things fall apart narrative essay

Things Fall Apart

Introduction to things fall apart.

Things Fall Apart is Chinua Achebe ’s acclaimed masterpiece. It narrates life in Nigeria at the turn of the 20th century during the rise of the colonial era. It was first published in 1958 and immediately became one of the favorite books to the readers. Things Fall Apart has multiple translations, offering access to the outside world to pre-colonial Nigerian culture and the traumatic changes people faced during the start of the colonization. The novel chronicles the clash between the traditional norms of the Igbo tribe and the white colonial government of that time, concluding that the divided nature of the indigenous Igbo tribe and the flaws in their native social structure led to the disintegration and ultimately fall off the Umuofia community .

Summary of Things Fall Apart

The protagonist of the story , Okonkwo, is a Nigerian leader of the Igbo community. He seems a self-made man who earns distinction and glory and brings honor to his people after he defeats an undefeatable wrestler, Amalinze the Cat who earned the nickname because he never lands on his back in a wrestling contest. Okonkwo’s deceased father, Unoka, motivates his victory as a wrestler and his success as a leader. As Unoka’s flaws, cowardice, unpaid debts, and wrong policies cost the family a fortune, Okonkwo resents and despises his father’s harmful practices and runs his family under his strict command displaying an enormous amount of masculinity by beating up his wives and children.

As a leader, the test for Okonkwo emerges when a man from a neighboring village kills a woman from Okonkwo’s village, inviting the tribal wrath. To dispense justice to avoid the protracted tribal feud, Umuofia village takes the son of the murderer, Ikemefuna as a peace offering in revenge for that killing. The boy, Ikemefuna, is to be sacrificed, but not immediately. As a leader, Okonkwo takes the boy home, where he receives the love and care of Okonkwo’s family. Okonkwo’s son, Nwoye, too, becomes fond of the new member and the boy’s influence over the family touches Okonkwo’s heart. On the other hand, Ikemefuna also respects Okonkwo as his ‘second father’

Over the years, Okonkwo’s anger doubles up owing to multiple factors. It becomes the reason for violating the celebrated customs of the tribe. He violates the Peace Week by beating his third wife, Ojiugo, who forgets to prepare meals, leading to another awful incident when he hits and shoots his second wife on a trivial issue but misses the shot. Later, Ogbuefi Ezeudu, the oldest man of the village meets Okonkwo to deliver a private message that the oracle demands the death of the Ikemefuna, whom he is treating as a family member. Keeping the boy’s attachment with his family in his mind, Ezeudu also stops him from taking part in his killing. But Okonkwo does not want to showcase his weakness and come out too feminine so he not only participates in the killing of the boy but also delivers the final blow with his machete. Sink in depression, Okonkwo visits his friend Obierika and starts feeling somewhat relieved. Meanwhile, the news of his daughter’s illness arises a sense of fear; he begins thinking that the tragedy has befallen his daughter for defying the oracle. However, the child recovers after the visit of Agbala, the prophet.

Although her recovery relieves Okonkwo, the death of one of the clan’s leaders, Ogbuefi Ezeudu, adds to his woes. He recalls his last meeting with Ezeudu in which he warns him against taking part in Ikemefuna’s death, but he ignores it. While attending the leader’s funeral, the tragedy compounds Okonkwo’s woes when his gun accidentally explodes and kills Ezeudu’s son. This heinous crime leads him to his seven-year exile . Following the punishment, he settles in his native village, Mbanta, where he reconciles his life, throwing his disappointment away.

During his second year of exile, Obierika, his best friend, visits him with money the villagers earned by selling Okonkwo’s yams and promises to deliver his share by building huts for him and his family until he returns to Umuofia. Obierika also tells him about the unjust approach of the white missionaries. Soon after Obierika’s departure, six missionaries, including a white man, Mr. Brown, arrive in their village. Mr. Brown’s Christian ideas seem nonsense to the naïve villagers, but Okonkwo’s son finds attraction toward Christianity. Horrified by this from his own son Okonkwo beats him up which leads to Nwoye leave the house and live independently. When the missionaries decide to build a church on the land, the natives resent. Yet the church witnesses completion despite this resentment. Soon the people start believing in Christianity’s power and many of them converted to Christianity.

