But because Ezinma is female, she cannot function in this capacity. Moreover, even a woman, in a traditional reading of the text would support this notion" (Strong-Leek). The fact that society was patriarchal at the time was especially devastating for women. Moreover, women readers are probable to consider that it is perfectly natural for Ezinma to be unable to follow her father's footsteps because society as a whole has had a tendency to underestimate women. In order for one to actually be able to appreciate Ezinma, he or she first needs to overcome diverse stereotypes that might spring into mind when trying to understand her position.
It is difficult to determine whether the Ibo society discriminates women because it feels that this is the way that nature works or whether it puts across this attitude because it actually considers women to be inferior. hen looking at things from the perspective…...

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Works cited:

Achebe, Chinua, "Things Fall Apart," (Heinemann, 1996)

Bloom, Harold, "Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart," (Infobase Publishing, 2002)

Okpewho Isidore, "Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart:

A Casebook," (Oxford University Press, 15.05.2003)

Chinua Achebe / Buchi Emecheta
In Buchi Emecheta's book, The Joys of Motherhood, colonialism is already instituted and through the main character, Nnu Ego, we are able to see what post-colonialism looks like from a woman's perspective. The reader has the knowledge of hindsight and what colonialism did in Africa, the major impact of it, however, the story that Emecheta creates completely avoids anachronism. The characters in Emecheta's book only know what they know is going on in their society at that time; they don't seem to know what we know now about colonialism. Chinua Achebe's book, Things Fall Apart, on the other hand, tells the tale of life before colonialism and when the white man came to a Nigerian village and the events that ensued after and how life changed for Nigerians. We understand through reading Achebe's work that colonialism came into Nigerian culture in a slow but constant way,…...

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References:

Achebe, Chinua. (1994). Things Fall Apart. Anchor; first anchor books edition; 1994

edition.

Emecheta, Buchi. (1993). The Joys of Motherhood. George Braziller.

Chinua Achebe's fifth novel, Anthills of the Savannah, was first published in 1987, some fifteen years after his fourth novel, A Man of the People. In Anthills of the Savannah, Achebe states his abhorrence of any theory of radical transformation of society. "Society is an extension of an individual," he says through Ikem Osodi, his protagonist. "The most we can hope to do with a problematic psyche is to re-form it."
Achebe leaves no one in doubt regarding what he means by reform. No psychoanalyst, he argues further, would strive to alter the core of the personality of a problematic person. All he is expected to do is to alter "some details in the periphery." ut, to be fair, Achebe wrote his novel without the benefit of further insight that the political turmoil, which overtook the nation in the nineties would have offered him.

In Chapter Nine of Anthills of the Savannah,…...

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Bibliography

Achebe, Chinua. Anthills of the Savannah. New York, NY: Doubleday, 1988.

Achebe, Chinua. Anthills of the Savannah. New York, NY: Doubleday, 1988. Pg. 91.

It is this process of dehumanization of the colonial populations that justifies their own imperialistic behavior. In a similar manner, the human psyche may really be incapable of the kinds of structures and deeds necessary to subjugate a population. In order to do so, then, the colonial population slips into a sense of unreality and justification, accelerating dehumanization in order to allow for colonial subjugation (Fanon, 108, 171-4).
Bibliography:

Achebe, C. hings Fall Apart. New York: Anchor Books, 1994.

Achebe's first novel, is a story centered in an African village of the late 1880s. At this time, European missionaries and other outsiders have not arrived and the ho clan lives much as it has for hundreds of years. Leadership and status are based on a man's personal worth and what he contributes to the tribe. he main character in the book, Ohonkwo, is well-respected and has just the qualities of leadership that…...

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The central character, Okonkwo, finds that the interference of the missionaries and English "entrepreuers" disrputed the tribes. "The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart" (Apart, Chapter 20). For certain behaviors to exist, it is first necessary to rank oneself, or one's culture or race, as superior to another group. This may be subtle or overt; an individual or group, or even an entire State or Country. Common to this theme is the idea of using a group to scapegoat -- to target and use in order to justify action. In Things Fall Apart the African's are dehumanized and seen as nothing more than primitive -- an excuse for the British to subjugate and control.

