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Okonkwo and the Storyteller: Death, Accident, and Meaning in Chinua Achebe and Walter
Benjamin
Author(s): Jonathan Greenberg
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Contemporary Literature, Vol. 48, No. 3 (Fall, 2007), pp. 423-450
Published by: University of Wisconsin Press
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JONATHAN
GREENBERG
Okonkwo and the Storyteller: Death, Accident,
and Meaning inChinua Achebe
andWalter Benjamin
what
between
Reflections
Walter Benjamin's
essay "The Storyteller:
on the Works
exam
of Nikolai
Leskov"
famously
a
to
written
ines the transition
from oral
narrative,
a
with
_transition
elucidates
dichotomy
Benjamin
from the
he calls "story" and "novel." This transition
oral to the written
Apart,
is also central
to Achebe's
and
to Chinua
about
Achebe's
literature
more
Things Fall
This
generally.
novel
writing
and its func
trenchant analysis of narrative,
brings Benjamin's
an
to bear on Achebe's
its
work;
emergent modernity,
tioning within
use
aim
to
in
is
to
discern
tensions
crucial
primary
Benjamin's
theory
itmight
Achebe's
novel. At the same time, however,
offer the addi
tional benefit of demonstrating
in its vivid par
how Achebe's
novel,
essay
corners of Benjamin's
terse
the more
ticularity, can illumine
shadowy
I argue, in brief, is that Achebe's
and gnomic prose. What
novel can be
seen as a portrait of
at the moment
of transition
Igbo culture precisely
from one Benjaminian
to
discursive
from
another,
story to
category
mean
I
this
that
the
novel.1 By
don't
novel shows
emphatically
merely
us a society
tive practice
or that it combines
in transition,
of oral narra
elements
it deploys,
with novelistic
devices
and structures:
after
a
and the medium
of print.
all, European
genre, the English
language,
1. Oral
subcultures,
in an overall
or folk culture
still exists, of course; both in traditional
forms and in popular
is everywhere
is
What
the
of oral culture
today.
changes
position
in which
that is, the way
oral forms, especially
formation,
"story,"
oral culture
social
operate.
Contemporary Literature XLVIII, 3
? 2007 by the Board of Regents
0010-7484; E-ISSN 1548-9949/07/0003-0423
of Wisconsin
of the University
System
424
LITERATURE
-CONTEMPORARY
a
is by no means
Things Fall Apart
specific:
a novel
that theorizes the concept of
Benjaminian
"story," but rather
as
It
much
himself
does.
does
so, I venture, by offering
story
Benjamin
us competing
narrative
models
between
and
of the relationship
of
narrative
better
models
how
or,
put, competing
imposes
meaning,
is more
claim
My
that Benjamin's
models
meaning,
cal level. Thus the terms "death"
on a theoreti
essay makes
explicit
and "accident"
become
crucial in
as Benjamin
and Achebe
both rec
because,
it
is
sometimes
but
often
literal, that in
only death,
ognize,
figurative
on life, or on a life, and "acci
can confer meaning
ending narrative
is precisely
that which
If
accident
refuses meaning.
dent" because
this discussion?"death"
narrative
bestows
meaning,
threatens an
tive always
further
premises
Benjamin's
on, but
Iwill enlarge
interpretive
paradox.
to review
first it will be useful
and
key points
of accident
the representation
to Achebe's
their applicability
in narra
on these
some
of
novel.
1
in the late 1930s,
written
storytelling,
to an
the observation,
"the art of storytelling
is coming
to the fact
attributes
the decline
of storytelling
end" (83). Benjamin
a fall that in turn
in value"
has fallen
that "experience
(83-84),
of
discussion
Benjamin's
begins with
new tech
the constitutive
conditions
of modernity?its
its
and
of
and
economic
forms
social
machineries,
organi
nologies
its irrational yet cynical militarism:
zation,
"[N]ever has experience
more
than strategic experience
been contradicted
by tac
thoroughly
economic
tical warfare,
by inflation,
experience
experience
bodily
in
moral
mechanical
those
warfare,
(84).
experience
power"
by
by
results
from
As
has
storytelling
modern
essentially
fallen
in value,
it has been
form of narrative,
by
replaced
whose
very
whose
end
a new,
emer
the novel,
a
of
is the
process
gence
symptom
and
difference
between
novel
The
decline
(87).
story
and writing,
is the difference
between
craft and art, voice
speech
and text, presence
and absence.
Thus while
is at heart a
the novel
a
a
read
form,
story?even
story
published
solitary, printed
silently
is "[t]he earliest
of storytelling"
to oneself?belongs
to "the realm of living
speech"
[T]races of the storyteller cling to the story theway
ter
cling
to the
clay
vessel.
Storytellers
tend
to
begin
(87):
the handprints of the pot
their
story with
a
pre
425
GREENBERG
sentation
unless
they
tracks
Leskov's]
[Nikolai
of the one who
those
in which
the circumstances
of
is to follow,
simply
are
they
pass
frequently
it, then
experienced
themselves
it off as their
evident
as those
own
in his
of
have
what
learned
Thus
experience....
if not
narratives,
the one who
reports
as
it.
(92)
As
the image of the handprints
to the voice
retain a connection
illustrates,
nicely
of the teller.
story will
always
The orality of the story and the literacy of the novel also imply two
kinds of memory.
between
"the
Benjamin
distinguishes
as contrasted
with
the
remembrance
of the novelist
perpetuating
different
reminiscences
short-lived
"is dedicated
writes,
reminiscence
dwells
he
of the storyteller"
(98). Remembrance,
one battle," whereas
to one hero, one Odyssey,
on
The prototype
occurrences."
"many diffuse
is Scheherazade
of the storyteller
of the One Thousand
a
"who thinks of
fresh story whenever
her tale comes
and One Nights,
to a stop." (The
to Benjamin,
both types of mem
combines
epic, according
a
even
in
remains?to
its
written
borrow
Thus
form, story
ory.)
of reading
from ?talo Calvino?as
much
about "the promise
phrase
. . . the
a
as
it
is
of
the
first
sentences"
about the
book,
(256),
incipit
a
ever
sense
It
is
in
of
the
this
itself.
story
particulars
life-giving,
itself: "It starts the web
renewing
activity, always gesturing
beyond
classical
all stories
which
Scheub
form in the end" (Benjamin
98).
together
with
this general principle:
"Story provides
the novel would
closure"
[Story 3].) In contrast,
concurs
but never
implication,
its authorship,
a self-contained
artifact
to make
solid,
that seeks
to efface
(Harold
insight
be, by
all traces of
To
and permanent.
impersonal,
or
invoke James Joyce's famous
"remains within
image, the novelist
...
or above his handiwork
his
behind or beyond
paring
fingernails"
on the story, the
the storyteller
leaves his handprints
(233). Whereas
novelist
hands-free.
This is indeed an image of the novel
operates
that we
have
come
to associate
and formalist
aesthetics
itself
with
a central
strain
of modernist
criticism.2
is by current definitions
this understanding
aesthetics
of modernist
or in T. S. Eliot's
but whether
in Joyce's formulation,
idea of the imperson
or inWilliam
K. Wimsatt
in 'Tradition
of the artwork
and the Individual
Talent,"
2. To be
sure,
rather narrow,
ality
and Monroe
artist
and
C. Beardsley's
the circumstances
"intentional
of production
the erasure
of the contingencies
fallacy,"
has often been linked to modernism.
of the
426
LITERATURE
-CONTEMPORARY
distinctions
have
such discursive
Although
strains of narrative,
ful in delineating
different
in the novel
dencies
itself,
they
also
can
been
enormously
help
ten
and even different
hypostatize
is aMarxist
of Benjamin's
argument, which
the
of story by novel
supersession
explicitly posits
in social and economic
structures.
transformation
dimension
the historical
one. Benjamin
as resulting
from a
is a commu
Story
mode;
indeed, one of Benjamin's
precapitalist
prototypical
a
on
direct
(with
bearing
Things Fall Apart) is "the resident
storytellers
the local tales and tradi
tiller of the soil" (84-85), the man "who knows
nal, often
"is always the art of repeating
stories"
(84). Because
storytelling
no
it
to
claims
the
individualist
values
makes
of cre
(91),
bourgeois,
as
or
elsewhere
Benjamin describes
ativity, originality,
genius?values
In
"outmoded
Leskov
himself
fact, Benjamin
(218).
quotes
concepts"
to attest that storytelling
is "no liberal art, but a craft" (92). As a craft, it
a stable and coherent
inherited within
is passed down,
soci
learned,
tions"
is the predominant
narrative
the novel
form of print
ety. In contrast,
individualism:
of the novel is the
culture and capitalist
"The birthplace
no
to
who
is
able
himself
individual,
express
longer
by giving
solitary
of his most
indi
concerns"
(87). This bourgeois
examples
important
shares very little with the communal
activity of storytelling:
a
even a
to
in
is
the
the storyteller;
of
company
story
listening
a novel,
one
shares
The
this
reader
of
companionship.
reading
vidualism
"A man
man
is isolated,
however,
even as the novelist
his own
inscribes
This
Community,"
ate culture
makes
so than any other
his fingerprints
his own
thus
(100). And
from his own work, he
reader"
authorship.
and novel
to one
is very similar
story
In "The Writer
and His
critical writing.
maintains
that the transition
from oral to liter
in his
Achebe
is necessary
a very
Invoking
nal activity,
he
belong
removes
authority,
between
distinction
that Achebe
more
to bring
the concept
of authorship.
a
as
narration
of
social, commu
image
Benjaminian
remarks:
"The story told by the fireside
does not
to the storyteller
by his
composed
once
about
he has
let it out of his mouth.
