Things Fall Apart

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.

In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe tells a story set during the British colonialism of Nigeria in the late 19th century. Of the descriptions that Achebe makes, one of the most significant is the British District Court officers and the egwugwu. There are several superficial similarities between the District Court officers and the egwugwu. These similarities include their relationship with the people of the culture. The egwugwu are masqueraders who impersonate the gods of the Igbo culture and settle disputes of the people of Umuofia. Most of the time the impersonators are local leaders of Umuofia. While the District Court officers work in the courts of the British Empire and settle disputes of the people and enforce the laws

Women are portrayed to be a stay at home wife, taking care of all the household chores; however, women do much more than just cooking and cleaning. Achebe shows women as household wives who are basically “controlled” by the man of the house, in Things Fall Apart. Women in the Ibo culture are limited to certain doings. They do all the cooking, cleaning, and caring for their family. Women cannot do anything that is a man’s job. Achebe uses the women in the novel, Things Fall Apart, to show how femininity and masculinity are shown in the women throughout the book.

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.

After three years, Okonkwo’s supposedly adopted and eldest son, Ikemefuna, was going to leave the tribe. Ikemefuna was Okonkwo’s favorite son and showed a promising future for both himself and his younger brother, Nwoye, who was once a problem child. Ikemefuna was manly enough that “even Okonkwo himself became very fond of the boy,” (Achebe, 28). Knowing “Okonkwo never showed any emotion openly, unless it be the emotion of anger,” this is an impressive feat to say the least. (28).

The idea about free will and fate is still unsolved and debatable throughout the world. Some claim that humans have their own power to create their own destiny, however, others argue that they are inescapable victims of fate. The novel, Things Fall Apart, portrays the relationship between human’s determination to succeed and his or her own fate by describing Okonkwo as a tragic figure. While Okonkwo believes that he can overcome his fate through his hard work, Chinua Achebe reveals that fate is a powerful, inevitable event in the novel.

This behavioral uncertainty creates fear amongst his son Nwoye, who is perceived as having a personality similar to Unoka. “Okonkwo’s first son, Nwoye, was then twelve years old but was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness... he sought to correct him by constant nagging and beating. And so Nwoye was developing into a sad-faced youth” (Achebe 13). Okonkwo swears by the use of physical violence as a form of punishment against bad deeds.

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

Okonkwo had to count on his own belief of what he thought characterized a decent man Okonkwo believed a decent man was someone the complete opposite of his dad. Okonkwo has already come to his own conclusions about his father; he feels anything similar to his dad is frail and pointless. On account of his fear to be viewed as frail, Okonkwo goes as far as killing a child who trusts him. “He heard Ikemefuna cry, ‘My father they have killed me!’ as he ran towards him.

Everyone encounters some type of conflict sometime during their life, but no one deals with it in the same way. The way that you handle being in or dealing with a conflict can help determine if it ultimately has a positive or negative impact on you and those around you. There are also several different ways that one can get into a conflict. One type of conflict is man versus self.

The law and legal systems in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe In this short novel, Chinua Achebe tells us the story of a man named Okonkwo, and his life. At the beginning of the novel, Chinua introduce to us Okonkwo’s father Unoka, he was a drunk and failure. Unlike his father Unoka, Okonkwo became the strongest warrior in Umuofia.

Question ( 2 ): Discuss Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe 's “Things Fall Apart” is a tragic hero.

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).

Progress leads to primitiveness. This logical paradox is shown in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Achebe describes the devastating effects of colonialism and the loss of the complexity of African tribes because of it. Although history views colonialism as a mode of progress, Achebe thinks otherwise and argues that it led to declination as opposed to progress. In the story, Okonkwo, the main protagonist known to be one of the strongest men alive, is a man of tradition and believes that one should not stray away from the traditional path.

Women are often thought of as the weaker, more vulnerable of the two sexes. Thus, women’s roles in literature are often subdued and subordinate. In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, women are repressed by an entrenched structure of the social repression. Women suffer great losses in this novel but, also in certain circumstances, hold tremendous power. Achebe provides progressively changing attitudes towards women’s role. At first glance, the women in Things Fall Apart may seem to be an oppressed group with little power and this characterization is true to some extent. However, this characterization of Igbo women reveals itself to be prematurely simplistic as well as limiting, once