Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe Analysis

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.

Change is a reoccurring theme throughout history. It destroys and creates. It displaces and introduces. It can cause death and life. The movement of imperialism in Africa brought great change to the native tribal life. Forcing the indigenous people to turn away from their century-old traditions caused violent rifts between the European settlers and the tribes, as well as internal problems between once amiable members of the Ibo culture. With the introduction of the foreign Western Society in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the tribe’s life and ideals are drastically altered as the new ethics and principles collide with the old traditions and laws, causing the members of the society to either adapt or be crushed underneath the foot of colonialism. Achebe’s character, Okonkwo, was impacted immensely by the cultural collision, as his previous way of life was pulverized before his eyes, and he found no reason to live any longer.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a story about personal beliefs and customs, and also a story about conflict. There is struggle between family, culture, and the religion of the Ibo, which is all brought on by a difference in personal beliefs and customs of the Igbo and the British. There are also strong opinions of the main character, Okonkwo. We are then introduced to the views of his village, Umuofia. We see how things fall apart when these beliefs and customs are confronted by those of the white missionaries.

In the book Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, we are able to read about the social changes the white missionaries had on an African tribe. Mr. Achebe describes the way of life before the missionaries arrived and then records some of the changes, which occurred due to the changed belief system introduced by these missionaries.

“Okonkwo’s gun had exploded and a piece of iron had pierced the boy’s heart” (124).

The excerpt taken from Chinua Achebe’s Things fall apart comes from the end of the book, where the commissioner finds Okonkwo’s body dangling from a tree. This passage serves as closure for the novel, as the traditions of the past die along with Okonkwo. Achebe uses this specific scene in the novel to express both his views on the inevitable death of Igbo culture in the lower Niger (specifically Umuofia), as well as his perception of the portrayal of its people in western literature. In addition, Achebe continues to use this scene to drive the idea of cultural difference between both the inhabitants of Umuofia, and the missionaries that inhabited the land.

Chinua Achebe wrote the book Things Fall Apart in the year 1958, a time when Africa was undergoing drastic changes, and experiencing new things. Achebe wrote his first book, Things Fall Apart in a way that reflected what he had experienced and what he believed in. This is evident in the many parts of the book, Including Nwoye’s conversion to Christianity, Igbo storytelling and folklore, and with the tribal leaders of Umofia and their thoughts on the missionaries.

Chinua Achebe shows the reader the change of Africa as seen by the main character of the novel, Okonkwo. Okonkwo has the hardship of living in an ever-changing society. It is thru Okonkwo that the reader is able to visualize a society of immense cultural standing, and not as European colonizers would say, a society of savages. The main theme of culture is present in all areas of the novel, which helps to show to the reader all of its underlying themes, themes of tradition and themes of religion. Achebe sees the themes of culture, tradition, and religion in one bright light and European colonizers see those same themes in a totally different, somewhat snobbish dim light. However these themes are viewed, one thing is certain, change is on the horizon.

Have you ever felt a need for a change in your personal life? Some people are very set in the ways that their culture goes about daily life, whereas others feel like they are destined for change and the discovery of new ideas, which is being exemplified in this specific novel. In Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, there is a cultural collision that occurs between the U.S. and Africa, specifically the white missionaries of the Christian faith and a specific person in the Ibo culture, Nwoye. The interaction between the Western culture and the Ibo culture is based around the differences in religious beliefs of the two cultures and the meaning of the Evil Forest to the missionaries.

All throughout history and even still today, inequality has been a huge problem for our society. In the novel, Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe conveys the idea of gender roles as wrong and extreme. Men and women have been driven to act differently and expected to be a certain way; affecting the society as a whole. Things Fall Apart unveils a theme of do not take anything for granted because one day it could all be gone. Women are treated differently because for as long as time has been recorded men have been superior.

Chinua Achebe’s novel “Things Fall Apart” chronicles the life of Okonkwo, a strong man whose existence is dominated by fear and anger, and the Ibo tribe, a people deeply rooted in cultural belief and tradition. As events unfold, Okonkwo’s carefully constructed world and the Ibo way of life collapses. The story of Okonkwo’s fall from a respected and feared leader of the Ibo tribe to an outcast who dies in disgrace dramatizes his inability to evolve beyond his personal beliefs, affecting the entire Ibo tribe beyond measure. The “things” that fall apart in Achebe’s novel are Okonkwo’s life – his ambition, dreams, family unity and material wealth – and the Ibo way of life – their beliefs, culture and values.

Umuofia is a village in Africa, and the inhabitants there are usually united. However, when the Christians arrive and permeate the village, the clan changes but also falls apart. The novel in which this story takes place is called Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The story is about a well-respected man named Okonkwo who has three wives and many children, the oldest being Nwoye. Okonkwo is banished for seven years from Umuofia, and during those seven years, Umuofia is changed fundamentally by the Christian faith. Many people are converted, but the whole clan is in conflict. This novel demonstrates that Christianity destroys but also guides the Ibo culture in Umuofia.

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.

Most Africans lost what they had called home for many years due to Europeans, who took

When the colonization of Africa by European nations began during the late 1800s, the African tribes could do little to resist their culture being destroyed. As a result, Europe wrote much of African history during the colonial period of Africa. In this version of African history, African tribes were looked down upon as primitive and savage as they did not have many of the advancements of European culture. This narrow portrayal of African culture motivated Chinua Achebe, a man of the Igbo nation in Nigeria, to write his landmark novel Things Fall Apart (published in 1959), to not only tell the African perspective of their colonization, but also as a way of showing that his culture was not simple and straightforward to understand; it was intricate and dynamic. Forty-nine years after the publication of Things Fall Apart, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie published her short story “The Headstrong Historian”. The story has the same setting as Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, and begins at the time when missionaries had first come to Africa to convert Africans to Christianity. The short story delves further into one aspect of Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, which is how changing religion can cause separation from culture, while showing criticism of Achebe’s portrayal of women and the ending of his novel.