[ELTWeekly Volume 9, Issue 1 | January 2, 2017 | ISSN 0975-3036]
Impacts of Identity Identification on One’s Entity with Reference to the characters of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart
by
Lipi Acharya, Research Scholar (First Author)
and
Dr Neerja Arun Gupta, Principal, Bhavan’s Arts and Commerce College, Khanpur, Ahmedabad Syndicate Member, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad (Second Author)
Abstract
It is a general human tendency that a man judges other human beings on the basis of his own perceptions of leading life. And he expects others to lead life in the same way he believes in that matter. Because of this, a man’s perceptions for his own self and about others, matters majorly in the way he treats himself and others. This thought inspires an observer to find the motives of human behavior. While exploring the motives behind human actions, it has been uncovered that the element of identity, especially the attachment or identification of human beings with their identity, plays crucial role. This reality of human nature reflects in literature too. The novel – Things Fall Apart – by Chinua Achebe highlights universal human traits through its characters, where especially the above mentioned human attitude plays a crucial role. What human thinks about his own identity, makes ‘self-image’ and how he is connected to his entity matters in terms of his behavior. The protagonist Okonkwo, his son Nwoye and other characters of the novel not only take pride and stick to their identity but also act to sustain it. The proposed paper highlights those incidents which reveal that it is their attachment or identification with their identity that compelled them to act in the way they have enacted and in fact that attachment became a glass from which they perceive the reality.
“The root of every suffering is attachment.” – Gautam Buddha
Introduction:
The truth highlighted by Buddha in the above mentioned statement provides one of the most prominent reasons for almost all negative feelings that arise in human psyche. Buddha observed his kingdom from which he perceived the reality of the world but not everyone can see the same. An ordinary human being always stays attached with the things, people and place with which they are physically connected. This three includes the fourth element and that is one’s own personality – thoughts, feelings, beliefs, prejudices, identity, belongings and understanding level. This point has also been argued by T. S. Eliot while discussing the quality of a critic in his essay “Tradition and Individual Talent”. When one discusses about a person’s behavior with other people and as a member of a group, one has to refer social psychology. While studying human behaviour, two major factors seem determinant for the same: ‘Self-image’ and ‘Identification’.
The Concept of ‘Self’:
The concept of self is deeply discussed in the field of psychology where different aspects of ‘self’ have been differentiated such as self-awareness, self-monitoring, self-presentation, self-esteem, self-actualization, self-verification, self-schema, self-enhancement and self-regulation. There are different notions regarding the nature and existence of self as Roy F. Baumeister, in his The Self in Social Psychology (1999), has recorded the journey of the meaning of the word ‘self’ in time and space by saying that even today, ‘self’ is considered merely as body. They have limited the search towards self till its physical appearance. He says,
“To a child, and to many adults, in less psychologically minded cultures, self is body…everywhere in the world, self starts with body.” (1).
Then, an additional meaning was also understood which was a bit deeper and more profound, including one’s thoughts and emotions. Baumeister writers,
“When adults in Western civilized countries speak about the self, they generally are referring to a psychological rather than a physical being, and it is one that contains thoughts, feelings and attitudes, one that is socially validated and holds down multiple places in the matrix of social relationships.” (2)
Further, he gives the three major experiences that form the basis of selfhood: first is ‘Reflexive consciousness’ that includes self-awareness, usually seen in actions, another is ‘Interpersonal Being’ that enables one to become a member of a group or be in some kind of relationship, and the third is ‘executive function’ that enables one, to act in reality, to be able to make choices. When all these three aspects get together and intermingle in one another, create a selfhood. After having a brief idea of selfhood, one can go ahead to understand the components that make self-image.
Self-image is in a simple language, image of a person which he himself sees as per his views. It is a general human tendency to evaluate things, people, places and situations. It is a process that goes on involuntarily in a human brain. In other words, it can be said that the brain of a human being constantly compare and contrast each and every thing. In this process, even one’s own self cannot be escaped. One evaluates his own self and forms a particular picture of his own personality. In the process of this evaluation, a person considers: his own perception of himself, the views and perceptions of other people regarding his personality and the last, that, at which extent a person’s own perception matches with the one conceived by others. The concept of ‘self’ is well-discussed and well-celebrated in the field of social psychology as it has an intense impact on the interpersonal behavior. Among all these, the most effective, crucial and basic – prior to all other aspects of self – is self-awareness and at the same time, self-awareness and self-image is interlinked with each other.
