The title of the book is well chosen. If you just read the first half of the book, you wouldn’t understand it. You would think that a title mentioning something about the specific tribe might work better or perhaps something about working hard. After all, Okonkwe is all about overcoming his father’s legacy. Yet the second half of the book proves that Achebe knew what he was doing when he selected the title. True, Okonkwe is focused on not becoming like his father, but there is more to his character that leads to his inevitable downfall. You first see it when he kills a man and is exiled to his motherland. Achebe writes how Okonkwe’s life-goal had been to become a great lord of his clan, “And he had all but achieved it. Then everything had been broken” (131). Okonkwe’s plans, in a sense, fell apart. If it had not been for Uchendu, Okonkwe would have given in to despair right then and there. But Uchendu held him together by giving him a good home for his seven year sojourn.
So Okonkwe was spared from completely falling apart. But it was not to last. Despite all Uchendu’s efforts, all he could do was delay Okonkwe’s fate. Okwonkwe’s downfall started back when he was a young man once he put all his trust in his clan and his position among them. As Achebe says, “That had been his life-spring” (131). Okonkwe’s life was tied up with that of his clan. And so, when he saw his clan “breaking up and falling apart” (183), it is no surprise that Okonkwe did the same. The title might very well have been “People Fall Apart.” But Achebe makes a point in the chosen title that things, whether they be plans, perceptions, friends, houses, families, beliefs, traditions, people, etc., things fall apart. The question is how do you respond when they do?
P.S. I commented on Luke’s and Zane’s posts.
Comments