Why to the characters frown on those who do not practice the old customs for negotiating bride price? What’s the point of the restrictions on palm tree tapping discussed in Chapter 8? How do these and other similar events in the story illustrate a changing world?
Monday, April 7, 2008
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“The Second Coming” and Things Fall Apart
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
This poem written by Yeats in 1921 is no doubt intriguing even if one has not read Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Having read the book, however, looking at the complete version of this poem left my head in something of a “widening gyre” the first time around. Sure, there was the readily apparent parallel to be made with the collapse of the Igbo system and the anarchy invoked in the poem, and it was hard to miss the way the title of the poem echoes the missionaries’ drive to turn the Igbo religious system on its head and bring a new spirituality to the people. We discussed in class the way in which we can see the “best” of Umoufia “lack[ing] all conviction, while the worst [were] full of passionate intensity.” When I came upon the line, “The blood-dimmed tide is loosed,” I quickly reflected upon the way in which the tide of change which the British brought was indeed dimmed with blood. I could have written a very long blog entry just mapping the parallels to be found.
But Achebe was an incredibly intelligent, well read man with a mission. As I started making lists of parallels, I couldn’t help but be tugged by the notion that perhaps the reason Achebe chose to use this poem to preface his novel involved more than the parallels he saw. I was reminded of something Professor LeVan had mentioned in class, that Yeats had written his poem troubled by a fear that Western European civilization was collapsing. Further research on Yeats showed me that he feared that the world was on the verge of being taken by a tide of “savagery.”
Savagery. No sooner had my eyes passed over the word than my mind turned to the article that was handed out in class and I went furiously clicking back to the full text of the poem. The article “Why celebrate Things Fall Apart @ 50” from the Nigerian Tribune cites a quote from Samuel Baker’s 1886 book describing the people of Africa: “’There is neither gratitude, pity, love, nor self-denial; no idea of duty; no religion: but covetousness, ingratitude, selfishness, and cruelty. All are thieves, idle, envious and ready to plunder and enslave their weaker neighbors.’” I was haunted by the memory of this excerpt as I began to pick through Yeats’ description of what about the Second Coming “troubled his sight.” I found multiple references to typical ideas and images of Africa abounding in Europe at the time in which the poem was written:
“a waste of DESERT sand”
“A shape with LION body”
“A gaze BLANK and PITILESS as the sun”
“INDIGNANT DESERT birds”
“The DARKNESS drops”
“what ROUGH BEAST… SLOUCHES toward Bethlehem to be born?”
Even in the opening stanza, Yeats speaks of “mere anarchy…loosed upon the world.” which ties into British perceptions of the Igbo civilization and political structure as anarchical and chaotic. Yeats clearly subscribed to the notion held by many Whites at the turn of the twentieth century that blacks were inherently inferior to whites.
So I’ve put it out there- I think Yeats was an ethnocentric supremacist, terrified at the thought of Western Civilization collapsing at the feet of the “savages” of the world. But what does this all mean for Achebe and his choice to use the poem? Why would he use a poem with racist undertones to preface a book that seeks to show Westerners and Nigerians alike what a dignified culture rich in value the Igbo had before colonization?
Achebe’s work is an answer to Yeats’ thoughts, an answer which turns the poem’s original meaning on its head. At a basic level of response, Achebe paints a different picture of Igbo culture. The civilization portrayed in the novel is complex, deep, and based very much on honor, dignity, morals, and strength. His use of simple, yet dignified language, particularly when characters are speaking, leaves the reader feeling he has been made privy to a highly sophisticated society. The episodes of daily life Achebe portrays reveals characters, emotions and situations which the reader easily identifies with, no matter what continent he calls home. The society portrayed in the book would make Yeats’ fears of a tide of savagery washing away Western Civilization seem laughable.
We must also consider that in the original version of Things Fall Apart, Achebe included only the first four lines of the poem. If the reader keeps these lines in mind as he reads the book, he will understand them to be a representation of the way in which the world of Okonkwo, of the Igbo, falls apart as the Igbo religious and social structures prove unable to hold under the pressure of the British and subsequently “fall apart,” loosing “anarchy” upon the world as the Igbo knew it. In some later editions the rest of the first stanza would be included in the preface. As I mentioned earlier and as we discussed in class, when the reader of Things Fall Apart considers the rest of the first stanza, he naturally thinks the “blood-dimmed tide” which is loosed to carry the blood of the Igbo and that it is the Igbo’s innocence which is “drowned.” It is precisely through this perception which Achebe shows his mastery and the genius of his selection of this poem. Achebe tells a story which would lead the reader to believe that “The Second Coming” could be a representation of the collapse of the Igbo society beneath the brutish dominance of British colonialism, when in fact the poem was meant to portray a collapse of Western Civilization beneath a tide of “savage” influence. Things Fall Apart eloquently turns the words of the West against Western influence itself without needing to change a letter of Yeats’ poem.
When we look at Yeats’ poem in this light, the book does in fact speak through it. It is you and your kind, Mr. Yeats who are the nightmare. It is you who are the “rough beast.” It is you whose gaze is “pitiless as the sun,” who looses anarchy upon the world, who drowns innocence in a blood-dimmed tide. It is you whom should be feared.
As discussed in Monday's class the character's frown upon those who do not practice old customs such as negotiating bride price and the restrictions on who can tap palm trees because cultural traditions like these give their lives meaning and structure. People no longer following traditions such as these belittle things that have tied the Igbo society together for so long. As the book progresses these customs are the only things keeping the Igbo culture from unraveling into becoming more "modernized" or European.