When through reflexive consciousness of the self works, the awareness of one’s self is
“observed in action or inferred from social events, which is why the self is harder to know and understand…In any case, the very concept of self would be meaningless if we were not able to become aware of ourselves.” (2)
What Baumeister wants to explain by this, are two main points that would serve as presuppositions for the present research. He makes the point that self-awareness is the primary need for the understanding of ‘self’ and another is, this self-awareness is observed in a person’s actions, his behavior with himself and others. Once, a person becomes aware of himself, he starts evaluating and analyzing his thoughts, feelings, behaviour and attitudes, compares them with others and forms an image. This self image remains determinant especially in one’s behavior to others.
The Concept of Identification:
Next concept is ‘identification’. In the theory of psychoanalysis, ‘identification’ is considered as a defense mechanism – a way to defend the ego by giving a moderate, civilized, sophisticated and socially accepted form to many unconscious desires of human psyche. One of the other meanings of the word ‘identify’, on Oxford English Dictionary which triggers the exact meaning of the defense mechanism, is to ‘associate someone or something closely with; regard as having strong links with’. In a simple language, the word can be described as to connect or to attach someone or something with some other person, place, thing or a situation strongly. Various psychologists and other scholar have defined ‘identification’ as per their own understanding. Phebe Cramer, in his Protecting the Self: Defense Mechanisms on Action (2006), has quoted Schaefer’s definition considering it as comprehensive where Schaefer (1968) defines,
“In its fullest sense, the process of identifying with an object is unconscious, though it may also have prominent and significant preconscious and conscious components; in this process the subject modifies his motives and behavior patterns, and the self representations corresponding to them, in such a way as to experience being like, the same as, and merged with one or more representations of that object; through identification, the subject both represents as his own one or more regulatory influences or characteristics of the object that have become important to him and continues his tie to the object; the subject may wish to bring about this change for various reasons…(140)
The definition makes a few points clear. First of all the process of identification occurs unconsciously, irrespective of a man’s conscious intentions and then for various reasons, people uses the defense mechanism to modify and to justify their particular behavior or behavior patterns. Apart for the quoting the definition of identification, Cramer also short lists chief feature of identification which are as follow: ‘change that occurs in the ego (i.e., the personality, behavior, or motives of the individual)’, ‘The change is in the direction of becoming like some other individual, group, or cause’, ‘the change serves the purpose of maintaining an affective relationship with significant other’, ‘the change is related to the development and maintenance of self esteem. (94)
This technique has not remained as a topic of discussion in the area of psychology only but also in the field of spirituality, esoteric science and mysticism by many spiritual leaders including Gautam Buddha (India), Tao (China), Gurdjieff (Russia) and Osho Rajneesh (India). Jacob Needleman and George Baker in their book – Gurdjieff: Essays and Reflections on the Man and His Teachings (1998) – has defined ‘identification’ as
“Identification is a quality created in the world simulation process, the automated construction of consciousness. The quality “This is me!” originally stems from straightforward sensory connections.” (122)
That means identity construct consciousness and it starts taking place through five senses of a man. Gurdjieff has considered identification as ‘the original sin’. Jacob Needleman and George Baker advocates,
“For Gurdgieff, identification is an unconscious phenomenon in which man is totally taken by what he encounters in his life, which foists itself upon him at that moment. Man’s identification with himself is the principal pitfall and major obstacle to a more conscious life.” (248)
Thus, Gurdjieff finds the tendency to identify not only with other person, thing, place or situation but even with one’s own self as a major pitfall. So man is taken by the outer reality that surrounds him. And here the word ‘taken by’ refers to involuntary act of some person that is derived by the outer reality of the world. Self remembering, to Gurdjieff, means self-awareness and he has said in In Search of Miraculous, by P. D. Ouspensky,
“Identifying is the chief obstacle to self-remembering. A man who is identified with anything is unable to remember himself. In order to remember oneself it is necessary first of all not to identify. But in order to learn not to identify man must first of all not be identified with himself, must not call himself “I” always and on all occasions. He must remember that there are two in him, that there is himself, that is “I” in him, and there is another with whom he must struggle.” (151)
Gurdjieff’s argument, here, highlights some points: self-remembering is essential thing, identification creates a hindrance in the path of self remembering and one has to have work so hard to heal with another part of the self to get rid of identification. in The Forth Way (1957), as an answer to a question Gurdjieff said,
“One does not take it as self-deception: one imagines something, then believes it and forgets that it was imagination.”
