Chinua Achebe 's Things Fall Apart

White. White everywhere. White men everywhere. White men with new idea everywhere. These are the thoughts running wild in a person’s mind who has never seen a person with white skin and when they begin to bring new things and ideas their thoughts begin to build. In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe what seemed to be a normal day in Umuofia turned into a day of new faces and later to come, a new clan. As white men arrived they brought many things from their culture and at the beginning they seemed to be making a difference for a more positive society but readers quickly find out that these things were only brought to manipulate the Ibo people into doing the desired actions of the white men.

What effects can fear have on a person? And how can these effects influence that person? Fear is defined in the Oxford dictionary as ‘an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain or harm’. The tragic novel “Things Fall Apart”, written by the renowned Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe, is an incredibly influential text. The novel is also an example of how fear can be utilised as an approach to characterisation. Achebe composed his novel in a manner, which portrays a complex and dynamic community to represent Nigerian cultures to a western audience. Achebe was able to attain this through the Ibo communities and the main character Okonkwo. In the beginning of the novel, Okonkwo is represented as a man of pride, success, and hard

What would you do if Christianity came and took over your world? In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, describes a man who was affected by Christianity which not only destroyed him but also his family and his tribe. Okonkwo is the main character who faces the demise of his world when the missionaries came in and took over his world. Okonkwo is a very independent, impatient African leader and is affected by Christianity, impacting the way he is accepted back into Umofia or the way he lives. Achebe 's description of life in the village after colonization, helps to create a setting that condemns colonization. In the Caryl Phillips interview, Achebe believes that “Conrad is for the colonizing mission, and he concedes that the novel, in part,

In the story Things Fall Apart the author, Chinua Achebe, uses the character Okonkwo to show that a man’s hubris can one day lead to a terrible fate. Achebe does this by having the main character Okonkwo struggle with keeping his life together. As Victor Uchendu talks about life in The Igbo World “is an equilibrium that is constantly threatened, and sometimes actually disturbed by natural and social calamities”(Uchendu 227). In the beginning of the story Okonkwo starts off as the strongest character when he defeats “Amalinize the Cat” (Achebe 3). This shows the reader that Okonkwo is the strongest and is determined to stay the strongest. Achebe uses certain events later in the story to foreshadow that Okonkwo will soon meet a terrible fate by having him kill Ikemefuna, by having him get kicked out of his village, by having the British change his son, and by displaying his rage and despair at the end of the story.

“Things Fall Apart,” by Chinua Achebe, is a story that takes place during the colonization of africa by European powers, and follows the adult life of Okonkwo. The village that Okonkwo calls home, Umofia, has a rich history and culture. A large part of their culture is how the two sexes are treated differently. Men are much more revered than women. The roles assigned to men and women greatly impacted Umofia’s society because of women’s required subservience, the treatment of women, and the unchangeable tasks assigned to each gender.

Ekwefi, the second wife of Okonkwo, in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, had endured a lifetime of hardships and heartache. Once the village beauty, she became smitten with a fierce wrestler named Okonkwo after he defeated the notorious Cat. After leaving her first husband and marrying Okonkwo, she was determined to raise a family of her own. Over the years she lost nine children, and with every one she buried the happiness she had exuded in her youth was slowly draining out of her. Finally, she gave birth to a beautiful daughter, Ezinma, but that did not mean that her struggles were over. Upon further analysis, it is evident that Ekwefi’s sole motivation in life is to be the best possible mother for her only daughter, Ezinma. Despite her painful past, her journey to follow Chielo when she took Ezinma to meet Agbala, and the near death of Ezinma, Ekwefi is motivated to be the best possible mother to her daughter even if she has to overcome struggles and hardships.

A tragic hero is a character that is both protagonist and antagonist, throughout the action they make. According to Aristotle's definition of tragic hero, he explains a tragic hero as a character that has noble stature and greatness. In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, depicts Okonkwo as fierce warrior and a respected leader of the Umuofia clan. Even though Okonkwo does not embody noble stature, since he has greatness, fatal flaw, and he recognize his downfall, he meets Aristotle’s concept to a tragic hero to a certain degree. Okonkwo has greatness and occupy a high status position in the village, yet does not have nobility or virtue in his character.

In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, he uses language to elaborate the African cultures and traditions before European colonization occurred. Chinua Achebe was born and raised in a village of Nigeria. Therefore, he has a high understanding of the African culture. This novel takes place around the 19th century in Nigeria. During this time, it was a male-dominated society, women were excluded and marginalized. Men were seen as the superior gender. They were illustrated to be strong and powerful. Women on the other hand were seen as useless, but without them, the Ibo society would fall apart.

