Title of the novel Things Fall Apart:
The title of Achebe’s novel “Things Fall Apart” owes to W. B Yeats’ visionary poem, “The Second Coming”. Years speaks of the break-down of the “Old order” and its displacement by a “new order”:
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer.
Things Fall Apart; the centre cannot hold
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”.
Achebe cites these four lines in the front page of his novel to beautifully express the theme. He too speaks about a forcible breaking down of an older and settled order of native African Ibo culture under the continuous attacks of the “new order” of British colonialism and Christianity. The very title “Things Fall Apart”, highlights the process of disintegration of Ibo culture and society. The centre was unable to resist the attacks of the “mere anarchy” of British colonialism and consequently everything fell apart in the world of Umuofia.
“Things Fall Apart” is about an African clan of Ibo people which once thought like one, spoke like one, shared a common awareness and acted like one. They lived a simple and primitive life, toiled from sunrise to sunset and were happy with their hoe cultivation. They were mostly unaware about the rest of the African continent. Much like the Mano Majra villagers in Khuswant Singh’s “Train to Pakistan”, the Ibo people of Umuofia, Manta Abame and others seemed to live on an island cut from the mainland. They observed festivals like “A week of Peace” and the new yam festival. They were fond of storytelling, poem composition, music and wrestling matches. They loved to come together and enjoy a warm social life as Uchendu remarks “We came together because it is good for the kinsman to do so”. A Council of elders consisting of nine great men of the clan acted as the local governing body and their religion and culture kept them united. Any individual transgression was believed to endanger the whole community.
The disintegration of the Ibo community and culture started with the introduction of Christianity. In this new religion any human being is acceptable and so Osu, the outcast clansman, became converted. Moreover, Christianity resolved the confusions and malpractices of the Ibo culture such as killing innocent boys like Ekemefuna for other’s fault, throwing away infant twins and leaving seriously ill people to rot in forests. The chief bitter experience created by the Christian missionaries was the discrimination between the converted and the non-converted. Mr Smith considered the native Africans to be the sons of darkness and recommended to slay the Ibo prophets. He even criticised the humane Mr Brown’s kind and real Christian policies. Thus, this new religion built an invisible wall between the brothers and Obierika rightly remarked : “our own men and sons have joined the ranks of the stranger”.
The real disintegration began with the colonial government, courts of justice, prisons and agencies for trade and commerce. The people who defied the rules were sent behind the bars. The aged members of the Council of elders were beaten, tortured, insulted and released only after paying 250 cowries. Christianity brought with itself a peaceful trade and the people became more prosperous. For the first time palm-oil and kernel became the things of great price, and “much money flowed into the Umuofia”. The people preferred the lucrative commerce to pointlessly attacking the whiteman and his religion.
A liberal religion economic prosperity came, but came at the cost of the unity and the culture of the Ibo people. The colonial culture was forcefully imposed upon the native Africans. To avert their tragedy, the Abame people killed the white men and consequently the village was wiped out. As Obrieka asserts, “Even the sacred fish in their mysterious lake have fled and the lake has turned the colour of blood”.This fate of Abame stopped the Mbanta people from doing any act and things began to fall apart at random. The story is not only about the fall of Okonkwo from heights of fame to a tragic death, but also about the fall of a whole community and the culture. At the end, Okonkwo committed suicide despite knowing it to be against their native custom and his moral defeat led to the breakdown of the age-old system. Obierika justly said : “He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart”.
Thus, the title “Things Fall Apart” shows how British colonisation and the conversion to Christianity of tribal people has destroyed an intricate and old pattern of life in Umuofia. Dealing with the theme of Chaos and disruption, Achebe’s selection of the title “Things Fall Apart” is not only proper, suggestive and accurate but a true reflection and the mirror to its theme.