Things Fall Apart Figurative Language Essay

In Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe uses figurative language to show Okonkwo’s family falling apart. During a hard time for the Okonkwo family, a death of their family member Ikemefuna, Nwoye is having the hardest time of all. Although he is holding back his tears, it will not be easy for him to accept the information of his closest siblings death. When the realization of Ikemefuna’s death dawned upon Nwoye, a piece of him breaks inside and Achebe describes this breaking feeling by saying it was “like the snapping of a tightened bow” (Achebe 61). The usage of this simile here not only makes the description of this feeling so much stronger, but it also gives the reader a direct picture in their mind by comparing Nwoye’s heart breaking to a bow snapping.

In a later situation, Nwoye reaches another realization when he hears the faint sound of babies crying in the woods. This, again, gives Nwoye another strong feeling of pain. After it is mentioned that Nwoye’s head swelled because of this anguish, Achebe places a simile to compare the two by saying, “like a solitary walker at night who passes an evil spirit” (62). Because of the way Achebe planted this simile, connecting Nwoye hearing the cry of abandoned babies to a person seeing a ghost, it gives the reader a direct sense of horror and hatred towards this part of the African culture that Nwoye had in that moment. The reason for this encounter in the story was to also portray Nwoye’s sorrow and longing to be in a different life, therefore showing a part of Okonkwo’s family falling apart. Lastly, Achebe shows Nwoye as troubled and hurting during harvest season, a time when the children are usually happiest. It is demonstrated that Nwoye has a constant feeling of weakness and displacement, specifically during harvest season: “[Nwoye] just hung limp”