Rhythm and Narrative Method in Achebe's "Things Fall Apart"

Abstract

Before publication of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart in 1958 public awareness in West of fiction from Africa was confined chiefly to white writers such Doris Lessing, Alan Paton, or Nadine Gordimer. Thus Achebe's first novel, written in English, though he is himself a Nigerian of Igbo people, was a notable event. More noteworthy was fact that it was a very good novel and has become over years probably most widely read and talked about African novel, overshadowing efforts of other West African novelists well those of East and South Africa. Its reputation began high and has remained so, stimulating critical analysis in hundreds of articles, many books, and dissertations. Its story describes, whatever one may expect from its Yeatsian title, life of a traditional Igbo rural village and rise of one of its gifted leaders, Okonkwo, before colonization, and then observes consequences for village and hero they confront beginnings of colonial process. Achebe's subsequent three novels, more or less related but not sequential, No Longer At Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), and Man of People (1966), though all respected, have not matched its success. Achebe's fiction established firmly that there is an African prose literature-poetry had probably been well known since Senghor in 1940s-even when written in English. Not that there has not been debate over and criticism of Things Fall Apart, and from Achebe's standpoint a good deal of misunderstanding through refusal of readers to take its African character seriously; but a recent study confirms he continues to be the most widely read of contemporary African writers. 1 His first novel has been as big a factor in formation of a young West African's picture of his past, and of his relation to it, any of still rather distorted teachings of pulpit and primary school, 2 and of course he has influenced his fellow writers just significantly in finding their own subject matter and voice. When beginning Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart, readers are often struck by simple mode of narration and equally simple prose style, which critics have seen Achebe's desire to achieve an . . . colored to reflect African verbal style [with] stresses and emphases that would be eccentric and unexpected in British or American speech. He reshapes English in order