아체베의 소설 『무너져 내리다』의 주제분석: ‘빛의 자식들과 어둠의 자식들’을 중심으로

Abstract

Things Fall Apart is a symbolic novel of complex themes. This article deals with one of the main themes of the novel, 'the self-righteousness and hypocrisy of white men'. Particularly, its sub-theme, 'the sons of light and the sons of darkness' illuminates utterances of the novel's characters and the languagedness behind them. The sub-theme also points out the problems that white men's 'black and white way of thinking where everything is either good or evil' displays. The so-called sons of darkness 'egwugwu' who represent the Ibo ancestors control their anger, abstain from compulsive acts, and show not only a deep understanding of others but also the ethics of co-existence even in the situation where one of their ancestral spirits is murdered by a Christian convert. On the contrary, Reverend Smith who sees things as black and white is self-righteous, and a District Commissioner who deceives village elders is hypocritical. Mr. Brown who takes a compromising attitude and fills the Lord's holy church with an idolatrous crowd can be said to be anti-Christian. The novel's title alludes an ordered and peaceful society, a society with grace and dignity which existed before ‘the falling apart’. This novel ends with the District Commissioner's book-title ‘The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger’. The meanings of pacification and primitivity are opposite to chaos and civilization. The book-title is logically incompatible to 'Things Fall Apart', because if one is true, the other is false. The novel Things Fall Apart is a tempestuous answer to which one is true and which one is not.