But
the
in his
the writer
study,
spiritual descendant,
to
it
its
Because
lacks
the
of a
(47).
composer"
materiality
'belongs'
a
a
moment
its
moment
is
inextricable
from
the
of
book,
story
telling,
a
a
and audience,
which
present
implies
storyteller
physically
specific
in
But
time
the
situated
and
this
fact
of
book's
space.
community
story
materiality,
its existence
as "a
commodity,"
"cannot
by
itself
ade
427
GREENBERG
account
for the emergent
notion of proprietorship"
quately
a very different
For a story told to a community
performs
than does a novel created and read in isolation. Not
function
a
book
the physical
in the praxis
is "rooted
existence
only is
of an individual
that is the intellectual
commodity
and becomes
author
(47-48).
cultural
a
property
its very
of its purchaser;
property
in its social and
of individualism
claims,
Igbo culture, Achebe
him or her to the community.
of creation,
of mbari, a ritual reenactment
offers the example
Achebe
and
of paintings
the Igbo create an "extravagant
for which
profusion"
are not,
creators
considered
The
works
of
these
properly,
sculptures.
economic
values
(48). Traditional
but subordinates
dimensions"
the individual
labor of bringing
them into
the physical
the ritual.
but rather the gods who
commanded
(Indeed,
being,
were
an
one
to
of
artwork
if
individual
maker
such
Achebe,
according
to assume
fear that he has invited the
credit for making
it, he would
to be
the humans
real maker,
Achebe,
intellectual
who
the god,
not
do
to
to kill him.) Traditional
Igbo culture, according
and
of individual
the concepts
authorship
lacks
only
property
but deliberately
disavows
them.
2
to emphasize
that
to Things Fall Apart, I think it important
a
commu
nor
to
not
Achebe
call for,
does
does
write,
try
Benjamin
of its produc
the
nal narrative
that
modern
conditions
denies
story
In turning
authors
have
their elegiac
both
reception.
Although
nature
the printed
of the medium
tendencies,
they also recognize
does of
in the developments
of modernity.3
Achebe
and find value
course
of
the
oral
aspects
precolonial
Igbo
represent
extensively
tion
and
to which
readers of Things Fall Apart about the extent
as a kind of
In a Heideg
culture
utopia.
prelapsarian
Igbo
premodern
and "theo
between
Wise
tries to distinguish
"ontological"
reading,
Christopher
gerian
that a
Fall
does
while
the
that
of
novel,
suggest
Apart
aspects
Things
logical"
arguing
to its historical
Africa
"was in many ways
European
superior
creatively
"pre-colonial"
or mythical"
Edenic
it does not portray
(1058).
Igbo culture as "essentially
counterpart,"
seems
to resist idealization
in his picture
to take pains
of Igbo tradi
I concur
that Achebe
3. There
Achebe
is critical
debate
among
idealizes
at the same time
while
and otherwise,
injustices,
patriarchal
am
I
about
the tenability
of
the
however,
society;
skeptical
vitality
rendering
to uphold.
distinction
Wise wants
of the ontological/theological
tions
that have
their own
the cultural
428
LITERATURE
CONTEMPORARY
and critics
culture,
the portrait
of an
often mention
that the novel
individual
also
but
presents
that of a village,
communal
portrait
not
only
a
indeed
in part by
Achebe
achieves
this
a full range of social activities,
various
rituals,
including
describing
scenes
most
for
of
and,
my purposes,
songs,
crucially
storytelling.
as it appears
in Things Fall Apart, is itself a kind of rit
Storytelling,
civilization.4
into the communal
To use
life of the people.
integrated
but
Achebe
he
terms,
then,
pre
presents
(Igbo) story,
Benjamin's
In other words,
sents itwholly
within
the boundaries
of (his) novel.
its inclusion
of stories, Things Fall Apart as a whole
despite
belongs
to the category
of novel. While Achebe
has rightly been credited
for
ual,
fully
or
he expands,
developing
techniques
through which
complicates,
and
disturbs
the European
while
these
novel
fre
form,
techniques
can be seen as incorporations
of African
cultural practices,
quently
or his narrator
as a mere
to pass off himself
he never
attempts
never
of the tale; to use Benjamin's
lets his
figure, Achebe
on
one
remain
the vessel.5 As
critic has noted,
"the nar
handprints
and his reluctance
rator's distance
from his characters
to intrude his
"hearer"
views"
an
constitutes
from
"important
departure
"is not a griot, or oral historian"
dure"; the narrator
Nor
is
there
toward a first-person
244).
any gesture
4. One
of Achebe's
Africans
porary
Africa
had
oft-cited
of the existence
ignored:
aims in writing
of a precolonial
"The nationalist
a mental
movement
strict oral proce
245,
(McCarthy
frame narrator
was
to remind
contem
Things Fall Apart
civilization
that Europeans
about
writing
in British West Africa
after the Second
us to ourselves.
to reconcile
which
It
began
too might
I read some
have a story to tell. ... At the university
. . . and decided
that the story we had to tell could not be
novels
about Africa
appalling
or well-intentioned"
told for us by anyone
else no matter
how
for
("Named
gifted
Victoria"
38).
World
War
suddenly
about
brought
seemed
that we
revolution
to which
to the model
5. The degree
the novel
conforms
of an oral "text" has been the
debate. B. Eugene McCarthy
various
discusses
kinds of rhythm as a ges
subject of much
ture toward
as
the oral, including
the practice
that Walter Ong describes
"backlooping"
Emmanuel
cites arguments
Obiechina
for
the
of the
(245); M. Keith Booker
by
importance
of oral tales
embedding
thesis of oral and written
understanding
The narrator
events
from
in the novel
and by Abdul
R. JanMohamed
as a syn
for the novel
in this debate
crucial element
is the
one
(67). Certainly
practices
are not wholly
in the novel.
and point of view, which
consistent
sometimes
takes a communal
of view, describing
and evaluating
point
at other times?such
as when
of the Igbo community,
the perspective
while
of voice
he glosses
Igbo terms and practices?he
a
or modern
things to Western
readership.
sounds
closer
to an author
figure
explaining
429
GREENBERG
an
historical
the very act of
Indeed,
independent
particularity.
a
about
the
for
audience
(whether
writing
present-day
Igbo past
a historical
or Euro-American)
African
rupture and forget
implies
sense impos
story in Benjamin's
ting that would
quite simply make
with
sible.
If Achebe's
to "teach
intention
declared
their past?with
all its imperfections?was
from
which
the first Europeans
savagery
in the novel
delivered
them" is realized
not
acting
that
long night of
on God's
behalf
45),
("Novelist"
that is already
then
the
a
post-story,
originates
that already
continu
that
cultural
and
the
recognizes
totality
has
been
by
ity suggested
"story"
destroyed.
What Achebe
does attempt,
then, is not the creation of story in the
a
seem
that might
guise of novel but instead something
surprisingly
narrative
in a world
readers
[his]
one
itself
world
like a theorizing of story, a
something
the
of story within
of the function
a
is
fine
"Achebe
states,
Anthony
Igbo culture. Kwame
Appiah
someone
on the reserves
ora
native
of
who
draws
of
his
example
those uses ifwe do not see them in their
ture, but we misunderstand
contexts"
here what
(71), and Iwill
suggest
tentatively
multiple
close
to Benjamin's
project,
and demonstration
discussion
some
contexts
those multiple
of
audience
problems
of
be. Appiah
very
clearly
might
that arise in reading Achebe:
how
or ideal reader, whether
we take him or her
delineates
we
define
the imaginary
or Euro-American
to be Nigerian
and our evaluation
interpretation
different
distinction?one
within
the fictional
within
the context
6. Because
after
both
between
world
the function
of the novel
of the reception
a historical
is already
and the beginnings
or
"data" does
ethnographic
the novel
colonization
anthropological
a
audience;
alter both our
might
significantly
a
to make
of the novel.6 But Iwant
and
of orature, or story,
or function
its value
of the novel.
novel,
set well
of decolonization,
not necessarily
before
Achebe's
Achebe's
indicate
birth
and
inclusion
of
a Euro-American
be equally
of these details. Appiah
also
audience
Nigerian
might
ignorant
a double
as
to
in the reading
standard
the
of a
of Achebe
compared
reading
is
in whose
such as Thomas Hardy,
novels
of local detail
novelist
the inclusion
European
notes
as an essential
narrative
rather than mere
component
regarded
travelogue.
