Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

In the novel, “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe the Igbo tradition revolves around structured gender role. Everything essential of Igbo life is based on their gender, which throughout the novel it shows the role of women and the position they hold, from their role in the family household, also planting women crops, to bearing children. Although the women were claimed to be weaker and seemed to be treated as objects, in the Igbo culture the women still provided qualities that make them worthy.

Natives in Africa were very rarely respected. They were often kidnapped and sold into slavery, or just out right killed. Slaves were

Chinua Achebe, author of Things Fall Apart, once said: “A man who makes trouble for others is also making troubles for himself”. This concept can be seen in the development of Okonkwo as a character throughout the book. Creating plenty of trouble for others, but ultimately creating the most trouble for himself is possibly the plot for the entire book. Generally, the creation of trouble is not a value that is appreciated in any culture, especially in Umuofia. Okonkwo breaks many of the boundaries and social norms within his culture; his tendency to be immature and unaccountable combined with being very self-concerned and the defiance of elders creates an interesting mix adjacent to the cultural standards.

Social rank and relative wealth play great roles in determining a person’s life in Umuofia society. Sometimes a man with sheer force of will cannot change his future through hard work. One of the main conflicts in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is the clash between Okonkwo’s determination to succeed, his free will, and fate – which seems to have less appealing things in mind. Okonkwo’s will plays a major factor in determining his future; he chooses to kill Ikemefuna with his own hands, he chooses to kill a government official, and in the end, he chooses to take his own life. However, the pre-destined conditions of his life, his father’s failures, and a series of unfortunate circumstances ultimately lead to Okonkwo’s downfall.

Many schools of the modern world goes off the notions and claims of the predominantly white continent of Europe. The Europeans at the time of exploring the Continent of Africa viewed Africans as lesser entities and uncivilized because of there major differences in appearance, culture, and language. This notion of black, from Africa, as being uncivilized made a widely assumption of their intelluctual capacity and advancement. It was not until recent in history that people has went to Africa to study the ancient artifacts and desifer their way of life and the complex cultural system of different aspects of Africa such as the many branches of the Bantus, and their hierchial system. So after Homer, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, the European world

The women in Things Fall Apart may seem to be an oppressed group with little power which is true to some extent with the way some women are treated. This characterization of Ibo women is limiting, but when more in depth in the book it shows the divers roles of women, and how important the women are to their tribes. The women in the tribes are sometimes shown as the weak ones of the group but when these women are the foundation, nurturers, and caretakers of the tribe that shows the great responsibility they have and how important they are.

In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Christianity is introduced to a tribal clan through missionaries. The clan, however, has their own religion, which comprises of a clear social structure. While the mission is beneficial to many members of the clan, others are not content with the new influence. The Agbala—men with no title—are grateful for the new religion: the mission provides them with a new opportunity to become a respected member of society. The powerful men are wary of this change, as it decreases their power and status in the society, and allows for more social freedom and movement. As many in the tribe take to the new religion, the culture is slowly forgotten, causing conflict. When the missionaries enter Umuofia and attempt

Solomon Northup executed his very gruesome and serious tone throughout his memoir by providing dialogue said by real life people and using diction to give nauseating details to events going on around him throughout his twelve years in bondage. For example, Solomon Northup explains in chapter five how a fellow free slave named Arthur was abused for trying to protest the unfair kidnapping. Solomon states,” He fought until his strength failed him. Overpowered at last, he was gagged and bound with ropes, and beaten, until he became insensible.” (39). The slave masters were not compassionate and defiantly enforced the depressing tone of the memoir. Solomon Northup explains how Eliza, a slave mother, is being separated from her son and the cruel,

