Paper 2 Analysis

Paper 2 Analysis

2.- Show how and to what effect Achebe makes use of myth, legend or other stories tales.

First off, Things Fall Apart is a novel in which Chinua Achebe shows how much the Igbo people from Nigeria value their religion, and customs. In order to do this, Achebe portrays the life of a Nigerian individual called Okonkowo who lives in a tribe called Umoufia, and who is part of the Igbo culture. Throughout the novel Achebe shows that the religion, along with the social status, is the most important thing in the Igbo society. In order to show this, Achebe portrays many traditions and customs that the Igbo people practice, through Okonkowo’s story.

It is noticeable during the story, that Achebe wants to emphasize on the idea that the orality of the Igbo culture plays a major role in what concerns transmitting the customs, religion, and believes of the culture. In the period of time in which the story Things Fall Apart is developed the Igbo culture did not have any knowledge of writing or reading, therefore all the Igbo knowledge, customs, religion, and believes were passed to the next generations through the use of orality. The three ways in which the Igbo culture was passed from parents to children were spiritual songs, folktales, and poems. Since the orality is such an important part of the culture, Achebe includes examples of spiritual songs, folktales, and poems in the novel, portraying the impact that they have in the life of the different characters, to show its importance.

First of all, the traditional songs of the Igbo people were present always in their daily life. The songs are mainly based on a main voice singing, accompanied with a chorus that sometimes interacted in the song repeating a phrase that the main voice sang. The main instrument type used by the Igbo people were the percussion instruments. The Igbo people believed that the spiritual songs made a difference in their lives, therefore having the power to change a situation. One of the songs that Chinua Achebe includes in the novel, is the song that Ikemefuna, the child that the tribe had left to the main character of the play Okokowo, sings when walking towards his execution without knowing about it. Since Ikemefuna thought that he was going back to his original tribe, he was concerned of not having known anything about the health status of his mother in the period of time in which Okonkowo took care of him, therefore in order to decide whether or not his mother was alive, or dead, Ikemefuna decided that depending on the foot on which the song that he would sing ended, his mother would be dead or alive. This is a situation in which Achebe portrays the idead that the Igbo people believed that these songs had an impact in their lives.   

Second of all, Achebe also shows that the folktales have an important role in the orality of the Igbo culture. As Achebe shows in the novel, folktales are popular stories of the Igbo culture that are transmitted from generations to generations to transmit certain values that should be applied in life. Achebe includes an example of folktale of the Igbo culture, when he shows how one of Okonkowo’s wife, Ekwefi, tells a story to her daughter Ezinma. In the story that Ekwefi tells Ezinma, a tortoise is invited to a feast in which only birds are invited. The tortoise seizing the opportunity, deceives all the birds, and ends up eating all the food of the feast. Eventually, this display of greed turns against the tortoise, producing his shell breaking in pieces when landing on earth. This story was transmitted to Ezinma to understand that taking greed decisions to benefit only herself could possibly end up in a tragedy for her, therefore the value is transmitted to Ezinma through the folktale.

Finally, Achebe includes poems, or Igbo proverbs in the story, that show how the Igbo people decide to take decisions on their lives depending on what these proverbs say. An example of proverb used by Achebe in the story is “When a man says yes, his chi also says yes.” This proverb shows the Igbo believe that the personal God of each individual, the chi, will most of the time coincide with the decision of the individual itself. This proverbs transmitted from generation to generation in the Igbo culture show how the experience and believes of the Igbo ancestors are passed to the new generations through proverbs, that might help this generations in the future, when taking an important decision.

All in all Achebe’s use of folktales, proverbs, and songs, shows how important was the orality for the Igbo culture to transmit their believes, religions, and customs to the new generations.