Things Fall Apart: Writer's Methods and Techniques (Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE English Literature): Revision Note

In your exam question on Things Fall Apart, examiners will assess your ability to demonstrate a close knowledge and understanding of the text and engage with the text in a personal and informed way. This means that you will be required to write about how you believe Achebe creates meaning and conveys ideas across the novel. 

There is no assessment on language analysis as such. Examiners are looking for an exploration of how Achebe’s overall aims were achieved. Achebe conveys ideas through several methods and techniques in Things Fall Apart:

• Tragedy

• Narrative perspective 

• Setting

• Symbolism and motifs

Tragedy

• Achebe’s novel is structured as a tragedy which presents the downfall of tragic hero, Okonkwo, as well as the destruction of the Igbo culture

• The exposition portrays Okonkwo as a typical tragic hero: he has status and popularity in his village

• In the rising action, Okonkwo’s fatal flaw is exposed in interactions with his family, and readers see the pressure he feels about his son:

  • His extreme, stereotypical views on masculinity expose him as an aggressive and merciless father and husband

  • Despite advice, he refuses to reflect on or alter his behaviour

• Typically, the tragic hero’s inner turmoil and guilt leads to his downfall:

  • In the resolution, Okonkwo, feeling powerless, takes his own life

Narrative perspective

• Achebe uses a neutral third-person omniscient perspective, so readers hear the thoughts and feelings of multiple characters

• By revealing the feelings of both father and son, Achebe presents both perspectives on the conflict between them, which raises themes about identity:

  • The narrator explains that Nwoye was causing “his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness”, adding “that was how it looked to his father”

  • But we also hear of Nwoye’s reactions to his father: “Nwoye had felt for the first time a snapping inside him like the one he now felt.”

• However, the omniscient perspective also creates an emotional distance between the reader and the community of Umoifia:

  • For example, the use of the third-person pronoun in “Darkness held a vague terror for these people”

• The District Commissioner perspective is heard too: 

  • "One of the most infuriating habits of these people was their love of superfluous words, he thought”

• The narrator weaves information about Igbo culture throughout the novel to give context to events and emphasise key traditions:

  • Proverbs are used to express beliefs, such as: “The Ibo people have a proverb that when a man says yes, his chi says yes also”

  • This reflects ideas about fate and personal independence

Setting

• The story is set in a fictional, rural community called Umuofia in Nigeria:

  • The community is made up of nine farming villages

• Villages are identified by parental lineage (as either “fatherland” or “motherland”) highlighting the importance of ancestry and cultural identity:

  • For example, Okonkwo is exiled to Mbanta, his mother’s village, in a bid to help him connect with the “feminine”

• The story is set in the 19th century during British colonisation

• Achebe draws attention to different cultures and how the Igbo belief systems change as a result of Christian missionaries:

  • When the missionaries remain safe in the Evil Forest, a cursed place the villagers fear, some members of the community question Igbo beliefs, and convert

• The District Commissioner’s book, the title of which ends the novel, raises cultural themes by presenting the British perspective on Africa:

  • The title, “The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger”, suggests a savage land, and dismisses Igbo borders

Symbolism and motifs

Proverbs and fables

• Igbo traditions related to spiritual and moral values are described throughout

• Igbo beliefs in the chi, for example, are described:

  • The proverb, “when a man says yes his chi says yes also” relates to themes of fate and free will

  • This shows Okonkwo’s fatal flaw from an Igbo perspective, rather than a Western one

• Characters in the novel illustrate the oral storytelling traditions of the Igbo:

  • The villagers remember stories, like Ikemefuna’s tale of the twins

  • This is contrasted with the British prioritising of reading and writing

Drums

• Throughout the novel the sound of drums indicates important events, such as festivals and the popular wrestling competitions

• The narrator personifies the drums, signifying them as integral to the village:

  • “It was like the pulsation of its heart” and “It was the ekwe talking to the clan”

• Present-tense verbs suggest the drums may outlast the humans: they are described as “beating” and “persistent and unchanging”

Animal imagery

• Achebe describes the significance of the natural world in rural Igbo villages:

  • Fables about animals symbolise traditional belief systems

  • Mothers tell stories about the tortoise shell, a bird who challenged the world, or a vulture who pleads with the “Earth and Sky”  

• The importance of animals even leads to violent protest:

  • Villagers burn a church after a convert is believed to have killed a python, a sacred animal in Igbo religion

• The idea of “locusts” represents the traditional Igbo culture, and its destruction:

• There is much feasting and celebration when a swarm of locusts arrive (they are a delicacy) because, it is explained, they rarely come

• But the elders describe the British settlers as “locusts” too:

  • This may connote to the colonists as an invading “swarm” or “plague”