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¶ … Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe before referencing
Things Fall Apart: Still relevant to Africa today
The postcolonial classic Things Fall Apart by Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe shows both the cruelty of British colonialism and the folly of oppressed African peoples' inability to unite with one another across tribal lines. In the novel, the tribal patriarch Okonkwo of the Umuofia tribe attempts to exert total control over his entire village and family. He is rich and prosperous, and dominates his father Unoka, who represents the sensitive, artistic side of African traditions.
Okonkwo, because of his desire to seem masculine and authoritative, rejects the children who actually show promise to lead the tribe into the future. He kills his foster son Ikemefuna, because this is in accordance with tribal law, even though he and the boy are both Africans, although they are rival clans. Although his daughter Ezinma is far more of a leader than his son Nwoye, Okonkwo only wishes that she...
Okonkwo's carelessness with Umuofia's future is exemplified when he accidently kills a young boy, and is exiled for seven years as a result. Okonkwo bitterly resents having to go to his mother's tribe, reflecting once again his lack of respect for anything having to do with maternity and gentleness.
When the British colonists come, they come to a land that is torn by tribal divisions, where killing a young boy of a rival tribe is acceptable, and where tribal leaders like Okonkwo cannot recognize the value of the past, of music, of motherhood, and other elements necessary for the spiritual survival and integrity of tribal culture. Thus, the missionaries that come have easy ideological prey in the form of Nwoye, who has been castigated since he was a young boy for being weak. Nwoye enthusiastically embraces a religion that celebrates weakness, at least in its rhetoric if not its reality.
Okonkwo's old ways of…
Works Cited
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Heinemann, 1996.
Moreover, the unquestioned belief in the oracle's word conflicts with Okonkwo's own needs to solidify his family's political leadership and social standing in the tribe. Okonkwo's desire to redeem himself and his family name proves stronger than his respect for the oracle. Thus, Okonkwo at once seeks to preserve the political institutions of Umuofia culture while at the same time subverting core social and spiritual traditions. He wants to
Religion in Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is centrally focused on religion, and the varied ways it can be interpreted and how those interpretations can be acted upon. (MacKenzie 128) Secondary to the Igbo religion, which plays an important role in the everyday lives of African's is the contrasting Christian faith of the missionaries that predate colonial interests. It is to some degree important to stress that colonial
Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe is one of the most influential and powerful writers of today, and he is also one of the most widely published writers today. Chinua Achebe has in fact written more than twenty-one novels, and short stories, and books of poetry as well, and his very first landmark work was "Things Fall apart," which was published in the year 1958, when the author was just twenty-eight years
Role of Women in African and Indian Society Both Things Fall Apart and Nectar in a Sieve weave rather vivid imagery of the life of women in the traditional, patriarchal society of Africa and India during the colonial period. The vividness of the images of cultures where a great deal of importance was placed on women bearing sons and devoting their lives to the care of their families, leads the
Things Fall Apart is not necessarily a novel about globalization, but the implications of a changing world -- and that includes issues related to globalization along with the fading of colonialism -- are an important part of this novel. On the surface this novel is the telling of a nationalistic-themed tale about the tragic circumstances surrounding the initial respect that Okonkwo had from the Igbo culture, along with his demise,
Colonial Resistance in Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe was born in Ogidi, Nigeria, and his father was a teacher in a missionary school. His parents were devout evangelical Protestants and christened him Albert after Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, although they installed in him many of the values of their traditional Igbo culture. He attended University College in Ibadan, where he studied English, history and theology. At the university Achebe