Finally, what
at all: "The provision,
in Achebe may not be ethnography
in tradi
looks like ethnography
to the hearer does not reflect a view of
tional narrations,
of information
known
already
not consist of twice-told
the hearer as alien. Otherwise,
oral narrations
would
tales" (71).
of the familiar?in
other words,
the old
Recognition
hearing
and pleasures
functions
of storytelling
(Appiah 65-72).
formulas?can
be one of the
430
-CONTEMPORARY
In other
Nigerian,
words,
European,
may have
rytelling
LITERATURE
for a contemporary
or anyone
American,
reader, whether
else, the inclusion
numerous
It may
functions.
assume
she
be
of sto
a realist,
of life in a
or
the texture
task, showing
anthropological
pedagogical,
Itmay
lost civilization.7
function
elegiacally,
cultivating
nostalgia
Wise
and thereby, as Christopher
for that lost culture
claims,
sug
a still unrealized
It
in
various
ways
may
Utopian possibility.8
gesting
underscore
tive's
wider
and
patterns
a brilliant
Freudian
overall
through
recalls hearing
structures.
the feminine
to the narra
Biodun
Jeyifo, for example,
of a tale that Okonkwo
interpretation
from his mother,
suggests
and Ear) indicates Okonkwo's
(ofMosquito
nal legacy, and of the value
with
or contribute
of the novel
themes
that this particular
story
mater
of
his
repression
of story
identified
itself, predominantly
to
the attention
184-86).
Finally,
("Okonkwo"
to the writing
of
practices
surely also contributes
a "nationalist
in
which
calls
(397)
Begam
history"
a
literature
makes
gesture
postcolonial
political
simply by taking
to stress that
of its own past. Yet Iwant
control of the representation
African
what
cultural
Richard
all these useful understandings
of how story functions
for
despite
for the Igbo?for
the precapitalist,
culture?the
Achebe,
precolonial
of story are entirely different. Whatever
functions
Achebe's
didactic
aims may
little
be, the late-nineteenth-century
Igbo surely have
to teach us about their rituals or to restore recognition
to their
at the time when
the novel
takes place had not yet
culture, which
been lost.
desire
Iwant
to answer
the novel?
How,
then, does story function within
out three ways
in which Achebe's
this question
repre
by pointing
sentation
with
of storytelling
Benjamin's
corresponds
theory. First,
as a craft rather than a "liberal art." The
Achebe
shows storytelling
novel
offers
telling
all
among
7. Simon
African
a detailed
stories with
three
scene
her mother,
of his wives
Gikandi,
others,
among
to anthropological
maintains
that through
literature
8. Wise
Things Fall Apart "functions
a
vision
offering
teleological
as a
of Okonkwo's
Ekwefi?a
and
discusses
their
Ezinma,
daughter,
that
takes
process
place
can
and, we
daughters
the temptations
and dangers
of reducing
data.
to a moment
of cultural
totality,
of post-colonial
Africa's
future by
or collective
(1056).
subjectivity"
its look backward
affirmation
prophetic
of a post-Cartesian
G R E E N B E RG
among mothers
"Low voices, broken now
and
assume,
from his wives'
ries"
(96). The
scene
the village:
throughout
reached Okonkwo
by singing,
and her children
told folk sto
daughters
and again
as each woman
huts
431
in fact shows
us Ezinma
learning how
the daughter
to a prescribed
ries according
form. When
since Ezinma's
her mother,
Ekwefi
urges patience,
soon be answered
At another
the
itself.
story
by
out that her mother's
story should
points
astutely
to tell sto
interrupts
will
question
Ezinma
point,
a song;
include
the
of
adher
this
criticism,
accepts
revealing
importance
own
to
Ezinma
the ritual forms. Finally,
her
tale, and
attempts
ing
we see the
teller
confused
of
the
inexpert
speech
halting,
slightly
her mother
to recall how
In this
in just the right way.
as
the kind of
then, Achebe
represents
precisely
storytelling
within
inherited
craft that Benjamin
down
the
describes,
passed
a communal
Like
the
and
of
life.9
dance
masquerade
daily rhythms
in "The Igbo World
that Achebe
and Its Art," storytelling
discusses
occurs
in "the public domain"
situ
(63) and insists upon the unique
trying
scene,
ation
of its own
This
leads
to begin
telling.
to a second
Achebe
the story
point
of
contact
between
Benjamin:
an author
between
Achebe
and
into the distinction
illustrates
Benjamin's
insight
in "story" of the
and a teller, of the importance
to
teller whose
the
vessel
of
the
story. When Nwoye
cling
handprints
tell stories, he thinks: "Ikemefuna
hears Ikemefuna
had an endless
were
knew
stock of folk tales. Even
those which
Nwoye
already
told with
a new
and
freshness
is storytelling
(34). Not
only
Achebe
also suggests
the ways
tal marks
travel
of each
in space
teller who
and
time.10
of a different
flavor
the local
within
situated
in which
clan"
life, but
on
take
the acciden
communal
stories
them, how they change as they
repeats
to the "resident
In addition
tiller of the
is "the trading
other prototype
of the storyteller
soil," Benjamin's
come
someone
seaman"
afar"
these
"who
has
from
(85),
(84). When
an
are
two "archaic
"artisan
mixed,
continues,
Benjamin
types"
9. Here
Scheub's
critique of
to
"Those
important
recognize:
certitude
sought mathematical
a
purely narratological
who
have
studied
in organization,
method
of treating storytelling
. . .have
too frequently
narrative
while
missing
is
of
the
as time,
see
the real power
stories"
(Story 3).
10. For a related
Greenberg.
discussion
of stories
as objects
that travel
in space
as well
432
LITERATURE
CONTEMPORARY
"In itwas
of storytellers
combined
emerges:
man
a
as
such
much-traveled
brings
places,
class"
away
lore of the past,
as it best
reveals
to natives
itself
the lore of far
home, with
of a place"
the
(85).
he has only come from a nearby
thus
Ikemefuna,
although
village,
and change of the living story. Later in the novel, a
shows the growth
more ominous
mas
the tale of the mysterious
tale reaches Okonkwo,
sacre of Abame.
remarks:
the story, Okonkwo's
On hearing
uncle, Uchendu,
.. The world
is no story that is not true..
has no end,
"There
is an abomination
among one people
the truth of all stories to the infinitude
is good
and what
(141). In linking
Uchendu
echoes
Benjamin's
form
together
all stories
which
claim
with
others"
of the world,
"starts
the web
story
ties on to the next, as
that each
in the end. One
the Oriental
ones, have always
storytellers,
particularly
are
and
world
shown"
alike
(98). Story
readily
unending,
lacking the
text.
finitude of the printed
stock of tales is also called
(Ikemefuna's
the great
"endless.")
Story remains
to an endless
itself
beyond
as inherent
the Abame
a
back
once
Kite.
done
tell me,
what
did
and
said Mother
well,"
the mother
She went,
food.
bring
very
of
"There
"You must
away."
ominous
is something
Kite returned the duckling
the mother
mother.
to
daughter
have
"It just walked
kite.
Daughter
her
"You
this
of
this
said
me,"
"There
chick
do?"
the young
is nothing
asked
kite.
to fear
duckling
behind
the
the
to her
say when
replied the
said
duckling,"
silence."
And
so
and took a chick instead. "What did
the old
"Then
from
return
brought
Kite
and carried its child away?" "It said nothing,"
you swooped
cursed
sent
"but
daughter,
young
Fall Apart
sees
that Benjamin
Uchendu
first hears about
concept of story. When
he responds with a story:
massacre,
duckling.
Mother
gesturing
or "counsel"
of "wisdom"
in his
Kite
Mother
self-perpetuating,
of shareable
experience.
in Things
stories
significant,
supply
most
Third, and perhaps
are carriers of a kind
and
open
we
kite.
"It cried
can
someone
eat
who
the
and
chick,"
raved
said
and
her
shouts."
(140)
The
tale
arises
for the purpose
specifically
wisdom
it
the
offers is instruction
of offering
wisdom.
art
in
the
of interpreta
Moreover,
to "read"
tion itself; Mother
Kite
the
teaches her daughter
how
omen of the mother
In this, Achebe
silence.
illustrates
duck's
again
one of Benjamin's
about the difference
central points
between
story
and novel:
GREENBERG
An
orientation
toward
. . .
storytellers.
ful. The
teller
sel"
is a man
to have
of experience
communicability
either
in a
counsel
has
is beginning
counsel
in one
may,
who
contains,
story]
in a third,
advice;
practical
interests
practical
[Every
usefulness
for ourselves
433
or
openly
case,
or maxim.
proverb
readers.
old-fashioned
is decreasing.
use
something
in some
in another,
In every
But
born
of many
covertly,
in a moral;
consist
for his
an
is characteristic
if
case
the
story
coun
today
"having
this
is because
the
we
no
ring,
In consequence
have
or for others.
