Things Fall Apart Fact

History is made everyday from every little detail that happens across the world. Everyday, people make decisions that affect the future, be it their own or others. Most of the important or any change that affects multitudes is usually recorded through the news, the press historians, etc. But sometimes, the whole of society can be viewed from thousands of years ago simply by the literature and works from the time period. Authors, poets, or any type of writer may write, with or without knowing, a perspective of society, a political opinion, or even a view on an important issue. Writers may express their views explicitly, implicitly, or even by just by the very nature of the work itself. Sometimes works may even express the opinions of the population.

In the novel, Things Fall Apart there are many major themes. The one I have picked to speak about is; struggle between change and tradition. The reason I have picked this theme is because throughout the novel, many changes occur dealing with culture and the reality of change affecting various characters. The conflict between change interferes with the self questioning of his self moral. Onkwokwo, for example, resists his new orders because of the questioning of himself, realizing that he feels like they are not manly and that he will not be manly if he agrees with them.

Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart shows an odd similarity between the cultures of Ancient Greece and the Lower Niger. Despite the fact that two societies can exist during different periods of time and have conflicting cultural values, their stories and behavior can have surprising overlaps. Things Fall Apart is structured like a Greek Tragedy in its use of a chorus and in the presence of a tragic hero whose actions ultimately lead to his downfall.

A human, by definition; “of or pertaining to the social aspect of people” (Merriam Webster). By composition merely “65 percent oxygen, 18.6 percent carbon, 9.7 percent hydrogen, 3.2 percent nitrogen” (madsci.org), and an abundance of other trace elements. However, when you describe humanity as a whole, the perspective changes and describing it gets much more complicated than a simple definition, or a matrix of elements. This is because humanity can not exist without change. Change is the driving force behind all that is and will be, as well as defining the past. For this reason alone, the colonization of the Africa, as described in “Things Fall Apart”, was to the natives benefit. A stagnate society will not

At first glance, Things Fall Apart by Achebe, may seem like a bona fide innocent novel. When a reader further analyzes the novel, one can identify the true meaning of the text, the meaning that the author has tried to portray. Throughout the text, Achebe uses multiple literary devices to effectively portray the idea that although people are not open to change, change will still happen and life as we know it will be different than what we experience today. Such is the case multiple times when Okonkwo is analyzed as a character, and is most prominently seen as the white Christian’s come into the villages.

When the white missionaries arrived, the villagers did not take them very seriously. They refused to see the missionaries as a threat and this led to their demise. However, because of the strength of the west, the village's falling apart might have been inevitable. Very few civilizations, if any, were able to withstand the threat of Westernization. It was a force that was too powerful and sophisticated for such common people to fight. Achebe's book shows how Westernization led to the demise of many ancient cultures. The reason this book sold so many copies, I believe, is because it can be applied not only to Africa, but to all of the other cultures around the world that were ruined by Westernization. In "Things Fall Apart," Achebe not only describes the life and death of one man, but also the life and death of the world's many different cultures, as a result of Westernization.

Culture plays an important role in society, it is what makes a people unique. In the book Things Fall Apart, author Chinua Achebe wrote the book using proverbs and traditions of the Ibo to reveal the uniqueness and wisdom of the culture, which ends up getting interfered with another culture.

“When things fall apart, consider the possibility that life knocked it down on purpose. Not to bully you, or punish you, but to prompt you to build something that better suits your personality and your purpose.” -Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe takes place in pre colonial South Africa where the importance of true Ibo history and culture is greatly stressed. This quote highlights a very prominent element of Things Fall Apart as it tells the reader that life may encounter some rough situations, but change and opportunity is an outcome of those situations. Chinua Achebe informs the western audience about the importance of Ibo culture and tradition using the simple concept of cause and effect.