Things fall apart, this phrase being used in both the novel title Things Fall Apart and the poem written by Yeats, “The Second Coming” keeps us wondering how both are related. Achebe uses Yeats’ poem as an epigraph to foreshadow how the events in the novel later on might occur. Reading the epigraph, we come to understand that Yeats is referring to an image of disaster and to a society that is losing control. In Things Fall Apart, the community faces some changes that affect the lives of certain main characters and leads to a very severe disaster. Achebe uses a lot of imagery and dualism in his novel to portray certain messages to the readers and to clarify his point. Also, Achebe wanted to answer back any writer who criticized the Africans and insulted them. He wanted the voice of the Africans to be heard and to take a stand when the Christians came in and tried to change a lot in the traditions that were present. Both, the poem and the novel are related in a way that shows how the downfall of the main character, Okonkwo, happened and what lead to it. Both writers have many things in common in their writings that can be compared in a social and religious way. Achebe uses double meaning in order to pass on his messages to the readers.

An intelligent motivational speaker, Peter Senge, once said "People don 't resist change. They resist being changed!" As we go on in life, we come across two types of individuals, ones who see the chance to better themselves by making important changes, and ones who think there is no need for change due to the belief that everything about them is perfect. In the two books, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff, the characters Okonkwo, Nwoye, and Pooh all illustrate the effects of accepting and or resisting change.

Fear is an emotion that is triggered by a threat or a perceived threat. During this time, one’s body prepares to fight or take flight in response to this trigger. Fear can be crippling to those that let it consume and change them. The character Okonkwo, from the novel Things Fall Apart is a man that allows fear to consume him. His entire life is dominated by the anxiety of failure and weakness. He is so afraid of failing and becoming the man his father was, which leads him on a dark and narrow path. Okonkwo faces inconceivable experiences that defines who he is in society which ultimately leads to his downfall.

The key to understanding our differences within cultures is to first, understand our similarities within cultures. If our daily activities were the base of cultures, this would mean that our differences only come from our similarities. For example, one can see the differences through the similarities in a simple aspect like our daily activities such as food and clothing. Everyday we all do the same action to put clothes on, but depending on where we are in the world (geographically), traditions, perceptions, and fashion, what we will wear will be different than someone else from the other side of the globe. With this paper, the similarities and differences of globalization and colonization will be explored.

Africa is the most diverse continent on this planet, linguistically speaking. There are thousands of languages spoken within many different cultures of people in Africa. Although most of Africa received freedom in mid-late 20th century, it has a very rich history and a strong background on which it is built. After colonization of Africa by the Europeans, the Europeans and their writings looked at Africa as having no diversity or culture in its colonized stage. Things Fall Apart was written as an argument to those writings and the Europeans proving that Africa is diverse.

Cultural perspective is the manner in which the environment, social, and cultural factors shape people. These factors are gender, race, and nationality of an individual. Cultural perspective has a significant influence on how people relate between themselves as well as their capability to communicate. People that have a diverse cultural perspective might have difficulties understanding why the other conduct themselves in a particular manner. Moreover, cultural perspective affects the relationships that individuals have with themselves like emotional, mental, and spiritual wellbeing or their absence. Things Fall Apart is a novel that was written by Chinua Achebe, who is a supporter of multiculturalism as depicted in his book through the

Before Things Fall Apart was published, most novels about Africa had been written by Europeans, and they largely portrayed Africans as savages who needed to be enlightened by Europeans. For example, Joseph Conrad's classic tale Heart of Darkness (1899), one of the most celebrated novels of the early twentieth century, presents Africa as a wild, "dark," and uncivilized continent. In Mister Johnson (1939), which in 1952 Time called "the best novel ever written about Africa" ("Cheerful" para. 15), Irishman Joyce Cary's protagonist is a semieducated, childish African who, on the whole, reinforces colonialist stereotypes about Africans. In 1958, however, Chinua Achebe broke apart this dominant model with Things Fall Apart, a novel that portrays Igbo society with specificity and sympathy and examines the effects of European colonialism from an African perspective. Chinua Achebe uses the role of religion in Things Fall Apart from the Igbo tribe's perspective to illustrate the destruction that the ignorance of the white missionaries creates.