(86)
in a society
in which
is only possible
in Benjamin's
and shareable;
view of modernity,
so fragmented,
that wisdom
isolated,
society
Counsel
or
counsel
is not
for the Igbo in Things
for storytelling.
impetus
Fall
impossible.
such counsel
is the very
The
Apart, offering
a
a
new
to
assimilate
way
story provides
experience,
by connecting
mean
new story to an old one, and thus to make
sense of otherwise
or
events.11
enigmatic
ingless
irrelevant
merely
But
is shared
experience
is so
the individual
but
3
"Wisdom"
public
is a term
that Achebe
role of the African
novelist.
himself
When
in discussing
the
his novels
asked whether
has used
or
to mere knowledge
offer wisdom?as
expertise?
opposed
might
to use, I think,
"Yes.... Wisdom
is as good a word
Achebe
answered,
. . .
in describing
Iwas
the seriousness
this gravitas
talking about,
which
informs our art" ("Interview"
256). Yet here, in his ready assent
in Things Fall Apart than full-blown
stories are proverbs;
the
frequent
a
in virtually
that communi
every chapter,
Igbo proverbs
including
proverb
are the
cates the importance
to the Igbo of proverbs
themselves:
"proverbs
palm oil with
are eaten"
in other words,
which
words
and lubri
(7). Proverbs,
permeate
Igbo culture
a connection,
cate social
are closely
once
to storytelling,
interactions.
Proverbs
related
... is a ruin which
"A proverb
stands on the site of an old
again, that Benjamin
explains:
a moral
a wall"
twines about a happening
like ivy around
(108). The
story and in which
11. Even more
novel
offers
as a shorthand
of the Igbo proverbs
functions
almost
for the story; and many
proverb
that characterize
cited in Things Fall Apart
include
the same sort of talking animals
the
It is also worth mentioning
its old
that part of what
folktales.
writing
gives Benjamin's
fashioned
charm is his linguistic
effort to invoke the vanishing
world
of "story" by offer
in pithy,
ing its insights
that
proverbs
Benjamin
dream bird that hatches
the very wisdom
of
that suggest
metaphorical
generalizations
sees as on the edge of extinction?for
is
"Boredom
the
example,
the egg of experience"
(91).
434
LITERATURE
-CONTEMPORARY
to the interviewer's
to assert
eagerness
sage, Achebe
as a
the role of the novelist
is a step behind Benjamin,
for whom
kind of communal
it is precisely
the loss of the wisdom
offered by stories that constitutes
from story to novel.12 If
the most
casualty of the transition
significant
or
the novelist,
by counsel
practical wisdom,
and
cannot
"is
himself
counsel
uncounseled,
according
a
as
"In
others"
(87). Benjamin holds up Don Quixote
perfect example:
of life's fullness, and through the representation
of this full
the midst
is characterized
the story
to Benjamin,
the novel
of the living.
of the profound
perplexity
Even the first great book of the genre, Don Quixote,
teaches how the
one
the
of
of the noblest
the
boldness,
helpfulness
spiritual greatness,
are
Don
and do not
devoid
of
counsel
of men,
Quixote,
completely
ness,
evidence
gives
contain
the slightest
scintilla of wisdom"
(87-88). Instead of practical
no
to
offer
than the meaning
the
novel
less
of life.
wisdom,
attempts
In making
cites Georg Luk?cs's
this point, Benjamin
idea of the
as the genre
novel
own
of transcendental
offers
the novel
moves.
his
gloss:
The
of
"meaning
is really
life"
the
But the quest for it is no more
"moral
life"?there
front
sees
its reader
which
of
and
homelessness
each
these
art
himself
of
and
other,
forms
the
from
center
about
which
than the initial expression
with
story":
them
the
life. Here
this written
living
these
totally
of perplexity with
and
novel
slogans
different
"the meaning
historical
of
con
story
co-ordinates
be discerned.
may
(99)
The
is not
point
but
meanings,
Richard Wolin
The
explains
in the novelist's
concerted
of
so often
assumes
of
where
story,
the
do not
attempt
as
to life
to procure
fundamental
a
his
of which
"gravitas"
as the practical wisdom
Achebe
speaks
that Benjamin
in the novel
meaning
stories.
meaning;
as
life
. . .
that
the novel
in the world
whereas
"the
results
synthetically.
of
meaning
a step behind
is, however,
only momentarily
comments
in
interview
the
later
shortly)
suggest
a modern,
fractured
of the novel's
standing
position within
or
or
"morals"
from
differently
meaning
lack of a readily
apparent
form of a search
for
12. Achebe
cuss
own
their
this idea well:
the
something
offer
mean
that novels
of a self-evident
absence
striking
It is because
that novels
rather
meaning
of
life"
is
and (as Iwill dis
Benjamin,
a
under
fully Benjaminian
Indeed
the "wisdom"
society
better be understood
might
sees as central to the
concept
as
political
of story.
force
than
GREENBERG
never
into
thrown
openly
become
doubt,
435
the problem
of meaning
never
needs
to
thematized.
explicitly
(222)
in diametrically
is
and stories mean
ways. A novel
opposed
for meaning,
itself a struggle
created in an age when meaning
ismiss
uses
for this reason, Achebe
Indeed,
ing but still sought.13
precisely
Novels
this familiar
world
"How
phrase
increasingly
far can you
such
problems,
ismy
life, what
as for Benjamin,
in a
in framing
the value of humanistic
study
instrumental
alone:
oriented
toward
knowledge
certain humanistic
develop without
dealing with
am I here, what
as who am I,why
is the meaning
of
as
For
much
culture?"
Achebe,
("Interview"
258).
just
fundamental
the novel grapples with
this more
ques
a story is set
in a way
that story does not, because
the
against
of a taken-for-granted
of life and thus encapsu
backdrop
meaning
lates a kind of self-evident,
communicable
wisdom.14
tion
in different ways.
treat death
too, story and novel
can tell"
"Death
is the sanction
that the storyteller
of everything
uses
and
this
to
Peter
claims
Brooks
claim
(94),
argue for
Benjamin,
in determining
narrative
the preeminence
of endings
meanings.
For this reason,
the ultimate
Brooks asserts,
"thus advances
argument
"Benjamin,"
narrative:
that only the end can
for the necessary
of
retrospectivity
as a
to
close the sentence
meaning,
signifying
finally determine
a central claim of Frank Kermode's
The
tality" (22). This is likewise
. .
that
and
Sense of an Ending: "All.
presupposes
plotting
requires
an end will bestow
duration
and meaning"
the whole
(46).15
upon
a discussion
on this point with
13. Wolin
of Benjamin's
essay "The Image of
enlarges
in which
terms the con
into
that
Proust's
starkest
claims
fiction
Proust,"
puts
Benjamin
trast between
the dire necessity
of the novelist,
life and art, that itmakes wholly
explicit
to "invest[]
and narrative,
the events
of life with
the aura of
through memory
working
on the
as
mere life" (Wolin 223). The storyteller,
in
lacked
occurred
significance
they
they
. . . con
as they
to describe
events
other hand,
takes it upon himself
happen,
"merely
will
vinced
that their significance
shine through on its own." Thus Benjamin's
emphasis
on "the
totally
14. Others
"[t]he
first part
village
society
different
historical
of the novel.
in a manner
so totalized
invoked
("Problem"
116). JanMohamed
15. Clement
Okafor makes
after
someone's
of story
co-ordinates"
in reading
Luk?cs
. .Achebe
describes
have
death
reads
the novel
a similar
that the living
it would
and novel.
Things Fall Apart.
the precolonial,
meet
in relation
Luk?cs's
to Luk?cs's
Jeyifo writes
precapitalist
that
in
African
standards"
rigorous
idea of realism.
in explaining
Igbo cosmology:
point
can then assess his destiny
fully" (71).
"It is only
It is important
tance of death
the impor
discusses
Benjamin
in the construction
he explicitly
of narrative meaning,
a line from the German
to story. He quotes
writer
novel
contrasts
Moritz
to discern
. . who
.
A man
statement
the
life.