Things Fall Apart, a novel by Chinua Achebe, highlights the fight between colonialism and traditional societies. The protagonist Okonkwo is a man of high status throughout the nine villages and even beyond due to his many achievements, such as gaining fame as a young person when he defeated the undefeatable, a wrestler nicknamed “the cat”. He is strong and hard-working, unlike his father, Unoka, who has a tainted legacy of being effeminate and cowardly. Unoka died and left many unpaid debts, so Okonkwo works to build his wealth entirely on his own. As a result of being obsessed with his masculinity, he is brusque with his three wives, children, and neighbors, and is wealthy and powerful among the people of his village, which he is a leader

A novel extremely fascinating yet exceptionally ambiguous. Things Fall Apart is a novel by Chinua Achebe that takes place in Nigeria, Africa where the story is mainly about how the main character’s life is falling apart. Therefore, if there were two different readers are someone from the African Culture and someone from the American culture reading it in modern time they would interpret the novel differently. In the novel the text could be interpreted differently by two different readers through the main character, the plot, and the tribes beliefs.

Frequently, history is viewed as being biased since it is an individual’s narrative that the historian relies on as a record of events. History continues to be a contentious social science. Today, history continues to be widely debated because it is perceived as tendentious. Historical narratives, whether they are primary or secondary sources, tend to present only one point of view. This perspective is often an inclination or one’s own opinion, which can modify the history that is being documented. Historian Leopold von Ranke believes that a historian’s vital role is to record history as a “strict presentation of facts.” Historian Peter Burke would argue against Ranke’s expectation of history. Burke would deem Ranke’s notion of history as

Within the novel, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, a tragic tale is told of Okonkwo, a leader, and provincial wrestling titleholder of a fictional community known as Umuofia. Set in Nigeria, the story does involve the actual tribes’ people of the Igbo, and uses Okonkwo, his family, and the tragedies that happen to him, to reveal the superstitious and traditional lifestyle of these people. It also shows how the earliest attempts of Christianity conversion and the colonialism attempts of the British begin to negatively affect this culture and its values. To begin with, Okonkwo tries to escape from all association with his deceased father, Unoka, who was known to be weak and cowardly.

The theme of Things Fall Apart is struggling between change and tradition. Some of the tribe members become open to the new ideas and faith that is brought in by the white men and may change and conform to it, while others oppose the change and will only stick to the traditional views of their society. The main character, Okonkwo, can be seen as having the most difficult time with the change that comes with the white missionaries settling in the land. One example of this theme is when the book states that Okonkwo knew “He had lost the chance to lead his warlike clan against the new religion...” (171).

This is communicated when it is mentioned how, “They asked for a plot of land to build their church” (Achebe 148). This shows how the white men had a large amount of respect for the natives. They did not decide to settle on any land they thought was vacant, neither did they attempt to take land which they knew belonged to somebody else. Contrary to this, the Spaniards did not have the same amount of respect for Native American land. If this text took place in a Native American tribe, the natives would have been forcefully pushed off of their land by the Spaniards. The native people of Umuofia live in a fair amount of peace and harmony with the white missionaries, having no major wars. We see proof that the village and the church are near each other when it is mentioned how, “...the church, was built a little way outside the village” (Achebe 198). The Spaniards did not keep this same peace and harmony when living near the Native Americans. Instead, there were constant battles. In a Native American setting, the book would have had less peaceful conversions and more battles and violence coming from the white

“Any fool can make history, but it takes a genius to write it.” Oscar Wilde states that the writing of history is not an easy task that can be executed well by many. This is evident in the biases that are incorporated into many authors’ writings on history. For instance, newspaper articles are typically littered with various biases depending on the origin of the author. Different people are raised to look at the world from different perspectives, so not everyone will have the same opinions on the matter of a specific topic. Consequently, readers are subjected to opinionated articles which may be biased towards a certain position that may either adulate or belittle the subject, depending on the author’s position on the topic. This essay will highlight the biases that occur in histiography in everyday writing and how they may affect how audiences perceive a certain event in history.