Things Fall Apart

In the particular novel, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the setting is a very significant factor to the narrative. Many parts of a culture help to establish the way that a society operates and how they are represented. Cultures look different and behave differently based on these norms that have been established. The ambience of Things Fall Apart is a very crucial matter to the entire story; as well as the morals, social life, and importance of ritual to the indigenous Ibo people.

“You can't, in sound morals, condemn a man for taking care of his own integrity. It is his clear duty.” -Joseph Conrad. Morals were a very substantial thing to the Ibo population. There culture was all about earning what you have and displaying “one’s

The elders are automatically given great respect because of their experiences. “Social status is based on wealth, regardless of occupation.”(Countries and their Cultures 2). No matter what if you were doing well with crops and rich you were high up on the social bar. “Okoye was not a failure like Unoka. He had a large barn full of yams and he had three wives. And now he was going to take the Idemili title, the third highest in the land.”(1.12) Materials like yams, barns, and multiple wives were highly valued in this culture. This showed you were wealthy and many people respected you. People in the Ibo came together a lot to praise other beings like their gods. In the Umuofia clan, there was a chi, or a personal god. “Man could not rise beyond the destiny of his chi.”(14). The chi of an individual was determined by your actions. It told if you had good or bad fortune. Okonkwo blames his chi for all the good and bad things that happen to him in this novel. Family is also very relevant in this culture. The father of the family is the provider, and teacher to his tribe. If he could not go through with those things the man was considered weak and a failure, just like Unoka. The mother of the families duties is to bear children and make her husband happy. Children are the ones who are brought up to be leaders and inherit traits or experiences from their father. If anyone of the family started to fall

They eat their yams, praise their chi, and prosper in their localized communities. In everyday life, men worked the fields, taught their sons their ways, and were dominant in their society. “Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper” (2.12). Okonkwo was very prideful about being dominant. Women were expected to be submissive towards their husband; cook, clean, bear children, and make their husbands meals. It was also common to sacrifice animals to the earth gods and goddesses. “Every year,”before I put any crop in the earth, I sacrifice a cock to Ani, the owner of all land. It is the law of our fathers. I also kill a cock at the shrine of Ifejioku, the god of yams. I clear the bush and set fire to it when it is dry. I sow the yams when the first rain has fallen, and stake them when the young tendrils appear…” (3.6). The igbo people used rituals very often to convey respect towards their gods. The everyday language spoken by the Igbo people was very unique in its own way, borrowed from West African language, it is known as the Kwa language. The daily life of an Igbo member is similar to other West African tribe life but then again very particular with their beliefs, customs, and