In every culture there are universals, these are the building blocks to the foundation of a society. Universals dictate how the people who live in the culture interact with one another. The novel Things Fall Apart is set in Umuofia, Africa (now a part of Nigeria) and makes observations on the cultural universals of the Igbo people. The cultural universals that the Igbo society lives by in the novel Things Fall Apart, are very different from the cultural universals of another african tribe Zulu.…
African community specifically the Umuofia tribe, struggles to uphold their own traditions while the invading Europeans try interject their own religion and customs upon them. The tragic hero of the story, Okonkwo, becomes infuriated with his own people as he witnesses them betray their own morals and culture. He desperately tries to preserve the ethics and traditions of his community while the white man comes to destroy all that they once proudly had. The African community is rather a very…
Consequences of Okonkwo’s actions in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart In Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, he writes about the Igbo and their culture. For instance, the Europeans and their forces of colonialism and Christianity invaded the Igbo. The novel also speaks about the life of a man named Okonkwo. With the characteristics of a hardworking member of the Igbo community, he is a leader whose tragic flaw is his greatest fear of weakness and failure. His fear drives him to become…
I think the most interesting and relatable cultural idea is the simultaneous societal acceptance and individual questioning of the traditionalist Igbo way of life. Tradition, including oral tradition, as Anthony mentioned, is imperative for the survival of the Igbo people. Because a bountiful harvest is necessary for survival, for example, those with the most bountiful harvests are honored and given titles. This tradition essentially positively reinforces the necessity of harvesting crops. There…
Achebe’s life influenced the meaning of the book by bringing to light a perspective on Imperialism and African culture that is honest and brings to light a unseen perspective. His goal was to display the conflict between western culture and traditional Igbo culture, a war that rages within Achebe himself Achebe received a formal education alongside learning his family traditions, and upon reading he was dissatisfied with the accounts of Africa that portrayed it in a crudel light, works like…
A hero is a person who helps people and will help people . Chinua Achebe the author of Things Fall Apart, attempts to break the single story, and make West Africans remember their history. Achebe introduces the main character Okonkwo,the protagonist in this story. Okonkwo is an Igbo clan member who suffers many hardships and does many wrong things that affect him in a negative way and leads him to suicide. Okonkwo is not a hero, for he is very abusive, violent and lives on attention and praise,…
The novel, Things Fall Apart, showcases the life of the Igbo people, a group in Nigeria that possess unique customs and traditions. The novel also follows the story of the main character, Okonkwo, and his village of Umuofia. As the story progresses with minor tribulations and problems primarily caused by Okonkwo, the arrival of white mercenaries is the main conflict of the plot, due to the threat they pose to the Igbo culture. The mercenaries eventually even lead to the shocking death of Okonkwo…
diversity by saying “The world has no end and what is good among one people is an abomination with others” (p. 141). In the end the decision is made by the elders that they do “not really want them in their clan” (p. 148) but remain well-mannered and offer them a piece of land in the evil forest. “A stranger who turns unbearably presumptuous and arrogantly insulting automatically forfeits his welcome”, notwithstanding the Igbo custom of “hospitality and effusive generosity to strangers” (85). At…
Oliver Mahoro Lauren Liebe English 203 Tuesday, November 28, 2017 A People Unknown Things Fall Apart takes place in what is now known as Nigeria, this happens during the late 19th century, but the book itself was written in 1958 as the colonial system in Africa was falling apart. What makes Things Fall Apart so significant, is that before it, most of the records, novels, and books about Africa and its people written in English were all written by Europeans. So when Chinua Achebe came to the…
by himself. As a child, he was full of emotions. He was more of a romantic type which can be seen through his love of singing and playing of his flute. “The grown up was a failure. He was poor and his wife and children had barely enough to eat. People laughed at him because he was a…