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To cite this article: Richard M. Wafula & Chris L. Wanjala (2017) Narrative Techniques in Chinua
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Journal of Social Sciences, 50:1-3, 62-69
ABSTRACT This paper begins from the standpoint that most critical works on Chinua Achebe, especially his first
novel Things Fall Apart, have concentrated on themes and characters. While this is important in the analysis of
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the novel, narrative technique is equally important. Through using analytical perspectives proposed by Gary
Morson, alongside close reading and content analysis of the primary text, the researchers argue that Achebe used
techniques that predicted, juxtaposed comparatively and in contrastive positions as the narrative devices that
enabled him to communicate the controlling ideas of his novel effectively.
Foreshadowing draws the reader’s attention one of them. Consequently, many possible sto-
to the design of the author. To illustrate how fore- ries are constructed or intimated at the same time.
shadowing works, Morson uses Sophocles’ Oe- In associating sideshadowing with the works
dipus the King (1996) as an example. He points of Dostoevsky, Morson revisits and modifies
out that in this play, foreshadowing conveys the some of the ideas of Mikhail Bakhtin in the nov-
temporality that governs the real world. This is el. Bakhtin (1981) argued that the dialogic na-
due to the fact that the future is never in question ture of language is best manifested in the novel.
(Morson 1996: 59). The myth of Oedipus’ patri- According to Bakhtin (1981), novel is the most
cide and incest is already known and the audi- sensitive genre of literature because it is respon-
ence is aware of the outcome from the beginning. sive and sensitive to the flux of social history.
The significance of Oedipus’ choices as the play The language of the novel is most adaptable to
develops is underlined by the fact that the audi- the changing social attitudes. In the novel, tes-
ence know the consequences of his actions. tifies Bakhtin, every utterance is spoken in some
The application of foreshadowing in Oedi- dialect or speech that carries or implies the atti-
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pus the King is marked differently from its use in tude of those who speak it at a particular time.
other works of literature. In Charles Dickens’ Bakhtin says that the process of creating nov-
Hard Times (1989) for instance, the image of fire els is anti-canonical because it does not permit
that Louisia saw frequently adumbrated her sup- generic monologue. On the contrary, it persists in
pressed sensitivity and vivacity which later the interplay of languages which speak for them-
bursts out and led to the collapse of her mar- selves. The process of creating novels is linked
riage to Bounder. But the reader is not obvious- to popular forms of expression that makes mean-
ly aware of this until much later in the action of ing relative to the formal ways of communicating.
the novel. This, then, implies that foreshadow- The novel, says Bakhtin, is a way of presenting
ing does not mean only what the audience or the world in a mode that is ever examining itself
the readers know in total in regard to the results and subjecting its established norms to review.
Based on these observations, Bakhtin concludes
of the narration. It may also mean those signs
that Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novels are the best
that the author posts at certain key stages of the manifestations of the dialogic genre (1984). In
work, later enable the reader to understand the Crime and Punishment (1932) for example, Bakh-
characters’ actions or choices in their totality. tin witnesses Dostoevsky’s surrender to his char-
acters. Characters are not mouthpieces of the
Sideshadowing author. They are subjects with consciousness
independent of the author. They defy the author’s
In order for the author to avoid treating a attempt to compel them stick into a preconceived
narrative as a mechanical product whose build- category. Raskolnikov, the most dominant char-
ing blocks are predictable from the start to the acter in Crime and Punishment is not an automa-
finish, he introduces sideshadowing. Sideshad- ton in the hands of Dostoevsky. He has the liber-
owing is a device that conveys the sense that ty to create his ideas and consciousness inde-
events recounted may not have happened. It pendent of the author.
casts a shadow of other possibilities of what While Gary Morson agrees with Bakhtin’s
could have happened. Morson observes that notions of dialogism in Dostoevsky’s novels,
while readers see what did happen, they also he observes that Bakhtin does not specifically
see the image of what else could have happened. identify and describe the technique that Dosto-
In this way the hypothetical shows through the evsky employs to create those novels. It is
actual and so achieves a kind of shadowy exist- against this background that Morson posits and
ence (Morson 1994: 1-18). illustrates that Dostoevsky uses sideshadow-
By allowing the reader to visualize possibil- ing to write his novels (p. l0). Morson persists
ities that would have taken place, straight lines that sideshadowing enables Dostoevksy to write
of cause and effect are blurred. According to free novels in the sense that they refuse to obey
Morson, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novels best typ- a conscious design.
ify how sideshadowing is applied technically.