"meaning"
novel
of
that he will
else's
fate
of
look
to us,
the
their
draw
from
our
not
shivering
the
reader
of
a
"the
derives
in advance
a death
someone
it presents
this
us
the
draws
life with
he
pre
that
says
the
know
what,
because
it yields
fate. What
whom
because
but
consumes
for
be
. . .
of death.
didactically,
cannot
But
death.
words,
indisputable
which
statement,
beings
no matter
therefore,
own
thirty-five.
in a novel
in his
at every
In other
life becomes
from
he must,
which
his
this
only
experience
perhaps
flame
in
of
real
character
the
for human
is significant,
of warming
hope
of
to remembrance
appear
for
is done
Therefore
share
novel
virtue
never
life."
sense
is revealed
life
does
actually
meaning
The
than
of his
will
at the age
dies
no
an
enlarges:
thirty-five
nature
The
better
any
who
who
that makes
remembered
sented
at
died
is at
dies
Benjamin
life as a man
in his
point
at the age of thirty-five
dies at the age of thirty-five,"
who
life a man
upon which
apothegm
that when
"A man
Heimann,
point of his
every
LITERATURE
-CONTEMPORARY
436
reader
he
reads
fate
stranger's
the warmth
which
to the novel
by
we
is the
about.
(100-101)
a com
life, a closed book,
Yet if narra
the satisfaction
of meaning.
pleted narrative,
us
we
to
tive implicitly
tell
also know
purports
why
things happen,
as novel
is
that
readers
this
the satisfaction
that our own
precisely
Because
the novel
gives
it allows
us
a finished
is thus a response
to the chill of
give. The novel
an age in which
lives
lack
Thus
modernity,
meaning.
patently
its efforts to offer meaning?or,
better put, through its efforts
despite
to offer meaning?the
in the end signifies
novel
only the vicarious
can never
lives
ness
of our
meaning
ity but
death
This
reading experience.
(to use Wolin's
phrase)
theorization
on
bring
tion put before
what meaning
not
does
indicates
rather
one
not
procured
synthetically
resolve our own perplex
(In contrast,
story embeds
its persistence.
a
rhythmic
regularity.)
to death we
of the relation of the novel
into its narrative
to bear
offers
The novel's
with
can now
a crucial ques
simply,
Things Fall Apart. Put most
to interpret Okonkwo's
is how
the reader
death,
to assign
to it. Begam usefully
that Achebe
submits
but
three
"endings"
to the novel,
each
of which
437
GREENBERG
a different
a different
kind
suggests
point of view on the death and
a
or
seen
First is "tragic"
of interpretation.
from
heroic ending
(399),
an African
in
is
of
which
Okonkwo's
demise
identified
view,
point
that of his people;
second, an "ironized"
(401), from the
ending
sees in the
who
Commissioner,
point of view of the British District
a valuable
to
and
death
resistant
of
how
natives;
example
pacify
with
that occurs
of the narrative
third, a "metahistorical"
(398) revision
not in Things Fall Apart but in the "sequel," No Longer at Ease, from
a narrative
the point of view of Okonkwo's
who
suggests
grandson,
a
more
to
of his grandfather's
notion of
death that conforms
modern
Graham
from English writers
such as W. H. Auden,
tragedy derived
on
and
For
the
Greene,
point at
Begam, depending
Evelyn Waugh.
it is
and from whose
which
the narrative
is "closed,"
point of view
will
the meaning
he
closed,
Achebe,
argues, masterfully
change;
as three
competing
meanings,
endings
a
one (406).
single
threefold reading valuably
clarifies numerous
these
presents
privileging
than
rather
interpretive
Begam's
and in fact draws on an idea of death as meaning-giving
ambiguities,
not far from Benjamin's.
of three endings
Yet even this enumeration
is
is hardly
District
the
Commissioner's
First,
perspective
complete.
as
an
cannot stand
is implicitly mocked?and
clearly ?^privileged?it
to the other
equal
importantly,
ambiguity
the heroic
two
even within
remains.
interpretive
possibilities.
the "African"
point
It is true that Okonkwo's
and more
Second,
of view, a profound
death can be taken as
and a symbol
identified with his people
true that he is
of the tragic demise
of a great people. Yet it is equally
seen by his own people
to have died in shame. Because
he takes his
... an offense
own life, he has committed
"an abomination
against
the Earth" and cannot
"be buried by his clansmen"
(Things 207).16
The
death
"proper"
Begam
argues,
16. Achebe,
world
suicide
of a warrior
African
but
in an essay,
is amonumental
view
elaborates
on
issue between
other, society and all its divinities
including
cosmos.
commit
suicide
put
People who
reads
23). Emeka Nwabueze
("Teaching"
can be regarded
as either catastrophic
endorsement
of the "heroic"
reading
see
would
as shameful;
to see
the suicide
not
the death
it as heroic
as a shameful
an individual,
gods
themselves
every
beyond
the suicide
"dualistically,"
or heroic,
(172). Harold
but
concludes
Scheub,
his
on
to
act: "In Okonkwo's
on the one hand,
and, on the
and ancestors?indeed
titular
as
as heroic,
is already
the entire
conceivable
suggesting
essay with
the other
hand,
pale"
that it
a strong
argues
438
CONTEMPORARY
LITERATURE
a narrative
impose,
retrospectively,
to the District Commissioner
words
form. Obierika's
thus retain
final
indignant
a
genuine
ambiguity
at once the heroism
and
recognizing
Igbo perspective,
of Okonkwo's
suicide: "That man was one of the greatest
an
even within
the disgrace
men
in Umuofia.
You drove
him
and now
to kill himself,
he will
be
buried like a dog" (208).
4
an even more
in the mean
is, however,
profound
ambiguity
an obvious
in the
of
Okonkwo's
death:
resides
Sophoclean
ing
irony
a
man
as
fact that Okonkwo,
of action, dedicates
his life to avoiding
the shameful
death that his father suffered yet ultimately
ends it in a
There
similar
avoid
ment
which
Like
a
particular
of?that
very
he
Okonkwo's
Sophocles'
Oedipus,
fate leads him into?indeed
disgrace.
ardently
fate. That
seeks
his
to avoid
death
can
constitutes
should
itself
be
the fulfill
so resemble
looked
to
effort
that
at in two
as fate, as
ways.
something
incompatible
predeter
mined
his
unconscious,
progression
(by gods, by
by the dialectical
or as mere
itmay be inescapable,
of History),
and hence
accident;
or
and
bad
hence
This
luck,
ques
meaningful,
simply
meaningless.
tion about
the very possibility
of accident
is one that Things Fall
It can be seen
Apart returns to time and again.
to resolve
One way
this question
might
calls "Igbo metaphysics,"
Jude Chudi Okpala
be
to understand
what
the con
specifically
or
of
raises
the
the
the
issue of
novel
on,
chi,
cept
personal
god. Early
is lucky. At one point he fails to demonstrate
Okonkwo
whether
and the elders react angrily:
humility,
that Okonkwo's
authoritative.
and
is not heroic,
and he contests
that see Obierika's
view as
readings
that Okonkwo
is in no way
of his people
representative
severs connection
he so deliberately
with
the norms
of his culture. Yet
death
Scheub
falls because
maintains
line of reasoning
has its own shortcoming:
that only Okonkwo,
and not
by arguing
in general,
the Igbo culture
the relevance
of the broader
his
"falls," Scheub has to deny
in which
and reception
the novel's
have been situated.
tory of colonialism
production
this
Because
he maintains
Christian
invasion
of Umuofian
context
to the
that Igbo society did not "fall apart" but merely
"adapt[ed]"
"the
ultimate
("When a Man Fails" 98), Scheub must
relegate
destiny
to a footnote
in which
he claims
that the extranovelistic
historical
society"
"lies outside
the purview
of this novel"
(122).
G R E E N B E RG
The
man
oldest
cracked
for
But
itwas
said
present
them
by
really
not
true
for him by a benevolent
knew
had
At
his
been
an
That
was
grim
lucky.
struggle
If ever
good.
yes
But
the
those
whose
not
should
spirit
that Okonkwo's
were
palm-kernels
to be humble....
forget
had
palm-kernels
been
cracked
spirit. He had cracked them himself. Anyone who
poverty
against
a man
deserved
his
early age he had
was
not
luck. At
chi says
that
sternly
a benevolent
439
achieved
fame
the most
one
have
Ibo people
also. Okonkwo
said
yes
and misfortune
success,
as the
greatest
could
a
very
that when
strongly;
was
wrestler
that his
say
proverb
could
that man
so his
not
say he
Okonkwo.
in all
the
land.
chi or personal
god
a man
says yes his
chi agreed.
(26-27)
to be invoked here to eliminate
the possi
concept of chi appears
or
narrator
of
accident
luck
the
tells us
(or
chance). Okonkwo,
bility
is not lucky but strong; he creates his luck. Good
for
authoritatively,
The
is a result of a good personal
god.
inter
Yet understanding
the Igbo concept of chi does not stabilize
as much
as it
to.
