Essay 1-Things Fall Apart

Brenda Van Riper
Mrs. Bosch
English 10 Honors
4 July 2008
Family, memory, heritage, language, and lives, all illustrate things most people are proud of. Pride in family is being proud of who your family is and what they do. You can take pride in memories of your past and of your family, and what they accomplished. In Things Fall Apart, the author shows his pride in heritage, by the traditions and the cultures he has been brought up with. Having your own language in your culture can also shape who you are, and pride in your own language. The author, Chinua Achebe, uses the story Things Fall Apart to illustrate his pride in family, memory, heritage, language, and life.
In the first place, the book Things Fall Apart illustrates Chinua Achebes’ pride in family and heritage. There are also some instances that he does not take pride in his family, which he overcame. The author uses Okonkwo, the protagonist, to show his pride in family by his accomplishments all throughout his life, his children and wives. The accomplishments in his life that he conquered are going from nothing to becoming one of the most well-known and wealthy men in the village. His father was lackadaisical, and had no land and did not pass a house down to his son, to start his own life. He had to take it upon himself and build up to what his life is now, that’s something to take pride in. His father just sat around most of the time, unlike Okonkwo who was a farmer and a husband to three wives and had many children. Okonkwo is proud to have three wives that are all good workers, and cooks. He was a grateful man. His second wife, Ekwefi, left her ex-husband to be with Okonkwo. He won a wrestling match against Alminze the Cat, which made her want to be with him. He felt very loved that a woman would do that for him. Okonkwo also has many children. Ekwefi had nine babies die before she had her one daughter, Enizma. One way of describing this is to think that it’s her punishment for leaving her other husband. Enizma was one of the children that Okonkwo adored the most; he took pride in her, and everything that she did. He also sometimes wished that she was a man, but he was overjoyed that she was not. Okonkwo was very proud of his lovely wives and children. Also, Okonkwo took much pride in his heritage. One of the traditions that their villages took part in are the wrestling match. Another tradition is discarding out twins into the evil forest, because they think they are cursed. One more tradition is they have ancestral spirits in the village at most of their village gatherings. It is a disgrace to unmask one of these spirits, and one boy does unmask one of the ancestral spirits. Okonkwo takes pride in the traditions they practice in his village and the villages of the Ibo also have cultures. Okonkwo was very proud of his culture. He was Nigerian and took much pride in it. There were nine villages in their country. Sometimes they would have gatherings for the wrestling matches, and other towns’ parades and cool gatherings like that, to get everyone together. As shown in this quote they take pride in their cultures and traditions, without them, they all fall apart:
“But he says that our customs are bad; and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad. How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clans can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.”(Achebe, pg.176)
The way most of their people would earn their money would be by farming yams. There were some occasions when it called for a feast, and there were many of those. There were feasts at his house for many things. They also had laws and rules in their villages. If someone committed murder, there were different offenses. A female offense is doing it accidentally. A male offense is doing it on purpose. Ikemefuna did something wrong and had to go live with Okonkwo for many years, the book never explained what he did. He was proud to have this boy live with him. They were like father and son, but this boy had to be killed. It is unmanly to show emotions so Okonkwo ended up killing him, so he would not be shunned for showing emotion. He was not proud that he had to kill him, but he was proud that he did not let anyone see that he showed emotion in what he did. One day at a town gathering, everyone was happily shooting guns in the air, and Okonkwos’ backfired and exploded and killed a boy. Okonkwo committed a female offense and had to leave the village and go live in his motherland. He couldn’t go to his fatherland because his father had died years back. He stayed in his motherland for seven years, and when he came back, nothing was the same as it was before. The people did not have a church in their village until a white man came along and built a church. Their culture did not involve a church. This is where everything started to fall apart, like the title of the book says. One of Okonkwos sons wanted to go to the church. He did not take pride in that, but he was proud that only one of his many sons and daughters wanted to get involved in the church and leave their traditions and cultures behind. All together Okonkwo takes much pride in his family and his heritage.
Pursuing this further, the author of Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe, illustrates his pride in his language and memories. In the Ibo culture his people have their own language, which means special things for certain people and words. Some examples of their own Ibo language are words like: chi (personal god), efulefu (worthless man), ekwe (a musical instrument, a type of drum made from wood), iba (fever), nna ayi (our father), and many more. The language people have can shape who they are and how they take pride in it, as shown in this quote, without their language, they all fall apart, and “Does the white man understand our custom about land?” “How can he when he does not even speak our tongue? (Achebe, pg.176) Their language is what shapes them, without their own language, who would they be? They can be any regular tribe, or persons. Language can also describe who you are, by how you use certain words. Without these things, it would just be bland, and you wouldn’t be able to get to know anyone by their native tongue. Their language can also have many things to do with their culture, traditions and customs. Taking pride in language plays a major role. Memory can also affect who you are as a person, and how you take pride in your memories. For Okonkwo, he remembers his father as being a sluggish man, who sat around and never, really accomplished anything. Not being proud of his father, and not wanting to be like him, drove him to be who he is. He didn’t want to be like his father, and he accomplished that. He can remember how he came from nothing and built up to being one of the wealthiest and greatest men in their village. He can also remember all the hard work he put in for his family and farm. He has memories of how his second wife left her husband to be with him and he would be proud because she wanted to be with him. Okonkwo also had some good memories with Ikemefuna, how they had a father-son relationship even though the boy was only to live there before he was killed. This quote shows the father son bond between Okonkwo and Ikemefuna:
“Even Okonkwo himself became very fond of the boy--inwardly of course. Okonkwo never showed any emotion openly, unless it is the emotion of anger. To show affection was a sign of weakness; the only thing worth demonstration was strength. He therefore treated Ikemefuna as he treated everybody else--with a heavy hand. But there was no doubt that he killed the boy. Sometimes when he went to big village meetings of communal ancestral feasts he allowed Ikemefuna to accompany him, like a son, carrying his stool and his goatskin bad. And indeed, Ikemefuna called him father.”(Achebe, pg. 28)
Okonkwo memories of the boy before he dies he takes pride in because they had such a close bond.
Finally, Okonkwo takes pride in his life. This also can say that the author, Chinua Achebe takes pride in his life. This includes his family, heritage, language, and memory. All these parts make up his life and how it describes him and how he takes pride in it. He used Okonkwo to be an example of his pride in his life, even though it could not have been exactly like his life, he still showed how he was proud of everything he did. A few things he did in his life that he takes pride in could be like defeating Alminze the Cat, having three wives, having many children, and getting to know Ikemefuna. There are things in which he did not take pride of which only made him stronger when they were all over, such as, his father, and how he was a lazy guy, having to kill Ikemefuna, which only made him stronger because he did not show his emotions and he can take pride in that. Some of the challenges he faced in his life and that he has overcome are, starting from nothing and building it up to be a wealthy and well-known good man, also overcoming what happened in the church and being a man of being beaten and abused, and dealing with all this church stuff when in the end, it wasn’t enough and he hung himself. Most of his life he has taken pride in everything he has done, which could reflect on how the author feels.
All in all, the author, Chinua Achebe, defiantly shows his pride in family, heritage, language, memory, and lives, by writing the book Things Fall Apart. He shows his pride in family by his children and his wives. And he is proud of his heritage, by taking part in his traditions and customs. Also having your own language is something to take pride in and is what the author did in this book. His memories also affected how he was proud of what he did and how he overcame all that he has been through, like starting from nothing and building it all the way to something great. Reflecting on the book, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe I think it is a close match on how the author uses Okonkwo to show his pride in the same things.


Cite
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. First. New York: Anchor Books, 1994.