The Center Cannot Hold

"For war consisteth not in battle only, or the act of fighting, but in the known disposition thereto during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary." (Hobbes, The Leviathan)

In Hobbes' The Leviathan, the idea that men are inherently violent by nature is presented. Hobbes argues that men need a Commonwealth (or Leviathan) to keep people "in awe," and the nature of men at bay. A strong Commonwealth is needed to keep society thriving forward and in a state of peace. Because the nature of men is disorderly and violent, structure in society is needed to control people's natural dispositions.

In reading Achebes' Things Fall Apart, I found the the Ibo village's structure to act similarily to the same Commonwealth described. In the village, Okonkwo's character is the most pressing example of a man dominated by his violent nature and tendancy to act out of anger. Okonkwo has this fire within him, and "desire to conquer and subdue" that is constantly expressed throughout the novel. Okonkwo is known as the best fighter in the land, and can be seen threatening and beating his wifes until "his anger [is] satisfied." He is the prime example for what Hobbes describes, because of his violent nature that at times even disrupts the order of his village. Okonkwo disturbs the Week of Peace and crosses over societal boundaries/regulations by beating his wife harshly; he even commits violence upon himself towards the end of the novel. Though the Ibo village contains many rituals and rules that at times bringforth and create violence, the institution aims keeps the nature of men at bay most of the time. Okonkwo's character is seen as more violent than the majority of people in the village, even admidst the cultural violence present. It seems as if their culture is naturally violent, because perhaps they are less civilized in instuition and doctrine than what people in the Western culture experience. Hobbes believed the primitive and earliest humans were violent in nature and tamed only through a strong societal instituion such as that of a Commonwealth. Okonkwo is somewhat controlled only through his village's regulation.

In the short quote from "The Second Coming," W.B. Yeats (at beginning of Things Fall Apart) writes "Things fall apart, the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world." I interpreted this quote to reflect upon the idea of entropy- that things naturally move towards disorder, and perhaps towards a more violent state of nature. In reading Things Fall Apart, we see the culture and customs of the Ibo village fall apart admist violence in resistance to the British colonizers, bringing up the idea that we cannot escape disorder because it is the very center of everything. The inevitability of disorder in society parallels the violent state of nature present in humans.