Change & Consequences, Research Paper Example

The Loss & Assertion of Agency in Things Fall Apart and Krik? Krak!

Edwidge Danticat’s collection of stories in Krik? Krak! and Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart tell very different stories and come from very different perspectives. Danticat offers nine short stories that are united by their themes and their authors—all nine stories are about Haitian women trying to understand their relationship to Haiti and to their families, as Danticat herself seeks to explore the Haitian Diaspora in a postcolonial context (Mirabal  26). Achebe, on the other hand, gives us in Things Fall Apart a novel about Okonknwo, the respected leader of a Nigerian tribe who struggles with his son’s laziness, with the influence he has on his tribe, and with the inundation of white missionaries to his village. While both stories differ dramatically in their social, cultural, and religious contexts, both have striking similarities. Both Achebe and Danticat deal with the role postcoloniality plays in their respective contexts, and in doing so, deal with the themes of tradition, change, and agency  (Nge 194, Gikandi 5). In this paper, I will explore the way that both these stories reflect a loss of agency and a reassertion of that agency. While Achebe and Danticat are writing about vastly different contexts, both address the ways in which change in contemporary, “postcolonial” society results in a loss of freedom for the characters, and offer a corrective in which ones freedom can be reasserted.

The key ways in which these stories differ is in their contexts. Achebe tells the story of a Nigerian leader in Africa whereas Danticat tells the stories of nine Haitian women who reside in both Haiti and the U.S. In Things Fall Apart, we follow the story of Okonkwo, the Nigerian leader, through three parts. A great deal happens in the village of Umuofia throughout the course of the novel: Okonkwo struggles with the laziness of his own son and gets a sort of second chance when he is selected to be the guardian of Ikemefuna, this boy that has become a part of his family gets killed at the direction of the oracler, the protagonist is exiled after killing someone at the funeral, and he and his family returns to see that white missionaries have taken control of the village and its peoples. When Okonkwo cannot convince his community to participate in an uprising, the story ends with his tragic suicide.

Conversely, Krik? Krak! tells nine different stories spanning a variety of contexts—there is Josephine in “Nineteen Thirty Seven” whose mother was imprisoned as a witch soon after she saved her daughters life and forsook her own mother’s life (Josephine’s grandmother) as she fled through “Massacre River” (31-50); there is Marie in “Between the Pool and the Gardenias” who finds a dead baby in the street, names her Rose, and shares her stories with it (89-100);  and there are many others whose narratives fill the rest of the pages of the book. It is clear upon initial readings that the contexts differ vastly—geographically, culturally, and religiously. Achebe’s story takes place in Nigeria, Danticat’s in the U.S. and Haiti; Achebe’s story deals with natives being invaded by foreigners, whereas Danticat’s stories mostly deal with the way Haitians must understand themselves as diasporic, in a new land. Even here, however, there is some significant similarities—both Danticat’s and Achebe’s works address the relationship between peoples and lands, and reflect what happens when the relationship between the people and the land is severed (The Butterfly’s Way 18).

Despite the vast differences in the two works,Things Fall Apart and Krik? Krak! have a great deal in common. The most striking similarity is the way in which both texts explore the ways in which agency is pressed up against in response to national imperialism and greed cloaked under Christendom (St. Fort  206). In Things Fall Apart, there is a pervasive theme of the struggle of agency between the two poles of change and tradition. Throughout the course of the novel, Okonkwo resists new political and religious orders, whether it be the oracles decision regarding Ikemefuna or the influence of Mr. Brown, and later, Reverend James Smith. Whereas Reverend Smith shows more starkly the way in which change inhibits agency for the village of Umuofia through his demands that the people of the village renounce their indigenous beliefs, even Mr. Brown demonstrates the way change impedes agency. For example, one of Mr. Brown’s converts, Enoch, is thrilled to be free of Mr. Brown’s policy of restraint, and releases an egwugwu during the annual ceremony to honor the earth deity. Unfortunately, this egwugwu burns Enoch’s compound and Mr. Brown’s church to the ground, and results in the leaders of Umofia being thrown in jail and tortured. This scene alone demonstrates the devastating spiraling effects of the methods of restraint and discipline imposed on the tribe.

Perhaps the clearest example of the spiraling effect of the loss of freedom culminates in what ends the novel, Okonkwo’s suicide. Psychologists often point to suicide as a way to assert agency in light of an impossible situation, and this seems to be true for the protagonist of this tragic story. Repeatedly throughout the novel, Okonkwo’s agency is taken from him in both subtle and forward ways—he cannot seem to convince his son out of his laziness, he is forced to stand by as his “adopted son” Ikemefuna is ordered to be killed, he is exiled from his own land  after reacting to the murder, and returns to find the missionaries have taken over and he can do nothing about it. In a final act of desperation, Okonkwo enacts his agency over the one thing he can control, his own life. The title of Achebe’s novel itself points to the way change causes a lack of agency and order. At an epigraph at the beginning of the novel, Achebe quotes a poem by W.B. Yeats which reads, “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” (1).

This theme of loss of agency that comes with the struggle between desiring change and upholding tradition is also a major theme tracing through Danticat’s collection of stories that makes up Krik? Krak! While the context differs from that of Nigeria, various characters in Danticat’s work deal with the effects of the loss of freedom. The prostitute in “Night Women” who sells her body for sustenance next to her sleeping son’s bed, the death of Lamort’s mother in “The Missing Piece,” which results in her lack of self esteem, and the circumstances that surround Caroline marrying Eric in “Caroline’s Wedding,” are just a few of the example of the way imperial and colonial powers have resulted in a lack of freedom with devastating effects for Haitians.