Achebe
himself
promise
pretation
nearly
might
writes
that, for the Igbo, "there is a fundamental
justice in the uni
so terrible can happen
verse and nothing
to a person
he is
for which
not somehow
notion
thus
the
("Chi" 165),
responsible"
reinforcing
tune
same
that character, morality,
and fortune neatly
align. Yet in the
. we
.
"when we hear that a man has a bad chi.
essay he also writes,
are
talking about his fortune rather than his character....
success or failure than with
fore more
concerned with
seems
(166). This statement
or at least a
different
emphasis,
strongly
and wickedness"
view,
one's
Chi
is there
righteousness
to take an opposing
linking the actions of
or whim.
to any cosmic
to accident
justice but instead
in the
in this essay offers the same proverb
Thus Achebe
that appears
a
Franz
but
with
twist
Kafka:
believe
of
novel,
"[T]he Igbo
worthy
a man
that when
also agree; but not always"
says yes his chi will
chi not
(166). Those
final three words
allow
interpretation
open.17 Hence
different
just enough wiggle
critics can invoke
room to keep
the idea of chi
daimon
that
surround Okonkwo's
chi, or personal
"[A]mbiguities
in his life to the
the
The
attributes
destiny.
disappointments
protagonist
. .
more
seem
events
to his liking,
of his chi.
to be progressing
[but] when
that his chi is making
believes
amends
for past disasters.
The fluidity
of this
is such that any possible
event can be attributed
to its influence;
it is equally plau
17. See Richardson:
directs
workings
Okonkwo
one's
concept
sible to interpret
it as mysteriously
inscrutable
or simply
nonexistent"
(146).
440
-CONTEMPORARY
for diametrically
chi enforces
dies
that Okonkwo's
argues
opposed
readings. Okpala
a kind of
justice"
"spiritual
in shame because he "excised
bad
Okonkwo
LITERATURE
that
(561) and suggests
himself
from [his] com
to pursue
of things,
his
In
Nwabueze
Emeka
contrast,
ego" (563).18
sees the workings
of Okonkwo's
chi as arbitrary and therefore excul
fall not tomoral
but to
patory; he attributes Okonkwo's
shortcomings
"Okonkwo's
of capricious
fate"
paternal
imago and the machinations
from
community,
individual
aggrandized
the interconnection
plex
that "Okonkwo's
(168).19 Similarly, Dami?n U. Opata maintains
type
to
he
refers
of accident
the
[here
son] is
specifically
killing of Ezeudu's
at least in traditional
to ajo chi ('capricious
belief, attributed
usually,
notion
the
of
and
fate, Nwabueze
(92). Invoking
fates')"
capricious
in the world
the possibility
of accident
of the Igbo and
moral
of
Okonkwo's
fall.20
argue against
readings
If analyzing
the concept
of chi cannot
ambi
resolve
interpretive
reinstate
Opata
can
neither
guity,
as many
tragedy,
can, as mentioned,
this generic
the novel within
tradition
the generic
of
locating
to do. For while
readers have attempted
the novel
even
be read as a kind of Sophoclean
tragedy,
can be ambivalent.21
category
18. Scheub
a similar
holds
his own
view:
"[Okonkwo's]
fulfillment
destroy
of flaws
rather because
drive
toward
fuming
to him, but
external
("When aMan Fails" 98-99).
19. Nwabueze's
invocation
forces
As Naomi
selfishness
. . .
him.
Conn
Liebler
and his perverted
ideals,
fall not because
of
[H]e will
that are integral
parts
of his
character"
of Freud here is interesting
but problematic;
psychoanaly
can either support
or contra
sis, too, as its reliance on the Oedipus
evident,
myth makes
as the unconscious
it locates
fate internally,
dict an idea of fate. On the one hand,
that
on the other
that we believe we are avoiding,
drives us to perform
those very actions
while
it naturalizes
the supernatural
both Okpala
when
scious. Moreover,
narrator?which
seem
often
it relocates
and Nwabueze
to slide
into free indirect
or the
judgments?with
community's
is a victim
tells us both that Okonkwo
moral
failures,
but
these
statements
the agency
tome
seem
need
the judgments
of bad fortune
not be taken
of fate from gods to the uncon
the statements
of the
to conflate
either a character's
giving
in fact
of the author. The narrator
discourse,
and
that he
to indicate
is a victim
an authorial
of his own
view.
and stresses
20. Okafor
with
the ambivalence
of this concept
that the
likewise wrestles
a narrow
that a person
determinism:
"The Igbo belief
Igbo notion of "chi" does not imply
one to conclude
the consent
cannot achieve
of his chi must not mislead
anything without
a pawn
in the hands
is merely
of his guiding
that Okonkwo
spirit. On the contrary,
his catastrophic
and nullify
flaws precipitate
demise
his individ
Okonkwo's
personality
ual accomplishments"
21. The relevance
and Michael
the topic.
Valdez
(80-81).
of Greek
Moses,
to Things Fall Apart has been discussed
tragedy
cites nine books or articles
others. Begam
among
by Begam
that address
441
GREENBERG
flaw or
of the tragic hero whose
conception
in his demise
is a misinterpretation
of both Aristotle's
that
drama. Liebler comments
the workings
of Athenian
the common
has noted,
results
failing
Poetics
and
as "flaw,"
is better
idea of hamartia,
often
translated
or
as
and that the
translated
the mark"
"misrecognition,"
"missing
tanta
to a moralization
of "flaw" amounts
of tragedy
very concept
Aristotle's
mount
to blaming
the victim
with Renaissance
originated
(20-22; 40-44).
and neoclassical
this misreading
Indeed,
theorists who,
reading
a (Christian)
to impose
sought
morality
through Horace,
as
the demise
of the hero (44). Thus naming
Things Fall Apart
an
one uses
ancient or
leaves open the questions
of whether
tragedy
Aristotle
onto
of the genre and, implicitly,
understanding
as a
should
be
hero's
regarded
failing of character
dent of chance.
neoclassical
error
a
whether
or an acci
to emphasize
It is important
that this tension between
accident
on
one
two separate
and meaning
levels. On the
exists
hand, this is a
of how the Igbo interpret
internal to Igbo culture, a question
problem
own
or
their world,
their
fortune
misfortune.
including
Increasingly,
as the novel progresses,
seems governed
at least in part
their world
by chance.
in the reader's
this is also a problem
hand,
at the outset,
the
novel. As I suggested
a
If a
latent paradox.
narrative
contains
within
the other
On
of Achebe's
interpretation
very idea of accident
event is merely
narrative
can
An
in the narrative
then its position
accidental,
narrative
and meaning.
the
correlation
of
only suggest
imperfect
wants
to be revoked;
it
its status as accident
accident
always
into
demands
assimilation
always
itwants
other words,
interpretation.22
exists within
in the
a narrative,
fictional
the demand
of a narrative.
In
an accident
And when
is redoubled:
its existence
and
world
demand
the structure
both
in the novel's
already
its existence
narrative
that will
produce meaning.
interpretations
the world
of the Igbo, then, one sort of ambiguity
exists,
see the incidents
that of whether
the characters
of the novel
should
Within
22.
oblique,
Richardson
or
however
connection,
intermittent,
deferred,
"In many
inter
of narrativity"
(37) and asserts:
respects,
. .The more
are two sides of the same coin..
unlikely,
ambiguous,
claims
is a necessary
and causality
that
"causal
condition
pretation
or
the causal
contradictory
becomes"
(43).
accuracy
agency
appears
to be,
the greater
the demand
for interpretive
442
CONTEMPORARY
LITERATURE
as
or mere
events
in the
accidents;
meaningful
as a whole,
wider
fictional world
of the novel
additional
interpre
tive ambiguities?those
that Begam
discerns
the points
of
among
view of precolonial
and
(future) colonial
Igbo, British,
Igbo?come
of
the narrative
and finally, in the process
of reading
the novel,
still further
Okonkwo's
arise, because,
story as a
ambiguities
approaching
are
readers
biased
toward making
of every
novel,
heavily
meaning
into play;
detail
or
to do
for themselves,
that Achebe
has attempted
assuming
levels of ambiguity, moreover,
tend to reinforce each other:
so. These
of the tension
the thematization
between
and narrative,
accident
a kind of
and
for
the
contingency
necessity
Igbo provides
that the reader of Things Fall Apart expe
illustration
of the problem
riences. At the same time, the reader's
of being
position
caught
between
between
meaning
crisis
and
nonmeaning
that arises when
helps
to experience
fall apart within
her
the
of narrativity
the
things
In other words,
in
world.
the reader's
interpret
struggles
to inter
the characters'
ing the events of the novel mirror
struggles
pret the events of their own lives.23
fictional
the novel
rife with
this tension
proves
inspection,
in the
and meaning.
We
find it, for example,
between
accident
and predictions.
novel's many
Michael Wood's
oracles, prophecies,
that oracles
(like deaths
study of oracles, The Road toDelphi, suggests
On
further
are narrative
state
for Benjamin
and Brooks)
Oracular
phenomena.
ments
initiate
stories
and create expectations,
and their meaning
in narrative,
becomes
clear only when
the story is complete.
