Contemporary

English
Literature
Swerving Paradigms in
Chenua Achebes Things Fall
Apart

Student: Barbara A. Rodrguez

October, 2015
ISP Dr. Joaqun V. Gonzlez
Contemporary English Literature
Brbara A. Rodrguez

Swerving Paradigms in Chinua Achebes Things Falls Apart

The saying goes we do not know what fish talk about, but we are sure they do

not talk about water1. What this metaphor portrays is that being submerged in this

liquid, fish are oblivious to its existence. Similarly, societies are oblivious to the

paradigms which frame their choices, and their opinions, and specially, to the

discourses on which all of these concepts hinge. Language is our water: it is the

invisible structure which creates reality, and therefore, the primary system of cultural

existence2. It is through discourses that societies build their paradigms or, sometimes,

are swayed into new ones. In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the African

tribe of Umuofia is pervaded by white mens discourses and little by little their own

construction of reality is challenged and eventually falls apart. The concepts of

Hegemony, Subjectivity and Discourse are central to this change, and this essay will

analyze instances of the text in which these concepts are clearly portrayed.

To broach this discussion, heed will be first drawn to how the cosmology of the

Igbo tribe allows for duality and this facilitates the penetration of the European

discourse. According to Clement Okafor (2003), duality, or the phenomenology of

pairing, is a very important aspect of Igbo cosmology. For them, nothing can exist by

itself, since wherever something exists, something else exists beside it (2003:70). This

can be seen in the discussion about Umunsos customs, one of the nine villages which

neighbours Umuofia. The men have gathered at Obierikas obi and discuss how

Umunso handle the bride-price. Obierikas brother explains () what is good in one

place is bad in another place (64). Even though there are antagonistic views upon the

matter, it is clear that the question of duality exists. For them, there is no uniqueness;

they are concurrent positions, and even though they regard one as bad, these two

1
The saying derives from a popular joke
2
The Routhledge Companion To Critical Theory

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ISP Dr. Joaqun V. Gonzlez
Contemporary English Literature
Brbara A. Rodrguez

views are allowed to coexist. On the other hand, white mens discourse does not allow

for this duality, they seem to seek uniqueness and uniformity and disregard

coexistence. When the missionaries first arrive in Umuofia, one of them explains that

[they] have been sent by [their] great god to ask [them] to leave [their] wicked ways

and false gods and turn to Him (127). According to the missionarys discourse,

Umuofia should relinquish their deviant and faulty culture over the Europeans

greatness. Unlike the African society, European cosmology goes in the pursuit of

encroaching upon others in order shape them at their own image. These two divergent

views seem to be ingrained in a set of underlying principles inherent in each culture,

which are dependent upon their discourses. However, a clash between these two views

seems impossible for one them allows the other to coexist. Nevertheless, little by little,

the simultaneity of the discourses ceases and one overtakes the other.

The people in Umuofia were penetrated by white mens discourse and this

seems to have happened, as Neil ten Kortenaar explains in his paper How the Center

Is Made to Hold, due to the fact that the younger generations [feel] ill at ease with

traditional metaphysics of their culture (129). This is portrayed by a young lad who

[has] been captivated [by the missionarys speech]. His name was Nwoye, Okonkwos

first son. Nwoye feels his father has betrayed him by killing his adoptive brother,

Ikemefuna and since then, the young boy puts to the challenge Umuofias traditions.

Nwoyes crisis of faith renders him vulnerable to other possibilities and the discourse

of Christianity seems to be a balm to ameliorate the wounds caused by the killing of

Ikemefuna. Later in the text, we learn that [i]t was not the mad logic of the Trinity that

captivated [Nwoye]. He did not understand it. It was the poetry of the new religion,

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ISP Dr. Joaqun V. Gonzlez
Contemporary English Literature
Brbara A. Rodrguez

something felt in the marrow3 (128, 129). Nwoye seems mesmerized by Christian

ideas; somehow the missionarys speech smacks of all the things the young boy is

unable to find in his own village, and hence, consents to surrendering to the discourse.

Gramsci (1930) postulated that dominance of one state over the other, what he calls

Hegemony, is attained not by force but by consent. This consent is achieved by

interpellation of the colonized people so that whites assumptions, values, and beliefs

are accepted as natural or valuable. The missionary extolled the virtues of Christianity,

he explains to the Igbo people that if they turn, they may be saved when [they] die

(127), something which Nwoye appears to be allured by and consequently follows.

Towards the end of the novel, the European discourses have already penetrated

the Igbo society, and put to the challenge their beliefs by dividing their own people.

Obierika explains to Okonkwo that it is too late for the people of Umuofia. He says:

How can [white man] when he does not even speak our tongue? 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 (155).

The same phenomenology of pairing is now applied to the Igbo people:

members of their own group seem to have questioned their traditions and regarded

them as bad, as they have done with Umunsos traditions. By this time in the

narrative, the Igbos have already fallen prey to whites discourses, and they have

placed themselves as peripheral; the perception of their own subjectivity has been

skewed. Obierika goes on to explain that [white man] has put a knife on the things

that held [them] together and [they] have fallen apart (155). Obierikas metaphor may

stand for how it was that their society has broken asunder by the piercing words which

let them loose. In the end, Umuofia perceives the change but unfortunately, by that

time, they are unable to act upon it.

3
Ironically, this poetry which the young boy perceives seems to be something in common with his own
culture: the music and the singing.

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ISP Dr. Joaqun V. Gonzlez
Contemporary English Literature
Brbara A. Rodrguez

To conclude, it was the Igbos cosmology that served as the door for Europeans

discourses. Their duality rendered them defenseless against others words, and hence,

they were unable fight these discourses off their society. Once these discourses hovered

among the Umuofians, there became accessible to the most vulnerable. Young

generations, who seemed to find in theirs, a society riddled with contradictions and

ruthless customs, were attracted by this new alluring discourse, which falsely

promised them equality and peace; and, regrettably, only after being penetrated by

white mens discourses did they realise how the order of things in their lives changed.

It seems that the inability to perceive what molds a societys frame of mind ends

whenever that frame is surged by dissimilar discourses from a different group.

Nevertheless, just as fish outside the sea, which are able to notice the absence of water,

their lives do not last long.

1116 words

References

Achebe, C. (1958). Things Fall Apart. China: Heinemann.

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ISP Dr. Joaqun V. Gonzlez
Contemporary English Literature
Brbara A. Rodrguez

Ashcroft, B. G. (2001). Key Concepts in Post-Colonial Studies. London & NY:

Routledge .
Malpas, S., & Wake, P. (2006). Routledge Companion to Critical Theory. NY:
Routledge NY.
Okpewho, I. (2003). Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, A Casebook. Oxford: OUP.