Colonialism In Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart; African Culture and Breaking Traditions

The widely known novel named Things Fall Apart was written by a man by the name of Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart represents the cultural roots of the Igbos in order to provide self-confidence, but at the same time refers them to universal principles which vitiate their destructive potential (Rhoads 61). As the reader continues through the narrative and learn more in depth about the characters a sense of pride, trust, and faith in history come into view. Seeing Achebe’s duty as a writer in a new nation as showing his people the dignity that they had lost during the colonial period, he sets out to illustrate that before the European colonial powers entered Africa, the Igbos had a philosophy of great depth and value and beauty, that they had poetry and, above all, they had dignity (Rhoads 61). Yet, with the introduction of colonialism the characters must learn to accept and get used to a new culture and set of beliefs or face termination from society. The novel focuses on the troubles of African cultures and their struggle to adjust to colonialism. As the novel progresses, one can also observe the influence of religion over time and how it has changed in many societies. Although many readers would describe the colonialism in Africa as something normal and something you can not prevent; a closer look of this novel would suggest that the needs of human nature to expand their values and beliefs upon others causes ancient cultures to evolve or fade out of existence. Things Fall Apart in part is a statement of what the future might be if Nigeria were to take advantage of the promising aspects of its past and to eliminate the unpromising ones (Rhoads 62).

Things Fall Apart wa...

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..., societies are faced with the ultimate choice to either evolve or over the long haul, be completely terminated.

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. 50. 1958. 64. Print.

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Greenberg, Jonathan. "Okonkwo and the Storyteller: Death, Accident, and Meaning in Chinua Achebe and Walter Benjamin." Contemporary Literature. 48.3 (2007): 423-450. Print. < http://www.jstor.org/stable/27563759>.

Mackay, Mercedes. "Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe." African Affairs. 57.228 (1958): 242-243. Print. .

Rhoads, Diana. "Culture in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart." African Studies Review. 36.2 (1993): 61-72. Print. < http://www.jstor.org/stable/524733>.