Abstract
This paper is a review of the book “Things Fall Apart”, which are two overlapping stories surrounding Onkonkwo a strong man of Ibo village in Nigeria. In the first story the novel features Onkonkwo as a man who has fallen from the grace of his tribal world where he was brought up. This gives the reader an overview of the extent of conflict between an individual and the society. In the second fable, explores destruction of Onkonkwo’s culture through encroachment by the European colonies. The story illuminates the true nature of African society and how different remote villages responded to this.
Summary
Chinua Achebe’s, things fall apart is captured from the twentieth century life in Nigeria. It is the most reliable account ever inscribed around life. The book has reached the top mark of its sales in the outside world, up to millions of copies. The book was first printed in the year 1958.Two years later Nigeria achieved its independence. The book has also been translated into many languages; it’s also been made into theatre performance so as to enhance the understanding of the viewer. The introduction of the book into schools and higher learning institutions, such as the colleges and the universities, has helped scholars a lot. It is by this introduction of the book by teachers that students are made away of the history and they get to learn how important it is to understand one’s origin. The study of people who made our history is very vital, since it makes us have a sense of belonging.
Chinua Achebe was a person who also had passion for poetry, which is a part of his writing. He goes further to achieve the title of his novel from a stanza of a poem. The stanza reads “the second coming’. The writer is an author and a playwright. One of the major messages and points brought out are the accounts that transpired in Nigeria at colonization time by the British, it happened in the Igbo society. The Igbo were very much divided thus naturally and were weak internally thus in the account of the invasion of the foreign language, the community of Umuofia cannot resist it, and other aspects such as technology, business and administration. Presentation of a compound ,dynamic humanity to Western people who had a perception that Africans were primitive, unpretentious and retrograde, was Achebe’s main purpose. Achebe always had a belief that many authors had talked a lot about Africa in a wrong way, mainly because they had no idea of what they were talking about. Some of the authors had a link with the British administration, although they were compassionate to the Africans Chinua still held the fact that they had all misunderstood Africa. African continent as referred to the European individuals and even the writers themselves is that it is a dark continent. They continue by adding that the inhabitants of the continent are primitive in mind. This is a form of idea is basically racism as Chinua stated.
Achebe encourages students to read books of other writers who though at one time criticized the British administration, but failed by portraying Africans as animals and secretive. Achebe on an interview state that the white colonial writers had negatively portrayed African culture to the outside world; this is because they were in accurate and had no good proof. In stating his goal in 1964, Achebe retained his Nigerian people as the audience.
Achebe was devoted to assist his society have back their self-belief and to do away with the multiplexes of the deprecation over the years and self-effacement .His other purposes of writing is to sensitize the African readers about the history of the past events in European hands and how it was not an easy ride, it took God’s intervention. The two main characters were used in the novel bring out the message about the Europeans understanding on the African culture. The two characters are Reverend James smith and the district commissioner. On undisputable religious teachings or applies Mr. Smith does not see any need for compromise. He finds it hard to recon any profits of letting the people of Nigeria preserve their culture. The virtue of pride is evident In the District commissioner who has ever been a student of primeval imposts and views himself as a caring leader who only has well of intentions for the community and making them aware of modernization. In as much as how the two gentlemen devoted themselves to the community even as they claimed, it would be a surprising thing for them to know that there European attributes would not be sufficient for the communities. The predisposition toward western interpretation of the culture of Africans was illustrated by the commissioner’s plan to treat Okonkwo’s story briefly. Achebe creates in the back of his mind of an African culture, having religious beliefs and practices, an administration, currency and a creative custom.
Critical analysis
Chinua through this elegant writing describes Onkonkwo as the community stem owing to his victory in various wrestling contests but he could not prevent the progress. Impunity, brutality, and unfairness of the culture continued to progress but this young man expected to champion the community against such acts could not help. He argues through this writing that this is just but an unworthy culture that needs to be eradicated. He challenges the readers to rise against such practices and rebel to end the brutality and continuity of human suffering in the name of respect for the cultural practices of the forefathers. Putting himself in the position of the people practicing this culture, Achebe further says that such culture is impudent, unjust, and retrogressive. He urges people not to blindly follow what the other guys are doing. People are normally dubbed to doing what they do not wish to do, they are forced to do what they do not like and they just follow blindly.
The novel itself is informed by European literature talking of African stories. The author explores how the European colonies view the Africans. He says that continuity of capitalism and ignorance at the rural people where people like Onkonkwo lived is no future at all. The colonies are portrayed as racist seeing Africans as miserable beings that just need help. The colonies cannot see anything god from these ignorant rural people and continues to alienate them from development. The Africans with ignorance and obsession to culture continues to suffer and remain backward even as the rest of the world progresses. British civilization was encroaching right from the big cities and then towards the villages. He therefore tells of how the villagers of Ibo village embraced the new revolution. He describes how the illiterate adapt and those who do not adapt to the new changes.
Furthermore, the Nigerian novelist explicitly describes father son relationship. The father figure represents the old generation while the son stands for the new generation. The old fogs are adamant and not ready to accept change, they are not ready to accept the new civilization brought about by the British colonies. On the other hand the young generations are more liberal and ready to take the new ideas which may help better their lives. He portrays a male dominated where women have no say. Men decide the direction and path that the society is going to take. The opinions of other people do not count rather every person must comply with what the old men say.
Chinua Achebe in his books “Things fall apart” failed to appreciate the argument behind the resistance of the villagers of Ibo village towards British colonization. The British colonies were also discriminative in the way they treated Africans and so assimilating with them and agreeing with their conditions could have been a problem to the villagers. The British allies were inhumane and most of them brutally injured the people who tried to resist them. The old group which was resistant to the European civilization knew that they were going to possess their property like land.
In addition, the wide use of metaphor in the novel can easily confuse the readers and prevent them from getting the main themes of the book. The author for instance, uses Ibo village to represent the African rural villagers which are full of illiteracy and people who are so much resistant to change and revolution. The father and the son represent the old school generation and the new liberal generations respectively. The flow and the plot of the story is not easy to understand and the only place where it more understandable is towards the end where it has even been rushed. The reader at the end of the day may therefore fail to connect what the book was trying to accomplish.
Conclusion
In conclusion, “Things Fall Apart” though with some few drawbacks is a good book the helps to understand the issues of culture and civilization. The novel is a decent book that connects the reader to the main character Onkonkwo, a tribal traditionalist whom regardless of his strength could not transform the society for the better. It challenges the rural communities to eradicate ignorance and embrace civilization and the colonies to exercise fairness and uphold human dignity.
References
Bloom, H. (2002). Chinua Achebe's Things fall apart. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers.
Chua, J., Pavlos, S., & Cliffs Notes, Inc (2001). CliffsNotes, Achebe's Things fall apart. Foster City, CA: IDG Books Worldwide.
Innes, C. L. (1990). Chinua Achebe. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press.
