Download BLUE Literary Analysis Examples Sept 28th

‘The night was very quiet. It was always quiet except on moonlight nights. Darkness held a vague
terror for these people, even the bravest among them. Children were warned not to whistle at night for
fear of evil spirits. Dangerous animals became even more sinister and uncanny in the dark. A snake was
never called by its name at night, because it would hear. It was called a string. And so on this particular
night as the crier's voice was gradually swallowed up in the distance, silence returned to the world, a
vibrant silence made more intense by the universal trill of a million million forest insects’ (Achebe 8)
In the novel Things Fall Apart, Achebe uses symbolism in the excerpt, “Darkness held a vague terror
for these people, even the bravest among them”(Achebe 8). Darkness can be perceived as a symbol for
the unknown and the excerpt as a whole can be seen as foreshadowing the arrival of the european
missionaries and colonists. When the white men first arrive in the tribes the native people are afraid of
them and Okonkwo is afraid of losing traditions to their foreign, unknown, practices. The symbolism and
eerie tone create a strange mood and convey to the reader a feeling of uncomfortableness.
“Unoka, for that was his father's name, had died ten years ago. In his day he was lazy
and improvident and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow. If any money came
his way, and it seldom did, he immediately bought gourds of palm-wine, called round his
neighbours and made merry.”(Achebe 2)
In this quote, from the novel Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe uses the literary
device of flashback, in which he mentions the days when his father, Unoka, is still alive. It
is evident that Okonkwo describes his father as an irresponsible and thoughtless person
and regretful of having him as a father. Furthermore, the tone of the quote is irreverent and
abhorring, and as a result, the readers can understand how Okonkwo despises his father
and unwilling of being seen weak and cowardly.
“The Clan was like a lizard, if it lost its tail it soon grew another,”(Achebe 125).
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This quote written by Achebe contains two main literary devices, such as: a simile and a
Personification. The simile is proved by the word “like”, and it is comparing the clan to a lizard.
Which helps the reader understand what type of society the village is, and that all the individuals of
the clan are replaceable.
This simile, as a literary device, emphasises one of the themes of Things Fall Apart, which is the
man in the natural world. By describing the clan of Umuofia, it also highlights the society in which
Okonkwo lives in.
In the novel Things Fall Apart, China Achebe uses a simile of “The Clan was like a lizard, if it lost its tail it
soon grew another,” (Achebe 125). The simile is proved by the word “like”, and it is comparing the clan to
a lizard. Which helps the reader understand what type of society the village is, and that all the individuals
of the clan are replaceable. The simile emphasises a theme which is the man in the natural world. As a
result, the reader gets a sense of what was the society in which Okonkwo lives in by the description of the
clan of Umuofia.
“To abandon the gods of one’s father and go about with a lot of effeminate men clucking like old hens
was the very depth of abomination. Suppose when he died all his male children decided to follow Nwoye’s
steps and abandon their ancestors” (Achebe 144).
In the poem Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe uses the sound technique of: onomatopoeia, in
“clucking like old hens”. The use of this literary device recreates a strong audio and visual image of men
behaving like hens, supporting Okonkwo’s theory that the Igbo men who prefer to follow the Christian
priests in their traditional singing, are effeminate. The tone of this extract is ironic and sarcastic , the
onomatopoeia present in the word “clucking” reinforces the ridiculous image of men behaving like
insignificant and stupid animals. As a result of this extract and the power of onomatopoeia, readers can
clearly understand and feel Okonkwo ‘s inability of adapt to change. In addition, this passage provides
readers with a sense of foreboding of clushes between cultures.
“ Our elders say that the sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under
them” (Achebe 7).
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Literary Devices: metaphor - The whole quote is a metaphor, which conveys the ideas that the
people with a higher social ranking will have much more privileges and attention than the people
from a lower class.
● Literary Feature: The theme in this quote is very important since it makes the reader understand the
mentality of the clan
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Analysis:
In the novel Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe uses a metaphor of “ Our elders say that the sun will shine
on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them” (Achebe 7). This metaphor conveys
the idea that the people with a higher social ranking will have much more privileges and attention than the
people from a lower class. The metaphor of the social ranking, highlights the theme. As a result the reader
understands that the clan of Umuofia takes it very seriously the social ranking of the people who live
there, and give much more importance to people who have a higher title than the others.
