TRAGEDY A Genre of Tragedy goes back to Ancient Greeks. The Greek tragedy meant the theatrical competition the winner of which received the goat to feast a victory. This is the formal characteristics of a tragedy. Greek tragedy rose out of religious rites and dramatic reenactments of tales of the gods in the early Greek religion and mythology. The philosopher Aristotle theorized that tragedy results in catharsis (emotional cleansing) for the audience and that this explains why humans enjoy seeing dramatized pain1. Things Fall Apart is a tragedy of African people in general and Igbo people of Nigeria in particular narrated by Chinua Achebe who, as well as Ben Okri is a founder of the national Nigerian literature. The novel is a tragedy of appeal to return to the African identity and the self esteem suppressed by the white colonizers.
It is a tragedy not of Igbo people only but of entire Africa. African culture was suppressed by the white culture and the tragic thing is that the Africans accept this suppression. The humbliest effect of the colonization maybe not the direct political losses, but moral and cultural ones. This is the essence of the tragedy by Chinua Achebe. The complete annihilation of African cultural riches manifested by the whites; their attitude towards the traditional African culture as towards the culture of savages opposed to the white civilization makes the apologists of such approach to be savages themselves in their ignorance. The example of such savage is a District Commissioner, who appears at the end of the novel and who is ignorant about the life and the culture of Igbo people.
The Essay on African American Black White People
The Color of America Americans have the tendency to make judgments based on appearances. A man dressed in dirty, torn rags walking down the street would be considered poor and homeless. Women that dress in tight clothes or short skirts are almost instantly categorized as being promiscuous. Unfortunately, stereotypes negatively affect the ability to understand members of a different group or ...
The novel is a tragedy of the traditional religion annihilation by the attempts of the whites to direct the Igbo to Christianity. If we leave our gods and follow your god,” asked another man, “who will protect us from the anger of our neglected gods and ancestors?” “Your gods are not alive and cannot do you any harm,” replied the white man. “They are pieces of wood and stone.” When this was interpreted to the men of Mbanta they broke into derisive laughter. These men must be mad, they said to themselves. How else could they say that Ani and Amadiora were harmless? And Idemili and Ogwugwu too? And some of them began to go away.’1 The novel is a tragedy of Okonmo, a powerful leader of the community who lived a good life with a good compound and respect of the villagers and did not want to accept the new realities of the colonialism. Okonkwo was banished from community for the accidental killing a clansman.
He is fighting against colonialism alone. The novel is a tragedy of the top African values depreciation. It is most indicative when the son of the snake priest ate the sacred python after being converted to Christianity3. That python symbolizes the cultural and religious values of Africans eaten by the cultural values of the colonizers. It is sadder that this annihilation of the native values has been accepted by the Africans. The novel is a tragedy of the Africans who accept the white culture opposing to the white colonizers who try to understand the local culture to eliminate local traditions In this way Mr.
Brown learnt a good deal about the religion of the clan and he came to the conclusion that a frontal attack on it would not succeed4. The lexicon of the whites resembles that in the regiment headquarter while planning the military operation. The novel Things Fall Apart is a tragedy of the colonization and maybe the most important is not economical and political impact on the Africans but cultural and moral ones. When Okonkwo comes back he sees that the things fall apart in his village. People are different. They are not the same as they were when he left the village.
The Essay on Tragedy In Things Fall Apart
Consider the Aristotelian tragedy. It has yet to go the way of Eddie Bauer. In Things Fall Apart, China Achebe devised a tragic African hero in Okonkwo, consistent with the classic stipulations of the figure. Thus, the novel -- to its greatest practicable extent-inherently existed as a tragedy on all levels to accommodate Okonkwo. To illustrate this, I will dissect and analyze the many factors ...
Okonkwo realizes the cost of the civilization brought by the colonizers and the tragedy of him and his people is that his people paid for the vague civilized values their cultural freedom and their identity on their own free will. The tragedy of the Igbo people is that their identity has been irretrievably lost. Bibliography Tragedy, Free Definition, available at http://www.free-definition.com/Tragedy.html, retrieved 19042005 Achebe, Chinua, Things Fall Apart, New York: Doubleday, 1994 Citation Free Definition Things Fall Apart, 1958 Things Fall Apart, p. 185 Things Fall Apart, p. 181.
