In Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart the life of a man named Okonkwo and the tribe of Umuofia is depicted in three chapters which each represent a significant era in the tribe. In the first chapter, Achebe describes the life of the native African tribe before the coming of the white man. This chapter enables the reader to understand and respect the life of the Igbo. The second chapter describes the beginnings of colonialism and introduction of the white man. Suddenly, the Igbo way is questioned. The natives lives are turned upside down as they search for a way to understand the new religion and laws of the Europeans. The third chapter describes the effect of colonialism on the Igbo tribe. This section explores the many ways which the Igbo people try to adapt to the new society. From the suicide of Okonkwo to the abandonment by other tribe members, it becomes apparent how difficult it was for the African’s to adjust to the change. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness tells of an English man named Marlow and his journey into the Congo and interest in a colonist named Kurtz. Marlow is the narrator of the novel. He describes the natives and the Europeans from a somewhat objective view. He finds colonialism questionable, but also cannot relate to the Africans. Kurtz is the antagonist who exploits the Africans to make money by selling ivory and subsequently goes insane. Both novels depict the colonization of Africa, but each has a markedly different perspective on the African’s lives which were irreparably altered when Europeans came to conquer their land and convert them to Christianity. Conrad’s descriptions of the Africans are inherently racist. The text is full of demeaning descriptions and negative thoughts about the blacks. “The thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly" (Conrad 32) Conrad refers to the natives as niggers and compares their looks to animals. “He was there below me, and, upon my word, to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat, walking on his hind legs.” (Conrad 33) These passages and attitudes toward the natives promote the view of the natives during colonialism of Africa in the way that Achebe’s district commissioner sees it, “He had already chosen the title of the book, after much thought: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.
“An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness,” by Chinua Achebe, addresses the issue of racism as seen throughout Joseph Conrad's work. There is a certain degree of subtlety that Achebe uses to begin to confront the racism issue, but as the story goes on it is easy to tell his opinion. Achebe states his opinion not only on Heart of Darkness but also makes clear his opinion concerning Conrad by the end of the essay. The tone in “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness” changes dramatically from start to finish.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, and Heart of Darkness by Joesph Conrad both analyze the imperialism of Africa in the late 1890’s to mid-1900’s. Things Fall Apart focuses on the native’s perspective, painting a negative picture of the Europeans. Heart of Darkness is from the European’s point of view, and depicts the natives as “savages”. Chinua Achebe wrote Things Fall Apart as a reaction novel to Heart of Darkness, as he felt that Conrad gave an inaccurate account of the African culture. Both novels recognize the main character's personal evils as well as their adversary’s. Robert Louis Stevenson said, “In all of us, two natures are at war - the good and the evil. All our lives the fight goes on between them, and one of them must conquer.” In Heart of Darkness by Joesph Conrad, two characters Marlow and Kurtz, struggle between the good and evil inside of them. In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, main character Okonkwo comes off as heartless and evil, but some of his actions prove that there is good in him. Marlow, Kurtz, and Okonkwo can be considered as morally ambiguous characters due to the fact that the reader can never clearly define them as purely evil or purely good because of their behavior and how it impacts the overall theme of the darkness in human nature in the novels.
In life people are very rarely, if ever, purely good or evil. In novels authors tend not to create characters with an obvious moral standing not only to make their novel more applicable to the reader, but also to make the characters more complex and dynamic. Chinua Achebe uses this technique to develop the characters in his novel, Things Fall Apart. The main character, and protagonist in the novel, Okonkwo, is very morally dynamic showing some sensitivity to his family and friends, but in an attempting to rebel against his father, Okonkwo also exhibits the tendency to lash out violently.
In "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness," Achebe accuses Conrad of racism as the essential "heart of darkness." Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as 'the other world,' the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where man's vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality.it is not the differentness that worries Conrad but the lurking hint of kinship, of common ancestry. For the Thames too has been one of the darkest places on the earth. It conquered its darkness, of course, and is now in daylight and at peace. But if it were to visit its primordial relative, the Congo, it would run the terrible risk of hearing grotesque echoes of its own forgotten darkness, and falling victim to an avenging recrudescence of the mindless frenzy of the first beginnings. (4) One might contend that this attitude toward the African in Heart of Darkness does not belong to Conrad, but rather to Marlow, and that far from endorsing it "Conrad might indeed be holding it up to irony and criticism."
