Fall

Almost instantly in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”, the reader is submersed into a world where consecrated practices are performed to pacify the anger of the gods. As with most religiously motivated rituals that are focused toward pacifying an angry and ever watchful god, these rituals do have only a transient soothing power to the gods above. The traditional practices that are pronounced in this novel are simply perplexing to an Igbo clan outsider and in the end cause a major rift between…

Things Fall Apart, a novel written by Chinua Achebe, shows readers that within the Igbo culture, men and women do not have equal rights. During Okonkwo’s journey in the book, the readers witness numerous acts of violence, disrespect, and lacks of appreciation towards women. Women are treated much more poorly than men are and often times, don’t get the same rights. Chinua Achebe teaches the readers that the Igbo culture has specific rules and standards for men and women. The Igbo culture depicts…

Things fall apart a novel about intertwining stories. Both these stories center on Okonkwo a strong man of an Ibo village in Nigeria. Okonkwo is the main character in this novel. He has many problems in his tribe all these due to his father Unoka. Who is one of the weariest men in this novel? Okonkwo has many children but he has relationships with only two in the novel. Okonkwo is the influential clan leader of Umuofia. Okonkwo is a strong man of an Ibo village in Nigeria. “His fame is rested on…

The symbolic reference to ill-fated fortune in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe can be seen from the word choice and foreshadowing of events to come. In the first place, Okonkwo is associated with a roaring fire throughout the story, giving his emotions no jest, but pure anger. “He sighed heavily, and as if in sympathy the smoldering log also sighed. And immediately Okonkwo’s eyes were opened and he saw the whole matter clearly. Living Fire begets cold, impotent ash. He sighed again, deeply”…

times throughout the book to capture the dangers of vanity. Taking a plain element, the mirror, Grimm warns the audience of the eventual self-destruction that will occur with narcissism. Since motifs remain a conventional literary device, in Things Fall Apart Achebe uses the motif of parent-child relationships to characterize Okonkwo’s brutality and compassion, explore the complex nature of…

Things Fall Apart shows the clash between Nigeria’s white colonial government and the culture of the Igbo people. The novel tells the story of Okonkwo, a powerful village leader and the destruction of the village of Umuofia. Okonkwo’s father left the village in a tremendous amount of debt and this sets the stage for how Okonkwo feels about his own son Nwoye; he fears that he will become a failure like his grandfather because he seems to be lazy. However, the village wins a virgin and a…

“‘Thank you. He could brings kola, brings life, but I think you ought to break it,’ replied Okoye, and they argued like this for a few minutes before Unoka accepted the honor of breaking the kola.” (page 6). In the historical-fiction novel Things fall Apart a man named Okonkwo struggles with what he is always known while adapting to the new wave. Missionaries coming from Europe change everything in the villages of the Ibo people. Everything from their government, trade, and religion, changing…

mindsets of certain individuals. By seeing different aspects of the world, people tend to find a sense of individuality. Many also start to form their own opinions that can interfere with the thoughts of a group, causing a conflict. In his novel, Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe expresses through the symbolic death of Nwoye and Okonkwo’s suicide that unity and support is necessary in a community for it to become successful. Nwoye becoming Isaac is due to encouragement he did not receive from…

love to have change and explore new ideas and cultures but to others the thought of not having routine and being forced to change terrifies people. Things Fall Apart is a novel about a village that is being overcome with church missionaries trying to convince people to convert to Christianity and leave their traditions behind. In the novel Things Fall Apart the author, Chinua Achebe, recognizes how different types of people deal with change and wanting to stick to tradition through the…

customary to make animal sacrifices to the earth goddess when planting crops. Yet again, ritual is used to communicate respect, in this case to the earth goddess who has control over the success of the yams. The Ibo people in the novel Things Fall Apart strongly believed in their customs and traditions. It’s all they knew all their lives. It wasn’t until the English missionaries came, that’s when everything changed for them. Their struggle to maintain their culture and their…