Things Fall Apart Research Paper

A civilization is a state of human society, in which a high level of culture, science, industry, and government has been reached. Things Fall Apart is a historical fiction novel based on the village of Umuofia in Nigeria in 1890. The main character, Okonkwo, lives through the European imperialism of his village.The Europeans believed they brought civilization, but that is not the case because there already was civilization in Umuofia. A civilization is a place of settlement that has achieved basic social, economic, and political structure to survive. Government, laws, culture, religion, traditions, beliefs, and jobs all have a factor in accounting for a civilization. The evidence of civilization in Things Fall Apart is that Umuofia had it’s own government, they had their own gods, culture, and rituals, and they also had their own language and dialect.

Over these generations, a government formed. The tribe’s government was similar to a modern day trial. Instead of a judge and jury, there was a council. The council was composed of nine egwugwu. Each egwugwu represented each village in the clan. “When all of the egwugwu had sat down and the sound of many tiny bells and rattles on their body had subsided, Evil Forest addressed the two groups of people facing them.” (Things Fall Apart, p.77) The egwugwu was the judge and the jury in Umuofia. There job was to preside over the current conflicts and resolve them in an ordinary fashion. In chapter twenty-two, they assembled and formed a mob to Enoch’s compound. They later burned the church down. The tribesmen and women associated the egwugwu to ancestral spirits. The egwugwu were very sacred to Umuofia. Women were afraid and wanted to run away when they saw them. Umuofia established an order of rule and respect that allowed the village to be