Poetry does not play a big role in the novel Things Fall Apart. Chinua Achebe includes a few poems throughout the novel. These poems are very meaningful. What they lack in quantity they make up in quality. The poems in this novel were very descriptive and full of many emotions. These pomes added a lot to the novel. They were not directly connected to the characters but they did enhance the reading by creating more of an image of the plot. I believe that Chinua Achebe was not trying to make poetry a big part in this novel because the small amount of poetry created the right picture for the book.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Poetry Connection
Science
Art
Music
"Who will wrestle for our village?
Okafo will wrestle for our village.
Has he thrown a hundred men?
He has thrown four hundred men.
Has he thrown a hundred Cats?
He has thrown four hundred Cats.
Then send him word of fight for us."
Most of the songs are like this. They do not really have much meaning besides the obvious. The songs are, however, relavent to what the tribes people are experiencing. Like when the kotma come and start punishing them they sing this:
"Kotma of the ask buttocks,
He is fit to be a slave.
The white man has no sense,
He is fit to be a slave."
The people there sing songs to express how they are feeling and what it directly affecting them in a positive and negative way.
Things Fall Apart Sonnet
Okonkwo was powerful beyond compare;
Any weakness made him irate.
With yams, an empire he did create;
Of the gods' blessings he was aware.
At a funeral, Okonkwo killed a young man there;
Seven years of exile was his fate.
While gone, Christianity was the debate;
The men exchanged war for prayer.
Okonkwo returned to a village strange,
To a place where men were weak.
The future of his tribe looked bleak;
The nature of man had changed.
He realized his only peace would be
With death, to hang from a nearby tree.
Connection to Religion
Religion is a big part of this novel especially near the end of the novel. They strongly believe in many gods that are responsible for various things like the earth or rain. But near the end missionaries come and try to convert the tribes. They built a church and told the people about god and the Christian religion and how their ways are wrong and sinful. This causes much controversy in the tribes and even the suicide of Okonkwo. In this tribe suicide is not acceptable and looked down on but he did it because he killed a man from the government of the new religion. I thin the author is showing that some people are so against changing their ways that they would go against their morals and beliefs to bring things back to normal.
Biographical Information about Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe was born on November 16, 1930 in Ogidi, Nigeria. His birth name was Albert Chinualumogu Achebe. He was a Nigerian novelist, poet and critic. Many people know him for his book Things Fall Apart. Achebe was raised by his Christian parents, Isaiah Okafo and Janet N. Achebe in south Nigeria. On September 10, 1961 he married his wife Christie Chiinwe Okoli and they had four kids together, Chinelo, Ikechukwu, Chidi and Nwando. He was very good in school and started writing when he was a university student. His book Things Fall Apart gained him worldwide attention but some of his other published books were No Longer at Ease, Arrow of God, A Man of the People and Anthills of the Savannah. All of Achebe’s books were written in English. He not only wrote books but also short stories, children books and essay collections. Today Chinua is the Charles P. Stevenson Professor of Languages and Literature at Brad College.