Cultural Values in Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe’s critically acclaimed novel Things Fall Apart tells the story of a decorated and powerful chief of the Igbo village tribe named Okonkwo. Okonkwo is a strong independent man who came up from nothing in his life and refused to return to earth as the same way he started, he believed he was destined for greatness. Perhaps Okonkwo’s most driving factor for this is his father died a beggar and he became disgusted how his father went out with no achievements or accomplishments to his name. Okonkwo is very prideful as a result of his humble upbringing and believes that the only way one can be successful is through Old Ways of the Igbo Tribe. As a result, Okonkwo is hell-bent

Values are societies own guides to life. They identify what is wrong and what is right, however it is up to the people to decide whether or not to follow them. But what are values? Values can be defined as “principles or standards of behaviour; one’s judgement of what is important in life” (Oxford Dictionaries, 2015). Furthermore, values are “important and lasting beliefs or ideals shared by the members of a culture about what is good or bad and desirable or undesirable” (Business Dictionary, 2015). Values hold high importance in the lives of people as they have major influence on behaviour and attitude, as well as serving as broad guidelines in many situations. All human experiences, interactions and conversations have the potential to shift

Achebe also expands on the reflection of the Ibo peoples of being civil, depicting the civilised aspects of the Ibo religion. Another example similar to the peaceful reparation, previously

Chinua Achebe was educated in the West, though he hails from an African tribe. His exposure to both African and Western thinking gives him a unique perspective on the colonization of Africa, which is argued to be barbaric by some, but beneficial and necessary by others. In “Things Fall Apart,” Achebe perspective comes through as he masterfully describes a pre-colonization African tribe, and how colonization percolated through it. His authentic accounts of the positives and negatives of both tribal society and colonization leave the reader to answer the question of whether imperialism was morally justifiable or not.

“Dead Man’s Path” was one of Achebe’s earliest works and was inspired by his heritage and experience of growing up in a household that blended western education and literature with native religious tradition. Achebe, a highly influential political writer, novelist, poet, professor and literary critic, sought to cultivate positive political change between the nationalist state movement and the British empire leadership (“Chinua Achebe,” Barksdale-Hall). Achebe was born in Nigeria in 1930 during a time of political and social unrest and raised in the village of Ogidi which was a focal point of the Anglican missionary work. “Dead Man’s Path” recounts the story of Michael Obi, a young married teacher who is selected as the new headmaster of a mission school in Africa and hopes to use his position as an opportunity to incorporate modern ideas. Obi’s notions of modernity are mostly external and entail cleaning the school grounds and introducing European landscaped gardens. Obi’s wife, Nancy, who “had become completely infected by his passion for “modern methods,”” is excited about being the wife of the new headmaster and transforming the terrain of the school to have “such beautiful gardens and everything will be modern and delightful” (543). Obi’s two goals that he hoped to achieve were a “high standard of teaching…and that the school compound be turned into a place of beauty” (544). He begins revamping the school premise, and upon seeing a woman walk across

An interesting character in Achebe’s Novel is Mr. Brown who symbolizes the productivity and prosperity of the colonial works. However Rev. Smith (Mr. Brown’s successor) is jealous, small minded and manipulative. He stands a contrast to Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown listens to the people in the

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

In “Things Fall Apart” Nwoye is the oldest son of Okonkwo. Nwoye willingness to accept to the cultural collision shows how others react to those who were willing to accept the change and why they were okay with the change.

One of Achebe’s challenges was to illustrate the Ibo’s religious system. Even though the Ibo people had little contact with the outside world, they had developed their own beliefs and practices that became essential elements in their everyday lives. The Ibo religion played a role in the way they raised their families, communicated, entertained, and governed their society. Similar to those of the early Egyptian and Greek religions,

Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor and critic. He is mainly known for his trilogy that investigates, using fiction, the history of Nigeria. The trilogy begins with Things Fall Apart, followed by No Longer at Ease and ended with Arrow of God. Furthermore, in this critically analytical essay, through a feminist perspective, a chapter of his second novel, No Longer at Ease, published in 1960, will be discussed. The setting of the novel is Lagos, Nigeria and Umuofia, Nigeria during the 1950s, before Nigeria attained independence from Great Britain. The novel, No Longer at Ease begins with Obi Okonkwo on trial, charged for accepting a bribe. However, using flashback, the author takes us back to the point before Obi’s departure

Through this Achebe shows us that there is hope to be found, regardless of the challenges in between. Through the progression of the novel we see that Nwoye finds hope, throughout the novel he is beaten, neglected, and deserted but through perseverance he finds

Books can bring very good and deep messages and in the books that were chosen, it made people aware that within conflict there is culture and within culture there was much change. In the book Things Fall Apart, there are many different cultural practices but when conflict erupts there is a change in all their known traditions. When the white men invaded into the tribe, the people tried to put them in the forest to live because in their cultural, you die if you live there. When the white men survived the forest and never died, all the religious practices of the tribe Umuofia were taken away. This shows that the conflict between cultures simply powered over the traditions that the Umuofia people already had. This took away their way of living. They were not

Chinua Achebe makes many comments throughout his writings in Things Fall Apart about the belief systems that the people of the Ibo culture follow. During the novel the Ibo people identifies themselves as an agricultural society, they are very dependent on their crops they grow. Throughout the story the people of Umuofia are reliant on their production of crops, especially yams. Similar to “The Lottery”, their town believes in superstitious ideas in order to feel as though they are in control. Having a community based on agriculture is risky and there is no control how the weather chooses to react, so their community is superstitious to feel some sort of command. Chinua Achebe comments that the Ibo culture follows strict illogical rules based

The District Commisioner’s contemplation that the life of Okonkwo, a traditional and very religious and symbolic character of the Igbo tribe, would only be worth a few sentences is Achebe’s way of showing that the Western culture is unable to understand and accept the culture of the Igbo

Achebe’s image of the African people is depicted extensively in his novel. Achebe gives us a look at life in an African village and what it was like during African colonialism. Tribal life in Nigeria is told from an inside perspective through the life story of a man, Okonkwo.