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Jonathan Kopnick

Mrs. White

Honors English 10

May 10, 2009

Analysis and Colonial History-Compare/Contrast colonial situation in Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart is an individualized representation of the Ibo tribe in Nigeria. This

glorious novel, written by Chinua Achebe, shows the events of an Nigerian village from the

perspective of a native Nigerian man who lived their himself. The novel is a representation of

Nigerian society, and a symbolistic dialogue which describes the Nigerian spirit through its rich

translation of the native language. The novel gives the reader a sense of the value system within

Nigeria. The reader is blessed with a very personal description of what can be described as a very

different spiritual culture clashing with Western Christian Society. The book while accurately

describing Ibo Nigerian culture also differs somewhat from that of the standard Nigerian

experience. Yet, it is through the authors recollection, his discovery of his own past, that we

begin to allow ourselves to lose our own skepticism and to eat the book for what it is, a written

description of the soul of Mother Nigeria, for what she really is in a way that cannot be described

but felt.

The book accurately describes Ibo culture within Nigeria, and in some ways the Nigerian

Experience as a whole. An important theme of the novel is the village, "This," he says, IS what

the Igbo people chose, the small village entity that was completely self-governing... The reason

why they chose it [this system] was because they wanted to be in control of their lives. So if the

community says that we will have a meeting in the market place tomorrow, everybody should go

there, or could go there. And everybody could speak.” (essay 2) This description describes the

make-up of Nigerian villages before the influx of Western influence. The villages were solitary,
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self-governing, and unconnected to the outside world beyond neighboring villages. With the

Christian missionaries, came the beginning of the end of Nigeria, through the new connections

which were formed, this being represented through the village unity’s demise throughout the

book. Even the main character’s son converts, against his father’s wishes, showing the

sometimes inter-family conflict face by the various tribes of Nigeria. The book describes the

onset of religion onto the Nigerian continent by showing the difference in technology between

the two cultures, as represented by the motorcycle, the superior weaponry of the colonizers, and

the superior building structures of the Europeans. The Igbo culture is seen to implode towards

the conclusion of Achebe’s novel when, "After all, the most obvious sign of the destruction of

Igbo culture and its authority is the repression of Igbo voices at the end of the novel when

colonialism imposes its grammatology and henceforth represents the Nigerian as a subject with

neither a voice nor a logos." (Webb) The loss of Igbo culture accurately shows the loss for all of

Nigeria’s cultural heritage.

Yet there are contradictions between Achebe’s novel and contemporary Nigerian Society.

An example is the one sided representation of Men within the book. The book is clearly biased

towards the masculine viewpoint, as it is based from a male’s perspective, and its climax, rising

and falling action are dominated by men disproportionately to women. Seemingly, the

differences between the novel and the realistic situation in Nigeria can be attributed to the need

to accurately establish the reader’s connection to Achebe’s agenda. This is illustrated when “…

the tribal setup is very different from most tribal societies in Nigeria, because of its respect for

individualism and its rejection of any inherited or hierarchical system of authority. The Tho

people's highly individualistic society may have developed partly because of geography, for they

lived in forest areas which were difficult to penetrate, and each village lived separated from the

next.” (essay 4) With this chief example, we find that Achebe’s novel cannot be regarded as a
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historical novel as clearly its facts have been worked to manipulate the reader’s emotions. While

Achebe brings his novel to fruition in a powerful way, his elaboration is simply awkward when it

comes to historical facts. Yet it is not called a textbook, but an English Nigerian novel.

In short Achebe’s novel represents the Nigerian culture in a deep rooted spiritual way. Its

factual basis, while based in Achebe’s own experience is partially flawed. Yet we must realize

that this novel is magical because it follows Achebe’s Nigerian spirit. In his own words, "I now

know that my first book was an act of atonement with my past, the final return and homage of a

prodigal son" (essay 4) We see that the novel is bigger than what meets the eye. The novel can be

attributed to Nigerian independence or at least influenced by the movement. It’s publishing being

two years before the independence of the State, (historical context), it is clear that the novel’s

firestorm of emotions could describe the fiery spirit which rocked the world when Nigeria

separated from the British colonizers. Achebe through his novel illustrates the similarities of

Nigeria to his imaginary world, in the Ibo tribe. The author follows Okonkwo, and through his

occasional fooling of the facts, he manages to create a visceral reaction to the Nigerian plight, the

Nigerian Spirit, that cannot be called anything but genuine. The author there for is what we can

describe as a man of the people, whether they be the characters on his page, or the characters in

the text books and of the spoken word; Achebe describes Nigeria, and a stickler facts would have

a hard time disputing Achebe’s description of the Nigerian Soul.

Bibliography

Robert Bennett, in an essay for Novels for Students, Gale, 1997

Webb, Allen Carey. "Things Fall Apart." Western Michigan University. Western Michigan University. 13

May 2009 <http://www.wmich.edu/dialogues/texts/thingsfallapart.html#citations>.

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BOOKRAGS STAFF. "Things Fall Apart: Critical Essay #1". 2005. May 13 2009.

<http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-thingsfallapart/essay1.html>.

MLA w eb_article Things Fall Apart: 2005 2009 May 13

http://w w w .book creator1 BookRags Staff creator1

"Things Fall Apart: Historical Context". 2005. May 13 2009.

<http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-thingsfallapart/hist.html>.

MLA w eb_article Things Fall Apart: 2005 2009 May 13

http://w w w .book creator1 BookRags Staff creator1

"Things Fall Apart: Critical Essay #2". 2005. May 13 2009.

<http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-thingsfallapart/essay2.html>.

MLA w eb_article Things Fall Apart: 2005 2009 May 13

http://w w w .book creator1 BookRags Staff creator1

"Things Fall Apart: Critical Essay #3". 2005. May 13 2009.

<http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-thingsfallapart/essay3.html>.

MLA w eb_article Things Fall Apart: 2005 2009 May 13

http://w w w .book creator1 BookRags Staff creator1

"Things Fall Apart: Critical Essay #4". 2005. May 13 2009.

<http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-thingsfallapart/essay4.html>.
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