Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe's novel, "Things Fall Apart," is a well written narrative about the Ibo community in Nigeria, Africa. Achebe took the title of the novel from a poem called "The Second Coming," by W.B. Yeats. It appears that Yeats is making some judgement on the European way of thinking that was so greatly affecting the rest of the world at the time. The poem describes human flaws resulting in social collapse. Achebe successfully holds on to the same theme in "Thing Fall Apart," as the narrarator tells the story of a small African society and the British colonizers that come to take over the Ibo community introducing new religion, technology, and government. Yeats' poem implies that the final invocation of collapse is lead by an anti-christ. Achebe does not trail away from this same idea. In his novel he introduces the colonizers as invas
Achebe writes the novel in a realistic fashion. He in no way presents the Ibo culture as ideal, he presents it and all its flaws just as he treats the British characters. His main character Okonkwo was lead to his own destruction because of his flaw, as did the town of Umuofia, that could not withstand against the imperialists. Achebe allows himself to be just as critical about the Ibo culture as he is of the colonizers. He is not trying to ideallize or honor his people for anything more than they were. He simply illustrates who they were. Achebe's initial purpose for writing "Things Fall Apart," was to illustrate the dynamics of African society. Until then, native Africans were judged as primitive. The most common adjective for the natives, as described by Joseph Conrad on behalf of western Europeans was "black." For example, in his novel, "Heart of Dark
Some common words found in the essay are:
Brown Smith, Heart Darkness, Fall Apart, WB Yeats, Darkness Instead, Joseph Conrad, Africa Achebe, heart darkness, fall apart, story african, african society, ibo community, Chinua Achebe's, story african society, image africa, writes novel, tells story, darkness writes, achebe writes, achebe writes novel, heart darkness writes, tells story african,
Approximate Word count = 587
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