Booker, M. Keith. (2003). The Chinua Achebe Encyclopedia. New York: Greenwood Press.

This is primarily a research source for Western scholars since many works about Achebe and his materials are published

These converts become zealots and actually kill the village's sacred python. e read no one believed "such a thing could happen" (158). The violence shocks some in the community but not in the way we might expect. Okonkwo wants to chase the missionaries away but the clan overrules his idea is overruled and ostracizes him. This is interesting human behavior. Some clansmen are opposed and others are not and we can only chalk it up to the imperceptible differences of man as to why. In addition, membership to the church continues to grow as the old ways of the clan are seemingly left behind. The Igbo tribe was beginning to blend new ideas with old ones. Their changing attitude toward the missionaries is interesting to study. Their resistance wanes over time and we must ask if this is simply human nature. Like overwhelmed, tired parents, the Igbo tribe finally…...

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Work Cited

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor Books. 1959.

In the end, he cannot cope with what is happening to him and chooses to deal with things in his own way. Jonathon, too, is a man that is faced with challenges in his community. His outlook is more positive and he chooses to cope by adapting as best as he can. Adapting was something that Okonkwo simply could not do and would not do. These men represent the fragility and the resiliency of man. They are both strong men and fight for what they want. Achebe wants us to see thee men as representations of all of man - the creature that would like to think he knows it all. This notion brings us to Achebe's idea presented in "Knowing Robs All." Here, Achebe asks us to look at ourselves though the same prism that we view these men knowing that when we do so, we will begin…...

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Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. "Civil Peace." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. New York: Longman. 1998. pp. 386 -- 9.

Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor Books. 1959.

Knowing Robs Us." Chinua Achebe.  http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/1298/achebe/scrapbook.html 

Korb, Rena. Critical Essay on "Civil Peace," Short Stories for Students, Vol. 13, the Gale Group, 2001.. GALE Resource Database. Information Retrieved February 27, 2009.  http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com

They were segregated to a corner of the village close to the Greta Shrine and they were considered to be at the bottom of the societal rung, well below the children. In a sharp contrast, the Christianity disregarded the social order of the Umuofia people and imbibed the Osu into the church, shaving off the tangled hair off their heads and treating them like brothers. They were taken from the lower societal position to be very important and rich people in the society and treated as 'all children of God and they must receive these as their brother' (Pg 111) as Mr. Kiaga, a stanch convert, referred to them as being.
The white man also disrupted the family pattern and peaceful coexistence that there was before their coming. There before, the word of the father as the head of the family was final unless overruled by the Egwugwu. This is…...

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References

Achebe Chinua,(1958). Things Fall Apart. New York: First Anchor Books, 1994.

doubt anyone can completely ignore racial issues. merica is not as racist as it was in 1963, but there's still enough to go around. However, I understand Elena's mother and Eugene's mother better than I do Chinua chebe's anger at Joseph Conrad. Conrad wrote his book in a very racist time. chebe acknowledges that we all grow up within a culture whether we recognize it or not. He says of a student that "... The life of his own tribesmen in Yonkers, New York, is full of odd customs and superstitions...." (p. 107) He is offended that others do not recognize the richness of the Nigerian culture he grew up in. In all fairness to the student, how could the student know? It is not the student's fault that frican history was left out of the young man's history classes. Perhaps chebe doesn't realize that when he wrote his…...

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A doubt anyone can completely ignore racial issues. America is not as racist as it was in 1963, but there's still enough to go around. However, I understand Elena's mother and Eugene's mother better than I do Chinua Achebe's anger at Joseph Conrad. Conrad wrote his book in a very racist time. Achebe acknowledges that we all grow up within a culture whether we recognize it or not. He says of a student that "... The life of his own tribesmen in Yonkers, New York, is full of odd customs and superstitions...." (p. 107) He is offended that others do not recognize the richness of the Nigerian culture he grew up in. In all fairness to the student, how could the student know? It is not the student's fault that African history was left out of the young man's history classes. Perhaps Achebe doesn't realize that when he wrote his speech, in 1975, European-American students who read Heart of Darkness would be appalled at how Africans are portrayed in that book.

