Proverb Usage and Social Commentary in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God

This study investigates the literary and sociological functions of Igbo proverbs in Chinua Achebe's novels Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God, examining how proverbial language operates as both a formal aesthetic device and a vehicle for social commentary within the fictional world of Umuofia. Achebe's strategic incorporation of Igbo oral traditions into English-language fiction has been widely celebrated as a foundational act of postcolonial literary reclamation, yet the specific rhetorical and social functions of individual proverbs in these two novels merit more focused undergraduate-level attention. The study adopts a comparative close reading approach, identifying all proverb instances in both texts and categorising them according to their contextual function, whether they serve to establish authority, negotiate conflict, transmit generational wisdom, or critique colonial disruption. Analysis draws on recent scholarship in African oral literature and literary pragmatics. Findings reveal that proverbs in Things Fall Apart predominantly function to encode communal consensus and masculine authority within Igbo society, while in Arrow of God they more frequently serve to articulate the tragic dilemma of a community caught between tradition and modernity. The study argues that reading proverb usage comparatively across both novels reveals a progressive complication of Achebe's own position on the limits of traditional authority. The research recommends expanded attention to oral literary forms in university-level African fiction syllabi to prevent their reduction to mere local colour. Keywords: proverbs, Chinua Achebe, Igbo oral tradition, postcolonial fiction, social commentary.