Things Fall Apart Best Qoutes

The novel Things Fall Apart was written in 1958 by a late Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart alludes to the effects of European Imperialism on Igbo culture. This novel begins in a fictional town called “Umuofia”, on the boundary of modern day Nigeria. European missionaries arrive in Umuofia, uninvited and especially unwelcomed. Upon the missionaries arrival, Umuofia’s cultural tradition is shaken to its core and tampered with by the Europeans. The effects of the Europeans on the Igbo culture in Umuofia alter the village’s religion, political structure, and the Igbo peoples way of life.

"It was my folly! I have said it. But up to that epoch of my life, I had lived in vain. The world had been so cheerless! My heart was a habitation large enough for many guests, but lonely and chill and without a household fire. I longed to kindle one!"

“He  has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart” (152).

enemy of change is the enemy of life , and therefore our implacable enemy " ( Wyndham, 196 ). At a young age he realizes that there is something

“ All I kept thinking about, over and over,was You can’t live forever; you can’t live forever.” (pg.40)

wrong from thinking. It is also my favorite maxim because it's about expanding your mind.

The quote shows the conflict of ideals within the Youngers

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction,” Albert Einstein. Most people know it is difficult to go away from the crowd, to not fall into peer pressure, but even though it takes courage, there are some who decide to take that path. With a horrible father, and an even worse culture, Nwoye starts to change, but not in an awful way, he somehow becomes a nicer person throughout all these challenges. Throughout the novel, Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe depicts a story about a son, Nwoye, and his challenges as he changes by becoming nicer and a christian, being nice to everybody except his abusive father, and leaving his family to find answers to why everything happens.

“After the death of Ekwefi's second child, Okonkwo had gone to a medicine man, who was also a diviner of the Afa Oracle, to enquire what was amiss. This man told him that the child was an ogbanje, one of those wicked children who, when they died, entered their mothers' wombs to be born again.”

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a novel about a man in West Africa. It tells about his triumphs and trial ultimately leading to his demise. It explains how the “white man” came into his country and took over. It show you how the “white man” mad things fall apart.

North Africa is known for being an area that has exchanged the hands of many, mostly European hands. One particular area of land that needed justification for colonizing or taking over was the Sahara desert and the reason the Europeans used was that it was a desolate area that had been over cultivated by Arabs and it was therefore the European responsibility to take it over and restore it to its former glory. This justification that was used implied that the Sahara was a dry, uninhabited, infertile place to die, however though various texts such as in Ibrahim al-Koni’s Gold Dust, it is obvious that this not the case and in fact it is a site of rich culture and dynamic exchange. To further disprove this European conception of the Sahara, we

“But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings,

As we live, so we learn is a proverb still applicable today as it was then.

     Knowledge of Africa and the inhabitants of the massive continent were often portrayed as barbaric beasts by the first missionaries to enter the land.  Because of skewed writings by European missionary workers, a picture was painted for their readership of a savage Africa saved only by the benevolent, civilized western influence.  Achebe successfully attempts to redirect this attitude. Achebe educationally has the means to convey a different perspective, an advantage most other individuals of his culture lack.  In his novel Things Fall Apart, rather than glorifying the Ibo culture, or even offering a new view, Achebe acts as a pipeline for information to flow freely without partiality.

“In the beginning he had been fresh and strong, and he had gotten a job the first day; but now he was second-hand, a damaged article, so to speak, and they did not want him.”