Symbol, Paul Ricoeur says in Hermeneutics, is any structure of signification in which a direct, primary, literal meaning designates in addition

another meaning which is indirect, secondary and figurative and which can be apprehended only through the first. Thus, one can say that a symbol is any e pression which refers to some intuited universal meaning. Symbols are characteri!ed by multiple meaning. They are signs with double references of which the first meaning imply to a second which is not given in any other way. The novel Things "all #part is highly symbolic, and it as$s to be read in symbolic terms. %n the %gbo culture as revealed in Things "all #part, symbols are manifested in various forms. "ood, animals, characters, weather, naming of newborn, oral tradition as well as the title of the novel is highly symbolic in nature. &ther than that, occurrence of, the decoration of &bieri$a's daughter as a bride with uli and tattoo and the drawing of chal$ lines on the wall by (no$a, to symboli!e his debts. # particularly stri$ing illustration is when &$oye pays a visit to (no$a and he is offered $olanut, #chebe writes thus) Okoye, meanwhile, took the lump of chalk, drew some lines on the floor, and then painted his big toe. This symboli!es welcome. Similarly, the use of a bundle of broomstic$s to negotiate dowry or the unshaven hair used to identify an osu' caste are all occurrences of symbols. Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer Things fall apart the center cannot hold* +ere anarchy is loosed upon the world. ,. -. .eats, /The Second 0oming/ These four lines are half of the opening stan!a of ,illiam -utler .eats's 1212 poem The Second 0oming. ,ritten in 1212 and published the following year, the poem is commonly thought to be an interpretation of the cruelty of ,orld ,ar % and the destructive moment 3urope had reached immediately following it. 4iterary critic Harold -loom has submitted that the poem refers to the Russian Revolution of 1215. 3ither way, it is 6uite clear that The Second 0oming is about a moment in history when the past has been destroyed utterly and the future is un$nown. There is great fear in the land .eats has created, the same fear crawl down the spin in the novel by #chebe Things "all #part. "ear borne not of the inescapability of change but of the uncertainty of e actly what that change will be.

The very name of the novel Things "all #part is our first introduction with symbol. %t is an #frican classic epic depicting tradition in a tug7of7war with change and is surrounded by the all7 too7human fear of loo$ing into an uncertain future. %n the te t, the white man is portrayed as a destructive agent, an intruder who unleashes anarchy on the serenity of an otherwise peaceful culture. The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and thus their 8ustice system through ancestral spirits and religion is replaced with white men courts and their religion and the protagonist continue that we have fallen apart. -eside title, two of the main symbols are the locusts and fire. The locusts symboli!e the white colonists descending upon the #fricans, seeming to promise good but actually foreshadowing troublesome encounters. %n the novel one can see the behavior of the locust swarm is well captured and analy!ed with comparison to white men. "ollowing lines announces the coming of event) nd then the locusts came. !ocusts are descending " a white man had appeared in their clan. Then the minute details capture by the novelist, of the behavior of locust that how they land on any area and how the savage part of human haven't yet forget the nature left in him and do same li$e the locust swarm) t first, a fairly small swarm came. They were the harbingers sent to survey the land #t said that other white men were on their way. They were locusts, it said, and that first man was their harbinger sent to e$plore the terrain. nd at last the locusts did descend. They settled on every tree and on every blade of grass% they settled on the roof a covered the bare ground. &ighty tree broke away under them, and the whole country became the brown earth colour of the vast, hungry swarm.

"ire incarnates &$on$wo's nature. He is fierce and destructive. Okonkwo was popularly called the '(oaring )lame*. He was a flaming fire before !iving fire begets cold, impotent ash. # third symbol, the drums, represents the physical connection of the community of clansmen in (muofia, and acts as a metaphorical heartbeat that beats in harmony, uniting all the village members. The fables used as oral tradition also show strong symbolic nature in themselves. &ne of them is about the cosmic 6uarrel between earth and s$y. ,here vulture plead s$y for mercy as it beholds rain and finally grant it in cocoa7yam leaves. %n this fable on can relate the characters of fable with those of the novel. S$y being &$on$wo withhold his mercy upon his son 9woye who grew sadden faced youth but %$emefuna soften his heart but finally li$e vulture consumed by the human sacrifical fire : fire is another symbol for the nature of &$on$wo;. Sacred sil$7cotton tree and iron horse :bicycle; are also illustrated in a symbolic manner. The iron horse brings technology with it, promising new era and the sacred tree is the symbol of life. Thus the clans' men, " tied his iron horse to their sacred tree w hich was, " still tied to the sacred silk+cotton tree. and that big and ancient silk+cotton tree which was sacred. #nd where ,pirits of good children lived in that tree waiting to be born. That iron horse waited too, to get life over the indigenous %gbo culture. "inally the sucide of the Protagonist who is the representative of the traditions of %gboland symbolise the suscide of the %gbo culture as he said in the finall part of the novel that -e were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. #nd admitting the grave mista$e which led them to their end. -e cannot bury him. #s he was an embodiment of the %gbo culture Only strangers can.