English Honors 10--Essay 1

Lyndzie Garro

Mrs. Bosch

English Honors 10

2 August 2006

Achebe’s Pride

Pride: desire or satisfaction taken in an action or a certain time

in life. There are certain points in a man’s life which he holds pride

in. Although some of these times in life may seem strange and not

important to someone, they still may bring joy and pride to another

man. Or in other words, even the littlest things in life may bring joy

and happiness to someone somewhere. Which is why these points or

events must be expressed in any means possible, or else it just is not

healthy to keep all that excitement and emotion trapped inside. For

some men, they share these events through oral stories, but others

write stories. Sharing his points or events in life which brought him

pride was what Chinua Achebe was doing when he wrote the novel

Things Fall Apart. But to some people, the items which bring them

pride are material objects, whereas the items which brought Chinua

Achebe pride were not items at all. What brought pride to Achebe

was: family, heritage, language, memory and life, or lives.

Family was more than likely what brought Achebe the most

pride.

Family was probably most important because no matter what

may happen, the only people who will always be there is family.

Achebe showed his pride in family through his book Things Fall

Apart in many ways. One of the most important of these ways

was his explanation of what happened when the Igbo people

“prayed to the ancestors for life and health” as well as for

each other (6). Achebe described all of the Igbo people’s

specific job during the time in which they pray to their

ancestors. This showed how much each member of the family

depends on the other members. As later shown in the book, as soon

as one member of the family turned away from the others, the family

instantly fell apart. The importance of life, existence and

responsibility is not understood until it is no longer available. In

Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo’s eldest son, Nwoye, had doubts in his

family and also the laws and rules of the land which forced him to

turn on his family and convert to Christianity. Okonkwo’s reaction to

this, strangling his son, showed the intensity of how important family

is to Achebe. Other than this extreme reaction to a different kind of

tragedy in the family, there are other ways to see the importance of

family from the author’s perspective. The same, constant feeling

towards all children, or at least what the children could see, was a

way of showing that although one member of the family may seem

more superior than the others, they are all loved the same and will be

treated in the same manner. The importance of family was also

expressed through the roles of the ancestors. To the Igbo people,

their ancestors were like their gods on earth. They still believed in

one superior god, but they had “messengers” on earth of whom they

either carved from wood, or was one of their ancestors so the family

stays alive. The role of the ancestor’s is more so heritage and

tradition than the importance and pride brought to Achebe by family.

Although the ancestors are part of the family, there are certain

traditions which were passed down to each generation. One such

tradition is the praying to and sacrificing to the ancestors. But

heritage is not only ancestors, but the customs of the land, this is

what brought pride to Achebe. There was a conversation between

Okonkwo and Obierika which released the author’s feelings of anger

towards the Europeans and his pride in heritage. Obierika looks at

everything how it really is like the white men. “The white man is very

clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion…he has won

our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one” (176), the

white men stole all of the Igbo people’s customs and traditions. It

may not have been realized when the white men first arrived because

they seemed trusting with their foolish talk of the Igbo gods not

being real, but worshiping those gods is what the Igbo had done

for many, many years. The white men tore apart the village, “he has

put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen

apart” (176). Once one or two traditions is stripped from the land,

there is nothing else there for the people, no hope or power because

the white men had already won, which is why language was so

important and brought so much pride to Achebe.

According to Achebe, conversation was very important

and brought him much pride. Conversation was so important

because it brings everyone together, it unifies them and allows

them to speak their mind and keep everything they way they

like. The art of conversation or language had such an importance

in Things Fall Apart because it was language that could have

saved the Umuofia village from being torn apart by the

Europeans. If the people of Umuofia considered the fact that

among themselves, “the art of conversation is regarded very

highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are

eaten” (7), then maybe they would have thought to speak up

for themselves and save their people, land and ancestors from

being stripped of all their pride and heritage. When writing this

novel, Achebe seemed to have purposely sent Okonkwo into

exile around the same time the white men came to take over

the Umuofia village. It seemed so because Okonkwo was like

the voice of the community, he would speak his mind and stick

up for his people. But once Okonkwo was gone, the white men

could get whatever they pleased because no one would stand up

to them in fear of being killed, just as the Abame clan was. This

recollection of what happened to the Abame clan contributes to

why memory was so important and brought so much pride to Achebe.

Memory was an important aspect of Achebe’s novel and life. In

Things Fall Apart, the Umuofians took advantage of the memory of

what had previously happened to the Abame clan. The white men

took the Abame clan as their first victims, they were successful,

except for the fact that everyone was killed because they went into

war. The white men were not satisfied so they moved on to try and

convert people to Christianity. But the Abame clan was taken over

on their own part. Their Oracle had warned them, “the strange man

would break their clan and spread destruction among them” (138).

They should have seen it coming, but they were blindsighted by the

interesting approach by the white men. Achebe spread the news of

this to Umuofia and Mbanta to warn them. But the Umuofians heard

this and totally disregarded the fact that they themselves would soon

die, maybe not physically, but in their hearts and within their

families. If the Umuofians remembered what the Abame clan

had been told, and remembered what had happened to them,

they could have saved their lives, their family’s lives and their

friends lives which is why memory was such an important

aspect in Achebe’s novel and brought him pride. Saving the

lives of the village was important to Achebe because life in

general and his people’s lives brought him pride.

Life was another important factor to Achebe because life is the

center of everything, which is why it can bring joy to so many people.

In his novel, Achebe stressed the fact that life is an important,

sacred item. According to the Igbo people, it is “an abomination

for a man to take his life. It is an offense against the Earth”

(207). In Things Fall Apart, the protagonist took his life to

teach his people a lesson. This lesson was they were killing

themselves by allowing the Europeans to settle on their land

and convert people to Christianity. It was an insult to

Okonkwo that even his own son would desert his family and

culture to join the Christians. The Europeans were able to drive “one

of the greatest men in Umuofia” (208) to his death. Their ability to

kill one of the greatest and strongest men in Umuofia should have

scared the Umuofians. In the novel, it should not have come down

to someone taking their life to show their people that they were

falling apart, they were dying, but unfortunately, drastic times

call for drastic measures.

Although pride is such a wide range of items, it is still the

basis of life. If there is not pride, there is no will or power to do

anything, the same goes with family. Without family, language,

memory, life and heritage are also the basis for life which no

one can live without. While writing his novel Things Fall Apart,

Chinua Achebe brought all of these characteristics to the

surface, along with their importance and the pride they may bring

to someone.

Work Cited

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Anchor Books: A Division of

Random House, Inc: New York, 1994.