The Center Cannot Hold: Literary Devices in Things Fall Apart Shortly after the Industrial Revolution in Europe, influential countries came together to discuss the colonization of Africa at the Berlin Conference. The European nations divided Africa amongst themselves to gain new resources to further support their empires. This led to Christian missionaries infiltrating Africa to convert the natives. In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, he depicts the collapse of the Ibo society during this period.
The progression of the colonial encounters contributes to the disintegration of the Ibo culture and cause the village of Umuofia to slowly lose grasp of the things that shape their society. Achebe demonstrates the dynamics of colonization of Umuofia through the use of literary devices to illustrate the downfall resulting from Imperialism in Things Fall Apart. Achebe conveys the unfortunate fate of Umuofia throughout the novel by creating the sense of doom and helplessness that the Ibo people experience through the use of light and dark imagery.
As a whole, people of the Ibo society fear darkness. “Darkness [holds] a vague terror [to them], even the bravest among them” (9). Their fear of the dark comes from their belief that darkness possesses evil spirits and brings out the sinister side of things. As a result, the Ibo people only go out when there’s moonlight. As the “moons and seasons passed” (54) after the Feast of Ani, an annual celebration of the new year in Umuofia, locusts start to descend in Umuofia.
The descent of locusts demonstrates the contrasting light and dark imagery by illustrating the darkness the locusts bring, resembling that of the Second Coming. In the beginning “a fairly small swarm came… [appearing] on the horizon [as] a slowly-moving mass like a boundless sheet of Black Cloud drifting towards Umuofia” (56). The foreshadowing of the locusts alludes to the biblical times when a cast of locusts swarmed over the land before the devastating plagues, bringing death and destruction to the people.
The appearance of the locusts signified the inevitable and impending doom to those it occupied. Similar to the missionaries, when the locusts descended, “they settled on every tree and on every blade of grass [until the] mighty tree branches broke away under them and the whole country became the brown-earth color of the vast, hungry swarm” (56). The swarm of locusts illustrates dark imagery to foreshadow the collapse of the Ibo society. The locusts also symbolize the start of the destruction of the lbo society while mimicking the missionaries advancements in the colonization of Umuofia.
As the missionaries progress in colonizing Umuofia, the Ibo society weakens. Okonkwo, the protagonist in Things Fall Apart depicts the rise and fall of the Ibo people when the missionaries colonize Umuofia. His ignorance that leads to Umuofia’s demise reflects that of the Ibo society. During Okonkwo’s youth, his work ethic and desire for success “clearly cut [him] out for great things” (8) and the people of Umuofia respect his leadership and his achievements. However, his fear of “being thought weak” (61) causes his ignorance, leading to his destruction.
Throughout the novel, Achebe foreshadows Okonkwo’s sad fate by slowly deteriorating his morales. Achebe uses the fable about a tortoise a falling from the sky after the tortoise selfishly tricked the birds to bring him to a feast to emphasize the fact that pride and ignorances leads to downfall. The tortoise’s shell “[broke] into pieces” (99) similar to how Okonkwo’s life was shattered by the missionaries. One turning point in Okonkwo’s life is when his friend Obierika visits Umuofia and discovers Nwoye, Okonkwo’s son, among the Christian missionaries.
When asking Nwoye about Okonkwo, Nwoye bluntly replied “I don’t know. He is not my father” (144). His lack of acknowledging his father exemplifies how people who once listened to Okonkwo are turning their backs on him and starting to follow the instructions of the missionaries. Okonkwo’s attempts to restore the Ibo traditions backfire and it provokes him to take his own life, dying a shameful death. As he died, so did Umuofia’s succumbing to the missionaries’ lifestyle. Just like a “roaring flame” (153), Okonkwo burned bright in the past, but fire also consumes everything, ultimately itself.
The destruction of the Ibo society and Okonkwo’s fate helps the conquest of the Christian missionaries because it weakens the people and helps the missionaries colonize the village of Umuofia. The Christian missionaries view the Ibo society as primitive and stateless. However, the Ibo people had their own ideas and beliefs before the missionaries began to control their land and eventually their people. Umuofia represents the center of the Ibo society, when the missionaries approach Umuofia, things start changing and the Ibo people can’t do anything to stop its destruction, they can only watch as their doom descends on them.
The conflict between the missionaries and the Ibo people casts a shadow and darkens the Ibo society. Achebe’s use of foreshadowing and dark imagery contributes to the progression of colonization, leading to the destruction of Umuofia. Umuofia experiences “Second Coming” when the rise of colonization overcomes the destruction. As Umuofia falls apart “it [seems] as if the very soul of the tribe [weeps] for a great evil that was coming… it’s own death” (187). The destruction of Umuofia allows for the rise of colonization. The collapse of Umuofia reveals that when start things falling apart, “the center cannot hold” (Yeats).
