a
glossary of Ibo words and phrases is printed at the end of the book, which they
can consult for the definitions of Igbo words and phrases. Achebe also explains
many of the words, expressions, and cultural events in terms of their context
within the novel.
Ask students to identify the passages in the novel that
discuss Igbo rituals, performance, and festivals. Have students create a list
of Igbo words and phrases and of African ceremonies and events they encounter
throughout the book. See how many they can define or explain by using the text
itself.
Igbo Vocabulary and Concept Log (provided in pdf format)
Every time you read, log on this sheet any vocabulary, concepts, and traditions
you come across in the novel.
Try to collect at least one example every
time you read.
After students have completed their logs, discuss the author's
decision to retain many Igbo words and phrases. Ask them the following questions: - What
kinds of words are given in the Igbo language?
- Which African words and
concepts does he translate into English, and which are left for the reader to
understand through their use and context in the text?
- Why do you think
Achebe chose to keep these words in their original language?
- What is the
effect on the reader of having these words in their original language as opposed
to giving them in English translation?
- What are the effects on you as
a reader (a student of a certain race and a particular linguistic, ethnic, and
national background, attending a high school in the United States of America at
the beginning of the 21st century) of the cultural contrasts in the Part One of
Things Fall Apart?
- How does the inclusion of untranslated foreign
words and unexplained cultural concepts affect your reading of the novel and your
understanding of and relationship to the Igbo culture being presented?
(B) In conjunction with Igbo words and expressions, Achebe includes African
oral traditions such as the genres of proverb, riddle, myth, clan and family histories,
and epic within the narrative. Provide students with an Oral
Elements Log (provided in pdf format), and ask them to find as many oral elements
as possible in the text, for example: myths, folktales, poetry, proverbs, and
songs. Have them identify the type of element and describe its relation to the
novel's story and message.
Every time you read, log on this sheet any oral elements - myths,
legends, tales, proverbs, songs, poems, riddles, etc., -- mentioned in the novel.
Try to collect at least one example every time you read. The following are
some questions to aid students in filling out the Oral Elements Log and in discerning
the relation to the narrative and message of the novel: - What narrative
techniques does Achebe use to present pre-colonial Igbo life and traditions in
a manner in which present-day readers from Nigeria and other parts of the world
can identify?
- What tone does the Achebe introduce in the opening scenes
of the novel?
- How does the introductory paragraph set up the relation
between past and present, reality and myth?
- At the beginning of the novel,
the narrator notes that, "proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten."
What does this mean?
- Why do you think Achebe does not translate the song
that Ikemefuna remembers as he walks along (chapter 7)?
- What is the moral
of the fable of the tortoise and the birds (chapter 11)? What values does it reflect?
(C) In his essay "The African Writer and the English Language," Achebe
contrasts a paragraph from one of his later novels, Arrow of God, with
a second version to illustrate his approach to the use of the English language.
In this paragraph from the book, the Chief Priest in the novel tells one of his
sons why he must go to the Christian church:
"I want one of my sons to
join these people and be my eyes there. If there is nothing in it you will come
back. But if there is something there you will bring home my share. The world
is like a mask, dancing. If you want to see it well you do not stand in one place.
My spirit tells me that those who do not befriend the white man today will be
saying had we known tomorrow" (101). Achebe then offers the following alternate
version:
"I am sending you as my representative among these people - just
to be on the safe side in case the new religion develops. One has to move with
the times or else one is left behind. I have a hunch that those who fail to come
to terms with the white man may well regret their lack of foresight" (102).
Have
students compare the two versions and note the differences in tone, style, and
literary devices. You may wish to choose perform a similar task with Things Fall
Apart: have students, as a class or in small groups, choose a paragraph from the
text and draft a second version by removing the oral and literary elements.
(D) The final chapter of the book, which reveals Okonkwo's suicide and indicates
the accomplishment of European colonization of Umuofia, at the same time undermines
the missionaries' supposed victory in the eyes of the reader. First Obierika entrenches
the traditional Igbo customs of his people by requesting that the Commissioner
take responsibility of disposing of Okonkwo's body and insisting that the villagers
will "make sacrafices to cleanse the desecrated land."
In the novel's
last paragraph, Achebe gives an ironic portrayal of the District Commissioner's
derogatory view of Africa and African people. Ask the students to re-read the
last paragraph and to identify words and ideas that are used ironically in light
of the rest of the novel. How does the District Commissioner see his own role
and that of Europeans in Africa? Why does he decide not participate in taking
Okonkwo down from the tree in which he has hanged himself? What does he see as
"new material" and "interesting reading" for his planned book? What are the "details"
he intends to omit from the book? Finally, discuss the title of the book the District
Commissioner intends to write: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of
the Lower Niger with the class. Ask students how they define the term "primitive"
and why Achebe chooses this word for the Commissioner's book title. (E)
As a final assignment, have students use their class notes and the two logs to
write a short essay on one of the following topics, on topic generated by the
teacher, or on a topic of their choice (with teacher approval). - The
relationship between Achebe's title of Things Fall Apart and William Butler
Yeats' poem "The Second Coming"
- What purposes are served by Achebe's weaving
of oral art forms such as African proverbs and folktales into the narrative
- Achebe's
decision to use English as the language of the novel and to integrate Ibo words
and concepts into the text without translation (Note: for one view on Africans
writing in English, see Brandon Brown's essay, "Subversion
versus Rejection: Can Postcolonial Writers Subvert the Codified Using the Language
of the Empire?"
- How Achebe uses specific linguistic devices and literary
strategies to complement the content and message of the novel
Extending
the Lesson- Discuss Achebe's statement that "the novel form seems
to go with the English language. Poetry and drama seem to go with the Igbo language"
(The Paris Review) in light of the writing in Things Fall Apart.
- Compare
with Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. How is Achebe's novel a response to Conrad's
story? Note that the complete text of Heart
of Darkness, published in 1902, is available online through the Electronic
Text Center, University of Virginia Library, located on the EDSITEment-reviewed
resource Center for the Liberal
Arts.
- Discuss the political and literary situation of Nigeria during
the time of publication in the 1950s and today.
- Debate the aims and efficacy/outcomes
of writing in original African languages versus the colonizing country's language
for purposes of revising the colonizer's perspective on history.
- How does
the novel function as a proverb to clarify and explain the historical events of
European colonization of Africa at the end of the 19th century?
Selected
EDSITEment Websites African
Studies WWWAmerican
Collection: An Educator's SiteArt
and Life in Africa Online Center
for the Liberal Arts Internet
Public Library Internet
Public LibraryLearner.org
Links to EDSITEment Partner Site Resources:
Print
Resources used in this Lesson Plan
Achebe, Chinua, "The African
Writer and the English Language." In Achebe, Chinua, Morning
Yet on Creation Day: Essays. New York: Doubleday, 1975. 91-103.
-----,
"Chi in Igbo Cosmology." In Achebe, Chinua, Morning Yet on Creation Day: Essays.
New York: Doubleday, 1975. 159-175.
-----, Things Fall Apart. New York:
Ballantine Books, 1959
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