Origin of the Title of Book -

         Yeats wrote this poem shortly after the end of WWI, with the tides of fascism and communism rising and threatening destruction to all of Europe. Yeats, an occultist and mystic, believed that history revolved in two thousand year cycles, and that the catastrophes of his time were signs that one cycle was ending and another was beginning. The cycle whose ending is that of the Christian era, while the newborn cycle was one of tumult and destruction.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand;
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries
of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Points of Interest:

A gyre is a spiral that makes the figure of a cone. The "turning and turning" furthers the cyclic image. Has this happened many times, or is this a unique incident? Did the era preceding perhaps begin with horror also?

The Second Coming is return of Christ, but in Christian theology it is also marked by the return of the Beast, a
creature possessed by Satan. This ending of a cycle has definite negative connotations, but could it be interpreted differently? What does the "ceremony of innocence" refer to in the poem and in the book? Did this perhaps inspire Achebe to end  Ikemefuma's life in the narrative the way he did? Okonkwo is obviously "full of passionate intensity", while Nwoye apparently "lacks all conviction". But who is the worse?

Spirit Mundi means "Spirit of the World". Since this beast comes from the Spirit Mundi, is it predestined or an aberration? Also the African imagery is latent even if not intended by Yeats himself: lion head, sun, desert birds.
The creature has the body of a lion but the head of man. This mixture of animal and human characteristics could trace itself back to the gods of ancient Egypt. Or it could remind the reader that African were considered subhuman by Europeans, with many animalistic traits. A good literary example of this type of thinking the notetaking of Schoolteacher in Beloved.

Note that Yeats believes this creature has been held back since the beginning of the Christian era, and has finally come to take the place of Christ. Could this refer to Okonkwo's gods? Or does Achebe believe that the Christian God is "rough beast"? What is being born in the Okonkwo's time, literally and figuratively?

Plot Summary -

    In "Things Fall Apart", the main character is Okonkwo, a man who has become highly respected in his village, and is driven to his success by a hatred of his father, a man who did nothing remarkable or respectable in his life. In a society where a man gets his start from his father, this is a huge insult and shame for Okonkwo, who becomes determined to become so successful that his father will be forgotten by both himself and his village.

    Okonkwo works hard to better himself and become successful, and his efforts pay off when he is elevated to a position of great respect and power in his village. After a time, he is able to take three wives and is blessed with many children, yet he fears, both, that they will turn out as his father, their grandfather, did, and that he will be judged by any sign of weakness. In order to prevent this, he is very harsh and firm with his children, as well as his wives. When a conflict arises between his village and another local village, Okonkwo is given the responsibility of caring for a boy, Ikemefuma, given to his tribe as a sign of peace. This boy remains with his family for three years, and becomes such a part of the family that he refers to Okonkwo as "father". Based on this, he is advised not to take part in the murder of the boy, which the tribe is planning. However, when the time comes, he strikes the boy down himself in order to avoid his paranoia of being seen as weak.

    Okonkwo is later able to show his concern and caring for his daughter, Ezinma. When he accidentally kills the son of a village elder at a funeral due to a rifle misfire, Okonkwo is forced to leave his tribe and join his mothers village for seven years as punishment for outraging "Mother Earth". After serving out his punishment, and still being successful, in spite of his misery, he is able to return to his Fatherland.

    However, upon his celebrated return, he is made aware that everything he has believed in has been threatened by the arrival of white missionaries and their judicial system. He even loses his own first-born son, Nwoye, to the missionaries and their system. Having suffered what he considers to be the ultimate insult at the hands of the white man, after burning the church, Okonkwo realizes that he has nothing left, that his world is "falling apart". He then hangs himself to avoid seeing the rest of his life crumble.

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