Things_Fall_Apart_Commentary

Things Fall Apart Commentary Guiding questions: * How does Achebe create tension and convey sympathy for Ikemefuna in this part of the novel' * How is the character of Okonkwo presented in this extract' At the beginning of this extract Achebe begins with “the men of Umoufia pursed their way, armed with sheathed machetes, and Ikemefuna, carrying a pot of palm-wine on his head, walked in their midst”, this sentence sounds like the men are going out to war with another clan, the fact that there are only men signifies that what they are doing is both significant but also dangerous. The use of the word ‘pursued’ makes the reader think of a predator pursuing their prey and in this case Ikemefuna is the prey, this makes the reader feel sorry for him because he is a clan on his own that hasn’t done anything to deserve what is about to happen to him, the fact that he is unaware also plays a part in the reader’s emotions. The fact that Ikemefuna is the middle again symbolises animal imagery; it is like they are a pack of wild dogs that are surrounding their prey, making escape impossible. This again plays with the reader’s emotions as they know that Ikemefuna is sure to face death. “Although he had felt uneasy at first, he was not afraid now. Okonkwo walked behind him“ Ikemefuna feels safe as long as Okonkwo is behind him, he thinks that as long as Okonkwo is behind him none of the other men can do anything to him; if at all anything was to happen to Ikemefuna, it would be Okonkwo himself that would administer the punishment. This gives a lot of insight into how Ikemefuna sees Okonkwo; he seems to know that although Okonkwo seems like a cruel and heartless man, he would never let anything happen to him, this could be true to an extent but Okonkwo is scared of failure and he would do anything to make sure that people don’t think of him as a failure. It would also seem to him that he was a failure if other people punished someone under his control because in his eyes it should be him giving out the punishments to people under him. When Achebe begins to describe how Ikemefuna is feeling he uses emotive imagery that makes the reader sympathise with Ikemefuna. “How his mother would weep for joy” the reader feels sorry for him because they know that he is not going home as he thinks and there will be no such happy reunion. Also it shows that Ikemefuna loves his mother and that the bond that he has with her has not reduced over time as would be expected. The fact that he knows she will weep for joy shows that he knows her very well. The use of the word ‘weep’ is especially emotive because weeping is different from shedding a few tears, it is an action derived from deep emotions such as joy or grief. The reader sympathises with the fact that his mother will probably be weeping out of grief after hearing about her son’s fate rather than joy that he believes she will feel. The game that Ikemefuna begins to play is one that the reader can identify with, when we sense that something bad is going to happen we try and play games with fate in our heads and it relieves the tension that we may be facing. For Ikemefuna it can be seen as him trying to fight the inner voice that is telling him that his mother is dead “he tried in vain to force the thought out of his mind. Then he tried to settle the matter the way he used to settle such matters when he was a little boy”. It can be seen as a childish thing to do and this could signify the fact that although he is older now he doesn’t know or understand how to tackle serious matters like this. It is obvious he3e that has not followed in the footsteps of his carer Okonkwo; Okonkwo would not concern himself with such a matter, and even if he did care he would either not show it in public or repress the memory and work harder. Achebe starts to make links to the fact that Ikemefuna is not going to escape fate, one such is “it must be the thought of going home to his mother” if his mother had also not escaped death then Ikemefuna would in a sense be going home to see his mother, this quote may soften the emotion of sadness for Ikemfuna’s definite death, because he could be getting his wish of seeing his mother and maybe there may be a happy reunion. But this emotion cannot expect to last long as Achebe decides to bring a quick end to what has seemed like a long deliberation. “one of the men behind him cleared his throat. Ikemefuna looked back, and the man growled at him to go on and not stand looking back” this cough seems to a signal to the rest that the time has come, the fact that Ikemefuna looks back shows that he has come out of his world of dreams and games, he obviously senses that it is not his mother’s life he should be worried about but his own. The man growling shows the animal imagery again, most predatory animals growl or make threatening noises before killing their prey in order to intimidate them, this obviously had an effect as “the way he said it sent cold fear down Ikemfuna’s back” Achebe is directly influencing the emotion that the reader is feeling, the way he describes fear could cause the reader to feel a chill in their own backs; he uses a different metaphor to the one that is widely