Morson insists that in Dostoevsky’s works too Backshadowing
many facts are presented with an air of mystery
and no clear explanation. Characters’ voices are Backshadowing is a reversal of foreshadow-
heard simultaneously without privileging any ing. Viewing and evaluating the present in terms
64 RICHARD M. WAFULA AND CHRIS L. WANJALA
of the entire narrative project reveals that all sage of time. Consequently, he provides the nar-
along, the past had contained signs of what rative frame of the novel which is the building
eventually happened. Gary Morson explains that block of foreshadowing, sideshadowing and
those signs that are visible now, could have been backshadowing. Okonkwo is created in such a
seen then. In effect, the present as the future of way that he combines both mythical and con-
the past was already immanent in the past (Mor- ventional human qualities. As a mythical figure,
son 1994: 234). According to Morson, backshad- Okonkwo stands for the life and transformation
owing arises out of privileging one’s own time of his society. Most of the values that Okonkwo
over other’s time and using it to turn the past exhibits and cherishes are also cherished by his
into a well-knit story. As a result, loose ends society. Foremost among these values are hard-
which suggest other possibilities are drastically work and bravery. Although Okonkwo is not the
reduced or eliminated. Backshadowing is most original founder of the nine villages of Umuofia,
pronounced in the ideas of people who think of
the new life he brings to wrestling matches con-
history in determinate terms. Official Soviet cul-
stitute the society’s sense of pride and self-iden-
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(p. 61), shoots dead Ogbuefu Ezeudu’s son (p. Obierika displays his leadership qualities
124), and finally commits suicide (p. 207). The here. Although he is ordered to shut up by a
violations of these prohibitions, especially the court messenger, his role clearly shows that he
last, turn Okonkwo into an outcast. Okonkwo’s is a diplomat and represents the idea that change
personal choices alienate his attribute as a fore- would have come differently had Umuofia been
shadow and create a potential for sideshadow- led by people with more liberal views with re-
ing. Okonkwo’s failings that occur at certain im- gard to customary practices.
portant places in the action of the novel gives
rise to Obierika as an alternative role model for The Locust Invasion
the people of Umuofia. Obierika is more rational
and contemplative than Okonkwo. Through his Within the wider framework of Okonkwo’s
moderate character, the researchers see a per- status as a foreshadow and Obierika’s continual
sonality who could easily supplant Okonkwo’s
but subtle presence as a sideshadow, Achebe
mythical status. After Okonkwo is banished from
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Epigraph from W.B. Yeats as a Foreshadow and derlined in both the poem and the novel, the epi-
a Sideshadow graph foreshadows what takes place in the nov-
el. In other words, a study of Things Fall Apart
Achebe takes the title Things Fall Apart from the in terms of ‘The Second Coming’ is feasible.
first part of ‘The Second Coming’, a poem by W.B. Much as Achebe borrows the motif of disin-
Yeats (Norman 1984). That part reads as follows: tegration from Yeats, he illustrates it artistically in
Tuning and turning in the widening gyre keeping with his unique circumstances. ‘The Sec-
The falcon cannot hear the falconer; ond Coming’ is a poem composed of twenty- two
Things Fall Apart; the center cannot hold; lines while Things Fall Apart is a full- length nov-
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. el. Secondly, the first part of Things Fall Apart
Yeats’ poem provides the frame for under- depicts a society in which life is regulated by
standing how Achebe constructs his novel at clearly definable norms whereas the poem plung-
the level of ideas. The strategic placement of the es the reader directly into an estranged world.
