Lauren Justice
Einstein’s P. 3
Yeats’ Fear and Achebe’s Reality
Achebe’s reason for taking his title from Yeat’s poem, The Second Coming, is evident through out his novel, Things Fall Apart. Yeat’s poem acts as a warning of what has actually come to pass in Achebe’s native land. The world of Okonkwo which was taken over by the white colonists in Things Fall Apart is mirrored by the world of dictatorship feared by Yeat’s.
As
Yeats predicts, “The falcon cannot hear the falconer” (line 2), the first
stages of power loss are experienced when the directed are no longer required
to follow. Umofia first begins to lose control over
its people when the outcasts and youth are taken in by the missionaries’ “New
Religion”. When Nwoye (in a sense
representing the youth of Umofia) joins the missionaries he is rejected by his
family and forgotten. Much the same happened with the outcasts. No one wished
to fight to keep these “unwanted” members of the tribe. But as a result to this
attitude the tribe lost its first members who would set the precident for those
to follow.
Tradition and stability began to
crumble in Umofia as the missionaries gained power. Yeats touched on this loss
when he wrote, “The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and
everywhere/ The ceremony of innocence is drowned” (lines 5-6). When the
missionaries were given land and allowed to take part in the decisions made on
the government of Umofia their “temporary settings” became permanent. The white
men instituted a justice system which the people of Umofia did not understand,
proclaiming it was civil, yet what justice is served when those being
prosecuted are unaware of why? An honored man in the tribe of Umofia, Okeke,
makes an insightful observation of the clash between the clan, “We leave the
matter in his hands because he does not understand our customs, just as we do
not understand his. We say he is foolish because he does not know out ways, and
perhaps he says we are foolish because we do not know his” (191). The
I fear for you young people because you do not understand how strong is the bond of kinship. You do not know what it is to speak with one voice. And what is the result? An abdominal religion has settled among you. A man can now leave his father and his ancestors, like a hunter’s dog that suddenly goes mad and turns on his master. I fear for you; I fear for the clan (167).
Uchendu recognizes how the clan is disintegrating. He mourns the loss of tradition and family. He understands that the “ceremony of innocence” is vanishing.
As the tribes downfall becomes more evident to the leaders, it is finally realized there is nothing left to do to stop them. The people of Umofia lost their grasp on the life they knew and became helpless. In reference to Yeats, he says, “The best lack all convictions, while the worst/ Are full of passionate intensity” (lines 7-8). Okonkwo’s downfall represents the best interpretation of this in Achebe’s novel. From the beginning of the book Okonkwo was devoted to achieving honor and rankings in his tribe. He was a very religious man who closely followed the traditions of his tribe. He feared the laziness of his father so he rose to become one the most honorable men in his land. After his seven year period Okonkwo returned home to a rude awakening. He was enraged when saw that his tribe was eroding beneath his feet. He hated the intruders and wished to act through war, but the majority of his clan members thought otherwise. No one wanted to fight anymore. Okonkwo had become helpless in preventing the loss of all that he believed in. At a village meeting discussing the future of the tribe Okonkwo slayed a messenger of the commissioner as the last act he would ever make in defense of his tribe’s traditions. He knew the act would not save anything. He knew it would be his downfall. That is why he later hung himself on a tree. The man who strove for nothing but honor, died in the most dishonorable way. Okonkwo’s friend Obierika spoke of the tragedy of Okonkwo’s death saying, “That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog” (208). In a sense Okonkwo represented the last of the old ways for his tribe. While many of his fellow tribe members disliked the church, they were aware they were being wiped out. The only people left with conviction were the missionaries and the Commissioner.
The most chilling statement in Things Fall Apart was the last paragraph when the Commissioner narrates. He says:
The story of this man who had killed a messenger and hanged himself would make interesting reading. One could almost write a whole chapter on him. Perhaps not a whole chapter but a reasonable paragraph, at any rate. There was so much to include, and one must be firm in cutting out details. He had already chosen the title, after much thought: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of Lower Niger (209).
Here
the story of Okonkwo, the story that was the sole focus of Achebe’s novel, was
being described as nothing more than a detail. In a sense this last paragraph
sums up the tragedy which Achebe was evoking. The effects of imperialism which
plagued
Yeats feared the possibility of his world falling apart because of the prospects of dictatorships gaining power relevant to his time. For Achebe those prospects became a reality which he relived through the story of Okonkwo. Obierika describes the turmoil inflicted upon Umoufia by the white men, “Now he has won our own brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” No one can really define when it is okay to wipe out the traditions of a community for the sake of one’s own notions of civilization and enlightenment. Achebe warns his reader of the misuse of power. Such mistakes can have repercussions which can last a life time.