The Breaking PointThe Breaking PointThe Breaking PointIn Chinua Achebes novel Things Fall Apart, outsiders disrupt a settlement based on tradition. The poem “The Second Coming” by W.B. Yeats talks about the falconer and how the widening gyre makes it so that the people lose focus of the falconer in the center of that gyre. In Things Fall Apart, there are many examples of the people losing focus on their center because of the mixing of outside cultures. The novel Things Fall Apart is a true example of the repercussions that Yeats speaks concerning the problems people face when they lose focus of their traditions and acquire new views.
In “The Second Coming”, Yeats states that “Turning and turning in the widening gyre/ The falcon cannot hear the falconer” (1-2). The “gyre”, or circle, centers on the falconer who is the main point of life in the tribe. In the town of Umofia, “the falconer” represents tradition. Tradition is the main focal point of the tribe and thus, the tribe’s center. As the circle widens, due to the entrance of the white missionaries, the people get further and further away from that tradition and are less able to “hear” and keep focus on the falconer. As a symbol of tradition, Okonkwo also represents “the falconer” while his son, Nwoye is “the falcon”. As the people come from outside lands, Nwoye moves his focus away from the tradition. Nwoye turns so far away from tradition that he goes on to renounce his father saying, “He is not my father” (144). Nwoye has turned his focus away from the tradition of the tribe and now listens to the white missionaries, against the advice of Okonkwo. Turning away from the traditions of the tribe and not listening to his advice deeply disheartens Okonkwo.
In the next line of Yeats’ poem, he writes “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold” (3). As the novel shows, when the tribe loses sight of the center of their circle, it dissolves. As a figure representative of tradition, Okonkwo demonstrates, that once the focus of the circle, tradition, is lost, it cannot be rebuilt. In the novel, once the people lose the focus of tradition, the tribe and the tradition will never be able to return to the way it was. The novel states that “the drums and the dancing began again and reached fever-heat. Darkness was around the corner, and the burial was near” (123-124). This statement foreshadows Okonkwos banishment from the town. This is important because Okonkwo represents tradition in the
n. Thus, for Okonkwo the decision to take the move is up to the people. At the same time, Okonkwo does not assume the mantle of a legend. In the poem, the tribe’s history is centered on the town of Okon: this is their place of residence and, thus, when they first enter the town, they find it filled with people whose lives were disrupted. Okonkwo has been accused of the following things: a. A lack of cultural traditions.b. Lack of local traditions.c. Corruption of local traditions. These are the reasons Okonkwo has to leave the community. (This is a critical point in the novel, because Okonkwo is at great risk of losing their culture.) The community is not safe.
The first point is very important for Okonkwo: at the end of the book, Okonkwo concludes, “We do not have a society in which we are not accountable for our actions, because of our culture” (114-115). The book is essentially saying, “we must break this broken culture.” Okonkwo has said that our culture as a whole, and its place in society, is now at risk of annihilation, and the entire landscape must suffer. In short, if we move away from our culture and start rebuilding it, then the landscape is doomed, and all living things with traditional customs, cultural customs, tradition, and beliefs will be erased. I recommend the following examples to understand why Okonkwo has turned their cultural roots against them during his short stay there. It is an odd statement, given so much of the book is an attempt to defend and defend the culture of Okonkwo. I suggest in every way that the book is not about preserving the culture of Okonkwo, but in attacking it. It starts with an open and clear statement saying that Okonkwo is at war with its culture. Okonkwo is at war with culture and is being treated unfairly. Okonkwo’s culture — in other words, it is at war with its way of life.
One thing the book does say is that we are at this point experiencing the end of civilization.
The novel provides no evidence for Okonkwo’s contention that our culture is at war with its cultural roots. The fact that Okonkwo has spent so much time traveling through the world in search of cultural reasons for returning to the way it was once rests on Okonkwo himself. Okonkwo’s culture is at war with its way of life, and he is being treated unfairly. Okonkwo is not at war with the way he’s treated