epigraph makes it a necessary adjunct for a crit- From this, it is explicit that the writer of the
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ical reading of the novel. The part of the poem novel works with possibilities rather than sub-
that has been quoted foregrounds the contents serviently follow the framework provided by the
of the novel. As a result of having the quota- poem. Besides exploring Yeats’ concern in a dif-
tion, a sense of anticipation is created as to the ferent genre, Achebe modifies Yeats’ world in a
inter-textual linkage between the poem and the fundamental way. In the ‘Second Coming’, Chris-
novel. To appreciate Things Fall Apart fully, one tian religion is being replaced by a nameless
is called upon by analytical necessity to under- pagan religion. On the contrary, in Things Fall
stand the controlling idea of the poem. Apart, it is the pagan Gods that are being re-
A close reading of ‘The Second Coming’ placed by Christianity. Achebe makes Yeats’ idea
shows that the poet is concerned with demon- of civilization become subjective and conse-
strating that no civilization can remain static and quently, have a distinctive validity for his peo-
evolve forever towards perfection. A civilization ple. Embedded in the fact that the poem fore-
must collapse from within and be destroyed from shadows what happens in the novel are the many
without. Yeats insists that what replaces a civili- possibilities that Achebe can choose from and
zation opposes itself. The falcon’s loss of con- use to explore the theme of the destruction of
tact implies human beings’ separation from ide- the civilizations. One such instantiation of choice
als that have enabled them to control their lives. is how colonialism and Christianity ‘slouch to-
It involves an estrangement from traditional ties wards Umuofia’ and turn its world upside down.
that have kept life workable. The image of ‘the Achebe is even more particular than this by cre-
blood-dimmed tide’, which does not appear in ating a character, Okonkwo through whom he
the epigraph but in the later parts of the poem, dramatizes this theme.
refers to the terrible destructive forces that are
unleashed towards the end of an era. It is likely Backshadowing in Things Fall Apart
referring to war. The state of affairs that emerges
from Yeats’ description is that of helplessness. While the author employs foreshadowing
Achebe appears to operate along similar side by side with sideshadowing as the cases
lines. The first part of Things Fall Apart de- cited above illustrate, backshadowing is not jux-
scribes village life in which human beings are taposed with sideshadowing in a direct and im-
basically in harmony with themselves and with mediate way. A typical instance of backshadow-
the nature. Their society is held together by cul- ing is shown in part two of the novel when Obieri-
tural values that have evolved over a long time. ka visits Okonkwo in exile. Obierika tells about
However, germs of decline and collapse emerge the killing of a peaceful explorer by the people of
from within and without. Traditions such as hu- Abame. The impact of the act is a complete anni-
man sacrifice and the throwing of twin children hilation of their village. Commenting on the fact
in the forest undermine the cohesiveness of the that in killing a man who had said nothing, the
society. Colonial administration and Christiani- people of Abame had been unwise, Uchendu,
ty hasten the process of disintegration that the oldest man among Obierika’s audience says:
would have otherwise taken a longer time. Be- Never kill a man who says nothing... Moth-
cause the decay of civilizations is strongly un- er Kite once sent her daughter to bring food.
NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES IN CHINUA ACHEBE’S THINGS FALL APART 67
She went and brought back a duckling. ‘You Based on the Commissioner’s thoughts, read-
have done very well’, said themother to the ers can see in retrospect why Achebe describes
daughter, ‘but tell me, what did the mother of in detail the various aspects of the culture of
the duckling say when you swooped and car- Umuofia, These aspects include marriage cus-
ried its child away?’ ‘It said nothing’, replied toms, legal institutions and burial ceremonies.
the young kite. ‘It just walked away’. ‘You must Besides elucidating the values embedded in the
return the duckling’, said the mother. There is cultural practices he defines, the author parades
something ominous behind the silence (p. 140). the ugly side some of them embody. Among the
This anecdote is part of the folk wisdom of figures that Achebe uses to identify and describe
Achebe’s people. On account of the fact that it both the beautiful and the detestable side of his
is traditional and therefore already known, the people’s culture, proverbs are most foreground-
people of Abame should have invoked its au- ed. Proverbs are employed to demonstrate that
thority before deciding to kill the explorer. In kill- all the actions that are done in the community
ing the explorer, they flout the didactic purpose have some justification no matter what an out-
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of the anecdote and subsequently deserve ven- sider might think of them. Okonkwo, for example
geance. The anecdote thus contextualizes the fate justifies his participation in the killing of Ikeme-
of the people of Abame into a well-knit story. It funa by invoking the authority of the proverb,
‘foreshadows after the fact’ that the people of “A child’s fingers are not scalded by a piece of
Abame are destroyed because they do not pay hot yam which its mother puts in his mouth”
heed to their own well-known guidelines. (Things Fall Apart p.67). Okonkwo applies this
Besides Uchendu’s anecdote, the author proverb to argue his case that by killing Ikeme-
consciously uses backshadowing to justify his funa, he is merely carrying out the orders of the
entire artistic project. This is openly shown in Earth Goddess and so, he cannot be punished
the last part of the book. On discovering that for being a good messenger. Achebe’s excur-
Okonkwo has committed suicide, the District sion into the cultural provinces of Umuofia is,
Commissioner changes from a resolute adminis- therefore, intended to testify that the District
trator to a student of African anthropology. He Commissioner himself should have known more
instantly proceeds researching the customs of about those provinces than he does. The Dis-
Umuofia using the elders as his informants. The trict Commissioner backshadows what has al-
ultimate statement that he makes after a few min- ready happened and enables the reader to per-
utes of cross-examination is revealing: ceive the entire book as a well-calculated re-
The story of this man who killed a messen- sponse to his statements.
