Korang and How Achebe Renders African Life in Realistic and Humanist Terms.

Julia McGrath

EL 6540-GBL: World Literature

Professor Jani

29 March 2021

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Achebe's novel and its purpose is to render pre-colonial African life in realistic and humanist terms. Korang's claim regarding Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart successfully explains how Achebe narrates African life in non-Eurocentric terms. The novel successfully rewrites African realism not from a European perspective because Okonkwo is the tragic hero who shows that Africans are as realistic and human as the Europeans. Korang's argument renders true as he proves how and why Okonkwo is the tragic hero through realism and humanistic common sense. Korang interprets how Achebe writes a more precise African life by explaining Okonkwo's manliness and toxic masculinity, his downfall, how Umuofia's problems are worldwide, and how these things change the cliché perspective once made about the Africans.

Achebe's account shows how Africa has a barbaric aesthetic to the point of cliche. Achebe not only destroys the African eurocentric aesthetic but writes against African stereotypes and shows how Africa is universal. Korang writes, "we have heard Hegel philosophically pronouncing that the African cannot in common cohabitation share the Universal with the European" (5). Korang's focus points out that Africa suffers the same tragedy as everywhere else, showcasing how humanistic it is, but because Hegel had a biased and discriminatory observation of Africa, his narrative is the single African stereotype. Korang's quote connects to Okonkwo's behavior because he has imperfections only seen in European literature. Okonkwo and his weaknesses break the African stereotype and give a naturalistic plot about a bildungsroman protagonist that showcases Europeans defects.

Vague perspectives are common when reading about African literature, but Things Falls Apart challenges such obscure prejudices. Korang offers a rather eye-catching viewpoint that further proves that Things Fall Apart rewrites how African life is as standard as the Europeans. Korang iterates, "[B]ut if the thesis is something of a cliché today, in the critical elaboration that follows, this essay proposes the relative novelty of foregrounding and prioritizing Things Fall Apart's aesthetic form — a combination of tragedy and realism — and what the implications of this tragic realism are in the novel's unfolding of its author's humanistic vision" (1). Korang makes an excellent point as the novel exposes how Africa has the same tragedy and realism as Europe and how the Africans can experience the same trauma as their Caucasian counterparts. The book challenges these cliché through a tragic hero, someone who is relatable and vulnerable.

Okonkwo is a tragic hero because he is self-conscious and insecure. Okonkwo's unnatural fixation regarding his masculinity makes him realistic and humanizes him. Okonkwo's obsessive manliness stems from excessive fear of becoming like his father, Unoka, whom people view poorly. The internal power struggle the main character faces is a normal experience. The problem is the challenge that Achebe narrates; African life is like any other. Korang states, "Achebe invites his reader to ponder the enigma of an Okonkwo who, seeking to find himself as an Umuofian, must pay the price of losing himself — forfeiting the possibility, that is, that he might emerge as a rounded, fully developed human being, with the parts of his Self cohering in a "rational" balance" (19). Korang's quote proves that Okonkwo starts as a tragic hero because Okonkwo beats his son, who reminds him of his father. Okonkwo's aggression makes him realistic as he projects his flaws but cannot find a healthy outlet for his trauma. Okonkwo's toxic masculinity shows that he is a tragic hero because the reader can empathize with Okonkwo — he is a human, and his life shows that he deals with standard human issues.

Okonkwo is a humanistic character. When Nwoye becomes a Christian, which shows how Umuofia does transition and change like everywhere else, Okonkwo feels furious and faces exilement. His character is relatable because many people struggle with flaws and change. Okonkwo's tragedy is crucial because he is stuck in a cycle that he had created. Korang explains Okonkwo's sudden regression: "[w]hat tragic mimesis re-presents through the social as such, and through the socially mediated life of the tragic protagonist(s), shows how human freedom, insofar as it is born of a social quest, is not a pure "freedom," but a contradictory one: it comes at a cost of repression" (13). Korang's argument goes both ways: Nwyoe's self-expression causes physical abuse, and Okonkwo's stubborn nature makes him a threat. Okonkwo renders tragic mimesis because he outcasts himself, continues unhealthy behaviors, and is no longer wanted. Okonkwo's tragedy makes him humanistic because he mimics common human behaviors. Okonkwo is a good person that does not have the basic needs vital to his existence.

Realism is crucial when focusing on a truthful subject. In Umuofia, the narrator points out how women are inferior and how men can physically abuse their wives. When Korang speaks about how the novel showcases "a combination of tragedy and realism" (1) — Korang means that Achebe writes his book through realism to a truthful subject matter. Africa is no different from any other country but depicted as such. Korang's article is agreeable as he proves that Achebe writes Africa as realistically and humanely as possible through the main character, Okonkwo, who falls victim to his monomania. Korang states,

[Achebe] is an African writer "writing back" to his Eurocentric predecessors and contemporaries, in protest against their aesthetic, humanistic, and ethical bad faith where their representations of Africa are concerned. In another orientation, Achebe is a post-Eurocentric writer who revokes and reworks the aesthetic models that his Eurocentric predecessors have otherwise confined to the fixing and reaffirmation of the West as sole or exclusive possessor of humanistic common sense. Achebe aims therein to affirm a proprietary humanity in intercultural common sense (2).

The novel Things Fall Apart shares a suitable realism of African life and how the Post-Eurocentric writers have written a false African representation. Korang names this as "humanistic common sense" (2) and how Umuofia can suffer from similar tragedies as Europe. Korang's idea of "humanistic common sense" (2) is insightful because it explains that humans may not all experience the same issues, but most humans have flaws. It is common sense to know that Africa experience human problems. Furthermore, humanistic common sense shows how humans are ideally good and must have basic needs — this is insightful because Africa and Europe share unlimited humanitarian commonalities. Additionally, the Africans' fake construction makes them appear less human, evil and can survive without basic human needs.

Korang perfectly executes how Achebe writes Africa as realistic and humanistically as possible because even though Okonkwo's ending is tragic and very human, Umuofia's end is not. Umuofia does advance and becomes a more modern place. Korang perfectly describes how Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart separates the European stereotypes and writes a more accurate perspective. Korang claims that Achebe's challenge is to render pre-colonial African life in realistic and humanist terms; Achebe does this by narrating the protagonist as a tragic hero, someone not necessarily evil but has fears that lead his life. Korang's essay and Achebe's novel agree that the African cliché narrative becomes rendered as it no longer camouflages Africa and its real-life problems.

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Works Cited

Korang, Kwaku Larbi. "Making a Post-Eurocentric Humanity: Tragedy, Realism, and Things

Fall Apart." Research in African Literatures, Vol. 42, No. 2, The Ohio State University, 2011, pp. 1-30. korang.1@osu.edu.