Elena's mother was afraid that Eugene would use her. Eugene's mother was afraid he would take Elena seriously. Both attitudes show prejudice. I know that even in 2005 both mothers would be right or wrong, depending on the individuals involved. Reading Achebe's essay shows us just how deep the prejudice is we have had to overcome. Seeing how racist people could be when Conrad wrote his novel, the reactions of the mothers in Ortiz-Comer's story seem both mild and historically, understandable.

We could point at both examples, and moan that we will never conquer prejudice, but I prefer to try to follow Elena's and Eugene's examples, and judge each person individually.

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, which is the tragic fall of a hero.
Richard Begam -- History and Tragedy in Things Fall Apart

In his scholarly piece in the journal Contemporary Literary Criticism, Begam discusses culture in the context of the postcolonial dynamics four years after the Nigerian independence, by quoting the author Achebe from four years after the independence movement had succeeded. "African people did not hear of culture for the first time from Europeans," Achebe explained; "…their societies were not mindless but frequently had a…...

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Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. (1959). Things Fall Apart. New York: Fawcett Crest.

Anyadike, Chima. (2007). Duality and Resilience in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.

Philosophia Africana, 10(1), 49-58.

Begam, Richard. (1997). Achebe's Sense of an Ending: History and Tragedy in Things Fall

Things Fall Apart repudiates imperialist and colonialist ideology almost goes without saying and is one of the primary underlying purposes and themes of the novel (Osei-Nyame, 1999, p. 148). Things Fall Apart is so much more than an anti-colonialist novel or even a post-colonialist one. The novel conveys complex moral ambiguities that plague human societies whatever their ethnicity or geographic location. Okonkwo is a fierce, unyielding, patriarchal hero whose misogyny and brutality are woven into the fabric of his being. Yes, Okonkwo attempts to resist colonial enterprise and its encroachment on his Igbo people, but the methods by which Okonkwo tries to achieve his goal ends in failure. Whether it was Achebe's intention or not, Things Fall Apart sends a potent warning about patriarchy as well as colonialism, and in fact reveals the way patriarchy and colonialism stem from the same oppressive structures.
One of the ways Achebe works a…...

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References

Achebe, C. (n.d.). Colonialist criticism.

Achebe, C. (1958). Things Fall Apart. Barton.

MacKenzie, C.G. (1996). The metamorphosis of piety in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Research in African Literatures 27(2): 128-138.

Osei-Nyame, G.K. (1999). Chinua Achebe writing culture: representations of gender and tradition in Things Fall Apart. Research in African Literatures 30(2): 148-164.

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 interests were frequently begun by religious figures as colonization was justified in many ways by propagating the idea of converting savages to Christianity, therefore saving them from themselves. It was therefore not unusual in the least for a second contrast to occur, as is described in Achebe's work of fiction Things Fall Apart, and that is contrasting personalities in white missionaries. The first as is described in the work is a kind, clam and open-minded person while those who follow…...

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Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Oxford, UK: Heinemann Publishers 2000.

MacKenzie, Clayton G. "The metamorphosis of piety in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall.." Research in African Literatures 27.2 (1996): 128. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 3 Dec. 2010.

Chinua Achebe presents an archetypal patriarchal warrior with the character of Okonkwo in the novel Things Fall Apart. Okonkwo is described as being “well known,” his fame being based on quintessential masculine feats like winning wrestling tournaments and having many wives. A round character, rather than a dynamic one, Okonkwo also epitomizes the classical tragic hero whose hubris and stubbornness prevent him from changing or recognizing what he could do to better lead his people. Achebe uses traditional storytelling methods and a straightforward narrative style to elucidate the main elements of his protagonist. The reader therefore gleans information about Okonkwo primarily through the narrator’s direct descriptions of the protagonist’s actions, reactions, and words. Motivated by the desire to maintain power and to fulfill patriarchal roles and norms in his society, Okonkwo ends up committing egregious ethical wrongs in order to achieve his egotistical goals, and in the end of the…...

