Chinua Achebe chose to write his novels in English to reveal a deep response of his people to colonisation and to make that response understood to people all over the world. Things Fall Apart was written in English to teach people worldwide of the struggles he faced and the people of Nigeria faced growing up. Many authors and critics have written about Achebe’s ‘Things fall apart’ adding their valued opinion on what he was trying to say and his decision to write in English. In the following essay I will be discussing why Achebe wrote the novel Things Fall apart in English and what messages he was trying to reveal, through the help of critics and secondary sources.
Achebe wrote in English to teach the reader the value of the Igbo culture. According to Brucker Achebe’s education in English and exposure to European societies has allowed him to capture not only the African perspective in the novel but also the European perspective on colonial expansion, religion, race, and culture (Brucker 1). Brucker states that Achebe’s decision to write Things Fall Apart in English was an important and significant choice (Brucker1). Achebe wanted this novel to respond to earlier colonial accounts of Africa; his choice of language was for that reason political (Brucker 3). Many African authors chose to write in native languages as a method of resistance to colonial culture; however Achebe wanted to achieve cultural renewal within and through English (Brucker 3). Nonetheless, he succeeds to capture the rhythm of the Igbo language and integrates Igbo vocabulary into the narrative (Brucker 3). Brucker also states that the stereotypes of African culture, especially the view that traditional African cultures are authoritarian, amoral, and u...
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...t they had poetry and, above all, they had dignity." However, Achebe does not idealize the precolonial past, as he knows that it cannot survive unchanged in a modern world (reference).
Through the opinion of authors and writers through the use of secondary sources, Chinua Achebe’s “things fall apart” has many different views and outlooks of why and how it was written. Chinua Achebe wrote “things fall apart” in English to inform and teach people worldwide the struggles he faced and the struggles most Nigerian people faced in Africa. Things Fall Apart is presented in English from the viewpoint of the Ibo culture. It deals with how individual characters as well as the society as a whole deals with change. Achebe creates a masterwork that presents the significance of balance. He says that when this balance is lost, chaos is inevitable and things essentially fall apart.
As wise John Berger once said,“Never again shall a single story be told as though it were the only one”. A “single story” is the story of a culture that we learn from stereotypes and conspiracies developed throughout time in our society. In “Things Fall Apart”, Chinua Achebe defies the single story of African culture while still tying their native language in to show the importance between a physical differentiation of culture, and the similarities with morals and values they have in common. Through gender roles and proverbs used in the language of this book, we have a cultural insight of Nigeria through a new set of eyes given to us by Achebe that detures us from the single stories that we were taught to by our society.
Okpewho, Isidore. Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart: A Casebook. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Print.
The novel Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe highlights the many important historical events that happened during the period of colonialism, spread of religious fervor to Africa from Europe, and the importance of the native religion among African societies. Achebe shows that religion holds a major influence in many African societies and influences the daily life of the natives. Furthermore, the novel introduces a major event that happen during pre-colonial Africa, the spread of the Christian faith, which forever changed and affected the natives in Africa, more specifically the Igbo society located in Nigeria. Things Fall Apart vividly describes and explains how the Christian faith that arrived in Africa changed both the individuals in the Umoufia and society. To add on, the novel shows how the spread of Christianity ultimately leads to the destruction of the many native African cultures, and shows what redeeming qualities that arise from the destruction of their culture. Achebe describes how the Christian faith acts as a guide to the Igbo society and at the same time acts as the inevitable downfall of the Igbo society.
Culture makes us who we are. Each individual has their own culture from their experiences in life and is developed from societal influences. The various cultures around the world influence us in different ways which we experience at least once in our lifetime. There are occasions, especially in history, where cultures clash with one another. For instance, the English colonization in Africa changed their culture. Chinua Achebe, the author of Things Fall Apart, portrayed this change in the Igbo people’s society, especially through the character Okonkwo in the village of Umuofia; the introduction of Western ideas challenged him. In the novel Things Fall Apart, the author Chinua Achebe introduces to us Okonkwo whose character’s response to the
However, their success is subjective because they destroyed African culture in the process. Ultimately, Achebe is successful in delivering his political views, but he does so by encouraging open-mindedness and cultural relativity instead of forcing his individual ideals upon his readers. The characters in Things Fall Apart are not black and white: they are flawed, redeemed, frustrated, assertive, violent, reasonable, and genuine.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Ari Brace Mr. Liepa Honors Global Literature 4 May 2014 Adapting to Change Chinua Achebe’s book, Things Fall Apart, is a story about a society on the verge of a cultural change. The main character, Okonkwo, is driven throughout the story by fear and a drive for success. He relied on the village of Umuofia to stay the same because he used the structured culture to feel safe and appreciated. He lives in a constant state of fear because he wants to find his own meaning in life.
