Turning and turning in the widening gyre
     The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
     Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
     Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
     In the book Things fall apart, the author Chinua Achebe quotes one line in William Butler Yeats' poem " The Second Coming" as the title of this book and uses this opening stanza as an epigraph to his novel; therefore, Yeats' poem becomes such a powerful image with which to frame this novel. In my opinion, the reason why the author chooses to take " things fall apart" as the title of his novel from Yeats' poem is mainly because of the strong connection and articulation existed in both of the novel and poem. There are parallels between a time of turmoils in European history and the upheaval as the result of western colonization of Africa. The " center can not hold" have double meaning here. On one hand, it indicates imminent collapse of traditional tribal system in Africa, threatened by imperialism; on the other hand, it also refers to the imminent disintegration of British Empire.
     " The Second Coming" is written after World War I, which is a huge event to all of the world. From then on, both human action and morality were transformed greatly. While many people at that time just wanted to get on with their lives, only Yeats thought that the whole European society was almost broken down, which was a horrible prediction of the following worldwide violence. The title " Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold." Foreshadows the tragedy which the novel depicts as well as serves a good way to view how the religion of Ibo tribe gradually falls apart with the coming of Christian missionaries and the rule of government. Since Chinua Achebe uses " Things fall apart", which is the most famous sentence as well as the thesis of the poem as the title of novel, it can also be seen as the thesis of his book. This line functions as the topic sentence which is full of political implication, like a collapse of centralized order into anarchy and radicalism. In the novel, the traditional social structure of Ibo no longer have one set of systematically social and moral order rules for people to conform to. In short, the unity of clan is shattered. This title exactly only appears in chapter twenty, when the central character, Okonkwo, discusses invasion of white people into their village with his best friend, Obierika, who says," The white is very clever. He amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brother, and our clan can no longer act like one, He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart." This paragraph clearly ties the destruction of people's traditional religion in Ibo village to the intrigue plotted by western missionaries and imperialists.
     Apart form this, the specifics of the poem also have strong relevance to Things Fall Apart. Firstly, the poem begins with the sentence" Turning and turning in the widening gyre." Here, gyre means goes round and round like a gyroscope, but meanwhile, it also means goes far away from the centre which cannot control a situation at last. In the novel, gyre is reflected among changing seasons. Seeing from appearance, four seasons are changed in turn as usual, and people in Ibo village do different farm work according to annual rain season and dry season. While inwardly, something gradually gets off track and becomes worse and worse under seemingly pacified appearance. At the first time when white man comes to village and asks for some lands to build church, village people don't consider it seriously and lend the large part in Evil Forest to missionary, but they fail to recognize that this is the beginning of their tradition falling apart. From then on, missionaries begin to preach their religion and convert more and more people. It is not until Enoch kills one masked spirit that people realize the huge threaten they face, but it is too late to rescue their traditional religion. The situation is becoming worse and worse till the centre of village is unable to maintain the unity of clan like before because even many of their brothers also take up other religion. How can they fight when their brothers have turned against them?
     Besides, the image of falcon flying out of earshot of human master is also relevant to the novel. At that time, falcons are supposed to keep flying in the circle and eventually come back to falconers' caves; however, in this image, falcon is no longer under the control of falconer, which can be interpreted as the collapse of traditional social order in Europe at that time. While in the novel, it indicates the dissolution of Ibo religious structure.
     Yeats poem continues to give other impressions about second coming of Christ and revelation. In the poem, "second coming" actually means the coming of anarchy and a fearful anti-anarchy. Form Yeats eyes, it is the end of civilization and the decline of western culture. While in " Things Fall Apart," it means the return and revelation which refers to the coming of white missionaries and Christianity. Their coming is the cause of anarchy being looses upon the world. As for Achebe, it is also the horrors of imperialism.
     In addition, there are also many allusions applied in the poem such as "a shape with lion body and the head of a man." It gives readers a image of Sphinx, which symbolizes the judger of evil. And the "Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds," is another image giving a sense of upcoming doom of mankind. While in the novel, both of them refer to the coming of Christianity which judges the case of heathen and destroys Ibo culture, leading the traditional religion in village into the end and doomed fate. Those literary allusions all serve as the foreshadow or omen of things falling apart, while the process of falling apart is manifest through the change or contrast in the novel.
     One things is that in the first part of novel, Okonkwo is regarded as the man with incredible prowess. He married three wives and has a large barn of yam. He already has three titles and and aspires to gain the highest title in the land. While because of his manslaughter, he is expelled into his motherland for 7 years. His banishment, which is a contrast to his former glory, indicates a sense of moral center that " cannot hold." Before he returns to village, he is full of ambitions and thinks that "his return should be marked by his people. He would return with a flourish, and regain the seven wasted years." While the fact proves that his return to his native land is not as memorable as he had wished. Umofia doesn't show any special notice of his return due to the huge change during his exile. Instead being a talk of town, people's eyes and minds are filled with new religion and government, while Okonkwo is no longer as attractive as he was before. Such kind of huge contrast discourages his ambition and indicates the horrible effect brought about by Christianity and imperialism. Okonkwo terribly realizes that all the old things begin to fall apart and can't go back to the past.
     Apart from this contrast, his lost relationship with his son is a moment where "the falcon cannot here the falconer." Before his exile, Okonkwo is definitely a ruler of whole family; All the family members, including his eldest son, Nwoye, shows unquestioning obedience to him. However, Nwoye is more sensitive to the contradictions in old religion. Thus, when the missionaries arrives he is charmed by the poetry of the new order and finally convert himself into Christian. Here, the relationship between father and son is contradictory. Okonkwo represents the old order in Umuofia, the past, while his son represents the future. They inhabit two opposing ideological camp and represent one important sign-post to the antinomy. Although old generation still preserve those traditional customs and standards, new generations are no longer satisfied with them which can't offer adequate explanations for the things. This contrast between old and new generation also reflect the disintegration of clan by infusing new religion into young generations.
     We can note that Nwoye is a sensitive man, while Obierika, Okonkwo's friend, is also a sensitive man who always thinks a lot. In fact , Obierika represents the voice of Achebe's own thoughts about colonialism. On chapter 20, in the discussion with Okonkwo about the coming of colonialists, he says" Dose the white man understand our custom about land? How can he when he does mot even speak our tongue?" Being discouraged by the disintegration of Ibo clan, he also points out that it is impossible for those colonialists to totally understand all the knowledge about Umuofia without knowing the native language. But, he also consider one matter from different perspectives. Instead of blaming white people to the extreme, he also points out some Umuofians' irresponsibility when they convert to Christianity whie ignore their "brothers." Here, Obierika speaks out author's opinions. Achebe doesn't divide this matter into black and white. On one hand, he show his condemnations to those colonists who try to ruin all other different cultures, while on the other hand, he also expresses his dissatisfaction about some clan's members who abandon their own customs.
      To sum up, Chinua Achebe uses Yeats' poem to indicate his thesis statement--Old things fall apart due to the colonialism and imperialism. The poem highlights a transformation from what was once loved to something unknown, from comfort and understanding to insecurity and doubt. This heroic epic filled with tragic color unfold us an scary image with anarchy and blood-dimmed tide. A rough beast with lion body and pitiless eyes is roaring; indignant desert birds are snarling; second coming is at hand. Who can stop this disintegrating society?