Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer.

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
These lines are from the 2 nd coming a poem by William Butler Yeats, and the very source of the title of Achebes novels title. These lines themselves and the rest of the poem justify why Things Fall Apart wasnt a misnomer. Turning and turning in the widening gyre. A gyre is in essence an inverted vortex over another upright vortex. This rep the flow of time in ages in humanitys history. (in this context, achebe uses it to fit his book). With the end of every age comes another one that is entirely the latters opposite. Achebe thus used this line to refer to the ibo society reaching its prime then falling apart with the missions coming, which in turn represented the coming of a new age. The falcon cannot hear the falconer. In his poem, yeats had used this line to refer to the peo ple (falcon) turning away from god (falconer- overlord?). the poem had been written immediately aft WW1. He had believe the end of the world was near as the Great War was the most devastating of its time. Achbe fits this into the context of TFA by using it to refer to the people turning away from their ibo gods when the Christian missions turn them upon themselves. Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold. As you already know, this line is key to the name of the novel. It is pretty much obvious that the Christian missions tore apart what held the Ibo together. It also refers to Okonkwos life falling apart because what he held dear cannot hold together anymore in the now subservient ibo society. What the centre is and how it links to both okonkwo and ibo society in the context of the novel will be elaborated upon later. Mere anarchy is loosed upon this world. In a specific view, the world refers to ibo society and how the Christian missions, in their vain attempts to save savages of Africa, brought chaos to a functioning society and caused its decline. They had confused most of the ibo population, causing the ibo to lose faith in their society and in themselves, leading to a string of incidences that led to a bellicose

relationship between ibo and Christians, ultimately leading to anarchy as ibo society fell apart. Overall, achebe also uses the poem to illustrate the irony of the Christian missions impact on ibo society. Yeats had used the poem to show how the anti-christ, spreading ruin and destruction, would lead the apocalypse before the 2nd coming. All this is detailed in the book of revelations of john the apostle. Achebe cleverly uses the poem to show that the aggressiveness of Christian missions in Africa to spread the gospels in preparation of the 2nd coming and the precluding apocalypse directly contributed to the chaos prophesized in revelations. How the people would be torn apart, led astray of their gods, and how a society that was functioning properly had been torn apart by the missions intrusions. Thus, things fall apart is not a misnomer as its source, the 2 nd coming fully encompasses the essence of TFA and its context and contents.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer Things fall apart; the centre 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: a waste of desert sand; 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 Wind 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?