Identification is then self-deceptive and cannot allow a man to remain objective, neutral and away from prejudices as in the same rhetorical discussion he said, “when you become identified you cannot observe”. Thus, self-image and identification with one’s own self are two influential aspects for a person’s personality. The proposed paper checks such influence on one’s behavior of the characters of the novel – Things fall Apart (1958) – by Chinua Achebe.
About Chinua Achebe:
Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) is a Nigerian novelist, short story writer, poet, critic and a professor. The proposed novel – Things Fall Apart (1958) – for the research is his first ever novel which was already rejected by many publishers when it reached Heinemann publication. But once published, it achieved utmost respect and fame readers and critics. Apart from novels such as Things Fall Apart (1958), No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966) and Anthill of Savannah (1987), he also published several anthologies of poems, short stories, non-fictional work, criticism and even books for children. As an elder, though he had ceased practicing his own religion and was converted by protestant military Church Society but he had deep respect for his own tradition. The impact of this incident can also be traced in his novels especially in Things Fall Apart.
About the Novel:
The novel – Things Fall Apart – has been divided into three parts, also has caused a great fame to its writer. The novel is full of Nigerian native culture, their rituals, customs, beliefs and way of life. Mainly, the novel talks about the initial period of colonization and its impact on the life style, culture and psyche of native people as well as their struggle to resist the same. The chief character of the novel – Okonkwo – is very strong and self-made man. Since the novel is set in the rural background, Majority of the village people are involved in agricultural activity and the plantation of yam is considered as a matter of reputation and manhood. The first part of the novel tells the life and nature of Okonkwo and his family and other village people through various incidents. Okonkwo respects the people with wealth and titles and dislikes who are timid and unsuccessful. In his days, Unoka was very lazy and poor. His death was shameful and he also left many unpaid debts. Because of this, Okonkwo disliked his father.
Once, a woman of Umuofia was killed by a man from another village. In that case, a settlement was done to avoid a battle between two villages. In that settlement, a boy – Ikemefuna –and a girl were given as compensation. The girl was handed to the person whose wife was murdered but the villagers couldn’t decide the fate of Ikemefuna and so he was given to Okonkwo to take care of him. He came close to the family of Okonkwo and Okonkwo also grew fond of him. But finally, after a period of three years, the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves decided to kill the boy. Instead of the warning given by Ezeudu – the eldest member of the village – not only Okonkwo agreed the verdict but also took active part in the same by killing Ikemefuna himself. This incident became a turning point in his life as after this many incidents turned wrong in his life. By mistake at the funeral of Ezeudu, he shot his son and so he had to escape from his village to another one for seven years, to be safe from the anger of village people.
In the second part of the novel, Okonkwo is seen as living in Mbanta. Umuofia is peopled by the white people (missionaries) who had come to spread Christianity and gradually the many of the native people were converted in Christianity and Nwoye – his son himself was one of those converts to which Okonkwo was despised at.
The third part deals with the extreme exploitation, oppression, humiliation of village people done by White government. When Okonkwo returns from Mbanta, he realizes that the feet of white people had become firm in his village, both religiously and politically. At the same he observed the lack of velour, might and courage in the native villagers to resist the white rule. To take revenge of a mocking of a ritual of their community the village destroyed a native church. The government took him along with the other elders of the village and demanded two hundred fifty bags of cowries as ransom to free them. Not only that these people were insulted like anything in the custody. After coming back to the village, the elders and other villagers got together in the village to discuss and oppose the oppression of the new government. When some messengers of the government came to stop the meeting, Okonkwo killed one of them. Then, he knew the outcome of his act. So, at the end, to not to be caught by the government officials, he hanged himself and committed suicide. Even after all this, his death was condemned as the act of committing suicide was strictly against the teachings of his community.