Indeed,
an oracle or
like the gun in Chekhov's
functions
prophesy
something
you
quip?if
the third.
see it in the first act, you
can bet
that itwill
is not driven
Although
Things Fall Apart
by
Rex
it
and
Macbeth
still
offers multiple
are,
Oedipus
and warnings
and readers.
that create narrative
When
Okonkwo
beats
expectation?for
his youngest
a
single
examples
both
wife
in
be fired
as
oracle,
of omens
characters
during
the
23. Richardson
Iser's reader-response
again is relevant. He invokes Wolfgang
theory
can
inwhich
that perplex
"to suggest
the ways
the same interpretive
dilemmas
characters
. . . are so con
narratives
also confront
the reader"
Later
he
"Certain
elaborates,
(15).
structed
that the ambiguity
to experience,
the audience
of the protagonists'
of the causal
as the reader's
understanding
relations
within
the fiction
are reproduced
for
an
analogue
of the text becomes
interpretation
of the world
inhabit"
(37).
they
443
GREENBERG
Week
"The
of Peace, he is upbraided
by
evil you have done can ruin
the priest
the whole
of the earth
clan. The
goddess:
earth god
increase and
you have insulted may refuse to give us her
shall all perish"
(30). While we should note the hint of doubt?the
a cosmic order
may refuse?the
suggests
priest nonetheless
goddess
inwhich
in the form of bad fortune.
transgressions
bring punishment
dess whom
we
In another
crucial moment,
the Oracle
of the Hills
and Caves
decrees
not to partici
be killed, and Ezeudu warns Okonkwo
in
the
fatal blow,
Yet
Okonkwo
still
ends
the
up striking
pate
killing.
as the
see
to
and it is tempting,
his disobedience
retrospectively,
source of his demise.
that Ikemefuna
oracles are never completely
out, however,
clear;
if they were,
stories.
the
wouldn't
make
for
(If
very
interesting
they
usu
its apparent
oracle doesn't
look equivocal, Wood
notes,
clarity
As Wood
points
can debate
to be a trap.) Thus Okonkwo
and Obierika
of Okonkwo's
action,
interpreta
competing
offering
tions of the oracle's words
and the earth goddess's
will. Obierika
sees Okonkwo's
as a defiance
invite
actions
that will
of the oracle
ally proves
the wisdom
while
devastation,
has in fact carried
more
Okonkwo,
reading
literally,
out the oracle's
command.
Once
debate?between
those who
killing
as a moral
error
see Okonkwo's
that brings
doom
that he
again,
critical
on the meanings
the larger narrative.
inner debate
see
inherent
merely
luck?only
recapitulates
ambiguity
that the text licenses both
text.24 Iwould
argue, however,
and Obierika
and that the discussion
between
Okonkwo
to the reader's
parallel
and of the killing within
in the
participation
and those who
an
bad
argues
it as
in the
readings,
offers a
of the oracle
to stabilize
that Achebe
"leaves no ambigui
the text, claiming
attempts
in matters
definite
and
fluidities
(33), and that
requiring
precise
judgment"
the clan's killing of the boy, "he condemns
Okonkwo's
he might
par
"justif[y]"
24. Obiechina
ties or ethical
although
a sequence
asserts
of causation
from the killing
of the
Cobham
(35). Rhonda
ticipation"
that Okonkwo's
"setjs] in
boy to the suicide of Okonkwo,
claiming
slaying of Ikemefuna
a chain of events which
in
motion
leads to his downfall"
(170). Nwabueze,
ultimately
motives
in
his
Okonkwo's
benevolent
contrast,
Ikemefuna,
accompanying
emphasizes
to avoid direct participation,
efforts
and the role of accident
fate") in the
("capricious
events
that lead
"there
is no
Ikemefuna....
to Okonkwo's
slaying
between
son. Opata
that
similarly maintains
and his killing of
reversal of fortunes
between
them" (91).
of his adopted
Okonkwo's
logical implication
no causal link can be established
444
-CONTEMPORARY
LITERATURE
For it is never made
is punished
Okonkwo
for this
explicit whether
shoots Ezeudu's
son, the killing
Later, when Okonkwo
a
to be an accident,
and Okonkwo
is therefore
given
transgression.
seems
clearly
lesser punishment:
and a man
clansman,
crime was
"It was
who
a crime
to kill a
the earth goddess
against
itmust flee from the land. The
committed
and
of two kinds, male
it
had been
ted the female, because
female.
Okonkwo
had
commit
inadvertent"
(124). Yet although
is still punished.
To Obierika,
this seems
suffer so grievously
for an offense
he
a
But although
he thought
for
inadvertently?
long
no answer. He was
into
led
greater complexi
merely
it is "inadvertent,"
the crime
a man
should
unjust:
"Why
had
committed
time he found
ties. He
remembered
away. What
Igbo justice
of accident.
his wife's
twin
he had thrown
children, whom
crime had they committed?"
then,
(125). To Obierika,
to account
does not seem adequately
for the possibility
that the "accident"
there remains a possibility
of killing
son is itself a fatal or necessary
of
Okonkwo's
consequence
before
the
remembers
Just
transgression.
killing, Okonkwo
Moreover,
Ezeudu's
earlier
in the killing of Ikemefuna,
and
against assisting
warning
a
"a cold shiver [runs] down
back"
direct
causal
[his]
(121). Although
it remains a possibility?not
is never articulated,
connection
only for
see
in
will
the novel's
who
divine
bad
Okonkwo's
characters,
might
see poetic or tragic or ironic
luck, but also for its readers, who might
Ezeudu's
the exile that follows
from the
Indeed,
imposed
by Achebe.
in
in
sets
motion
the
third
last
of
the
which
the
novel,
village
killing
British
is colonized
missionaries.
of Umuofia
When
Okonkwo
by
justice
returns,
whether
clansmen
have
the British
would
his
lost their warlike
made
have
such
spirit, and he wonders
had he not
inroads
no means
to the
the only logic available
By this logic (by
can
success
in
the
of
British
Umuofia
reader),
very
imperialism
be traced to Okonkwo's
the earth
personal
transgressions
against
been
exiled.
goddess.
5
I am arguing
invites
dent,
uals
and
that Things Fall Apart, by raising
the problem
of acci
individ
the reader to question
the process
by which
me
narrative.
cultures make meaning
Let
recall
through
GREENBERG
445
of the story" and "the
between
"the moral
opposition
is one whose
of life." A culture inwhich
story predominates
meaning
or wisdom
stories can offer morals
because
the
culture has
precisely
Benjamin's
no need
to seek
the meaning
in
of life. In contrast,
the modern
culture
and flourishes
is perpetually
perplexed;
it
emerges
for the temporary warmth
of the false totality they pro
it is tempting
vide. Now,
to suggest
that a "traditional"
culture,
we
a
a
see
event
will
which
call
culture,"
"story
particular
might
as the will
a modern
one will
see the
of God or gods, whereas
which
the novel
reads novels
same
as cosmic
event
ply. Achebe's
culture
such
the meaning
but this, I think, puts things too sim
that a traditional,
oral, storytelling
own
as the
its
about
uncertainty
Igbo experiences
satiric
of
of events,
and Achebe's
representation
Western
reminds us that contemporary
culture retains
novel
accident;25
shows us
Christianity
its own superstitions
a modern
reader
who
can still, without
of the fictional
world
nature
as Neil
ten Kortenaar
ten Kortenaar
even
powers.26 Moreover,
in the real
causation
rejects supernatural
in
believe
the
contradiction,
"supernatural"
in
events
the
Still further,
novel.
depicted
and beliefs
calls,
in higher
Achebe's
argued,
Igbo
Abdul
JanMohamed,
following
has
what
possess
a "double
their own religious
system; he cites the
regarding
who
doubt
disclosure
of possible
the women
among
consciousness"
narrative
25. Richardson,
for example,
writes
that in the novel,
gives
"Igbo supernaturalism"
to "an ironic naturalism"
the tribal
contested,
(145), that "Once they are seriously
way
econ
turn out to be hollow.
beliefs
The sympathetic
of the indigenous
cultural
portrayal
a disclosure
with
and inadequacy
of those
of the fictionality
omy of the Igbo concludes
beliefs"
he makes
the point more
about many
(146). Elsewhere
postcolonial
generally
even as they cri
works
which
"end up rejecting
traditional
metaphysics
supernatural
. . . causal
and
Western
cultural
leads to onto
tique
political
investigation
imperialism.
the rejected
beliefs
skepticism,
although
supernatural
as part of a lost totality, or reinscribed
as metaphorically
nostalgically
or transmuted
into effective
(17).
postmodern
allegories"
logical
are
often
recalled
true if literally
false,
to ascribe
to an ideal reader a naturalistic
of course
distinct
position
seems
but
keen
Achebe
to) both Igbo and Christian
supernaturalism,
to be wary
In "An
of their contempt
for "primitive"
belief systems.
a letter from an American
he talks about receiving
Image of Africa,"
high school student
to learn about the customs
and superstitions
of an African
tribe" while
"happy
remaining
that the life of his own tribesmen
in Yonkers, New York, is full of odd customs
"unaware
and superstitions"
discussion
of Achebe's
of the ideological
(2). For an excellent
analysis
see Moses.
that Christianity
the British missionaries,
allows
advantages
26.
from
It is possible
(and superior
to remind Westerners
446
witness
at once
LITERATURE
CONTEMPORARY
the ritual of the egwugwu as evidence
and not know
the naturalistic
visit from
supernatural
For all these reasons,
their dead
we
can
that the Umuofians
know
explanation
for
the
ancestors.27
should
be wary
of overstabilizing
the
as
beliefs
of the precolonial
in Achebe's
novel.
