Things Fall Apart and The Lover

In his novel Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe responds to European colonialism. He portrays the struggle between convention and conversion in addition to struggle between race and colonial power. Within her novel The Lover, Marguerite Duras reformulates this idea of colonialism. Duras switches the power roles associated with colonialism through her modification of traditional precepts of race and class.

Chinua Achebe’s novel is a candid response to European colonialism and its effects upon traditional African culture. Okonkwo lives in a changing world. He seems fundamentally torn between the traditions and customs of his tribe, and the impending colonial conversion. As an African tribesman, Okonkwo finds himself powerless against the onslaught of Western change and cultural evolution. The arrival of missionaries in Okonkwo’s village is a harbinger of this cultural order. Their very presence upsets the social structure and imperative. Attempts at resistance fail and only work in the missionary’s’ favor. For instance, according to Umofian lore, the missionaries should be dead after building their church on Evil Forest land. The missionaries are unharmed, however, symbolizing the power of new conversion over old customs. As tribesman convert, the social structure of Umofia weakens considerably. Okonkwo realizes that the old ways are dying out as the colonial presence grows in strength and fervor. Okonkwo realizes that colonialism is slowly but surely leading his people astray from their roots and principles.

The arrival of European religion and government forces a command shift, robbing Okonkwo of his power. As the missionaries gain support and convert tribesman, Okonkwo feels custom and tradition disappearing. ...

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... servants for the sake of keeping up appearances. The social and class tensions are most prominent in the family dinners that the narrator instigates. Her brothers “gorge” on expensive food bought by their sister’s cavorting, but they ignore the lover’s very presence. If they looked at the lover, they would be forced to view the “elementary rules of society” which they break by dining together. Class is significant here because the lover is influential and affluent enough to indulge the family, but they still disregard him because racially they are considered above him.

In addition, Duras reformulates colonialism through her focus on physical descriptions of racial bodies and skin. Though they come from different ethnic backgrounds, the lovers become a single person in the bedroom. They are both washed in the water, and belong to the same physical race.