Things fall apart

A detailed Summary of Things fall apart

Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart takes us through the life of Okwonkwo, an Ibo man, who lives his life by the guidlines of his culture and religion. He is highly regarded in his village and a member of the masked society of the "Egwugwu". The nine villages in which the Ibo people live a self contained. Everything that takes place in the villages revolves around the Ibo's religious beliefs. The beginning of the book takes the reader through the rituals and lifestyle of the Ibo. The end of the book shows how western culture and christian missionaries effected the Ibo society. In pre-colonial Ibo life religion helped to keep order and gave the Ibo people a sense of identity. When the western missionaries began to bring christianity and western culture to the Ibo people, the Ibo society fell apart. If the western culture had never intruded on Ibo society then Ibo society would have continued it's original succesful style.

The Ibo people lived their lives by a set of prescribed rules. A person's birth, for the most part, determined their place in life. This applied especially to the roles of males and females. Men were to do "manly" things such as wrestle and fight when the need to go to war arose. Women were to cook an

In the begining of the book I felt that Okwonkwo was very irrational and easy to anger. I felt that it was ridiculous for him to beat his wives just because he was in a bad mood. I also thought it was crazy for him to have absolute power over everyone else in his household and rule with an iron fist. As the book went on I began to see how well the system in place worked. Even though I did not necessarily agree with everything that went on in Ibo society and especially in Okwonkwo's household, I could respect that this was their culture. Their culture was effective in sustaining a stable society. I sympathized with Okwonkwo because I would be just as distraught if all of a sudden communism were to take over in America and change everything that I know. The book really didn't change my views about Western imperialism much because I already considered it ridiculous for Europeans to come over and force others into their way of life. I found the book very interesting and I thought that it helped people today to better understand what really went on when Europeans began trying to convert the world to christianity.

At first the christian missionaries made an attempt to understand some of the religious beliefs of the Ibo. Mr. Brown befriends Akunna and takes the time to sit and learn more from Akunna about the Ibo faith. In turn Akunna learns more about the christian faith. Mr. Brown and his missionaires take a peaceful stance even though they believe it is ridiculous for the Ibo to worship pieces of wood. "You carve a piece of wood like that one and you call it a god but it is still a piece of wood."( After Mr. Brown dies, Mr. Smith takes over the leadership of the missionaries. Mr. Smith finds the Ibo religion utterly ridiculous. He tries to force the Ibo to conform to christianity. He forces all of his converts to abandon all practices of their old religion. From then on the christian missionaries get more and more forceful in getting the Ibo to convert.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Smith Ibo, Okwonkwo Ibo, Chukwu Akunna, Akunna Ibo, ibo society, ibo people, Ibo Brown, ibo religion, Fall Apart, western culture, christian missionaries, religion christian missionaries, religion christian, court system, ibo culture, stable society, supreme god, religion ibo people,

Approximate Word count = 1339
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English