Bibliography

WORKS CITED

Achebe, Chinua. 1959. Things fall apart. New York: Fawcett Crest.

Bascom, Tim. 1988. The black African and the "white man's God" in Things fall apart. Cultural repression or liberation? Commonwealth Essays and Studies 11:1: 70-76.

Cobham, Rhonda. 1991. Making men and history: Achebe and the politics of revisionism. In Approaches to teaching "Things fall apart," ed. Bernth Lindfors. New York: Modern Language Association.

Gikandi, Simon. 1991. Reading Chinua Achebe: Language and ideology in fiction. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Hawkins, Hunt. 1991. Things fall apart and the literature of empire. In Approaches to teaching "Things fall apart," ed. Bernth Lindfors. New York: Modern Language Association.

scholarly article response

In his article titled ''Principle and Practice: The Logic of Cultural Violence in Achebe's Things Fall Apart.'', David Hoegberg considers principle and practice among the characters in the novel  and how this  eventually leads to alienation and violence. I agree with him on that notion  because before the missionaries invaded the Igbo clan, to which their disunity is attributed, the people of Umofia were alredy engaged in cutural violence caused by themselves and that contribiuted to their fall. Obviosly they were disjoint in their practices that involved things such as human sacrifices and wars.They were not dynamic in their cultural believes, the very basis for a successful cultural strenght.All the other forms of chaos they encountered wer not fully pleasing to everybody.Like David said, ''If the Igbo, as depicted in the novel, fail to make changes in other areas where there are contradictions between principle and practice, then, it cannot be because such change is impossible.'' However since they had been born to accept those forms of violence acted upon them such as okonkwo's murder of  Ikemefuna they cannot claim to be unaware or unconsious of the cultural ''violence withing their culture''  on a geneneral scale.Concievably therefore, they had a part to play in their own downfall due to the presense of ''cutural violence'' and lack of ''change.''


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Quote analysis-The Igbo clan in shambles-[10]

''He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart."

The knife here is an imagery representing Christianity. It is in effect  cutting through the things that held the people together which was their practices such as worship of the gods,wars,ancestral sacrifices and all the things they deemed sacred. The people of Ummofia believed they were united in this sense hence anything that caused a division or disunity amongst them was a deadly tool just like a ''knife''.

                       

Quote analysis-Humility-[9]

"Those whose palm-kernels were cracked for them by a benevolent spirit should not forget to be
humble."
I Believe this statement was in regards to Okonkwo's arrogance. He was required to at least show some humility at the elders meeting because everything he had or possesed was not solely by his own doing .At least he had the help of his wives and children making him as prosperous as he was.

Quote analysis-Self Pride-[8]

-"The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said he would praise
himself if no one else did."

Okonkwo's pride was seen as this statement was made. Tt is an African proverb that in this sense meant  that, whether Okonkwo's family and neigbours gave him praise for his efforts and hard work or not, he was going to pat himself on the back anyways.

Quote analysis-Beliefs and customs abondoned-[7]

''An abominable religion has settled among you. A man can now leave his father and his brothers. He can curse gods of his fathers and his ancestors, like a hunter’s dog that suddenly goes mad and turns on his master''.
The introdution of christianity by the missionarries had caused an  increased disregard for  the customs of the igbo clan. This had resulted in many families falling apart due to disagreements as to whether to follow the white man's religion or stick to their own worship of the gods. The elder relating  it to a dog turning on his master can be explaind as a sign of rebellion on the part of most of the tribesmen.

Quote analysis-Loss of trust-[6]

''He called his son, Nwoye, to sit with him in his obi. But the boy was afraid of him and slipped out of the hut as soon as he noticed him dozing''

Nwoye was seen as the less favored son of Okonkwo's family. The death of his brother which was the doing of his fatther  scared him and caused him to loose trust in his father. His escape from the hut when his father fell asleep shows that he was afraid of being killed too at any point. I personally find it repulsive the fact that Okwonko was responsible for taking the life of Ikemefuna because blood relations were really considered sacred.