Chinua Achebe drew the title for ​Things Fall Apart​ from the William Butler Yeats poem

"The

Second Coming." In the poem, the forces of modernization and industrialization have destroyed

society, bringing about an apocalyptic Second Coming. Achebe's allusion to the poem

underscores the Europeanization that destroys traditional Igbo culture.

It appears that Achebe not only wanted to give voice to those oppressed throughout Africa, but

specifically wanted to shed light on a history largely suppressed before the withdrawal of

colonial powers on the continent

Structurally, ​Things Fall Apart​ is broken into three parts. Part I chronicles Okonkwo's life in

Umuofia prior to his exile, Part II details the seven years of Okonkwo's exile in Mbanta, and Part

III returns to Umuofia, where Christians and British imperialists have encroached upon the

village. Okonkwo returns home to find the village changed in ways he cannot accept.This

strategy provides the readers a clear mind and timeline while they are reading the story

Okonkwo's tragic flaw is his pride. As the son of a lazy debtor, Okonkwo constantly feels the

need to prove himself, both in battle and in life. He builds a successful farm, takes three wives

and two titles, and becomes a respected leader in his village; but his great success makes him

arrogant, and when his life begins to fall apart Okonkwo is unprepared for it, having never

experienced failure before.

Throughout the novel, Okonkwo is associated with burning, fire, and flame alluding to his

intense and dangerous anger—the only emotion that he allows himself to display. Yet the

problem with fire, as Okonkwo acknowledges, is that it destroys everything it consumes.

Okonkwo is both physically destructive—he kills Ikemefuna and Ogbuefi Ezeudu’s son—and

emotionally destructive—he suppresses his fondness for Ikemefuna and Ezinma in favor of a

colder, more masculine aura. Just as fire feeds on itself until all that is left is a pile of ash,

Okonkwo eventually succumbs to his intense rage, allowing it to rule his actions until it destroys

him.

The motifs supporting the text’s major themes, include the concept of “​chi”​. The ​chi​ is an

individual’s personal god, whose merit is determined by the individual’s good fortune or lack

thereof.” But there is another understanding of ​chi​ that conflicts with this definition. In an earlier

chapter, the narrator relates, according to an Igbo proverb, that “when a man says yes his ​chi​ says

yes also.” According to this understanding, individuals will their own destinies. Thus, chi is a

prevalent motif closely linked to the theme of fate and free will.

The Igbo often use animal anecdotes to naturalize their rituals and beliefs. The presence of

animals in their folklore reflects the environment in which they live—not yet “modernized” by

European influence. Though the colonizers, for the most part, view the Igbo’s understanding of

the world as rudimentary, the Igbo perceive these animal stories, such as the account of how the

tortoise’s shell came to be bumpy, as logical explanations of natural phenomena.

Another important animal image is the figure of the sacred python. Enoch’s alleged killing and

eating of the python symbolizes the transition to a new form of spirituality and a new religious

order. Enoch’s disrespect of the python clashes with the Igbo’s reverence for it, epitomizing the

incompatibility of colonialist and indigenous values.

Coming to the linguistic devices Achebe has used, symbolism, folktales, irony are quite

prevalent among these. ​Yams are a crop grown exclusively by men growing is labor intensive,

and the size of a man’s fields and harvest say much about his work ethic. They are a symbol of

masculinity and ability as a provider. The author uses folktales from the igbo culture like the one

about how the tortoise got it shell broken which brings in alot of the cultural inferences about

their way of thinking. At last, by the end of the novel irony is prevalent when okonkwo had said

the year of the bad harvest that if he survived that he shall survive anything yet still he commits

suicide. There is also frequent use of metaphors like ​“Okonkwo was popularly called the

‘Roaring Flame.’ As he looked into the log fire he recalled the name. He was a flaming fire”

(Page 153) and similes such as “. . . Okonkwo's fame had grown like a bush-fire in the harmattan

. . .” (Page 1)

Achebe narrates events pretty objectively, without many embellishments. Readers are left largely

to impose emotion on the text and decide for themselves whether characters are admirable or

justified in their behaviors. However, towards the end, Achebe begins showing sympathy

towards the Umuofia by describing the brutalities inflicted on the people by the white
government. The last paragraph of the book in particular shows a purely pretentious and

self-satisfied District Commissioner with an inflated sense of Western superiority.

Achebe also uses a ton of proverbs – which is indicative of the Ibo’s traditional oral culture – as

well as lots of tiny stories shared people and well known in certain villages, used to discuss

everything, they’re used to explain acts of nature, traditions, history, why people act a certain

way such as:

Some of the women cooked the yams and the cassava, and the others prepared vegetable soup.

Young men pounded the foo-foo or split firewood. The children made endless trips to the stream.

[…]

All in all Achebe keeps it simple, directly to the point, and centered on nature. His goal is to use

language to depict how the Ibo view their world. The main prevalent themes are addressed with

cultural context and there is prevalent use of figurative language and linguistic devices that

makes the book. The author has done a wonderful job of sharing the cultural context and

vocabulary with the readers as i believe language is not separate from culture.