Achebe writes Things Fall Apart to revise the history that has been misplaced. He writes to the European and Western culture. This fact is evident because the book is written in English and it shows us the side of the African culture we wouldn’t normally see. Achebe is constantly ...
Cook, David. “The Centre Holds: A Study of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.” Critical Insights: Things Fall Apart(2010): 124-144. Literary Reference Center. Web. 30 Jan. 2014
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe tells the story of how one unified Umuofian community falls due to its own inner conflicts, as well as to the arrival of Christian missionaries. Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart to change the brutish image of Africa, for the Western world. The use of changing perspectives greatly aided Achebe in accurately portraying Africa as colorful, diverse and complex. For Westerners, viewing Africans as more than tribal and barbaric was a new concept, of which Achebe helped usher in. The story is told through the eyes of many Umuofians, which gives the reader a personal sense for the individuals within the tribe. When all the individual pieces of the story are brought together, the sifting perspectives creates a vast overview of the community, while also deepening the readers since for the tribe by allowing personal details to show through. Achebe captures the complexity of the Umuofia community by changing the perspective from which the story is being told frequently.
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is a powerful novel about the social changes that occurred when the white man first arrived on the African continent. The novel is based on a conception of humans as self-reflexive beings and a definition of culture as a set of control mechanisms. Things Fall Apart is the story of Okonkwo, an elder, in the Igbo tribe. He is a fairly successful man who earned the respect of the tribal elders. The story of Okonkwo’s fall from a respected member of the tribe to an outcast who dies in disgrace graphically dramatizes the struggle between the altruistic values of Christianity and the lust for power that motivated European colonialism in Africa and undermined the indigenous culture of a nation.
Throughout history, there have been many instances of people struggling to identify and cope with change and tradition, and this is no different in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.
Things Fall Apart, a novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe is a story about an Igbo village in Nigeria and a man that once was a powerful influence in the tribe, but begins to lose his influence as Nigeria is colonized and Christian missionaries come to evangelize. A deeper look at the novel, with a feminist critics point of view, tells a lot about the Igbo people as well as the author’s thoughts about women in the novel. Feminist critics look at female authors, and female characters and their treatment as well as women’s issues in society. Since Achebe is a male, the main focus of feminist literary criticism for Things Fall Apart is the women in the novel and their issues as well as the Igbo view of gender identity. Many issues that women
Colonization in Nigeria affected the Igbo culture and its people in many different ways. In the novel, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the author portrays events in the novel that reflect real experiences that he had. Many of the events in the novel deal with the act of colonization and how it affects different members in society, an idea that Achebe has experienced for himself. The author 's first hand experience with colonization allows the story to depict how colonization affected the Igbo people more accurately. Chinua Achebe creates an accurate representation of colonialism with his use of real events that occurred.
Chinua Achebe’s book, Things Fall Apart, was based on a story and the culture in Nigeria, Western Africa. Women’s roles and responsibilities have transitioned over several of years. The book arises a situation of how the Ibo women were treated and looked upon. In the Ibo culture, the women did not only suffer a great loss of their dignity, but also their pride as women. The whole role of women in the Ibo culture is different in various ways compared to the female race in modern society. The modern society in Nigeria, women are not so powerless, and also have the opportunity to work alongside the opposite gender.
In 1958 Chinua Achebe published his first and most widely acclaimed novel, Things Fall Apart. This work-commonly acknowledged as the single most well known African novel in the world-depicts an image of Africa that humanizes both the continent and the people. Achebe once said, "Reading Heart of Darkness . . . I realized that I was one of those savages jumping up and down on the beach. Once that kind of enlightenment comes to you, you realize that someone has to write a different story" (Gikandi 8-9); Achebe openly admits that he wrote Things Fall Apart because of the horrible characterization of Africans in many European works, especially Heart of Darkness. In many ways, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart can be seen as an Afrocentric rebuttal to the Eurocentric depi...