Unrepicted Culture In Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe
1463 Words
6 Pages
Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian author whose universally appreciated novel, Things Fall Apart, provides a voice to an ill-treated and unrepresented culture. Things Fall Apart took place in Umuofia in the 1880’s, before and during the first arrival of European missionaries. Weary of reading westerner’s interpretations of how socially backward, illiterate, and uncivilized Africans were, Chinua Achebe wished to reveal a better insight of the Ibo culture and, in doing so, preserve the wellbeing of his continent. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart displays the natives of Africa with an appropriate level of complexity to contrast the Westerner’s overly- simplified perspective using an objective tone, meaningful symbolism, and an Africanized writing
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They settled on every tree and on every blade of grass; they settled on the roofs and covered the bare ground. Mighty tree branches broke away under them, and the whole country became the brown-earth color of the vast, hungry swarm’’ ( ADD CITE HERE). Likewise, when the westerners move to African villages to attempt spread the religion of Christianity and take advantage of their land and natural resources, the Ibo people tolerate them until they overstep their boundaries. Another influential symbol in Things Fall Apart are the Egwegwu, the Ibo nation’s embodiment of the justice system. The egwugwu are influential men of the village who are ‘’possessed’’ with the ancestral spirits of the clan. It is apparent that the Ibo people greatly respect, as well as fear, the Egwegwu. These ancestral embodiments are the Ibo’s form of a court- they administer fairness and justice to the lot of the clan. This system of the Igbo community showed that the culture that is considered barbaric by the missionaries has its own complex system of enforcing law and prosecuting violators of the law. As this quote provides, the egwegwu provided the clan with a sort of trial system- [Odukwe]: “The law of Umuofia is that if a woman runs away from her husband her bride-price is
They settled on every tree and on every blade of grass; they settled on the roofs and covered the bare ground. Mighty tree branches broke away under them, and the whole country became the brown-earth color of the vast, hungry swarm’’ ( ADD CITE HERE). Likewise, when the westerners move to African villages to attempt spread the religion of Christianity and take advantage of their land and natural resources, the Ibo people tolerate them until they overstep their boundaries. Another influential symbol in Things Fall Apart are the Egwegwu, the Ibo nation’s embodiment of the justice system. The egwugwu are influential men of the village who are ‘’possessed’’ with the ancestral spirits of the clan. It is apparent that the Ibo people greatly respect, as well as fear, the Egwegwu. These ancestral embodiments are the Ibo’s form of a court- they administer fairness and justice to the lot of the clan. This system of the Igbo community showed that the culture that is considered barbaric by the missionaries has its own complex system of enforcing law and prosecuting violators of the law. As this quote provides, the egwegwu provided the clan with a sort of trial system- [Odukwe]: “The law of Umuofia is that if a woman runs away from her husband her bride-price is