Proverbs in Chinua Achebe’s Novel Things Fall Apart

Abstract

This article is a literary study which is concerned with the analysis of proverbs found in the novel Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe. The objective of this study is to identify as well as to analyse proverbs used in the novel. The analysis is based on the theoretical framework proposed by Honect (1997) who states that proverbs are an intuitive aspect of their mental functioning and can be viewed by using seven views: Personal View, Formal View, Religious View, Literary View, Practical View, Cultural View and Cognitive View. The study was conducted by applying qualitative method with a descriptive approach proposed by Creswell (2009). The result of the analysis shows that there are 27 proverbs found in the novel. Of the seven views of proverbs, six are found in the novel. The view that is not found in the novel is Literary View.