When people read books, they look for the shared connections, ideas, and similar memories to advance their insight of the book, or make it more interesting. I guess you could say this makes the character more personable. When the characters share common characteristics with the reader, they begin to feel attached to the story and they feel what the character feels. The book I felt the most in sync with was Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. I feel like I shared the greatest connection with Okonkwo out of all the characters in the novel. I feel this way because I can relate to the feelings he holds toward his father anger, embarrassment, and hatred just to name a few.

When outsiders encounter a culture unlike their own they tend to make misconceptions about that culture. The British see the Igbo culture as dark and gory. Achebe sees it as a fully functioning society. The Nigerian community may seem odd and not functional when in actuality it is functional. For a society to be functional, it must have a culture as well as properties of a civilization. The British judge it as dysfunctional, but this is irrelevant to whether the society truly is or isn’t functional. The Nigerian society fulfills many, if not all, of the properties of a functioning society. Despite the negative stereotyping of the Igbo culture by the British, Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart shows a fully functioning society.

Based on the precolonial era of Nigeria, Chinua Achebe 's fictional story Things Fall Apart, shares the story of the Igbo culture through the lens of Okonkwo, a hard-nosed tribesman living in the fictional village of Umuofia. Okonkwo is a man who epitomizes masculinity and inner strength, the core values of the Ibgo culture, and shows no mercy when faced with struggle. Although Okonkwo is faced with numerous conflicts, such as the killing of the young boy whom he raised as a son (Ikemefuna) and the seven year exile from his “fatherland” tribe, the intrusion of the British missionaries and colonial administrators who later colonize Africa is the ultimate conflict in this story as it leads to the downfall of Okonkwo, whom resists the idea

In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the Ibo culture is presented through the lives of the people and the circumstances in which the natives have to rely on their understanding of the world and life through the customary teachings and ways of their ancestors. Customs like polygamy and polytheism are deeply rooted in the Ibo culture. The communities carry out many exercises of punishment and actions to ratify any wrong done. No harm is done without retribution. As the book progresses, it becomes evident that the way of life carried out by the people has somewhat of an unmovable and unwavering presence. However, the strength of the traditions and beliefs is heavily dependent on people who haven’t seen a culture and society that is very different from theirs. This leads the people to questioning and abandonment of the ways of the people and the destruction of the fabric which makes up their culture and heritage. The European religion was first placed to control the Africans minds; making them question the Gods their people were brought up believing. After becoming followers of Christ, the Europeans were able to control the actions of the Africans by making them believe that not only was their religion right, but their way of conducting society was as well. Violence and physical force was used on those who choose to cling to their heritage and not convert to Christianity.

Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian novelist, once said, “When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.” In his novel Things Fall Apart, Achebe depicts the impact of one story on the Igbo society, how stereotypes heavily influenced the perspective of the Europeans who came to exploit Africa, and how Africans struggled to get their voice heard. The novel is about a violent and independent man named Okonkwo, and how his religion, power, and identity was disrupted by the emergence of the Europeans that discarded the laws he followed. Achebe satisfies his purpose of giving Africans a voice in their story by contradicting commonly held stereotypes about Africa such as their animal-like behaviors, their lack of deep intellectual understandings, and their low-ranked position compared to others. He achieves his goals by setting his story in a realistic setting and lightning the rich culture and traditions of the Igbo people.

Ever since the imperialist age, Africa has been perceived as a type of primitive or uncivilized region. We have been taught and have seen that they are not as modern as our Western world. What do you think would happen when an African author criticizes the work of an old English writer who was known by many as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language? Chinua Achebe, the author of the great African novel, ¨Things Fall Apart¨ argues that Joseph Conrad 's book ¨Heart Of Darkness¨ was a false depiction of Africa and the writing was too racist and made the white race seem superior to the native Africans.

Through a significant passage in chapter seven, Achebe uses analogy to foreshadow the arrival of Europeans. The description of, “And at last the locusts did descend. They settled on every tree… they settled on the roofs…” (56), hints at the pervasive colonization soon experienced by Umuofia. This force causes villages to part from intricate cultural roots like “Mighty tree branches [breaking] away” (56) from literal ones. However, the Ibo people ironically view locusts as a joyful situation; they welcome these insects as a source of food and divine wonder. Achebe emphasizes this difference to sardonically address how white men deemed their actions benevolent.