Like Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart, different characters in Krik? Krak! also find ways to assert their own agency, despite the devastating results. For example, Celianne in “Children of the Sea,” after dealing with the despair and helplessness she feels when her baby has died (which is a culmination of tragic events, including the death of her neighbor by the macoutes, whom she was raped by), throws herself out of the boat and drowns herself. Guy, in “A Wall of Fire Rising” tries to defy his sense of hopelessness for a brief moment of glory, even though he is fully aware it will end in his own death. The characters in Krik? Krak!  do tend to have more  of a sense of hope as they embrace agency. While the mother in “New York  Day Women” cannot seem to escape the suffering she left behind in Haiti, she still seeks to make a new life for herself in the United States. Grace in “Caroline’s Wedding” is terrified of the change and loss that will come with Caroline leaving home and that has been a result of the guilt for feeling like the reason her parents left Haiti.  Eventually, however, Grace feels a sense of belonging, and feels secure in both her Haitian and American identity.

In addition to the main theme running through the two texts of agency, change, and freedom, the texts by Achebe and Danticat also bear thematic similarities in the role the family plays in the lives of the main characters. The significance of family runs through the nine stories in Danticut’s work. Familial relationships serve as the way in which stories remain alive in the lives of the Haitian people. In “Nineteen Thirty-Seven,” Josephine is told that her birth makes up for her grandmother’s death, and becomes a way for their stories to continue. In “The Missing Peace,” Lomort reminds Emilie that the stories that have happened to her will be preserved through the family. Family, in many of these instances, give a sense of voice.

Likewise, in Things Fall Apart, family plays a central theme. Central to Okonkwo’s struggles and to his periods of relief is his sense of family—from his fear of his son Nwoye being lazy like his father and not being able to carry on the family legacy he has built to his relief when Ikemefuna is made a part of his family and he becomes a beacon of success and ambition. One can clearly see the role of familial relations (biological or otherwise) when one observes the reaction of Okonkwo at Ikemefuna’s funeral. In Things Fall Apart, family serves as a significant source of connectedness, pride, and sense of legacy. In both of these instances, the family becomes another type of agency—a conduit through which stories can be told and retold and native culture can be preserved.

In addition to these pervasive similarities, the way in which is communicated also bears striking resemblance throughout the two texts. Whereas the format of the storytellers differ in each instance, both Achebe and Danticat use the interweaving of stories to demonstrate the ways in which agency has been limited and asserted. In Krik? Krak! Grace’s mother says to her, “we know people by their stories” (185). This is assuredly a truth both Achebe and Danticat pick up on, as they both use complex, nuanced narrative to demonstrate the ways in which the people have been separated from the land with devastating results (Nge 198). Things Fall Apart and Krik? Krak! also demonstrate the complexities of these stories through their formats—both authors offer their stories in brief accounts, in “chunks”—whether it be through the nine vignettes of the Haitian women or through the three sections of Achebe’s tale (Loichot 94). It is possible that the short, interconnected format of these stories reflects the realities of a postcolonial existence—the realities of lives that are fragmented yet capable of being weaved together. Even the format of these two texts offers a way for one to understand the devastating effects that come with the limits of agency.

Overall, while Danticat’s Krik? Krak! and Achebe’s Things Fall Apart differ in their contexts, they have many themes that overlap—mainly, they both explore the devastating effects that arise when change happens by outsiders, when imperialism and Christendom seek to separate the people from their own land. Both Danticat and Achebe also demonstrate the ways individuals in these situations seek to assert their own agency, often also with devastating effects. Danticat, however, does offer a more hopeful view of the ways in which agency can be maintained precisely through the power of hope itself. Perhaps the relationship between hope and despair in both of these stories is best summed up in Manman’s words in “Children of the Sea,” when she explains, “people are just too hopeful, and sometimes hope is the biggest weapon of all to use against us,” (28). Yes, hope is used against the character in both these stories, but at least in the instance of Krik? Krak! it is also a powerful tool for the Haitian people.

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart: A Novel. New York: Anchor, 1994. Print.

Danticat, Edwidge. Krik? Krak! New York: Vintage, 1996. Print.

Danticat, Edwidge, ed. The Butterfly’s Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United  States, New York: Soho, 2001.

Gikandi, Simon. “Chinua Achebe and the Invention of African Culture.” Research In African  Literatures, 32.3, Nationalism (2001), 3-8. Periodical.

Loichot, Valerie. “Edwidge Danticat’s Kitchen History.” Meridians, 5.1 (2004), 92-116.   Periodical.

Miribal, Nancy Raquel. “Dyasporic Appetites and Longings: An Interview with Edwidge Danticat” Callaloo, 20.1 (2007), 26-39. Periodical.

Nge, Cameron. “Rising in the Ashes: Reading Krik? Krak! as a Response to ‘Can the Subaltern   Speak?’” in Martin Japtok, ed.  Postcolonial Perspectives on Women Writers from Africa,  the Caribbean, and the U.S, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2003. Print.

St. Fort, Katheline. “Book Review: ‘The Butterfly’s Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in   the United States’,” Research in African Literatures, 34.2 (2003), 206-223).