The Breaking Point

The Breaking Point

In Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart, outsiders disrupt a settlement based on tradition. The poem “The Second Coming” by W.B. Yeats talks about the falconer and how the widening gyre makes it so that the people lose focus of the falconer in the center of that gyre. In Things Fall Apart, there are many examples of the people losing focus on their center because of the mixing of outside cultures. The novel Things Fall Apart is a true example of the repercussions that Yeats speaks concerning the problems people face when they lose focus of their traditions and acquire new views.

In “The Second Coming”, Yeats states that “Turning and turning in the widening gyre/ The falcon cannot hear the falconer” (1-2). The “gyre”, or circle, centers on the falconer who is the main point of life in the tribe. In the town of Umofia, “the falconer” represents tradition. Tradition is the main focal point of the tribe and thus, the tribe’s center. As the circle widens, due to the entrance of the white missionaries, the people get further and further away from that tradition and are less able to “hear” and keep focus on the falconer. As a symbol of tradition, Okonkwo also represents “the falconer” while his son, Nwoye is “the falcon”. As the people come from outside lands, Nwoye moves his focus away from the tradition. Nwoye turns so far away from tradition that he goes on to renounce his father saying, “He is not my father” (144). Nwoye has turned his focus away from the tradition of the tribe and now listens to the white missionaries, against the advice of Okonkwo. Turning away from the traditions of the tribe and not listening to his advice deeply disheartens Okonkwo.

In the next line of Yeats’ poem, he writes “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold” (3). As the novel shows, when the tribe loses sight of the center of their circle, it dissolves. As a figure representative of tradition, Okonkwo demonstrates, that once the focus of the circle, tradition, is lost, it cannot be rebuilt. In the novel, once the people lose the focus of tradition, the tribe and the tradition will never be able to return to the way it was. The novel states that “the drums and the dancing began again and reached fever-heat. Darkness was around the corner, and the burial was near” (123-124). This statement foreshadows Okonkwos banishment from the town. This is important because Okonkwo represents tradition in the