Things Fall Apart: An Analysis

Throughout Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, it is made very apparent how much the main character, Okonkwo, values manliness. Despite the fact that Okonkwo lived quite a few centuries ago, his story still shares some similarities with the way men today are pressured to be masculine. Okonkwo’s desire to be masculine affects him by causing him to be violent towards his family, view women as lesser than him, and produce a view that men shouldn’t have emotions. In the end, this desire causes his downfall, eventually causing him to take his own life.

For many decades, books present us with different characters that impact the course of history and literature. These personas all come with different and unique perspectives that add meat to a story in unexpected ways. Usually the characters with the biggest impacts are the major characters of a story; however, as seen Antigone by Sophocles and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, that concept may not always be the case. Both stories create a unique way of developing their plots: by utilizing their minor characters. The play and the book provide their minor characters, Obierika and Teiresias, impactful roles in the way they serve as the wise, reasonable, and sane personalities that hold the voice of reason in society.

Based off the book Things Fall Apart, the videos we watched in class, and the poem “The White Man’s Burden”, the white man’s burden of spreading Christianity was more harmful than helpful. In both the book and the film the African Tribes were already fully functional as a whole. They had systems in place such as forms of government, art, social systems, and economic systems. After the whites came to convert them, things started to fall apart and become chaotic.

When asked to take Okonkwo’s lifeless body down from the tree, the District Commissioner refuses for fear of giving the native Ibo people “a poor opinion of him” (208). He believes it would be in his best interest to keep out of “such undignified details” (208). Ironically, the majority of the Ibo people did not have a high opinion of the white people who brought over their foreign language, religion, and culture that was challenging the indigenous traditions.

Traditions play a huge role in someones personality and life. I wouldn’t say they define us but they shift and mold who we are going to be when we grow up. If you strip away the core of traditions or activities that were considered normal, it could really affect someone. In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is a perfect example of this theory. He was torn that Missionaries came into Umofia while he was gone and changed everything. Okonkwo felt betrayed by how much change took toll in Umofia. He isn’t used to the new rules and regulars given by the Christians. He was offended and didn’t agree with anything the Christian's rules. Unfortunately for Okonkwo, it was too late to change anything. It had been 7 years and the people of Umofia had already been

“A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people” (“Mahatma Gandhi Quotes” 1). The culture of a certain tribe, clan or group of people is not found written anywhere but it is found in the knowledge of its people because that is what they’ve grown up to learn. To them that is the only way they know. In Chinua Achebe’s book, Things Fall Apart, the people of Umuofia keep their culture close to what it was when it was discovered by their ancestors. The only changes that they made were made to fit the community as time had changed since their ancestors had been alive. However, their beliefs and morals remained relatively the same because that is what they have been taught for as long as the Ibo tribe has been around. These beliefs are all they know and they all live by them. Throughout Achebe’s piece, it is evident that he wants to emphasize the distinct Ibo culture in this book. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe stresses the importance of culture to a community by using cultural aspects such as, the Ibo language, their religion, and the traditions of the Ibo people.

“Okonkwo ate the food absentmindedly. ‘She should have been a boy,’... ‘Go and bring me some cold water,” (pg 64 TFA Achebe). This quote shows how Okonkwo used people to his advantage, and this next quote shows how the District Commissioner used the people around him in a similar way. “ ‘ we shall not do you any harm,’ said the District Commissioner later, ‘if only you agree to cooperate with us.

B. The exile Okonkwo faces only adds more to his anger and bitterness. Okonkwo’s alienation causes him to have a pessimistic outlook, focusing more on what has been taken from him.

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.

From era of imperi¬alism and pre-colonisation to this contemporary era, there have been major shifts, several changes and losses in these cultural practices of the Igbos owing to factors like colo¬nisation, neo-colonisation, western civilisation, etc. which led to their acculturations.

All over the world, cultures possess traditions that are uniquely their own. When two diverse cultures collide, there is a cultural shock that is experienced by both sides. In the novel Things Fall Apart, the colonization of Umuofia by the British created a drastic cultural clash that suppressed the Igbo tribe’s unaltered culture. The colonization influenced many people’s lives in the Igbo tribe; some members converted to Christianity, others wanted to keep the Igbo’s traditions alive, such as Okonkwo. According to Okonkwo, war was the only viable option. The British colonization fostered Okonkwo’s change to go from being a momentous man in his clan to an outcast among his village.

The novel Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe is a story about personal beliefs, customs and also about conflict. There is struggle between family and within culture and it also deals with the concept of culture and the notion of the values and traditions within a culture. The word culture is Latin and means to cultivate. To cultivate has several meanings; it can mean to plow, fertilize, raise and plant, to win someone’s friendship, woo and take favor with, to ingratiate oneself with, to better, refine, elevate, educate, develop and enrich. In Things Fall Apart all these words are accurate in describing the culture of Umuofia. A culture is an

But I want you to do with it. He calls you father.” This was when Okonkwo had to give up Ikefuma who became a son to him. Even though he was told not to participate the Ibo culture meant so much to him that he was going to participate because he was scared he was going to look like a coward. When he came along the day of the killing of Ikefuma he wasn't going to kill him but things turned out different when Ikefuma ran towards him and despite not wanting to kill him he does it for the gods and oracle. This all shows that they will go to any extent to obey the Ibo culture even if it's killing your own son. Even though there culture seems so brutal they also celebrated a lot of things that were important to them. One example of this would be The feast of the New Yam. “The New Yam Festival was thus an occasion for joy throughout Umuofia.”(pg.37) This describes how everybody in Umuofia celebrated this. It wasn't just a festival to them but it was also a thank you to the gods. Just like how it's stated in Things Fall Apart “It was on occasion forgiving thanks to Ani, the earth goddess and the source of all fertility.”(pg.36) this shows how everybody in Umuofia believed in the same gods and show them thanks by celebrating them. This all shows that the Ibo Culture was being fully practiced by everybody in

After lots of thinking the book I chose is Things Fall Apart. Things Fall Apart is written by Chinua Achebe, an african writer. Things Fall Apart is a fiction, children's literature book. Things Fall Apart was published by William Heinemann Ltd in 1958. It takes place in one of nine villages in Nigeria, Africa.

In everyday life, people face problems, and the outcomes are controlled by either fate or choice. The novel Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, is a book based around the idea of fate or choice. In the book, an extremely wealthy Ibo man from Umuofia named Okonkwo is the main character. There he is powerful, a wealthy farmer, and is looked up to by many people in the village. But, he is extremely aggressive as well.