Analysis:
The chief character of the novel – Okonkwo – was described above, was a very courageous, respected and a self-made man. A lucid and detailed description of his nature and psyche is given by Achebe, especially in the first part of the novel and even after that on some occasions during his conversation with others. To portray his personality it would be proper to quote his appearance in Achebe’s words:
“He was tall and huge, and his bushy eyebrows and wide nose gave him a very severe look. He breathed heavily, and it was said that, when he slept, his wives and children in their houses could hear him breathe. When he walked, his heels hardly touched the ground and he seemed to walk on springs, as if he was going to pounce on somebody … He had a slight stammer and whenever he was angry and could not get his words out quickly enough. He would use his fists. He had no patience with unsuccessful men. He had had no patience with his father.” (8-9)
He was looked like a giant and acted like a man of discipline, always. His wives and the children were afraid of him. Because of his achievement even at an early age people of not only his village but all the nine surrounding villages of his community respected him. He had a very strong and cliché notions for masculinity and femininity that can be seen in his actions, thoughts and talk with others. He had a deep sense of hatred for his father as he was lazy and unsuccessful and in Okonkwo’s childhood he also was being teased by other children for the failure of his father. He was very strict with his wives and children too and often used to beat his wives and children, sometimes even for small issues. Giving the reason for this Achebe mentions,
“Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper and intimate more than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest,…Okonkwo’s fear was greater than this. It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, least he should found to resemble his father … And so, Okonkwo rule by one passion – to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved. One of these things was gentleness and another was idleness.” (8-9)
So the real reason behind his harshness was the failure of his father which he, in his childhood, had experienced. From the very beginning of his life he had formed the belief or opinion about success and failure, courage and cowardice, masculinity and femininity and war and peace. All the four prior features that seemed to him as superior, plausible, socially acceptable and respectful and other remaining four qualities seemed to him as inferior, condemnable, socially unacceptable and disrespectable and connected to woman, womanhood and so at secondary position, inferior to man. Unconsciously he had identified himself with all the socially acceptable notions and eventually because of that he got fame and a higher position in his clan and villages.
He always misunderstood his entity with his identity. The identity was the cover/shell that he had created around his entity to meet the standards of the society. Majority of all the incidents that occurred in his life traces this misunderstanding. The first example is his tendency of not showing his emotions, unless it is anger. He considered the act of expression of love or fondness as a weakness of a person. So even when he was fond of Ikemefuna, he never had shown to him. Achebe writes,
“Even Okonkwo himself became very fond of the boy – inwardly of course. Okonkwo never showed any emotion openly, unless it be the emotion of anger. To show affection was a sign of weakness, – the only thing worth demonstrating was strength.” (31)
Okonkwo’s mentality created a strong discipline in his family but could not earn him love from them. Everyone in the house tried to do things as per his beliefs and wishes, not because they love them but because they got frightened by him. Along with the emotion of affection, fear was another thing which he used to hide for others and sometimes form his own conscious mind. As it is mentioned above that he was living in the constant fear of failure and idleness. This fear was not external but internal, laid deep in his unconscious. While coming to the conscious mind and even in his practical life, that fear had been shielded and protected with the cover of anger and hard exhausting work in the farm. And by doing this he keeps his image up as it is praised by others.
The toughness in his nature and grown in such a way that he firmly believed that a man’s masculinity is in controlling his wives and children and others should have a fear of the man of the family. There are a number of such occasions that depicts the same, among them two are worth quoting here. Okonkwo liked that Nwoye was in the company of Ikemefuna and gradually Nwoye was adapting the qualities of ‘man’.
“Nothing pleased Nwoye now more than to be sent for by his mother or another of his father’s wives to so one of those difficult and masculine tasks in the home, like splitting wood, or pounding food. On receiving such a message through a younger brother or sister, Nwoye would feign annoyance and grumble aloud about women and their troubles.
Okonkwo was inwardly pleased at his son’s development, and he knew it was due to Ikemefuna. He wanted Nwoye to grow into a tough young man capable of ruling his father’s household when he was dead and gone to join the ancestors.” (52)
Through this occasion it is observed that to show irritation to and to grumble about, the problems of women, for Okonkwo, was a positive development for him as he considered the same as manly. He didn’t try to teach him to act calmly as to show the irritation and anger is considered a plausible, expectable and acceptable for a man, in his eyes. In short he himself had identified to the identity of a man and the concept of masculinity and expected his son to become like that only. Another incident is when he, along with Obierika and Ofoedu was discussing about the death of Ogbuefi Ndulue – the eldest person of the neighboring village and his first wife – Ozoemena. On informing by Obierika that he had listened a song when he was a child that Ndulue didn’t do anything without telling his wife, Okonkwo immediately replied,
“I did not know that”…I thought he was a strong man in his youth.” (66)
This answer given by him shows his beliefs regarding strength and love. Obierika appreciated his concern with his wife and the bond between the two while Obierika could not watch the bond of love between the two as he believed that to concern wife before doing anything is like a taboo, a weakness in man and a stain on masculinity of a man. His psycho-sociological concept of manly and womanly qualities does not allow him to understand the matter in terms of positive emotions and warm bonding between a husband and a wife.
