Commentary on Things Fall Apart Essay

Okonkwo is a wealthy and respected warrior of the Umuofia clan, which is located in lower Niger. He is haunted by the actions of his father, Unoka, who was cowardly and died in shame, and left many village debts unpaid. Okonkwos comeback was to become a clansman, warrior, and a great farmer. In Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart, symbolism is used as a way of foreshadowing when he discusses the plague of locusts, fire, and animal imagery.

Achebe uses the locusts to foreshadow the arrival of the white men who come to convert the clan to Christianity. These white men feast upon the resources of the Igbo. When the Igbo eat these locusts, it shows how harmless they take them to be. Those Igbo who eventually convert to Christianity fail to understand the damage that the white men will cause to their peoples culture. And at last the locusts did descend. They settled on every tree and on every blade of grass; . . . Mighty tree branches broke away under them, and the whole country became the brown-earth color of the vast, hungry swarm. (Achebe 56). The locusts, like the white men, came suddenly to Umuofia. The colonizers tried to convert the people by threatening them. They locusts come and use all their resources, just as the white men do. The Oracle . . . said that other white men were on their way. They were locusts. (Achebe 138-139). Obierika and friends are discussing the arrival of a white man in the Abame village. They killed him in fear of what the Oracle had told them; that the white men had come to invoke danger on their civilization.

The way Achebe describes the locusts shows their symbolic status. The way he uses the words settled and every give hints at the sudden arrival of these insects. These words also hints at the way the arrival of the white settlers will take the Igbo people off guard. It is also said that the locusts are so heavy that they break the tree branches, which may symbolize the collapsing of the Igbo traditions and culture under the ambush of colonialism and white settlement.

Okonkwo is connected with fire, flame and burning throughout the novel, alluding to his dangerous anger. He is also occasionally known as the Roaring Flame (Achebe 153). When this is said, it could be connected to Okonkwo repelling everyone around him. He scares them all away, just like fire would if it got to close to someone. The only emotion that he ever allows himself to show is anger because he feels that makes him more a man. Unfortunately, the problem with fire, as Okonkwo acknowledges, is that it destroys everything it consumes (Achebe Chapter 17). Once a fire has started it spreads until it puts itself out. Okonkwo is both physically destructive and emotionally destructive. He kills Ikemefuna, Ogbuefi Ezeudus son, and an innocent messenger. He also covers his affection for Ikemefuna and Ezinma in favor of a colder, more masculine feeling. Fire is known to feed upon itself until all that is left is a pile of ash. Like fire, Okonkwo eventually tears himself apart until he crumbles to a pile of ash himself, and hangs himself at the end of the novel.

In their descriptions of human behavior, the Igbo often use animal stories to confirm their rituals and beliefs. The animals in their folktales reflect the environment where they live, its has not yet been modernized by the white mens influence. Though the white men view the Igbos understanding of the world as incorrect, the Igbo use these animal stories, like how the tortoises shell came to be bumpy, as logical explanations of natures occurrences. Does the white man understand our custom about land? How can he when he does not even speak our tongue? . . . He says our customs are bad . . . He has put a knife on the things that held us together.(Achebe 176). Their python is another important image. Enochs killing and eating of the sacred python symbolizes the transition of the Igbos previous religion into a new form of spirituality. When Enoch disrespects the python, it clashes with the Igbos admiration for it. Therefore causing them to reconsider the sacredness of the python and whether or not he is as strong as they thought. The Igbo people are not happy with the arrival of these men and their cultural differences. These folktales foreshadow how unwilling the Igbo culture is when the colonizing culture arrives.

Symbolism plays an important role in foreshadowing in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. These symbols : locusts, fire, and animal imagery, help convey the theme of the Umuofia clan falling apart because of the attempt of colonization. Achebe did this to help the reader connect different parts of the novel with one another.