CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study Novel is part of literature and one of the
literaryworks and someone who cares
about the world around them tries to reflect it as a documentary picture of life. Most of novels are concerned with
ordinarypeople and their problems in the
societies in which they find themselves. Moreover, novel also tells the story whether it happens today, later or in
the past. By reading a novel, people not
only know the information about the events thathave happened but also they will understand about what the impacts
that will influence to their idea of reality
and history (Peck, 1986: 102-103). Furthermore, related with the explanation before, the writer will use a
literary work especially a novel written
by Chinua Achebe entitle Things Fall Apart, which is produced in the past when colonization happen in his country
at that time. Moreover, to make this
study more specific, the writer only takes thecolonialism mainly on the culture of Ibo society. And Postcolonial
literary criticism as a theory to analyze
the legacy of colonizer that has been left in Ibo’s society will be appropriate with this study.
The post-colonial theorists,
Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin in their book The Postcolonial Studies Reader(2003: 10-13)
stated that even though Postcolonial
literary criticism has many sides to investigate like politics, ideology, religion, education, identity,
culture, ethnicity, language and so on.
There is one thing that makes all
the sides together, that is, the similar history of colonialism. In other words,
Postcolonialism in this case can help to re-bring the unity and authority of society
who undergo the colonialism process.
Furthermore, it focuses particularly on the way in which literature by the colonialism of culture distorts the
experiencesand realities, and inscribes the
inferiority of the colonized people on literature by colonizing people that attempt to articulate their identity and
reclaim their past in the face of that past's
inevitable otherness.
Related to the explanation
before, here the writer presents Chinua Achebe as one of Nigeriannovelists. His first novel,
Things Fall Apart, is an early narrative
about the European colonization of Africatold from the point of view of the colonized people. Achebe takes the
title for his novel from a line in a
classic Western modernist poem "The Second Coming" by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1865-1939). As an
Nigerian novelist who his ancestor believe
in spirit and something occult, Achebe seesthat Yeats attracts to the spiritual and occult world and explain human
experience. And his poem entitled “The
Second Coming” gives Achebe inspiration to produce a novel that is given title Things Fall Apart. This
novel was published in 1958, recounts
about the life of the warrior Okonkwo and describes the arrival of white missionaries to his Ibo village.
Furthermore,the story tells about the effect
of the arrival of white missionaries on African life and society at the end of the nineteenth century. Achebe writes his
own history of colonization in order to
present a perspective different from thosetaught in the Western literary and historical traditions. He also
intensely presents the stereotype of Africa
as an undifferentiated primitive land. Throughout the novel, he shows how African cultures vary among themselves and
how they change over time.
Additionally, Achebe's novels let
us have a close and real picture of the past and present African life with all their pains,
pleasures and puzzles with immediacy and
force (V. Rao, 2007: 1) Based on website
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things_Fall_Apart, the article entitled My Own Little Reading Room
Things Fall Apartwritten by Gautami, the
writer gets more information about Things Fall Apart. There, Gautami stated that Things Fall Apartas one of
the colonization novels and focuses on
Nigeria's early experience with colonialism, from first contact with the British to widespread British
administration. Its most striking feature is to create a complex and sympathetic portrait of a
traditional village culture in Africa.
Achebe, the author, tries not only to inform the outside world about Ibo cultural traditions, but also to remind
his ownpeople of their past and to assert
that it has much of values. In addition, in his novel, Achebe describes the Ibo cultural traditions which maintain a
certain objectivity that allows him to
criticize aspects of both colonial and indigenous society. Here, Achebe wants to show the process of dispelling
stereotypesof traditional African culture
and touch on some of the most universal issues that face any society.
Furthermore, Uchendu (1965: 51)
also gives information about Things Fall
Apart. There, the writer knows that Things Fall Apartis a milestone in African literature. The events of the novel
unfold around the turn ofthe th century.
The majority of the story takes place in the fictional village of Umuofia, located west of the actual Onitsha,
on the east bank of the Niger Riverin
Nigeria. The description is similar to that of Achebe's birthplace of Ogidi, where Ibo-speaking people live together
in groups of independent villages ruled
by titled elders. The customs described in the novel mirror those of the actual Onitsha people, who live near
Ogidi, and with whom Achebe is familiar.
The British arrival to colonize
the culture particularly on the social organization
and religious system of Ibo society inAfrica is one of the reasons why the writer decides to analyze this novel.
Then another reason is the effects that
are got by Ibo society from colonization in their culture. Based on the explanation about Things Fall Apartand the
writer’s reasons, it can be concluded
that there is colonization in the novel Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe. And Postcolonial Literary
Criticism will help the writer to look
on and know about the effects of colonization in this novel.
Related to this study, there is
scientific writing that had been made by English Letters and Language Department
student of the State Islamic University
of Malang that appropriates in this area. Agus Maimun Zubir (2005) studied the colonization that is
reflected in Daniel Defoe’s novel. In his thesis entitledA Postcolonial Analysis on the
Novel “Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe,
he focuses on the major character as the major colonizer. He describes that hegemony of Robinson Crusoe is
huge.Therefore, he can determine everything
around him in order to be appropriate for his business.
There are many ways to dominate
“silent other” thatare used by the major character, Robinson Crusoe. In addition, Risna
BudiCahyati, the student of the State
University of Malang, presents another study entitled The Influences Of The British Colonialism On The Religious
Life OfThe Ibo Community As Described In
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Her thesis focuses on the effects of British colonialism particularly in
their religion. She explains that before
colonization Ibo community believe in more than one God, polytheism.
And after British come and bring
their new religion, Christians, Ibo community
belief in one God, monotheism. Different from Zubir and Cahyati’s study, here the writer wants to
analyze about the colonialism effects particularly
on the culture of the Ibo society. Here, the writer presents the social organizations and religious practices
on theIbo society. In addition, this study
is aimed at knowing what the effects of colonialism on the Ibo’s culture especially on the Ibo personal and Ibo
society, which is described inThings Fall
Apart novel by Chinua Achebe.
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