Igbo
represented
for a traditional
Nonetheless,
culture, as we see it in both Benjamin's
and Achebe's
discussion
the bigger
the
reconstruction,
questions,
about the meaning
answers.
of life, do have dependable
questions
And
these answers will at least allow the culture
to make meaning
of an accident
to turn the accident
into something
retrospectively,
a
a
lesson.
A
culture
of
meaningful?a
sign,
warning,
story already
a narrative
new details
to which
need to be assimi
possesses
merely
a
lated. In
culture of the novel, by contrast,
it is the narrative
itself
that has to be made
It is thus worth
and remade.
the
claim
repeating
that while Things Fall Apart shows us aworld
governed
by the values
of story,
the novel
itself is?it
too obvious
sounds
to say?a
novel.
can
the
use
world
stories
to
transmit
wis
premodern
Although
Igbo
dom and share experiences,
can
the novel
Fall
Things
Apart
only
warm
our
lives
with
the
of
out
shivering
promise
making
meaning
of Okonkwo's
death.
Iwant
to push
in fact, by suggesting
this claim one step further,
that the novel
itself gives us reason to assert that its narrative
is the
narrative
of the very moment
of transition
from story to novel. The
is not simply
that it is about the arrival of forces of moderniza
point
tion in the form of British missionaries,
but rather that it narrates
the
a
an
of
need
for
of
the
of life.28
emergence
explanation
meaning
In Things Fall Apart, stories cease to
their
and
novels
morals,
yield
like Things Fall Apart become
Achebe
the begin
shows
necessary.
of
the
end
of Igbo culture by showing
the deterioration
of the
ning
27. Ten Kortenaar
refines
this double
conscious
JanMohamed's
argument
by claiming
as for the
"It is in the reader, rather than in the
Igbo characters:
that a double
consciousness
is created"
characters,
(130). Achebe
speaks of this same dou
ble consciousness
in regard to the egwugwu:
"In the past, knowing
who walked
within
the
did not detract
mask
from the numinous,
dramatic
of a representative
of the
presence
on a brief mission
ancestors
to the living. Disbelief
was
The decline
easily
suspended!
a
of the collapse
of a whole
today ismerely
67).
symptom
eschatology"
("Igbo World"
28. In reaching
this conclusion,
ten Kortenaar's
endorse
claim
that
then, Iwould
ness
for the narrator
"Achebe
is writing
gives way
before
as well
of a moment
another"
(127).
of epistemic
rupture,
when
one mode
of knowledge
GREENBERG
447
in which
in the
and the ways
system
Igbo narrative
Igbo beliefs
are
events
of
and
To
tested
be
Achebe
sure,
pre
meanings
changed.
sents moments
in which misfortune
before
the arrival of the British
causes
characters
reaches
a crisis
men
white
tests
of
whether
mit
to question
But
their belief
system.
than for his clansmen)
(less for Okonkwo
set up a church. In fact, part
as to whether
the Igbo gods
the misdeeds
they will punish
unthinkable
unmasking
even
ment
acts?Okoli's
of an egwugwu?so
exists for them. At
3 of the novel
this doubt
only when
offers a series
will
their people,
protect
com
of the converts, who
a sacred
Enoch's
of
python,
killing
that no code of punish
transgressive
times, such as in the sudden death of
seem
to
the
and faith in them is tem
do
take
Okoli,
action,
gods
restored, but at other times they do not, as when
porarily
they fail to
kill the African
Christian Mr. Kiaga when
he takes in twin children
who had been
left to die. (Kiaga tells the new converts:
"The hea
if you do this or that, and you are afraid. They
if I built my church on this ground. Am I dead?
die if I took care of twins. I am still alive" [157].)29
then say you will
said Iwould
die
also
die
They said Iwould
do beginnings
Less and less frequently
omens, prohibi
(warnings,
to
lead
the
tions)
punishment,
(revenge,
justice).
expected
endings
an overall narrative
in which
is a glimpse
What
of a world
results
is obliterated.30
coherence
one brief point. If Things Fall Apart shows us the
at a
it goes even further and gestures
transition
from story to novel,
third "form of communication"
that Benjamin
he
discusses?what
Iwill
conclude
with
links to journal
which
Information,
Benjamin
on
Informa
of its emphasis
ism, opposes
story because
verifiability.
tion should be true and should prove its truth. Moreover,
information
calls
"information."
explains
itself:
"No
29. Okpala
takes Okoli's
the fictional world
within
this interpretation
Again,
with
the Igbo community,
event
any
longer
comes
to us without
already
and subsequent
death as evidence
that
killing of the python
a kind of
of Things Fall Apart,
justice" does hold.
"spiritual
too
in this case that of
narrative
point of view,
easily confuses
statements.
authorial
in Okonkwo's
30. Thus on every
incident
life to the fate of
level, from the smallest
itself in the era of European
conquest,
Igbo society and of Africa
Things Fall Apart invites
it ulti
the reader to consider
the relationships
and meaning;
narrative,
accident,
among
asks whether
historical
of colonial
themselves
necessary
mately
patterns
conquest were
or accidental.
448
LITERATURE
CONTEMPORARY
being shot through with explanation"
tion that accompanies
the narrating
tude" or resonant
of information
(90). Achebe,
information
suggestiveness
does not survive
I suggest,
gives
precisely
in the brutal ironies of the novel's
District
the British
in which
the moment
us
After
graphs.
(89). This ready-made
explana
of events destroys
the "ampli
of a story or parable. Thus "the value
itwas
new"
a
of Benjaminian
picture
final para
well-known
orders his African
Commissioner
to take down the hanged
the narrative
messenger
corpse of Okonkwo,
a book
as
to
for
the
first
his
of
he
time,
view,
shifts,
point
contemplates
to write. Achebe's
he is planning
novel ends with
the Commissioner's
back to the court he thought about that book. Every day
As he walked
him
brought
but
some
and
messenger
almost
could
in free indirect discourse:31
rendered
thoughts
include,
material.
hanged
a whole
be
would
chapter
at
paragraph,
one must
The
himself
write
a reasonable
and
new
firm
in
sen the title of the book, after much
story
on him.
any
cutting
of
this man
make
rate.
out
interesting
not
Perhaps
There
details.
was
He
who
had
reading.
a whole
so much
had
a
killed
already
One
chapter
to
else
cho
thought: The Pacification of thePrimitive
Tribes of the LowerNiger.
(208-9)
The novel
the reader has just completed,
to a lone
will
be
reduced
life,
paragraph
the imperialist-missionary
work whose
the story of Okonkwo's
in a book that perpetuates
horrific
effects
the reader
has just witnessed.
This promised
will erase not only
reinscription
Okonkwo's
life but his entire culture; and the Commissioner's
strin
of gov
gency as an editor, we gather, reflects his general principles
ernance. That such words
as
and
should
"pacification"
"primitive"
be in the title of the book adds a final insult to these injuries. Of
it should be remembered
that this book is not the story we
course,
have
from Achebe; Achebe's
in fact recovers Okonkwo's
novel
story
and Umuofia's.
But the ending does suggest
that Achebe's
in
novel,
of
and
its
erosion,
concept
story
representing
Benjamin's
recognizes
out that the arrival of the District
31. McCarthy
Commissioner
about a
points
brings
shift not only in narrative
view
in
of
but
narrative
which
the
abandons
point
language,
and oral devices,
such as Ongian
that characterize
most
of
rhythms
"backlooping,"
scorn for the
the novel.
the Commissioner
himself
Indeed,
expresses
patterns
language
of the Igbo and their "love of superfluous
words"
254-55).
(McCarthy
449
GREENBERG
it recognizes
how
the fragility
of narrative
meaning:
a life, however
can
be
reduced
of
enigmatic,
meaning
information.
Montclair
WORKS
the
quickly
to a piece of
State University
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