Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart, written by Chinua Achebe is a story about the Ibo tribe of Africa. This book is based around the life of Okonkwo, a higher ranked man of the village, his family, friends, and enemies. Okonkwo is one of the most popular of the clan. He has many wives, kids, and an abundance of yams. Okonkwo has a son named Nwoye and an adopted son Ikemefuna. Ikemefuna was brought over to the Ibo tribe as a trade since someone was killed in the Ibo tribe by someone in Ikemefuna’s tribe. Ikemefuna soon becomes an important part of the tribe and story. In the middle of the book Okonkwo accidently shoots a member of his tribe and is forced to leave the tribe for seven years. Okonkwo does not mind and kindly does his time and soon get to come back

Nwoye was attracted to the tribe because the Christians didn’t look down on the individuals as the Ibo’s did. Nwoye loved the fact that there was only one god. At one of the speech’s the white man and his interpreter gave they tried to show the tribe that all the gods they believed in were not real. No one was believing this nonsense, except Nwoye. “But there was a young lad who had been captivated. His name was Nwoye, Okonkwo’s first son”. Nwoye was mesmerized by the poetry in the Christian religion. Everything was making sense about the twins and Ikemefuna being killed (147). Christianity had a positive impact on Nwoye because it made him stand up for himself. In the book, Okonkwo becomes suspicious of Nwoye because he’s been gone a lot and finally confronts him. Okonkwo asks Nwoye where he had been and Nwoye did not reply. Okonkwo then says “Answer me, before I kill you” (151). At that very point was when Nwoye stood up for himself and realized what he wanted. Nwoye walked away from his father and never returned. Nwoye was never the favorite in the family and it was very clear. Okonkwo put a lot of pressure on Nwoye to be the man that Okonkwo was as a child. If Nwoye did not live up to his father’s expectations or followed the rules he was beat. When the Christians came, Nwoye realized that’s not the right thing to do even though that’s his tribes ways. Nwoye was becoming fed up with his

It was frowned upon the women to become pregnant with twins. For one of the women in Umuofia, Nneka, twins had become her life struggle. Every time she became pregnant she would find out she was having twins. In the beliefs of the tribe, twins were not accepted and considered a sin. This meant killing the twins. Nneka did not believe this was right but had to follow along with the tribe’s beliefs or she may be punished. Once introduced to the Christians and found out they did not believe in such killings, she knew it was the right thing to do although her family didn’t approve. “Nneka had had four previous pregnancies and child-births. But each time she had born twins, they had been immediately thrown away. Her husband and his family were not unduly perturbed when they found out she had fled to join the Christians. It was a good riddance” (151). Nneka knew that converting meant a better life for her and eventually her kids that she would be able to