The novel Things Fall Apart is based around an Igbo village in Nigeria during the pre-colonial era. The focus of the novel is on Okonkwo, a well known, respected man of his Igbo village which was rooted in deep Nigerian culture who, throughout the text, experiences what it is like to be both an insider and an outsider. In the novel, Okonkwo is banished from his village and during his banishment he is told that a neighboring village, “Abame, has been whipped out” (Achebe 138) meaning all of the town had been taken over by the outsiders. A white man had entered Abame and the village people stated that “the strange man would break their clan and spread destruction among them…So, they killed the white man” (Achebe 138) in order to protect themselves from the threatening outside group. The conflict occurred due to the white people wanting to become apart of the native village in order to spread their faith and become missionaries to the people of the village. The author, Chinua Achebe, portrays the white men as outsiders of the native villagers due to their race and religion, which caused the village people to discriminate against the white men. By killing the white man, the Abame people upset the white outsiders. This led to the white men’s invasion of the Abame market, where the white men “began to shoot. Everybody was killed” (Achebe 139) leaving the …show more content…
The theme of insiders and outsiders presents conflict between the two groups when an outside group attempts to interact with an inside group. Race is the difference between the two groups in the novel Things Fall Apart and “Gooboora, the Silent Pool” and it is race that transitions them from insiders and outsiders. Things Fall Apart uses race and religion to set the white men apart from the Igbo villagers. The character of Okonkwo, once an insider, is banished from his native group; upon his return to his village he realizes his village has been overtaken by white men and he is thus now considered an outsider in his own village. In “Gooboora, The Silent Pool” the narrator describes his once beloved village of the Noonuccals and how it’s culture was over taken by a difference race, similar to Okonkwo, the narrator realizes that he too has been set apart from his village and has transitioned to an outsider. On the other hand, Dhowli begins the story as an outsider due to her low class rank, and when she is affected by the power of the higher class she is banished and is placed further on the