“Things Fall Apart” refers to a quote from Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming” and Achebe’s novel of the same name. The phrase suggests an unstoppable force of change and chaos. Achebe’s novel explores the collision of Nigerian and European societies and the loss of center in Igbo society. The reference to Yeats’ poem is seen as ironic since the chaos in the novel is caused by European/Christian incursion.
“Things Fall Apart” most often refers to a quote from William Butler Yeats’ poem, “The Second Coming,” published in 1920. It also refers to the novel of the same name written by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe and published in 1958 Understand what the phrase means it is easier when viewed in the context of a larger sampling of the poem: “Things fall apart; the center cannot stand:/Simple anarchy is unleashed upon the world”.
“The Second Coming” is in part Yeats’s vision of the near end of Christianity, essentially the end of a 2,000-year era. People may use the phrase to express their concerns about the increase in violence in the world, to refer to poetry, or to suggest that the world is plunged into anarchy.
However, for Yeats, this is “simple” anarchy, almost suggesting an attitude of laissez-faire. “Things fall apart” translates into anarchy that cannot be stopped. There is a world-weariness implicit in “simple” that suggests the unstoppable force of change.
Achebe’s great work, Things Fall Apart, speaks to the change of Nigerian society as it collides with European society. One of the novel’s recurring themes is the perception of the characters and the author that fate is often predetermined with chaotic results. Also, Nigerians lose their sense of center as various new opinions and/or laws affect Igbo society. Eventually Igbo society will come to a virtual end.
Critics argue that Achebe chooses the title in specific reference to the poem. However, Achebe is not discussing the death of Christianity, but rather the chaos wrought on Igbo society by the European/Christian incursion.
The final lines of “The Second Coming” suggest the birth of the antichrist. “What rough beast, the hours of him come around at last / Lean to Bethlehem to be born?” For Yeats, who saw the world in 2,000-year segments, this isn’t all bad in context. He rather expresses imagination as to what the new world will consist of and concludes that it will perhaps be animalistic or cruel, hence the rough beast.
For Achebe, the novel ends with the end of Igbo society and the death of the protagonist. Faced with the chaos caused by the incursion of Christianity, Okonkwo becomes a murderer and later hangs himself. His world has literally fallen apart and the rough beast rearing its head in Nigerian society is not anti-Christian, but specifically Christian. Thus, the reference to a European poem in Things Fall Apart can be seen as an irony.
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