ger and hanged himself would make interest- Beyond this point, Achebe writes Things Fall
ing reading. One could almost write a whole Apart as a reaction to other complete works. In
chapter on him, perhaps not a whole chapter particular, he reacts to Joyce Cary’s novel:
but a reasonable paragraph, at any rate. There One of the things that set me thinking was
was so much else to include and one must be Joyce Cary’s novel, Mister Johnson, which was
firm on cutting out the details. He had already praised so much, but it was clear to me that it
chosen the title of the book after much thought. was a most superficial picture of not only the
The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes in the country- but even of the Nigerian character, so
Lower Niger (p. 208-209). I thought if this was famous then perhaps some-
The District Commissioner’s statement casts one ought to try and look at this from inside
a strong shadow on the pedagogical motives (Quoted in Pieterse p. 4.).
behind Achebe’s undertaking to write Things Through entering into dialogue with extant
Fall Apart. In this context, the author criticizes texts, Achebe’s novel places those other texts
the colonial administrator for assuming he knows into perspective. Things Fall Apart becomes the
much about African culture when he in fact knows last tentative systematic statement on the Afri-
very little. He satirizes the administrator light- can in the ensuing exchange. Incidentally, al-
heartedly for intending to summarize the whole though Achebe aims to answer Cary back, his
novel in just one paragraph. Since the adminis- project becomes too large for one book. In addi-
trator depicted in this episode is a certain type, tion to Things FallApart, Achebe sequentially
he represents all the colonial officials who lack wrote Arrow of God (1959) and No Longer At
an insider’s knowledge of the African culture. Ease (1961). These works in some way discuss
68 RICHARD M. WAFULA AND CHRIS L. WANJALA
transformations that the African societies under- Things Fall Apart. Moreover, they show that
go. Arrow of God depicts how traditional religious the pedagogical concerns of the novel are deep-
practices disintegrate. On the other hand, No Long- ly embedded in the techniques the author has
er At Ease discusses the dilemma that faces the used to weave his story.
young educated Nigerian who has ties both in the
rural areas and in town. Since these works react RECOMMENDATIONS
fundamentally to Joyce Cary’s novel, they are ex-
isting sideshadows of Things Fall Apart. Gary Morsons’ work is rarely applied to the
Later critical observations by Achebe him- reading of African literature. Yet researchers in
self have tended to verify the fact that his writ- this paper have shown that this theorist pro-
ing is largely functional. Achebe has been quot- vides insights into a narrative theory which can
ed in this regard as saying that he would be be used to understand other fictional works in-
quite satisfied if his novels (especially those cluding those written by the African authors.
ones he set in the past) did no more than teach
The version of narratology proposed by Mor-
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Moore G 1987. Twelve African Writers. Bloomington: Pieterse Cosmo (Ed.) 1972. African Writers Talking.
Indiana University Press. New York: African Publishing Company.
Morson G 1994. Narrative and Freedom: The Shad- Solomon Iyasere (Ed.) 1998. Understanding Things Fall
ows of Time. New Haven: Yale University Press. Apart. New York: The Whitson Publishing Compa-
Norman Jeffares (Ed.) 1984. Poems of W.B. Yeats: A ny.
New Selection. London, Basingstoke: Macmillan Sophocles 1996. The Oedipus Plays: Oedipus the King,
Publishers Limited. Oedipus at Colonus. Bath: Absolute Press.
Ogede O 2001. Oral tradition and modern story telling: Yankson K 1990. Achebe’s Novels: A Sociolinguistic
Revisting Achebe’s short stories. International Fic- Perspective. Uruowulu-Obosi: Pacific Publishers.
tion Review, 28(1 and 2): 211.
Ogbaa K 1999. Understanding Things Fall Apart. West- Paper received for publication on March 2016
er Port: Greenwood Press. Paper accepted for publicaiton on December 2016
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