Power And Resistance: A Foucaultian Study Of Characters In Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe(1930-2013)depicts a vivid picture of the primitive tribe in Nigeria and the effect on the local about the white man’s coming in Things Fall Apart(1985).Previous studies focus on feminism,psychology,post-colonialism,language features and the author Chinua Achebe’s exploration of Nigeria’s future.This thesis tries to explore the reason of the falling apart of Africa traditional society by using Foucault’s theory of Power and Resistance.The researches done before by other critics haven’t talked about this aspect,which makes this thesis uniquely meaningful.This theory includes the coexistence of power and resistance,the mobility and non-subject of power,and the discipline of power.The coexistence of power means that where there is power,there is resistance.The mobility and non-subject of power explain that power is flowing all the time and nobody can always possess it.The discipline of power displays that rulers will take measures to govern their people by setting up school,prison,court and others.The discussion chapter consists of three parts.The first one is the characters’ rebellion against different powers.Okonkwo,the main character,stands for local traditional culture.Surprisingly,he rebels against it constantly.He also hates everything related to his father Unoka,who is the symbol of patriarchy.Meanwhile,he strongly fights against the English missionaries,in which he gets killed.Another one is Obierika,a tiny but important role.He follows the local tradition but also rebels it to some degree.Enoch breaks off all relations with local tradition and chooses Christianity.Then the second part deals with the mobility and non-subject of power in different characters.The market-place plays a role as the power of local tradition.With the coming of English commissaries,a church is set up.Gradually,the church takes the ruling position of market-place.At last,the characters are disciplined by different powers.The local tradition makes up many goddesses to control clansmen.However,the English missionaries,by building school,church,store,court and so on,rules the clansmen and it works.Above all,this thesis comes to the conclusion: the falling apart of Africa traditional tribes is partly caused by their own flaws.With the coming of Western culture,the local tradition loses its leadership among tribes totally.That is to say,their culture’s declining is the main reason for the tribe’s falling apart.During the modernization process,countries related can take this novel as an example of the importance of building soft power.