Okonkwo can be seen so strongly opposing change because of his obsession with having the image of a powerful masculine figure within the village. This can be seen through his hatred for his father who he sees his father as a symbol of laziness and lack of masculinity. It is through the tradition of Igbo society that Okonkwo’s definition of what a man with high social standing is defined as. Okonkwo is held in high respect in the village according to traditional standards, but with the introduction of change such as Christianity people who are at the bottom of the social ladder can now become equal to great men as Okonkwo.
The first instance in which Okonkwo’s world begins to be intruded upon by change can be seen when Okonkwo is forced to leave his village because his gun accidentally kills Ezedu’s young son. The gun is a symbol of something that has been introduced to the Igbo through contact with the western world. It also is the cause of Okonkwo’s exile. Achebe describes the chaos after the boy is shot “The confusion that followed was without parallel in the tradition of Umuofia. Violent deaths were frequent, but nothing like this had ever happened” (124). Umofia has never experienced a death that has happened in this accidental nature and does not know how to react to the death. The boys death symbolizes the western world imposing on Okonkwo’s society and the Igbo being defenseless against it. In this scene the result of a tool from the western world clashes with a traditional ceremony and many such as Obierika, Okonkwo’s good friend question why Okonkwo should suffer so much for this crime he committed unintentionally, a sign of questioning tradition.
Okonkwo is truly faced with his loss of being seen as a powerful figure in society when he has to return to his village. “A man’s place was not always there, waiting for him. As soon as he left, someone else rose and filled it. The clan was like a lizard; if it lost its tail it soon grew another,” (Achebe 171). Okonkwo realizes that he will not hold high societal status when returning from his exile but he is optimistic that he will be able to build his way to his old position. Upon returning to the village he sees that things have changed and is reminded again that this loss of tradition also means a loss of the way his society once viewed a respectable man. It is the new institutions set up such as the white men bringing government where the District Commissioner now holds the highest power in the village. Okonkwo realizes that he can no longer work for his respect because change has given way to a new way in which one gains power in the village.
I think that Achebe used "The Second Coming" by Yeats because not only could people from the West recognize and understand it, but it directly relates to the frustration and struggle of Okonkwo throughout "Things Fall Apart."
Yeats is a very well known poet. "The Second Coming" reflected his concern for the collapse of Western Society and how anarchy would take over the world. Achebe turns around this meaning. The phrases in the poem could be coming right out of Okonkwo's mouth. It speaks to his anger of obeying and following the traditional norms of his society, but he sees that everyone else is starting to lose that sense of tradition. To Okonkwo, anarchy is taking over his society.
He sees people who should be shunned in his society are being welcomed into the missionary's community, and that his own son, who does not reflect any qualities of a man, is also welcomed into the new community. Everything he fought for, killed for, and sacrificed, has been for not.
This poem shows how Okonwko's life has disappeared and he doesn't know how to deal with these new ideas of society. He just sees things getting worse and worse.
Like Okonwoko, Yeats thought that his society and way of life was falling apart. Achebe juxtaposes these ideas of two men who think their world is collapsing because of the influence of a foreign society. I think this would have been a revolutionary idea to pose to Western Society. People would have been familiar with the meaning and concerns of Yeats in "The Second Coming." He presents it in the beginning of the book, but by the end, the poem takes on a new meaning. Achebe really reaches out to the Western audience through this poem and makes the "Things Fall Apart" relatable.
To return to the question posed at this blog section's outset, I think heightened, and perhaps even arbitrary restrictions, traditionalism, and recalcitrance are not baseline or primordial forces upon which liberalism and reinterpretation are imposed, but rather the opposite. I am convinced that human nature is fundamentally open to suggestion, that stringence and guardedness are not original states, but rather specific responses.
Consider Igbo attitudes towards bride price negotiation and palm tree tapping, as referenced by our group's discussion question. Achebe's characters' reliance on old mores and customs is a defense mechanism, first and foremost. Their resistance arises from insecurity, an insecurity incurred by the threat of change from without, from the missionaries, from the West more generally. Okonkwo's heightened opposition to change is a product of his pursuit of masculinity. My point is that the tendency to lean on past forms is not an independent force, manifest to oppose change, but is rather itself a consequence of change.
I think this analysis proves particularly fruitful when one considers the proliferation of literalist movements among the major world religions. When I use the term literalism, I refer to the strictest possible interpretations of scripture, such as doctrines of Biblical inerrancy or what we would describe as revivalist or fundamentalist strands of Islam. Contrary to popular perception, these perspectives are not reflective of traditional religious thought. Wahabbism and the ideas of Sayyid Qutb, Pentecostalism and various American evangelical movements are all modern phenomena, are all responses to modernity. It is no coincidence that movements such as these emerge in the midst of societal change, and perceive themselves and their values as under siege. It is no coincidence, too, that the charismatic leaders of these sorts of organizations are almost invariably the product of progressive, or secular environments. Their ideas are not radical because they are untouched by liberalism, but rather their ideas are radical because they are virulent responses emerging from liberalism.
I think this is instructive for our analysis of the Igbo as portrayed in Things Fall Apart, because it explains their overemphasis on tradition not as their natural state, or the product of some arbitrary barbarism, but, again, as a response to, a product of, a scary, changing world.
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