Connections To Poetry/Music

"Who will wrestle for our villiage?
Okafo will wrestle for our villiage.
Has he thrown a hundred men?
He has thrown four hundred men
Has he thrown a hundred Cats?
He has throw four hundred Cats.
Then send him word to fight for us."(P 51)

"If i hold her hand
She says, 'Don't touch!'
If I hold her foot
She says, 'Don't touch!'
But when I hold her waist-beads
She pretends not to know." (P 118)

"The rain is falling, the sun is shining, Alone Nnadi is cooking and eating." (P 35)

Chinua Achebe does NOT directly address the need for poetry in a persons life. What Achebe DOES do though, is use poetry effectively and creatively to try and show the reader that poetry is beautiful and does add to a persons life, but is not nesacary. The reason for this is becuase Achebe goes hundreds of pages without poems, but the poems he does use are strong, and bold, and powerful and help portray the image on the book.

Poetry is not nesacary for a person's life thematicaly, BUT it is very important in the portrayal of setting, plot, theme and characters. The poem on page 51 shows the plot, setting and character of the book because it shows how the people lived in that time. It shows that you must prove yourself to fight, and also that warriors ruled the time and place, unlike today where army's and guns dominate the fighting.

Poetry is of the upmost importance in novels to portray themes, character traits, setting and plot and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe does a masterful job of not over using this techinque, but using it to perfection to get his message across.