Importance Of Representations In Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe

In the novel Things Fall Apart, the author Chinua Achebe highlights the representations of race, covering traits ranging from violent and intrusive to judgmental and ignorant and the various contexts in which they arise. These representations can be further explored and understood through the scholarly work of Carey Snyder and his commentary on Achebe’s unique narrative style. Among other things, Snyder challenges the “pervasive ethnographic and anthropological mode of reading Achebe’s novel” (156). Snyder insists that the novel should be read “meta-ethnographically, in a way that attends to the complexity inherent in any ethnographic situation” and thus reveals “the narrative’s achievements as fiction” (157) In doing so, Snyder believes the reader is capable of reaching a level of appreciation in regards to the novel’s non-ethnographic, literary value, rather than the novel standing merely as “cultural documentation” (157). While I agree that the novel stands to be more than just an ethnographic reading of the cultures represented, I believe the representations should not be primarily viewed at this level of fictitious nature “subtly reproduced at the level of style” but rather be used to see the elements of individuality and of human nature, which are in fact non-fictitious (Snyder 169). I will be arguing that the representations of the Igbo as well as the British are not only influenced by the author as Synder suggests, but in the process, inaccurate and extreme. They can be further seen on world-wide levels, revealing traits found in humans everywhere, and thus making an argument regarding human nature as a whole rather than just the races representing them.

The novel Things Fall Apart highlights the notion of violence and abu...

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...s, laws, rules or even religion, there is still an individuality attributed to each person. Thus, I believe that Okonkwo’s violent reaction as well as the messengers’ abusive behavior speaks more to the qualities inherent to individuals as human beings from all walks of life, impacted by different environments, rather than revealing traits that are characteristic to a certain race, as some readers may wrongfully believe.

In conclusion, the representations of race within Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart highlight the larger issue of the humanistic qualities and undertones of individualism within the Igbo and British cultures, and the Negro and Caucasian races respectively. These are addressed via the scholarly work of Carey Snyder, assisting the reader by pointing to the intricacies of the Achebe’s perspective and its effect on the ethnographical value of the novel.