Binary Opposition in Things Fall Apart

E305                                                                                                         Rabby Imam Zibon

                                                 PostColonial Literature                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                 

Binary Opposition in the Things Fall Apart:

Albert Chinualomogu Achebe uses “Binary Opposition” as a major element of narrative technique which is inevitable when writing about a society that does not know itself writing or when using English to describe an Ibo-speaking world as these two portray two complete opposite poles. Before searching of binary opposition in the novel, it should be better to expose the term “Binary Opposition”.   

What is “Binary Opposition?”

Binary means a combination of two things, a pair or duality. Opposition, on the other hand means the act of strongly disagreeing with somebody or something; especially with the aim of presenting something from happening. So, binary opposition refers to two opposite things but interrelated or interconnected with each other. In fact the one depends on the other. If there was no black, we would not identify white. For the darkness of the night, we can feel the daylight. There is a widely used term with distinctive meanings in several fields, and one that has had various sets of meanings in post-colonial theory.

The binary opposition is the most extreme fore of difference possible- sun/moon: man/woman: birth/death: black/white etc. Such oppositions each of which represents a binary system are very common in the cultural construction of reality. However, binary opposition never support between beings or happenings. For example, the stage between the child and adult is “youth” which is treated as scandalous category.

Contemporary post structuralism and feminist theories have demonstrated that such binaries entail a violent hierarchy.  Where man is dominant over woman, birth over death, white over black; binary opposition exists to confirm that dominance. The binary logic of imperialism is a development of that tendency of western thought in general to see the world in terms of binary opposition that establish a relation of dominance. A simple distinction between colonizer/colonized, Metropolis/Empire, civilized/primitive represents very efficiently the violent hierarchy on which imperialism is based and which it actively perpetuates.

Binary Oppositions are structurally related to one another. In Things Fall Apart; both culturally and psychologically, it is shown in number of ways.

1. Community Vs Individual 2. Masculinity Vs Femininity 3. Father Vs Son 4. Civilized Vs Primitive 5. White Vs Black 6. Advanced Vs Retarded 7. Human Vs Bestial

1.      Community Vs Individual:

The central of the novel is what happens to the values that define Okonkwo’s cultural community and own sense of moral order. Okonkwo, a strong individual and Ibo hero who always struggle to maintain cultural integrity of his people against overwhelming power of colonial rule, broke some rituals of Ibo customs and committed suicide at the end of the novel. So, we can see that despite been an Ibo, Okonkwo is an individual. Okonkwo may have failed because of his weakness as individual but his failure was inevitable because Colonial rule destabilized the values and institutions that sustained him. Indeed, there is a close relationship in the novel between Okonkwo’s individual crisis of authority and power, and the crisis of the community.

2.      Masculinity Vs Femininity:

Gender line in Ibo society is strictly drawn and the Ibo community consistently reinforces this. To be a man, is to be violent, strong and showing any emotion is a sign of weakness or is considered to be a female trait. In Ibo society all is good is considered to be masculine and all that is bad is thought to be as feminine. Only in a few minor instances woman are even treated as humans instead of animals or slaves. The first part totally dominated by male principles. On the opposite side second part deals with the priority of feminine principles.

Okonkwo always associates masculinity with aggression and feels that anger is the only emotion that he should display. Okonkwo associates Unoka with weakness and with weakness be associates femininity. His behavior so markedly different from his father’s, it constitutes masculinities. Okonkwo beats his wife Ojugo mercilessly because “Okonkwo was not the man to stop beating somebody halfway though not even for fear of a goddess.”

It is also seen that Okonkwo was only once punished and fined because of breaking the tradition and law of piece but not for beating a woman. Wife beating was very trifle matter to them. The rise of masculinity in Nwoye’s character is seen, too. But, he was unable to rule his woman, children; he was not really a man. So, it is clear that manly quality was to dominate their wives. Okonkwo always felt proud of his manly qualities and the female of Ibo community was always considered inferior to man.   

3.      Father Vs Son:

There is twofold father-son binary opposition presented in the Things Fall Apart. Once when Okonkwo is son and Unoka as father and again, Okonkwo as father and Nwoye as son. In both the cases, Okonkwo has been presented as strong, courageous, warrior who is respected for his characteristics by the people of his village. His opposite traits is found both in Unoka and Nwoye who are lazy, profligate, coward, interested in music and conversation. Okonkwo is fearful of such characteristics and Nwoye expands his fear even more because his character is gyre of Oknokwo’s father Unoka who had no title.

4.      Civilized Vs Primitive:

The concept of civilized and primitive has been presented in the novel. The White people are thought to be civilized while the Black people or the people of Africa is “primitive” or people living in the “heart of darkness”. The Ibo were to be civilized by the British standards and under the British rule, using British imported goods, the English language and the Anglican religion, as Achebe shows in the Things Fall Apart was more decisive than any other colonial imposition. They wished to replace “savagery” with “civilization”. To them, the Stateless society of the Ibo was anarchistic. So they wanted to establish Ibo people by civilizing. Still, the African life is simple while Euro-centric life is too complex. The policy of Mr. Brown, the disdain of reverend smith and the Machiavellianism of the District Commissioner has not even yet touched the superstition, bind faith and simplicity of Ibo culture.

5.      White Vs Black:

In Things Fall Apart, the tone of racism that is the distinguishment between the White and the Black is found. The White people usually thought the natives as “primitives” or “indigenous” people. They claim that the Blacks are inferior to them. The attitude of reverend James Smith towards Ibo community is evident enough to support this binarism. Reverend Smith saw things as Black and White and the “Black” as evil. He saw the world as a battlefield in which the ‘children of light’ (White) were locked in mortal combat with the “sons of darkness’ (Black). 

Besides the District Commissioner is portrayed as the prototypical racist colonialist. He thinks that he understands everything about native African customs and cultures and he has no respect for them. His ethnographic study on local African tribes is the idea of embodiment of his dehumanizing and reductive attitude towards race relations.

6.      Advanced Vs Retarded:

The aim of the novel is to awake the Africans. The white people are progressing everyday but still the Africans have remained in the same place. They still believe in silly ‘manliness’, ‘polygamy’, ‘superstitions’ and so on. In the novel, we find that the Christian missionaries got the chance of entrance for the belief of superstition of the natives. The Ibo people allowed the missionaries to establish church in so-called “Evil Forest” because they believed that the spirits would destroy the missionaries. The people like Mr. Smith and Mr. Brown is spreading Christianity by any means in Africa. But Chielo, the priestess of Agbala, the Oracle of the hills and caves still thought to be possessed by the spirit of Agbala. Here, the author explores the struggle between the old traditions, rituals within the community and the new revolt of Christianity in Africa. Yet an optimistic tone is found as the falcon is the representative of the young generation of the clan is shown.

7.      Human Vs Bestial:

Humans are thought to be the best creatures. But in this novel, the Whites are trying to enslave the Blacks and treating them as beast by claiming the Blacks as “savages”. In African culture still there are bestial deeds. In one of them, Okonkwo leads to kill Ikemefuna who called him ‘father’. He does this just to prove significance of gender toll to show his manliness.