David Carroll writes, of the novel Things Fall Apart, "This incident is not only a comment on Okonkwo's heartlessness. It criticizes implicitly the laws he is too literally implementing..." (Carroll) The incident that David Carroll refers to is the death of Ikemefuna. Ikemefuna was a young boy who was handed over to the village of Umuofia as compensation for the murder of one of that village's citizens. He is handed over to Okonkwo, a great man in the village, to whom he gives every affection. The brief life with Okonkwo and death of this innocent young man, and the life of Okonkwo himself, is a microcosm of life in Umuofia. Inconsistencies, brutalities, and conflict abound in even the highest of Umuofian life. And as Ikemefuna is led off to be murdered by the man he calls father, "the whole tribe and its values is being judged and found wanting" (Carroll).
Chinua Achebe gave us a different outlook on Africa through his writing. His life was very much dedicated to his career. Although he might have thought of it as a passion, Achebe’s impactful literature led him to many educational accomplishments that influenced many.
Junior showed that his life wasn’t always a piece of cake, but he still wanted to make the best out of what he had. Even though he had to endure things like poverty, and bullying he still showed great strength through it all. People should learn from Junior because he can be a source of great encouragement. His strength didn’t come from winning. His struggles just developed his strengths. And at the end of the day he never surrendered to his struggles and that is what gave him such strength. So, live your life full of strength. Never ever surrender to your struggles because there is always at least a little bit of good and hope.
'"But the times have changed, and we [the clan] must be fully prepared." ' (Achebe 259). The novel takes place in a civilized, African community known as Umuofia, a village in South Africa. It emphasizes the conflict between the village people and the arrival of the missionaries. Before they arrive, the culture of Umuofia is based on the strength and power of the title-holding clansmen, such as the main character Okonkwo. When the missionaries arrive, the values of Umuofia are changed and power is stripped from the elders of the clan and obtained by the Christians. In Chinua Achebe 's novel Things Fall Apart, the author discusses the arrival of the missionaries ultimately producing a negative effect on the villagers, in order to teach the reader that a great and immediate change can cause chaos to society, destroy traditions, and put strain on relationships, ultimately resulting in failure.
Throughout the world, writers use literary terms to convey their message in a straightforward and motivating mode. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is one work of literature where the author uses many literary terms to convey the main idea of the story. Achebe uses literary terms such as amplification and irony in his story, Things Fall Apart, to convey his message. Amplification is a literary application wherein the writer writes in details about certain events or things to increase its worth and understandability (Literary Terms). Irony refers to the fact that when the author means one thing, but the opposite happens. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe uses amplification and irony
n the book Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe a theme that is used is violence always leads to consequences. Okonkwo is the main character and he lives in a place called Umuofia. Umuofia holds a powerful clan that are skilled in war and has very distinct rules and ethics.Okonkwo rose from pretty much nothing, to a high position. Missionaries come into the village and change pretty much everything which leads to some crazy stuff happening. Violence towards women and unnecessary violence in general are both in depth themes. Every time someone in the book does something violent, it always has a consequence.
This excerpt is almost a summary of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Things Fall Apart is a novel about nineteenth century Nigeria, before colonialism and the granting of independence. It is a story of a great wrestler and elder of a Nigerian clan comprised of several villages. It tells about his life from start to finish in great detail. Towards the end of the novel, the reader is introduced to colonialism. This colonialism is what the anarchy is the above quote is referring to. The falcon represents the young generation of the clan; the falconer represents the elders. This is a story of how things really do fall apart. The story is centered around Okonkwo, a great wrestler and elder of the clan. He is the son of an indolent man, who was constantly in debt. Okonkwo's father was often referred to as a woman, which was a great insult. Growing up, Okonkwo develops a phobia of becoming his father, and does everything is his power not to. With this phobia came an abominable stubbornness. His first step in becoming a "real man" (opposed to his father) was to prove his strength, in doing so he became the great wrestler of his clan. Doing so earned him a lot of accolades and honours. He earned a lot of land, and married three different wives. However, with all of his fame and fortune, he was unable to escape his internal conflicts due to his stubbornness and his becoming frustrated easily. One example of this was when a young male warrior and a young virgin girl were sent to Okonkwo's village in exchange (as a sacrifice) for a heinous crime committed against his clan. This was a crime that otherwise would have resulted in an all out war; a war which Okonkwo's clan and village would have earned an easy victory. The young boy is sent to live with Okonkwo and his family for quite some time. During this time Okonkwo becomes very attached to him, so attached that it seems as if the boy is one of his own.
Throughout Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe emphasizes that Africans are not the savages that were portrayed in Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness. However, in “Principle and Practice: The Logic of Cultural Violence in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart,” David Hoegberg shows how sometimes cultural violence in Igbo society doesn’t agree with other parts of their culture, weakening Achebe’s argument. While Hoegberg points out the contradicting practices of Igbo cultural violence and their morals as a flaw in the Igbo society, he fails to note that all cultures have some sort of contradiction within them. Even with contradictions, cultural violence still serves to benefit the Igbo society by causing cultural change.
