Poetry Connection

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. 

Science

As previously stated this book is set in tribal Africa where there is not much science because they live more traditionally. They do not try to discover why things work because they believe everything is done by the gods. So there is not a need for science. But that leads to a theme about the neccessity of science. These tribes live happily without all the science we have so it shows that science is not needed to be successful and happy. Maybe the author just wants people to go back to a simplier time when science was not so complicated and a main focus of life. Advances in science have helped this world so much but maybe there are time when we need to step back and just let things happen instead of trying to change it with science.

Art

There was not much art in Things Fall Apart. I think that because of the setting there was not a need for much art. The only kind of art was religious carvings used to give praise to and worship. Art work is not really important to the tribe because they are trying to just survive and make a life for themselves. Plus religion and the gods are very important to them so they make their artwork for and of the gods.

Music

In this book the setting was in tribal Africa so the music was more like chants.
"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.  

Setting-- artistic representation

Character-- mulit-flow map

Character-- Brace Map

Okonkwo's transformation

Through this double bubble map you can see that Okonkwo took a turn for the worst. He slowly lost all his power and couldn't take it. He doesn't really have any similarities from the start of the book to the end other than being a father. This shows you his big change.

Okonkwo-- artistic representation

Main Character-- Okonkwo

Plot Summary

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is about a man named Okonkwo. At an early age, Okonkwo knew that he didn't want to be anything like his father Unoka. As he grew up, Okonkwo became very popular in society because of his wrestling victory over an unbeaten man. Okonkwo is very wealthy and powerful in his society but is not the one to wear his emotions on his sleeve. He beats his three wives on occasion to make him feel like he still has some power. Because of his status he is picked to take care of Ikemefuna, a boy prisoner. Okonkwo views him as his own son but one day the elders of society tells him that the boy must be killed. From then on Okonkwo goes on a downward spiral towards self-destruction. One day the oldest man in the tribe dies. At the funeral Okonkwo accidentally kills the man's son and is exiled for seven years. At this poing Okonkwo feels like he is starting to lose some power. Okonkwo returns to his village after his exile to find it a changed place because of the presence of white men. He and other tribal leaders try to reclaim their hold on their native land by destroying a local Christian church that has insulted their gods and religion. In return the white men take them as prisonners and humiliate them. Okonkwo gets out of jail and is suprised to see that no one is going to help him go against the white men. The next day the white men go out looking for him only to find that Okonkwo had hung himself.

Setting-- Brace Map