The Function of symbolism in Chinua Achebe's Novel Things Fall Apart

Abstract

Abstract The present work is in the field of African literature, and it is about the function of symbolism in Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart. It attempts to highlight and interpret the symbolic items in the novel Things Fall Apart. The novel is a model and landmark of the African literature because it contains an African flavor of oral tradition through folktales and myths, proverbs, idioms, etc, and most of these items exist in the first part where Achebe describes the Ibo society living in harmony and balance. Besides the use of the African oral tradition, there are such events that are highly significant and have relation with the decline of the Ibo society and its representative, who is also the novel's protagonist Okonkwo such as the death of the hostage Ikemefuna and the murder of the missionary. In sum, the novel is highly symbolic, and that Achebe has succeeded in making symbolic function.