Johnny wasn’t an average person. He had a determined spirit. In “Death Be not Proud”, Johnny was hit with an eye opening adversary. Rather than let death defeat him, Johnny had a will to live and clung too that will no matter what life threw at him. Johnny often said “But I have so much to do with such little time!” The indication of this was Johnny never mourned over why he was the one who had to go through this, but accepted death as a battle that could be defeated. Even after ongoing through multiple surgeries, tests, and in and out of hospitals, he still made the best of his life that God gave him. Johnny often even made jokes about his illness. “I bet that ole’ mustard has knocked the tumor out!”(Gunther 85) No matter what curve ball was thrown at Johnny, he loved his life to much too just to let it go easily. The willpower to life will never end if you always see the “will” in life.
In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the white men who come to Umuofia find success in conquering the village by challenging Ibo religion. Because the first white men to appear in Umuofia were missionaries, the slaughter of Ibo society began with the challenging of the highly-regarded religion of the Ibo people. The white men began their religious assault by openly denouncing the many gods worshipped by the Ibo in order to convert them to the new faith. After accomplishing this, the white men set out to prove that the Christian religion was superior to all others by defying the powers of the Ibo gods when they built their church upon the cursed ground of the Evil Forest. With the Ibo religion being proved powerless, the converts began challenging their former religion by killing the sacred python, revered by the people of Umuofia. By attacking the fundamental teachings of the natives’ religion, the Christians were able to effectively conquer the Ibo people.
The classic African literary tale Things Fall Apart, written by Chinua Achebe, is a brilliant account of historical African culture and the destruction colonialism can cause upon such cultures. As the reader follows the narrative and complexity of the characters through the novel, a sense of pride, trust, and faith in history emerges. Yet, with the introduction of colonialism the characters must learn to embrace and adapt to a new culture and set of beliefs or face termination from society. The novel explores the troubles of African cultures and their adaptation to colonialism. As the novel progresses, one can also observe the influence of religion throughout history and how it has changed the face of many societies. Although many readers would describe the collision of culture and colonialism in Africa as inevitable; a closer examination of this novel would suggest that the need(s) of human nature to expand their values and beliefs upon others causes ancient cultures to evolve or fade out of existence.
Diverse from other African authors of his time, Chinua Achebe, the “father of African Literature”, reconstructions the stigma surrounding traditional African tribes through his ground-breaking novel Things Fall Apart. Set in southern eastern Nigeria, the novel depicts village life through the eyes of Igbo clan members prior to colonization. This fresh take on perspective allows readers to view and examine the variety of individuals that mold Igbo life through the story of a village leader, Okonkwo. Contrasting other authors of his time, Achebe takes great measures to illustrate the varied substantial roles of not only men, but women in his novel Things Fall Apart. The contributions accompanied by pivotal roles in Igbo society are displayed
The issue of corruption has been a phenomenon which has pervaded not only Nigeria but other colonies in Africa for quite a while. Chinua Achebe uses this book "No Longer at Ease" to portray the corruption in the Nigerian society and how deep it has eaten into every aspect of the Nigerian civil and business organisation. This pervasive corruption has been blamed on colonialism with the most convincing argument point being that the lifestyle of the Europeans and Nigerians such as Hon. Sam Okoli who worked in high positions influenced people holding special positions to receive bribe and misuse their powers. The fleet of flashy cars, big houses and clothes used by these people made it even more impossible to turn down a bribe offer, especially in such financial conditions. So strong was it that it made a well- principled and strong-willed man like Obi Okonkwo ignore all his values and principles to make money.
A powerful instrument of control used by the colonizing powers is the instrument of language. Language forms a huge part of the culture of a people - it is through their language that they express their folk tales, myths, proverbs, history. For this reason, the imperial powers invariably attempted to stamp out native languages and replace them with their own. As Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin point out, there are two possible responses to this control - rejection or subversion. (The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, London: Routledge, 1995. 284) While Ngugi Wa Thiong’o is famous for advocating outright rejection of the colonialist language, believing that this rejection is central to the anti-imperialist struggle, Chinua Achebe has chosen the idea of subversion rather than rejection. According to Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, his writing “displays a process by which the language is made to bear the weight and texture of a different experience. In doing so it becomes another language.” In The African Trilogy, Achebe uses the language of the colonizer to convey the Igbo experience of that colonization. The idioms, proverbs and imagery of these books all invoke his Eastern Nigerian culture, forcing the reader to accept on Achebe’s (linguistic) terms, the story he has to tell.
Clara Okeke is a young ,trained nurse who is presented in the novel as a character who finds it difficult to adapt to the Nigerian society before independence. She is the fiance of the protagonist, Obi Okonkwo who she first meets at a dance in England. Though said to be Ibo, Clara is educated abroad and lives a very modern lifestyle much like that of the protagonist. Right from the beginning of the story, we see her relationship with Obi as a very unstable one with many disagreements and quarrels. It is revealed as the story progresses that, she is an Osu and belongs to a group of people known to be outcasts in the Nigerian society of the 1960s where the story is set.