"A proud heart can survive general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride.
It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone" (Achebe 24-25).
In the book Thing Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe uses personification in the quote “A proud
heart can survive general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride. It is more
difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone” (Achebe 24-25). The use of figurative
language creates a realistic tone that shows the reader the reality of the words that the
author is saying. Also highlights the particular meaning that the author wants to give to
the word in order for the reader to understand it more deeply. This feature sets a tense
mood because it displays the contrast between the general failure and the difficulties of an
alone man fail.
Achebe writes, “But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was
deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest,
and of the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw. Okonkwo’s fear was greater than these. It
was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father. Even as a little boy he had
resented his father’s failure and weakness…” (Achebe 13).
The word fear repeats in the quote six times and the words failure and weakness each repeat twice. The
repetition of these negative words creates a pessimistic mood and the mood is pessimistic because
pessimistic is a negative word and Okonkwo doesn’t want to be like his father, which is also negative. The
tone of the quote is serious. This is the case because Okonkwo’s father is family, but it doesn’t seem like
he is because Okonkwo doesn’t respect his father.
“His whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper and more
intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and magic, the fear of the forest, and of the forces of
nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw. Okonkwo’s fear was greater than these. It was not external but
lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father” (Achebe,
13).
In the novel Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe uses the literary device of Repetition, when he uses
the word “fear” six times in the same phrase, in order to make his idea clearer. In this quote, Achebe is
writing about Okonkwo’s terrible fears. He repeats the word to make it very noticeable and to exaggerate
the intensity, which helps us readers understand better how important it is. The author uses words like
“capricious” and “malevolent”, which are both pretty strong vocabulary, to enhance even more how
important this is. The tone of this quote is very forceful, it seems like the author really wanted to express
how fear is such an important part of Okonkwo’s life.
I picked this quote, because I think it’s very powerful. The essence of this novel, the main reason for
everything that happens to Okonkwo is his fear, his fear to become like his father and to be weak.
“He was a man of action, a man of war...On great occasions such as the funeral of a village celebrity he
drank his palm-wine from his first human head” (Achebe 10).
This excerpt clearly explains and summarizes Okonkwo’s characterization. He surly was a man of
action and a man of war, he was, among all man of Umuofia, the most brave with leadership. This quote
has a very neutral tone, mainly very direct, especially at the beginning of the first line, “He was a man of
action, a man of war…”. One very important metaphor is, “drank his palm-wine from his first human head”,
the author wanted the readers to know that, Okonkwo, drinking wine from a dead man's skull, is a form of
honor and respect towards the dead.
“Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the
fear of failure and of weakness “(Achebe13).
Also this quote, is an example of Okonkwo’s characterization, by pointing out that overall he is not a
cruel man, and that at strange at it might seem, he also has fears. What the author is trying to convey to
the readers is that Okonkwo’s greatest fear is to become like his father, a man that did not build his future
and that did not work for what he wanted. The mood in this excerpt is pretty intense, and the tone is direct
and depressed, because it outlines his fear, which is the only thing that Okonkwo doesn’t want to show to
the people of the villages, and his family.
“The drums beat and the flutes sang and the spectators held their breath. Amalinze was a wily
craftsman, but Okonkwo was as slippery as a fish in water. Every nerve and every muscle stood out
on their arms, on their backs and their thighs, and one almost heard them stretching to breaking point”
(Achebe3)
Simile
Personification
Imagery
Mood
In Chapter 1, the author Chinua Achebe helps the reader to perceive his sentiment towards the passage
“slippery as a
fish” in which he uses simile to emphasize how fast is the main character making us the reader
understand the characteristic and the traits of the character described by the author. The author also
personifies the two inanimate objects as the drum and the flute in order to make the the passage more
sophisticated by explaining how nicely the drums and the flutes are playing. Imagery was also really
common in this novel, in this passage Achebe writes “Every nerve and every muscle stood out on
their arms, on their backs and their thighs”(Achebe3) in order to give an imagery to the reader of the
character and his action and mostly the author describes the surrounding with mood, “spectators held
their breath”(Achebe3) making us the reader see and feel the sensation as we were in Nigeria with the
Igbo people.
