Introduction
Things Fall Apart is a novel by the young Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe about Nigeria’s distant past and the tragic times of African colonization. Recreating the story of a courageous and strong Okonkwo, who embodies the best qualities of a warrior and fighter, the writer set out to protect the violated dignity of Africans, to rehabilitate the past of his country, not only blotted out but also falsified by British colonizers. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is intended to show the atrocities of white colonizers.
Novel Summary
At the edge of the Forest lived the people of the Nine Villages. They lived as their amazing Ibo ancestors had lived centuries before them and worshipped their bizarre, humanly capricious gods and austere but kind spirits. The inhabitants performed strange and cruel rituals on outsiders (Chinua 3). In his novel, the author directly references the possibility of a revolution in Nigeria, quoting a poem by Yeats.
On the one hand, before the arrival of the colonizers, the population had traditions, blood ties, clans, and a moderately happy life; on the other hand, there were brutal rituals that allowed an innocent boy (Ikemefuna) to be killed or the birth of twins to be discarded just because it did not please the gods. Nwoye, the son of Okonkwo, the novel’s protagonist, notices all this. In the novel, they represent the two worlds: Okonkwo, the outmoded old world, and Nwoye, the new world.
On the one hand, there is the disintegration of foundations, clan ties, and sacred traditions; on the other, enlightenment, the penitentiary system, and new laws, which are sometimes no less cruel than the old customs. Achebe’s finale delivers a verdict to the old world–the old must go, despite his fear of the new and his dislike of the colonizers.
Conclusion
Thus, this work tells the story of how people lived during the colonization of Africa. Achebe, in his novel, recreates images of life in pre-colonial Africa. He says that before the colonizers came here, there were their rituals, religion, order, and laws, and despite the cruelty of some customs, the people were not so barbaric. Achebe does not try to pander to the clichéd consciousness of the Europeans, who were convinced that Africa was inhabited by primitive savage communities with little or no organization. He has written an honest, truthful, humanistic novel with living people.
Work Cited
Chinua, Achebe. Things Fall Apart. (2021).