An Ecoritical Interpretation of “Things Fall Apart”

Abstract

“Save the earth” was the motto of the 1992 Environmental Conference held in Rio. “Serve the earth” would have been more appropriate. One can perceive “serve the earth” attitude in Chinua Achebe’s sublime work Things Fall Apart. This study traces the depiction of nature in the aforesaid novel whether it is anthropocentric (system of beliefs and practices that favours humans over other organisms) or it is enlightened anthropocentric. Deterioration of environment is a primary concern in today’s world. Chinua Achebe brought real people, society, and their universe to the whole world. Things Fall Apart articulated a new vision of the Igbo world and gave expression to a new sense of the African experience that was more penetrating than what had been available before its appearance. Ecocriticism, which has emerged in the 1970s. Ecocriticism gives human beings a better understanding of nature. “The Ecocriticism Reader” takes ecocriticism as “the study of the relation between literature and the physical environment”(XVIII). According to Glotfelty, simply put, ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment. Just as feminist criticism examines language and literature from a gender- conscious perspective, and Marxist criticism brings an awareness of modes of production and economic class to its reading of texts, ecocriticism takes an earth-centred approach to literary studies. (1996: xix). This study will include major themes of ecocriticism such as ‘animism’, ‘dwelling’, ‘nature’ and ‘apocalypse. ‘Yams’, ‘the silk-cotton tree’, and ‘the moon’ is part of the Ibo society in which humans and nature had a symbiotic relationship. This study explores how Chinua Achebe has portrayed this relationship in his magnum opus