During the three years of Ikemefuna’s arriving to the village, he got mixed in the household of Okonkwo as if he is the member of the family by birth. Okonkwo’s first wife was also treating with him as if he is her own child. Ikemefuna also used to call Okonkwo as his father. Once, Ezeudu – the eldest person of his village came to tell Okonkwo that the Oracle of the Hills and Caves had decided that Ikemefuna must be killed. Bur he also gave him a personal advice that he wanted Okonkwo to stay away from that matter and should avoid taking part of the act as the boy called him his father. He told him in a sincere tone,
“The Boy calls you father. Do not bear a hand in his death.” (56)
Next day all the elders of the nine villages of Umuofia came to Okonkwo’s Obi and all of them with Okonkwo and Ikemefuna went with them. It was told to everyone at Okonkwo’s house that Ikemefuna was supposed to return to his village.
While marching for another village people were chatting and making fun with each other. Everything was looking normal to Ikemefuna and suddenly he saw a person coming towards him, raised his machete. He ran to Okonkwo, the pot in the hands of Ikemefuna fell and broke. He spoke,
“My father, they have killed me!”(60)
As soon as Ikemefuna reached him, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him in a strike. Achebe mentions here that
“He was afraid of being thought weak.” (60)
It was just to look brave and mighty, he did not listen his heart, he did not think twice, he did not hesitate in killing an innocent boy himself who was calling him ‘father’. Things started turning adverse from this incident. In other words, the things started falling apart from this turning point. He also felt guilty after killing him. For two whole days, he could not sleep, didn’t eat anything or didn’t talk to anyone.
It was when he went to his mother’s village, he missed his village and the people over there as he found the people of his village more manly than the people of his mother’s village. Once, in Mbanta, a sacred python was killed by a man. The people of the village were got together and discussed about the issue. The natives were of the opinion that it was not their tradition to fight for their gods so if a person has killed the sacred python willingly, it is the matter between him and God and if someone blasphemes, the followers of the God should put their fingers into their ears in order to stop themselves hearing the ill words. This was considered as a wise action in their opinion. But the warrior mind of Okonkwo thought in another way he told,
““Let us not reason like cowards.”… “If a man comes to my hut and defecates on the floor, what do I do? Do I shut my eyes? No! I take a stick and break his head. That is what a man does…”Okonkwo made a sound full of disgust. This was a womanly clan, he thought …” (147)
This is one more example of his frame of mind. Here it seems that to take the things calmly and intellectually, without aggressive oppose and resistance, was considered as feminine way of dealing the issues. Yet another and the last example of the above mentioned tendency of him is seen when in the end, all of a sudden he killed the messenger who came to stop the meeting, in order to take revenge of his insults of the court of the white government. He thought that his clan would not have a war with the government so he would do and take revenge of the former insults, that he would follow the manly act.
Conclusion:
To conclude, it can be said that throughout his life Okonkwo kept on reminding himself that he is a man and so he should act in a certain way. He did identify with that imaginary self-image of an ideal man and kept on chasing this imaginary manliness. Due to his conditioned mind containing a set of notions regarding masculinity and femininity he; could not see the things as they were without the lens of ‘what a real man should do’ if someone humiliates him, could neither establish a strong emotional bond with his wives and children (this must be the reason of Nwoye’s conversion into Christianity) nor understood bond of other families because in his mind the women and children should be ruled over instead of living happily with, could not follow the path of nobility and morality in order to follow so called ideals. And in the end too, it was this conception of honor which he wanted to keep intact among his clansmen, for which he slaughtered the messenger. It was an impulsive act done without any thought of its outcome, besides, because of that he escaped and hanged himself and committed a serious offence that was strictly condemned in his community. So this final act brought a condemnation, dislike, criticism and shame for his existence, from his community.
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