used (a chill down his spine) i believe that this has more effect because when a phrase is used commonly, it loses its meaning but saying the same thing using different wording produces more of a reaction. “His hands trembled vaguely on the black pot he carried. Why had Okonkwo withdrawn to the rear' Ikemefuna felt his legs melting under him.” Ikemefuna is now feeling the emotion that the reader has been anticipating. His body is giving into the pressure of fear and the reader realises that the end is at hand. When Okonkwo, his protector, his ‘father’, his personal mentor withdraws to the back, Ikemefuna knows that he is a dead boy walking. The faith that he had in Okonkwo to protect him is now shown as an obvious false hope. Although Okonkwo was not meant to follow them and the reader feels anger towards him for not only allowing them to carry out their plans to kill Ikemefuna but also going along with them, it is easy to sympathise with him as he is obviously feeling emotional about what is about to happen and for him to go against his clan and the gods of his clan would mean not only his death but the death of the boy he was trying to save and putting his family in jeopardy. The events that follow happen at a quicker pace, this may signify the quick and short life that Ikemefuna has. “As the man who had cleared his throat drew up and raised his machet, Okonkwo looked away. He heard the blow. The pot fell and broke in the sand. He heard Ikemefuna cry ‘my father, they have killed me!’ as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machet and cut him down. He was afraid of being thought of as weak.”Okonkwo here begins by showing that he has emotions and that the killing of Ikemefuna is affecting him much more than he had expected, but then he acts cowardly by performing the final act that ends Ikemefuna’s. Okonkwo is portrayed as someone that doesn’t really understand the meaning of being weak, if Okonkwo had not acted at all and let someone else shut the mouth of Ikemefuna he may have felt as guilty as he does when he returns home and also maybe his friends would have seen him as stronger as he would have seemed wise for not giving into the first thought that came to his head. This also reinforces the idea that Okonkwo likes to administer punishment to those he believes he is personally responsible for, because to allow another person to do it would be failure on his part. In the end it shows that Okonkwo’s fear of failure is greater than his love for Ikemefuna. The short sentences add to the pace of the extract and this causes the event to seem more dramatic. The sentences are simple this could be because Achebe doesn’t want to over-complicate an event that is already foreign to most western-people. Ikemefuna’s role in Okonkwo’s household can be symbolised in the life of Nwoye, his eldest son. “As soon as his father walked in, that night, Nwoye knew that Ikemefuna had been killed, and something seemed give way inside him, like the snapping of a tightened bow. He did not cry. He just hung limp.” Ikemefuna was his back bone, the reason why he had become his father’s right hand man, his best friend, and now that he was gone he didn’t know what to do. Nwoye could be said to showing the emotion that his father is repressing within him But this is not the first time that Nwoye has been affected emotionally like this, the narrator goes on to talk about when he was coming back from the farm with his family and “they heard an infant crying in the thick forest... Nwoye had heard that twins were put in earthenware pots and thrown away in the forest, but he had never yet come across them.” The belief that twins were evil was not just a belief of one clan but a belief shared amongst the wide population of West Africa. Although Nwoye seems to accept the fact that this happens he doesn’t understand why. The reader can empathise with him because they are thinking the same way that he is, they understand that their gods are highly significant to them but cannot understand why or how new born babies are evil. The gods seem to symbolise something bad to Nwoye which is probably why he makes the decision to join Christianity later on in the book. First they order the killing of innocent baby twins and then they order the killing of his best friend both with little or no reason at all. “A vague chill had descended on him and his head seemed to swell, like a solitary walker at night who passes an evil spirit on the way... It descended on him this feeling as his father walked in that night after killing Ikemefuna.” It is now clear that Nwoye considers the gods as the evil spirits rather than the people they kill. The way in which his father’s entrance is described could mean that Okonkwo is the evil spirit and he is feeling this chill descending upon him because he is just realising this. It could also symbolise Ikemefuna who was in a sense “a solitary walker at night”, he was walking in darkness believing that he was going back to his family until he turned to the ‘evil spirit’ who cut him down. The role that Okonkwo plays overall in this extract can be seen as sinister but caring. The reader has a difficult job of deciding whether he is to be sympathised with or not.