“Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe is a great book that dwells upon the life of Nigerian people, their customs, and traditions. It is notable that the title of the book is taken from William Butler Yeats’ poem The Second Coming. The borrowing of the title idea may be explained by the similarity of themes that are discussed in these two literary works. The comparison of the similarity of the ideas may be concluded out of two phrases, “Things Fall Apart” and “the centre cannot hold”.
Paying attention to the poem first, the phrase “The falcon cannot hear the falconer; / Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold” should be mentioned. The author means that there is the culture into the culture and one is dominating. Dwelling upon the end of everything, the author means that the dominating culture is going to lose its position and give away to the inner one. The same idea is presented by Chinua Achebe who, describing the Igbo’s confidence in their domination, pays attention to the fact that Igbo, being sure that they will ruin Western culture and impose their own, allowed western missioners to stay.
Reading the book, it becomes understandable that Western culture managed to dominate. The author delivers this message by means of Obierika’s words, “The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We… allowed him to stay…. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart”. The meaning is the same as in the poem.
Those who wanted to dominate did not cope with their task and had to submit. The symbolic meaning of the phrases “Things Fall Apart” and “the centre cannot hold” is that the nation which was united is separated now, is divided into several parts and it is impossible to put it together. The book under consideration describes the most striking period of life of Igbo, the period of changes when traditions are changing and alien culture is imposed.