A novel which is set roughly at the turn of the century, Things Fall Apart proposes the idea that the Igbo culture possessed civility prior to it’s colonization by the British. Okonkwo, a character comparable to a Greek tragic hero is a man of very little compassion for anyone, including himself. The cultural standards, his own inability to handle the changes being made in his culture, and stressed family life are all conflicts created by his society that lead to his tragic downfall.
Things fall apart is a novel about a man by the name of Okonkwo a man that just trying to be the best he can be. He wants to be successful and not end up like his father with nothing but himself.
We are all a part of change. Whether we want it or not, change finds us all. The question is never of whether change will come but when it will come - how it will come. Will it come from within? From choice? Or will it come on the wind of a hurricane, blowing in silently, steadily, stealthily, until it grows to be unstoppable? This does not matter. Change will come, and it will come in a myriad of ways. Change is a collision of old and new, an explosion of conflicting ideas, and its shrapnel will find its way to the heart, irrevocably wedging itself in. All that matters is how we face it. Do we face it alone? Together? Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart illustrates this concept through the life of a family caught in the crossfire of a cultural
In “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness," Achebe takes note of the ways that Conrad degrades Africans by reducing their religious practices to misconceptions, belittling their complex geography to just a single mass of jungle, telling them to remain in their place, and taking away their capability of speaking. Achebe criticizes Joseph Conrad for his racist stereotypes towards the people of Africa. Achebe also sensibly labels these stereotypes and shows that Africa is, in fact, a rich land full of intelligent people who are, in fact, very human. Works Cited Achebe, Chinua. JSTOR.com - "The New York Times" Indiana University Press, 1978.
By exhibiting the deeds of the Europeans, their portrayal becomes so negative that they become the savages. Conrad clearly is sympathetic to the plight of the Africans, and any racial epithets, if not accepted by progressives of the time, are not meant as attacks directed at the natives. It should be obvious that Conrad is on their side -- or is this "undermined by the mindlessness of its context and the pretty explicit
Achebe, Chinua. "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Heart of Darkness: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources, Essays in Criticism. 3rd ed. Ed. Robert Kimbrough. New York: W.W. Norton, 1988. 251-262.
African culture is often chronically misunderstood. Beginning in the 1600s, European colonists attempted to infiltrate their ancient way of life and replace it with their own, systematically sending their District Commissioners to each populated area they had gained control of, effectively washing the region of its identity. In the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, he attempts to break down a wall of ignorance and misinformation that we have inadvertently gained as western students. By creating a full, rich set of flawed human characters and using them as a tool to present his themes, Achebe gives us a more humanistic account of colonization of the Upper Nigerian region in the
Shoes have many parts to them. The most important is the sole. When walking in someone else’s shoes, it’s like taking a look into their soul. You get to see what they are enduring and can get a better understanding of their life. Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart is a great example. When the white missionaries invaded the clan, they didn’t take the time to dig deep into the lives of the Ibo. This created havoc in the Ibo society. In history, there are many other instances where understanding someone before acting would have been useful.
Colonialism has been known to break cultures. In Things Fall Apart, the main character Okonkwo changes throughout the story because of the changes brought to his culture by European colonialism. In the beginning of the story, Okonkwo is seen as a strong warrior. When the Europeans arrive near the end of the story, they change the Igbo culture. This redefines what is accepted in Okonkwo's village Umuofia. The main changes to the Igbo culture that changed Okonkwo were social organization, religion, and government.
The author, Chinua Achebe once said “Igbo people say, if you want to see it well, you must not stand in one place.” This quote is significant because it shows that sometimes viewing something from of different angle can show you the goods and bads of what we are doing. But if we are not looking at something at a different angle, then we are destined to create trouble or easily miss something very important. Even when two people are viewing the same thing their interpretation may be different. When there are two different interpretations of the same thing is where there is conflict and miscommunication and people start treating people less like people. The author, Chinua Achebe in his book, Things Fall Apart uses realistic characters to show
People believe fate controls life or death; we look at fate as a guideline for our life’s path or as a scapegoat for our wrongdoings. In Things Fall Apart, Ikemefuna’s death does not shock society due to his ill fate. Similarly, Unoka’s bad chi and misfortune inevitably lead to financial issues and failure. However, Ekwefi’s relationship with fate is quite different. As soon as Ekwefi thinks she finally understands her fate, it takes another toll on her life, pulling her in the opposite direction. Constantly battling, Ekwefi struggles with the belief that her destiny will overpower her hopes.