Narrative Technique in Achebe's Things Fall Apart

1. Name : Rupa Bambhaniya
Presentations Topic : The
Narrative Technique in Achebe’s
“ Things Fall Apart.”
E mail id :
rupabambhniya166@gmail.com
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2. The Narrative Technique
in Achebe’s”Things Fall
Apart.”

3. Acheba Chinua
✘ Things Fall Apart is the debut novel by Nigerian
author Chinua Achebe, first published in 1958.
✘ It depicts pre-colonial life in the southeastern
part of Nigeria and the arrival of Europeans
during the late 19th century.
✘ Achebe wrote his novel’s in English also known
as the language of colonizers .
✘ He passed away on March 21st. 2013.
✘ His works : No longer at Ease 1960 , Arrow of
God 1964,
✘ A man of the people 1966.
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4. Point of View
• The novel is written in the third-person
omniscient point of view.
• This style of narration helps to provide more
insights into the Igbo people, their values and
their social customs.
• It also helps to paint them as more three-
dimensional characters, instead of the simple
stereotypes that the missionaries see. It also
shows them as a diverse cast of characters
instead of a single, homogenous tribe.
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5. Dialect and Proverbs
✘ The narrative makes liberal use of Igbo dialect outside of
the dialogue. Igbo words are sprinkled throughout the
narration, making it more authentic and giving a better
sense of Igbo culture.
✘ For example, when the locusts descend on the village,
allegorical terms are used to describe the event to make it
symbolic of the colonization by Christianity.
✘ Using proverbs helps to enhance themes in the story,
provide greater understanding of Igbo culture and continue
to create a more complex portrait of the Igbo people.
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6. Use of English
✘ Though the novel is written from the perspective
of the Igbo people, it is told in English rather
than the native Igbo tongue.
✘ By using the language of the colonizers to tell
the story, the book is making a counterargument
to colonialism.
✘ It allows the Igbo to tell their story in a language
that the colonizers can understand and in a
language that shows they are educated.
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7. Historical Setting
✘ The novel is set at the end of the 19th
century and the beginning of the 20th
century in Nigeria.
✘ Historically, the British began settling
West Africa in the early 19th century
and then took on a strong presence in
Nigeria in 1904.
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8. • The story is basically about two cultures on a
collision Course as the British colonize the
landsin Nigeria.-Published in 1958,
• just before Nigerian independence, the novel
recounts the life of the village.
• hero OkonkWo and describes the arrival of
white missionaries in Nigeria and its impact
on traditional 1gbo Society curing the late
1800S.
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9. • The title Things Fall Apart was
adopted from William Butler Yeats’
poem “‘The Second Coming’” (1921).
The poem foresees the end of the
present age and the world’s approach
to another phase that is completely
different:
• Turning and turning in the widening
gyre...
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10. ✘ The central conflict is between Okonkwo and
him Self.
✘ He wants to be different from his
✘ deceased father. He believes his father to have
been weak. effeminate. lazy, and poor.
✘ Another conflict is between the Society Umuofia
verSus the new customs brought by the
Whites.
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11. Main Idea
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✘ The novel wants to show us the implication of
introducing change to old traditions.
✘ The villager are caught between resisting
and embracing change and they face the
dilemma of trying to determine how best to
adapt to the reality of change.
✘ This change however threatens to extinguish
their long established traditions.

12. Conclusion
Throughout Things Fall Apart Achebe uses
straightforward diction and simple sentence structures.
His style creates a sense of formality befitting a
historical narrative told from a third-person omniscient
point of view.
From the analysis Achebe uses foreshadow- ing,
sideshadowing and backshadowing as im- portant
techniques of developing the narrative of Things Fall
Apart. It appeared that whenever foreshadowing
showed up, it often juxtaposed with sideshadowing.
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13. Citation
✘ Chinua Achebe Biography. (2017). Retrieved from
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/chinua-achebe-
1044.
✘ Ernest Emenyonu (Ed.) 1994. Current Trends in Literature and
Language Studies in West Africa. Ibadan: Krapt Books.
✘ Whorf, Benjamin Lee. “The Relation of Habitual Thought and
Behavior to Language.” Sociolinguistics: A Reader and
Coursebook. Ed. Nikolas Coupland and Adam Jaworski. 443-63.
New York: Palgrave, 1997.
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