Nigerian Culture In Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe, the author Things Fall Apart, wrote a book to show the Nigerian culture and how European colonization effected the culture. Achebe wanted to show that despite the European writings that the culture was not as they said it to be. The title came from the poem The Second Coming. “Turning and turning in the widening gyre/ The falcon cannot hear the falconer;/ things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;/ Mere anarchy is loosened upon the word”(Yeats 1-4). Looking at Things Fall Apart, it is seen that Okonkwo struggles with his views on masculinity, and how chi is talked about in the novel to show one of the things that the Nigerian culture believes in and what locusts represent to the culture. Okonkwo and his father both had very different …show more content…
“That was not luck. At most one could say that his chi or personal god was good” (Achebe 27). Misfortune soon sets in for him, plus the turn of his chi. Others seemed to separate the concept of his achievements and his chi, he thought differently than them though, because all of his achievements he put in good hard work into them. When he blamed his chi, which can be debated to be like the Karma of this Nigerian culture, misfortune was upon him because he was so full of his pride and the lack of personal responsibility that he refused to face the fact that he has had made mistakes with decisions before. He then ended up, pushed out of the clan. “He had been cast out of his clan like a fish onto a dry sandy beach painting. Clearly his person god, or chi was not made for great things” (Achebe 131). In the Igbo society, a person 's chi was their own personal god. Chi controlled their everyday lives, whether it be for the good or bad. It is said that it helps determines a person 's destiny and the chi; they thought was to protect them. They had a statue to honor and respect their chi. Chi is a major role in Things Fall Apart; it plays a role as an internal conflict in Okonkwo by being the reason decisions were either driven forward or were limited in helping the rest of his fellow villagers. His flaw with his chi was that he always blamed it so then he did not have to deal with his mistakes and take responsibility for his actions. The limits of Okonkwos chi are what made him push it farther and boosted his pride so much that he created his own downfall and failure. He had so much pride, anger, greed, envy and wrath. He just never wanted to end up like his father, so if someone was doing better off than him he was being jealous of it because he felt as if he was failing at what he did not want to face that his father