Chinua Acheb is a Great African Author

Chinua Achebe once said, "the world is like a mask dancing...if you want to see it well, you do not stand in one place," (Goodreads). Renowned for his novel Things Fall Apart, in which he responds to the stereotypes of the British who conquered the continent of Africa in the era of New Imperialism, Achebe explores Igbo culture through many aspects of daily village life. Contradicting the racism employed by whites in the 1890s in order to justify slavery in earlier history, Things Fall Apart offers a new fresh perspective into the lives of ordinary villagers of the Igbo tribe in Nigeria, before they are taken over by the British. Just as the whites in Europe, the tribe applies their own religion, customs, beliefs, and language to their lives. Through this lens the reader is able to extract a deeper meaning of the powerful message Achebe communicates by penning the famous novel.

According to Chimamanda Adichie, a Nigerian writer who believes in the power of story, if one traps oneself into the narrow world of “single story” about another person or country, that person would risk a crucial misconception. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is considered as the most authentic response to contemporary Western’s literature depiction of Africa, which usually obligates the readers to only look at the “single story” that is written with personal stereotypes under an ethnocentric point of view. As a result, in his famous Things Fall Apart, Achebe contrasts the perspective of the colonized on imperialism with that of the colonizing in order to provide an alternative to the Western literature’s “single story” of Africa.

Throughout “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, aspects of Igbo culture are presented to the reader in order for them to obtain a grasp on how people from a part of Africa live. For the majority of Part I, different sides of Igbo culture are relayed to the reader predominantly through the 3rd person, as well as through the perspective of Okonkwo, in order to gain the understanding that these people do indeed, have a rich, intricate, and sophisticated way of life. However, things turn for the worse and in Parts II and III, where Achebe recreates the conflict between European and Igbo cultures at the turn of the twentieth century by focusing on the cataclysmic changes introduced by the forces of Christianity and colonialism, and how they destroyed the strong foundation of the once proud Igbo people.

Preconceived ideas about one’s culture often arises from stereotypes passed down from generation to generation. It is those stereotypes which shape one’s way of thinking, without being educated properly. In the novel Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, misunderstood culture is what drives the story of a small African clan called the Umuofia and the life story of Okonkwo, a fearless warrior and farmer. An in-depth look into pre-colonial African culture helps the reader discover and understand an unbiased point of view of a world one may not understand. In doing so, Achebe uses imagery as well as strong narration to describe the cultural norms and activities that the Nigerian tribe undergoes in everyday life. Through this he offers a nonbiased point of view, and communicates and accurate picture of pre-colonial African culture to a western reader.

Things Fall Apart is a literary novel written and published by Albert Chinualumogu Achebe, or Chinua Achebe, in the 1959. Chinua was born on November 16, 1930 into a Nigerian village named Ogidi. Things Fall Apart is based in Nigeria around the year 1890. The book addresses topics including, “Nigeria’s white colonial government and the traditional culture of the indigenous Igbo people” (SparkNotes Editors). The book also contains several controversial topics involving, Christian missionaries being labeled, “foolish”, the subject matter of death and suicide, and the physical and verbal abuse that the women received. Chinua well portrays the “macho” and chiefly attitude of the African men in the Ibo society. But the question is, how exactly are women treated within the society? The well respected Okonkwo is a prime example on exactly how men treated women during this time period.

Achebe excelled at school, and won a scholarship to study medicine, but changed his studies to English Literature at University College. He became fascinated with world religious, and traditional African cultures, and began writing stories as a university student. Then he became a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic, who was one of the first to write a Postcolonial novel, so we can’t talk about postcolonial literature, without talking about the master piece of Achebe “Things Fall Apart”, that played a vital role in presenting a complex, dynamic society, to a Western audience, who perceived African society as primitive, simple, and

Achebe was born into a family of Protestant missionaries. As Achebe grew up, he gained more knowledge on both Christianity and the Igbo religion, and he realized that he felt more connected to the Igbo religion than to Christianity. Because of this, Achebe decided to convert from

The novel “Things Fall Apart” written by Chinua Achebe, is a tale based on the traditional beliefs and customs of an Ibo village during late 1800’s Africa. Through the telling of this story, we witness the remarkable depth of Igbo culture through its functions of religion, politics, judiciary and entertainment.

Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian novelist who wrote "Things Fall Apart". In this novel, he explores Nigerian's belief in their cultural identity, traditions, customs, death, life and also superstitions. Furthermore, Achebe uses different characters to elucidate how Nigerian's responded when their beliefs were disrupted by British foreigners. The protagonist, Okonkwo, provides clear evidence when he encounters conflict both internally and externally with nature and with society. Okonkwo outwardly is a fearless, outspoken man however, he deals with a lot of internal fears.

The Igbo people highly regarded the importance of language and conversation. Achebe was able to prove this through the language he uses in the novel. There was a lot of proverbs used that conveyed the wisdom of the people. Moreover, Achebe showed how the Igbo people believed in something greater than themselves. They worshiped the gods, their personal god, and honored their ancestral spirits.

“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” In Achebe’s award winning novel, “Things Fall Apart,” he wants the reader to learn that we need to take away experiences from the past in order to keep the Ibo culture alive. The story is told through three generations of a family, Unoka (the grandfather), Okonkwo (the father), and Nwoye (the son), who are all a part of the Ibo culture. By comparing the lives of Unoka, Okonkwo, and Nwoye, Achebe tries to secure a platform of understanding- of believable and symbolic characters, Achebe builds empathy in the western reader.

Chinua Achebe’s novel “Things Fall Apart” tells the story of Okonkwo, an ambitious man from the Igbo village of Umuofia, in modern day Nigeria at the onset of the Colonial era. Okonkwo is a rising member of the society until he inadvertently kills a kinsman and must flee for seven years to his mother’s clan so as not to offend the earth goddess of the village. During this time, British Colonialism reaches the Igbo people and quickly alters their traditional way of life. Through this tale of the Igbo Achebe seeks to illustrate the complexities of African societies and how deeply

Chinua Achebe lived a long life. He transcended both the American and Nigerian life span, and accomplished many goals. On the day of November 16, 1930 in the traditional Igbo village of Ogidi Nigeria, Chinua Achebe was born to Janet Achebe and Isaiah Achebe. His parents were converted Christians which made him grow up as a Christian. He went to a missionary school, which is a religious school run by Christians. At only fourteen years old Achebe was sent to a college in Umuahia, four years later he received a scholarship to the University of Ibadan to study medicine. After his first year at this prestigious college he became aware that

As the most widely read work of African fiction, Things Fall Apart has played an instrumental role in introducing African literature to readers throughout the world. In particular, Achebe's fiction has contributed to world literature by retelling African history, as well as the history of European colonization, from an Afro-centric perspective rather than a Euro-centric one. By shifting the narrative focus from the perspective of the colonizer to the perspective of the colonized, Achebe's novels reveal and correct many of the biased assumptions found in previous historical and literary descriptions of Africa. Specifically, they reaffirm the value of African cultures by representing their rich and complex cultural traditions instead of stereotyping them as irrational and primitive. As Achebe explains in his frequently quoted essay, "The Novelist as Teacher," his novels seek to teach Africans that "their past—with all its imperfections—was not one night of savagery from which the first Europeans acting on God's behalf delivered them." To say that Achebe affirms African culture and history, however, is not to imply that he simply inverts European ethnocentrism by romanticizing African culture as perfect or vilifying European cultures as entirely corrupt. Instead, Achebe presents a remarkably balanced view of how all cultures encompass both good and bad dimensions.

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is a modern example of postcolonial literature and is one of the most influential pieces of its genre. Postcolonial writing presents important themes and lessons of justice, equality, and freedom that can be applied to present times. It reminds us of how important our freedoms are and why we need to protect them. The colonized write about their exploitation and show how there is persecution in their colonized society. Postcolonial authors use specific methods to undermine their colonizers and reveal their backward logic. Things Fall Apart has various examples of meta-narrative, decolonization struggles, and colonial discourse worked in throughout the novel. Chinua Achebe’s writing styles showcase these techniques to subvert his European colonizers.