“Do not despair. I know you will not despair. You have a manly and a proud heart. A proud
heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride. It is more
difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone”(Achebe 25).
In the novel Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe uses foreshadowing of “It is more difficult and
more bitter when a man fails alone”(Achebe 25). This foreshadows to Okonkwo’s death,
which he finds out that he’s the only one left that strongly willing a war between traditions
and new religion. He always believes war would fix everything, however, the solution about
that the entire clan refuses to enter the battle beside himself powerfully breaks his pride, in
the end leads to his suicide, the action he despises in his entire life. In addition, the grave,
somber and stern tone express Okonkwo is inextricable from traditional Igbo values, and the
fact that Achebe uses so much of the language and wisdom of the tribal Igbo gives the story
a further sense of depth.
“Darkness held a vague terror for these people, even the bravest among them. Children were
warned not to whistle at night for fear of evil spirits. Dangerous animals became even more sinister
and uncanny in the dark. A snake was never called by its name at night, because it would hear. It was
called a string”(Achebe 7).
Imagery
In Igbo belief words and names hold special meanings. They never refer to evil spirits or
animals because they're afraid of summoning them and bringing destruction and death to their clan so
for example in the quote, the name for a snake is “string”. This excerpt mostly contains imagery
which is used to describe how the names of spirits and animals can hurt you. The mood is frightening
and tense. Words used in the excerpt like fear, sinister, dangerous, and evil all help add to the mood of
this quote.
“It was always quiet except on moonlight nights… Dangerous animals became even more
sinister and uncanny in the dark”(Achebe 9).
In the novel Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe uses imagery of “It always quiet except on
moonlight nights” (Achebe 9). Using imagery the author gives us a very relaxed mood,
especially with the way he describes the night, with one simple adjective “moonlight”.
Achebe does an amazing job at creating imagery in this quote because he uses comforting
diction, one can imagine the sadistic animals thanks to “sinister and uncanny”. As a result
the audience feels both relaxed and then there’s an immediate transition to fear and
anxiousness, and the reader starts getting a good sense of how the novel progresses with
these negative aspects added to the story, which is what makes this novel a best-seller.
In the book “Things Fall Apart”, Chinua Achebe utilizes a simile, personification, and imagery in the following
passage:
“That year the harvest was sad, like a funeral, and many farmers wept as they dug up the miserable and rotting
yams. One man tied his cloth to a tree branch and hanged himself” (pg. 24).
These devices are used to impose a mournful mood and to hint at the melancholy in the grave situation. He is
comparing the incompetence of the harvest, which the society depends on, to a funeral, and he even describes the
yams as being miserable in their failure. This whole passage truly expresses how depressing that year’s harvest really
was, and provides a sense of how important to the community it was for it to thrive. Everything in the society is
weeping; the people, the earth, and the yams, and it leads to the people who sustain society ending their lives in the
absence of the essential.
“No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and
his children he was not really a man.”
In the quote of “Things Fall Apart”(p.53), the author’s tone builds tension because
it was judgmental.
Achebe uses repetition for the word “was”. The mood is very serious and wants to
draw attention on the importance of being masculine, strong and violent.
“That was many years ago, twenty years or more, and during this time Okonkwo’s fame
had grown like a bush-fire in the harmattan” (Achebe 1).
This quote represents a simile because there is a comparison between two different things.
In this case it's Okonkwo’s fame and the bush-fire in the harmattan.
This quote represents the season of the harmattan, a dry and dusty northeasterly trade wind
which blows from the Sahara Desert over the West African subcontinent. The wind carries
the bush-fire and would make the fire almost unstoppable. This rapid spreading fire is
compared to the fame of Okonkwo that grows progressively.
