Things Fall Apart by Chinua

¶ … Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Specifically it will discuss and explain five cultural differences between Africans in the novel and Americans today, using specific examples from the novel to illustrate them. "Things Fall Apart" is a novel of colonialism and the downfall of a way of life. It portrays the standard way of life in an Ibo village before and during the time Nigeria was colonized by the English. The novel illustrates just why colonial life in Africa clashed with the "modern" way of life, and why the two could never coexist. The cultural differences between the Ibo of the novel and modern Americans are vast, as the novel clearly shows. However, the novel shows a way of life that has disappeared forever, and the reader must wonder if that was really such a good thing.

One way the Ibo culture differs greatly from modern American culture is their use of warfare between clans, which does not really exist in modern America. There is gang violence and such, but warfare is not condoned between Americans, but it does exist between other countries and America. Achebe writes, "When did you become a shivering old woman,' Okonkwo asked himself, 'you, who are known in all the nine villages for your valor in war? How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number? Okonkwo, you have become a woman indeed'" (Achebe 56). The Ibo feel masculinity is tied to "valor in war." This is still true today, but society values brave warriors who war with other countries, not with other American social or cultural groups.

In the Ibo culture, land is everything because it denotes wealth and the ability to grow food for the table. At one point, one of the characters say, "Does the white man understand our custom about land?'" (Achebe 124). No, the white man did not and does not understand this concept of land. Today, land truly means little in American culture, unless it is the small patch that serves as a yard for most single-family homes. Land does not signify land or status for most Americans, and that is another difference between Ibo and American culture.

The Ibo differ greatly from modern Americans in that they lived in communal villages, and socialized together as a unit within the village. They also lived close to the land, relying on natural resources for most of their housing and needs. An Ibo historian writes, "The houses, the general environment, the dependence upon local natural resources, and the contentment with the barest modicum of those articles which are usually regarded as indispensable in a household, all these, together with the easy-going spirit amongst the village folk, foster and maintain a life of extreme simplicity" (Ogbaa 89). Most of the novel takes place in the village and the nine other villages called "Umuofia" that make up the locale of the novel. The village life is mostly simple, peaceful, and very unsophisticated. Two other critics note, "The villagers of Umuofia live in a well-ordered society, with intricate social customs that are clearly designed to work for the benefit of the community as a whole" (Booker and Gikandi 247). Today, most Americans do not socialize with their neighbors, or depend on them for their entertainment and friendship, and so, modern culture differs greatly from this clan-like village culture.

Religion was important to the Ibo, and their belief in spirits often appears in the novel. Their religious beliefs centered on signs and spirits, as this passage clearly indicates. "The Oracle said to him, 'Your dead father wants you to sacrifice a goat to him'" (Achebe 15). While religion was important to them, it was certainly not the same form of religion as modern Christianity and other beliefs. It is based in superstition and oral tradition, and on a set of spirits who rule over all areas of life. The Ibo also practice sacrifice, which is certainly not a part of modern American society. These beliefs seem pagan-like to modern cultures, and probably would not be accepted by most modern Americans.