Here are three key points of comparison between Yeats' poem "The Second Coming" and Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart: 1. Both works deal with the breakdown of traditional societies and cultures due to external forces. In the poem, Western civilization is predicted to fall into chaos, while the novel depicts the collapse of traditional Igbo culture through British colonialism. 2. Religion plays an important role in both works. In the poem, references are made to the spiritus mundi and Bethlehem, while the novel focuses on the traditional Igbo religious system. Both explore the clash between traditional and introduced faiths. 3. Both invoke a sense of impending doom and chaos. The poem's ominous imagery like the

1. Chinua Achebe
THINGS FALL APART

2. CHINUA ACHEBE

3. WHAT HAPPENNED TO AFRICA?
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNdjcFOo
Vi8
 An interview with Chinua Achebe, professor
at Bard College

4. “THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA”
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw12KGSj
53k&feature=related
 What motivated European enslavement of
Africans?
 Link that lists African Natural resources:
http://www.afribiz.info/content/natural-resources-
of-africa
 List 8 valuable natural resources found in Africa.

5. QUESTIONS FOLLOWING THE INTERVIEW
 What is the common impression of Africa‟s
history shared by most Westerners today?
 What were the Europeans impressions in the
1600‟s
 What enabled the Europeans to take over
Africans?
 “I sell you or you sell me” explain.

6. PRE-COLONIAL AFRICA
 Achebe was the first
African novelist to tell
the story of Africa
before European
colonization
 Things Fall Apart
depicts the clash of
European culture with
traditional African
culture
 And the results are
tragic

7. THE IBO TRIBE MAP OF NIGERIA
 This is the culture depicted
by Achebe in the novel
 An Agricultural society
 Highly organized social
structure
 Lots of story telling
 Strictly defined gender roles
 Strong adherence to tradition
 Respect for elders
 Ruthless violence is a fact of
life

8. IGBO RELIGION
 Centered around the
belief that humans must
live in harmony with the
supernatural forces
around them
 Gods and energies
(unseen) are an ever-
present reality
 Many laws were
intended to cultivate a
peaceful relationship
with the gods
 Happy gods=fertile
crops

9. KEY CHARACTERS –
OKONKWO
 Successful, driven,
hardworking
 Emotionally distant
 Hates father
 Reveres laws and
traditions of clan
 A tragic figure

10. ACHEBE‟S USE OF THE “TRAGIC HERO”
 TRAGIC HERO CLASSICAL DEFINITION
 A tragic hero is a person of noble birth with heroic or
potentially heroic qualities.
 This person is fated by the Gods or by some supernatural
force to doom and destruction or at least to great suffering.
 But the hero struggles mightily against this fate and this
cosmic conflict wins our admiration. (Is this true for us and
Okonkwo?)
 Because the tragic hero simply cannot accept a diminished
view of the self and because of some personality flaw, the
hero fails in this epic struggle against fate. (What is it that
Okonkwo cannot accept about himself?)
 This tragic drama involves choices (free will) and results in a
paradox --- Is it Fate or Free Will which is primarily responsible
for the suffering in the hero's life (and in our lives in light of our
own personal tragedies)?.

11. MORE ON THE TRAGIC HERO
 Tragic doom is both public (the State) and private (a
family tragedy as well)
 We are energized by witnessing this eternal drama
for it encompasses the fate and "stuff" of all humans
from kings and queens to paupers.
 As for paupers, in his famous editorial for the NY
Times, Tragedy and the Common Man, Arthur Miller
argues that the common person is also capable of
tragic stature in so far as each one of us seeks a true
identity and a personal dignity.
 http://www.csus.edu/indiv/s/santorar/engl190v/trag.he
ro.htm

12. OTHER KEY CHARACTERS
Unoka Ikemefuna
Okonkwo‟s father (that child from native
he hates) tribe, given as
Obierika punishment to
Okonko‟s best friend, Okonwo‟s clan
advisor and helper Ekwefe
Nwoye Okonkwo‟s second wife
Okonkows oldest son, Enzima
joins missionaries in Okonkwo‟s eldest and
end favorite daughter

13. WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
 http://www.poets.org/vi
ewmedia.php/prmMID/
15527

14. TERMS AND VOCABULARY IN POEM
 Gyre
 Falcon and falconer
 Anarchy
 Ceremony of innocence
 Spiritus mundi
 Sphinx
 Rough beast
 Bethlehem
“THE SECOND COMING”

15. GYRES AND SPIRAL IMAGERY
KEY IMAGES IN SECOND COMING

16. MORE ON YEATS‟ „GYRES
 Technically, it stands for the alternation
between two historical cycles: one
characterized by order and growth, the other
by chaos and decay. It‟s comparable to the
Chinese concepts of Yin and Yang.
 http://www.shmoop.com/second-
coming/gyre-symbol.html
 For Yeats these were forces at work in the
universe shaping the cyclic fate of the world

17. NOTICE HOW THE SPIRAL OF A FLACON IN
FALCON AND FALCONER FLIGHT PARALLELS THE GYRE IMAGES
KEY IMAGES IN SECOND COMING

18. ROUGH BEAST BLOOD DIMMED TIDE
KEY IMAGES IN “SECOND COMING”

19. SPIRITUS MUNDI SIGNIFICANCE OF SPIRITUS MUNDI
 Translation from Latin  Yeats believed the poet
 Spirit of the world or Soul of was a visionary who could
the world tap into the „database‟ of
 The „collective memory of the spiritus mundi
the human race‟  Who plays this role in
 The fertile ground from Things Fall Apart ? (Ch 11
which springs forth Chielo)
powerful and universal  Draw a picture of this
images usually connected concept.
to religion
KEY IMAGES IN “SECOND COMING”

20. Matthew 2:1--2:
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was
born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men
from the East came to
Jerusalem, asking, "Where is the child
who has been born king of the Jews? For
we observed his star at its rising, and
have come to pay him homage.“
Matthew 2:16:
When Herod saw that he had been tricked
by the wise men, he was infuriated, and
he sent and killed all the children in and
around Bethlehem who were two years
old or under, according to the time that he
had learned from the wise men
BETHLEHEM

21. • Written in 1920 after WWI
• War that took lives of millions
• Poem predicts the breakdown of
Western Civilization
• Yeats poem foretells of violence
to come
• Introduces the idea that history
occurs in cycles
• Chaos takes over and makes
way for the emergence of a new
era
• Yeats won Nobel Prize in 1923
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

22. ACHEBE‟S USE OF TITLE
 Given what you now know about Yeat‟s
poem, spend some time thinking about why
Achebe chose the title “Things Fall Apart”
 See if you can find three points of
comparison—three themes that occur in both
works.
 Discuss the role of religion in both the poem
and the novel.