Things Fall Apart

How is the title of the book and the poem in the beginning symbolic to the story?

How is the title of the book and the poem in the beginning symbolic to the story?

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In a relatively short amount of time, the novel THINGS FALL APART tracks the end of a civilization. Though it does not appear so to the white missionaries and colonists who end up trying to reform the tribes, these tribes have developed an entire civilization, with its own sense of values, its own ceremonies (the mask dances), and its own government. But part of what damns the tribe once the whites arrive is that tensions are already at work - or in the words of the poems, "the falcon cannot hear the falconer." This is true also of Okonkwo, who is torn between his love for his son and the murder he committed from tribal pride. The line quoted above suggests that he who was in control can no longer be in control. In the same way that Okonkwo is psychologically unsound, so does the tribe have within it rifts that make it easy for the whites to take over. In the end, "Things Fall Apart" not because a bad guy shows apart but because we, as humans, cannot control ourselves forever. At some point, things fall apart and "mere anarchy is loosed upon the world" - certainly, this is the case with the tribe in the novel.