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    Critical Analysis On Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

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    Asqeenah Asri
    The novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe explores the life of Okonkwo, a respected leader in the Igbo tribe of Nigeria in the late 19th century. As British colonialism spreads Christianity to the region, Okonkwo's clan and culture begin to break down. After accidentally killing a boy, Okonkwo is exiled for seven years. Upon returning, he finds his son has converted to Christianity and rejects their cultural traditions. Enraged by the destruction of his way of life, Okonkwo kills a messenger from the Christian missionaries and then commits suicide. The story examines the clash between Igbo culture and the imposition of Western values and religion.

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    Critical Analysis On Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

    Uploaded by

    Asqeenah Asri
    3K views3 pages
    The novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe explores the life of Okonkwo, a respected leader in the Igbo tribe of Nigeria in the late 19th century. As British colonialism spreads Christianity to the region, Okonkwo's clan and culture begin to break down. After accidentally killing a boy, Okonkwo is exiled for seven years. Upon returning, he finds his son has converted to Christianity and rejects their cultural traditions. Enraged by the destruction of his way of life, Okonkwo kills a messenger from the Christian missionaries and then commits suicide. The story examines the clash between Igbo culture and the imposition of Western values and religion.

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    Critical analysis on Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

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    The novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe explores the life of Okonkwo, a respected leader in the Igbo tribe of Nigeria in the late 19th century. As British colonialism spreads Christianity to the region, Okonkwo's clan and culture begin to break down. After accidentally killing a boy, Okonkwo is exiled for seven years. Upon returning, he finds his son has converted to Christianity and rejects their cultural traditions. Enraged by the destruction of his way of life, Okonkwo kills a messenger from the Christian missionaries and then commits suicide. The story examines the clash between Igbo culture and the imposition of Western values and religion.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    3K views3 pages

    Critical Analysis On Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

    Uploaded by

    Asqeenah Asri
    The novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe explores the life of Okonkwo, a respected leader in the Igbo tribe of Nigeria in the late 19th century. As British colonialism spreads Christianity to the region, Okonkwo's clan and culture begin to break down. After accidentally killing a boy, Okonkwo is exiled for seven years. Upon returning, he finds his son has converted to Christianity and rejects their cultural traditions. Enraged by the destruction of his way of life, Okonkwo kills a messenger from the Christian missionaries and then commits suicide. The story examines the clash between Igbo culture and the imposition of Western values and religion.

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    of 3

    The novel I had read was Things Fall Apart writen by Chinua Achebe.

    His real
    name is Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe and was born on 16 November 1930 in Ogidi,
    Eastern Nigeria. His parents, Isiah and Okafor Achebe and Janet Ileogbunam was
    convinced by the representatives of British Council that controlled Nigeria to convert
    to Christian. Achebe was born Christian but he was always interested in the traditional
    Nigerian faiths. He attended a government college in Umuahia, Nigeria and graduated
    from the University College at Ibadan, Nigeria in 1954. After he graduate, he worked
    for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS) and soon moved to Lagos. Chinua
    Achebe is one of Nigeria's greatest novelists. His novels are written mainly for an
    African audience, but having been translated into more than forty languages, they
    have found worldwide readership. Achebe was unhappy with books about Africa
    written by British authors such as Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) and John Buchan
    (1875–1940), because he felt the descriptions of African people were inaccurate and
    insulting. While working for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation he composed his
    first novel, Things Fall Apart (1959).

    This novel is about Okonkwo who was a respected leader in Umofia in his Igbo
    tribe. He had this fear of becoming like his father, a man who was known for his
    laziness and cowardice. Okonko builds his home and reputation as a precious
    wrestler and a hard-working farmer. Okonkwo’s life is shaken up a when an accidental
    murder takes place and Okonkwo ends up adopting a boy named Ikemefuna from
    another village. After three years, the tribe decides that the boy must die and
    Okonkwo must not participate in the killing. When one of the man from the tribe tried
    to kill Ikemefuna, Okonkwo accidentally killed him instead when he was running to
    him. This is because he does not want to be seen as a weak man but inside, he was
    filled with guilt and regret. One day during a funeral, Okonkwo accidentally shoot and
    killed a boy. This incident lead to him being exiled for seven years to his mother’s
    homeland, and learn about the missionaries expanding Christianity to the Igbo people.
    Just when Okonkwo has finished his seven-year sentence and is allowed to return
    home, his son Nwoye converts to Christianity. They then began disowning each other.
    Eventually, the Igbo attempt to talk to the missionaries, but the Christians capture the
    Igbo leaders and jail them for several days. The Igbo people then hold a war council
    and Okonkwo is one of the biggest advocates for aggressive action. However, during
    the council, a court messenger from the missionaries arrives and tells the men to stop
    the meeting. Enraged, Okonkwo kills him. Realizing that his clan will not go to war
    against the white men, Okonkwo committed suicide.
    Throughout the story, I found out that the story “Things Fall Apart” have a really
    close relation to Chinua Achebe’s background as the story mostly took place in a
    fictional village of Iguedo, which is in the Umofia clan and the people are practicing
    Igbo culture. Achebe came from a family that practice Igbo culture before converting
    into Christian. The culture depicted, that of the Igbo people, is similar to that of
    Achebe's birthplace of Ogidi, where Igbo-speaking people lived together in groups of
    independent villages ruled by titled elders. In the Igbo customs, religion is very
    significant and the villagers of Umofia are actually polytheistic as they have different
    gods or goddesses to oversee each aspect of life. One example of this is the Week of
    Peace. As Ezeani, the priest of the earth goddess, says: 'We live in peace with our
    fellows to honour our great goddess of the earth without whose blessing our crops will
    not grow.' This observance is an important aspect of Igbo society, and knowing this
    helps the reader understand the gravity of the situation when Okonkwo breaks the
    peace and this is why Okonkwo must make amends directly to the goddess through
    her temple.

    Next, the Igbo people also prioritize familial traditions as it has been in the Igbo
    culture for a long time. The son is supposed to help his father on the farm, and
    eventually the father is supposed to give the son a start on his own farm by giving him
    starter seeds for yams and a barn to store them in. As we know, Okonkwo did not
    have the start in life which many young men usually had. He did not inherit a barn
    from his father. There was no barn to inherit. Since his father was broke, Okonkwo
    had to start his own farm from scratch by begging prominent village members for yam
    seeds, which he paid back after harvesting. In addition, the fact that Okonkwo had to
    work harder than anyone else to start off with are the reason behind his fierce pride in
    his farm, and his desire to have his son continue the Igbo father-son tradition.

    In my point of view, this novel had a lot of messages and moral values to be learn.
    Okonkwo’s precious life had fall apart just in a blink of an eye as everything was taken
    away from him. It is also quite interesting how the author had arranged the plot
    because obviously us the reader did not expect this story to end like this. In the other
    hand, I am actually satisfied with the main character, Okonkwo because he deserved
    it. He should have been more considerate and less fierce towards his own family.
    More importantly, he should not have been badmouthing his own father because no
    matter how bad and unlucky he is, Unoka was still his own father by blood. Overall,
    the messages that Achebe was trying to send to the reader is received successfully.

    References

    Chinua Achebe, (2017) Things Fall Apart. New York : Penguin Books

    Igbo, (n.d). Retrieved from


    https://www.everyculture.com/wc/Mauritania-to-Nigeria/Igbo.html

    Igbo Culture, (2019, October 17). Retrieved from


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igbo_culture

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