Okonkwo is a typical tribesman living and adapting to his surroundings. He is actually no different from anyone else in that he acts according to his heart. He truly believes he is doing the right thing and that is what matters.
Okonkwo is not a bad man; he simply makes mistakes and this makes him human. He does not set out to do evil. Upon hearing about Ezeudu's death, Okonkwo is saddened along with the rest of the tribe. Ezeudu was a noble man in the clan and he was also the oldest tribesman. At the funeral ritual, Okonkwo's gun explodes, killing Ezeudu's son. This is a shocking event because nothing like this had happened before. Okonkwo had to obey tribal law and leave the clan because it was a "crime against the earth goddess to kill a clansman's son" (124). The law of the land dictated Okonkwo could return…...

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Work Cited

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor Books. 1959. Print.

V.S. Naipaul's Enigma of Arrival and Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart both show how colonialism affects individuals as well as whole societies. While Naipaul's book is more optimistic in tone and less tragic in plot than Achebe's is, both of these novels create compelling accounts of how colonialism changes the consciousness of human beings. The consequences of colonialism are difficult to treat in novels because of the varied manifestations of colonial practices and the different ways people react. Although both told from the perspective of the colonized, Enigma of Arrival and Things Fall Apart are completely different in tone, theme, and plot. The differences between the two novels illustrate the wide range of disparate experiences of colonization. One of the things I appreciated most about these two books was in fact receiving an alternative account of history, told through the eyes of the oppressed.
The theme of transformation is also dealt…...

But such a violent and unexpected murder, and to come in such a very uncivilized manner! According to what the other men told me, there was absolutely no provocation or intimidation -- they simply told the assembly to disperse, and one of them that had been in jail yesterday simply started hacking him to pieces with a machete.
The other men were understandably shaken, and I cannot say I blame them. We must all thank God that they were able to escape with their lives, though it does seems that only this one individual displayed such extreme rage.

Still, I do not relish my duty now. Like Daniel walking right into the lion's den -- except he had a king who threw him in, and I have only the weight of history and the advancement of proper civilization pushing me forward. And the lions Daniel faced were never so dangerous, nor…...

The portrayal of traditional leaders and chiefs in Gold Coast in literature has been a topic of interest and debate for many years. Various authors have approached this subject from different perspectives, shedding light on the role and power dynamics of these figures in the society. While some writers have portrayed traditional leaders and chiefs as figures of authority and wisdom, others have highlighted their flaws and challenges in maintaining their position.

One common theme in literature about traditional leaders and chiefs in Gold Coast is their role as custodians of tradition and culture. Authors like Ayi Kwei Armah in....

The Roles of Traditional Leaders and Chiefs in the Gold Coast: A Literary Exploration

Throughout the history of the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana), traditional leaders and chiefs have played a pivotal role in the social, political, and cultural life of the region. From the pre-colonial era to the post-independence period, their influence has left an enduring legacy that has been explored and depicted in various literary works. This literature review examines how traditional leaders and chiefs have been portrayed in Gold Coast literature, focusing on their roles as custodians of culture, mediators of conflict, and agents of change.

Custodians of Culture

Traditional leaders....

In "No Longer at Ease" by Chinua Achebe, the protagonist, Obi Okonkwo, struggles with his identity and cultural heritage as he navigates the challenges of post-colonial Nigeria. This struggle mirrors the larger themes of post-colonial Nigeria, where the clash between traditional African values and Western influences creates a sense of disorientation and disconnection for many individuals.

Obi's internal conflict stems from his education abroad in England, which exposes him to Western ideas and values that are at odds with the traditional values of his Igbo culture. As he returns to Nigeria and takes up a government position, Obi grapples with the....

1. In Chinua Achebes novel Things Fall Apart, the protagonist Okonkwo faces a tragic fate as he struggles to navigate the changing landscape of his Igbo culture due to the intrusion of colonial forces. Throughout the novel, Achebe employs foreshadowing to hint at Okonkwos ultimate downfall, linking his actions and decisions to his inevitable tragic fate. By examining key instances of foreshadowing in the text, we can gain a deeper understanding of how Achebe weaves a tragic narrative for Okonkwo.

2. One early example of foreshadowing in the novel occurs when Okonkwo is warned by his fathers friend, Obierika, about....