“But the year had gone mad. Rain fell as it had never fallen before. For days and
nights together it poured down in violent torrents, and washed away the yam
heaps. Trees were uprooted and deep gorges appeared everywhere” (Achebe
18).
In the novel Things Fall Apart, Achebe’s diction in the passage “But the year had
gone mad. Rain fell as it had never fallen before. For days and nights together it
poured down in violent torrents, and washed away the yam heaps. Trees were
uprooted and deep gorges appeared everywhere” (Achebe 18). Achebe’s diction
of “violent”, “uprooted” “day and night” and “mad”, helps to create a vivid imagery
of the terrible rain and its disastrous effect on the yam farm and the village as a
whole. As a result, the readers feels the consequences of the big rain in Umuofia.
“Take away your kola nut. I shall not eat in the house of a man who has no respect for our
gods and ancestors.” (Chapter 4, page 20)
In the quote below, we see a priest who goes to Okonkwo however tells him to
remove the kola nut from his house because of the sins that he has made during
Peace week, by beating his wife, and here we see Achebe use symbolism with the
kola nut, since a kola nut represents hospitality once brought into a house, and we
can see the priest refer to the kola nut in order to show that by beating his wife,
Okonkwo not only has sinned, but also is not worthy of having a kola nut at his
household. By using the kola nut as symbolism, Achebe adds in the factor of
culture and using the Nigerian culture itself to show symbolism while educating the
reader about the tradition that he uses.
“Then they came to the tree from which Okonkwo’s body was dangling, and they stopped
dead” (Achebe 207).
At the end the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo's death is an irony.
Okonkwo is faithful to his culture, clan, and religion, he was considered as the strongest man
in the tribe, he doesn't allow failure, he doesn't permit weakness, but as the white man
invade the Igbo culture, his clansmen refuse to retaliate against the white man, he
considered that everyone in the tribe is coward. Okonkwo's action of murder is his last attend
to save and being faithful to his tribe, also proves that he's not a coward. Okonkwo commits
the suicide at the end of the novel, it ironically represents that Okonkwo betrayed to his
belief, because Igbo culture doesn't allow to commit suicide.
‘’But he was not the man to go about telling his neighbors that
he was in error. And so people said he had no respect for the
gods of the clan. His enemies said that his good fortune had
gone to his head’’ (Achebe).
In the novel Things Fall Apart Achebe uses this quote to create an
imagery on how obi okonkwo’s gods have/will turn against him because
of all that he has done and he's lack of respect to them. This quote also
creates a more tense mood, because of all the negative things that are
taking place around okonkwo and how he has let his achievements
change him. The tone in this quote is bitter because of the negative
word used towards okonkwo, “his enemies said that his good fortune
had gone to his head”. The bitterness around okonkwo from his
neighbors creates or builds negativity in his life.
“Okonkwo was popularly called the ‘Roaring Flame’ as he looked into the log fire
he recalled the name. He was a flaming fire”(pg 153).
This quote uses fire as a metphor to describe Okonkwo’s personality, feelings, and
actions. Throughout the novel we can see parts of Okonkwo and his life
compared to fire, and is therefore a theme. Okonkwo is a generally merciless and
violent man. The people around him get ‘burned’ as if by a fire, with no way to
stop. Okonkwo’s temper is hot and raging like fire. He even burns his own family
and in the end himself. When you say ‘flame’ or ‘fire’ aloud, the syllables and
consonance of the strong letters ‘f’ and ‘fl’ paint a picture of a strong, flickering,
uncontrollable flame, that gives one a feeling of fear.
Similie: “Okonkwo’s fame had grown like a bush-fire in the…”(Achebe 1)
flashback: Okonkwo talks during the novel about him beating amalinze.
the simile that is shown above shows how Okonkwo was at the start and now shows why he changed
thought plus it shows how angry and how, with his “heavy hand”(Achebe 13)— analogy rules the house.
Okonkwo started by trying to be the opposite of the father and managed to get recognised in his clan after
a while. during the novel and throughout the chapter he is starting to feel the weight of the family and
doesn't know if in the future he can manage to have the strength to do it.