Following their success in Mbanta, the white men travel and establish a school in Umuofia. On the other hand, during the same time, Okonkwo’s exile ends, but his return to Umuofia brings a great shock to him as he notices various radical changes. Many clan leaders have converted to Christianity. These unexpected changes numb his senses. He notices Mr. Brown’s active role in this transformation, encouraging the villagers to educate themselves. The major clash between the clans and white authorities arrives when Reverend James replaces Mr. Brown. The new head shows no mercy and disrespects their old traditions, too. The situation reaches the boiling point when Enoch, a newly converted man, unmasks an Egwugwu. Being revengeful, Egwugwu burns his compound and destroys the church because the new setup has cost his tribe a fortune.

Upon knowing this, the District Commissioner interns six village leaders, including Okonkwo. Despite the District Commissioner’s instructions to treat the leaders with respect, the court messengers humiliate them by shaving their heads and whipping them. Following their release, clansmen call for a meeting to establish a workable agreement on whether they should live in collaboration with the whites or opt for war. During the negotiation, five court messengers arrive and try to dismiss their gathering. Enraged by the missionaries’ growing influence, Okonkwo steps forward and beheads one of the messengers with his machete, hoping his clansmen will join him. The remaining hope of Okonkwo dies when his fellow leaders allow the other messengers to escape. This indifferent approach of clansmen makes Okonkwo realize that things have already fallen apart, and people will never enter the war against white supremacy, which is contrary to the age-old tradition.

When the District Commissioner, Gregory comes to take Okonkwo to the court, embittered on his people’s choices and fearing the humiliation of dying under white law, Okonkwo reaches home to commit suicide. Okonkwo’s action of committing suicide receives backlash amongst his own tribe since it’s against the teaching out Igbo. Gregory feels that the life of Okonkwo would make a reasonable paragraph for his book.

Major Themes in Things Fall Apart

• Tribal Belief and Traditions: Tribal belief marks the center of the text but unfortunately they suffer a decline with the arrival of the new religion of Christianity. However, some locals, including Okonkwo, refuse to accept this new change that is going to devastate the old structure. At first, they stand with Okonkwo to fight against the setup that appears inhumane to them, but they give up their old customs and turn toward prosperous Christianity, leaving Okonkwo in a state of extreme distress. This demonstrates how tribal beliefs and traditions have been deliberately belittled before western culture’s influence.
• Masculinity:  In African tradition, masculinity is regarded as one of the greatest virtues .   Okonkwo, the protagonist ,  values this trait and tries to exhibit it at various places. However, he despises his father for having feministic qualities. He dislikes his son’s passive nature as well who takes after his grandfather. Okonkwo’s masculinity becomes other people’s problems on various occasions, especially for his family, which suffers due to his violence and cruelty. For example, despite possessing a soft corner for Ikemefuna, he kills him with his machete and beheads the messenger who tries to violate their private meeting. He also criticizes his people for avoiding war against white supremacy and choose peace.
• Destructive Impacts of Colonialism: Colonialism is one of the major themes in the novel that appears in the second part of the book. When Okonkwo returns to his village after the exile, he notices the arrival of Christianity. The entire tribe is enduring the pain of newly established laws and government. Despite knowing the influence and cleverness of the white men, he goes against them to maintain their tribe’s laws and freedom. He notices how Mr. Brown is changing the minds of the people by equipping them with the knowledge that is resulting in changes in their traditional norms. People begin to question their ancient traditions, calling them savage practices. Although this cultural onslaught disturbs the locals, some of them join this new shift. This transformation of the people leads to the pulverization of the indigenous culture and cultural setting .
• Social and Cultural Transformation:  The novel fictionalizes the clash between ancient traditions of the Igbo tribes and the progressive social development. The arrival of British missionaries divides the Igbo community into two different parts. While some of them refuse to accept the newly established social order and religion, some others whole-heartedly embrace it. However, for some, it becomes difficult to decide whether they should accept the new faith or go with their old practices. Their choices become clear when Okonkwo kills a messenger and people remain silent, which shows that they are willing to surrender to the British.
• The Superiority of Whites:  The novel revolves around the Igbo traditions, their language, and culture but Achebe has used English to present it to the world. He has also used traditional proverbs in English to clarify implicitly that the native Igbo language cannot be translated into any other language. However, when Christian missionaries establish their religion and administrative machinery, many locals throw away their old customs and embrace the newly established structure. The superiority of the white culture is shown through the character of Mr. Brown and other missionaries, who reshape the locality by preaching religion and education.
• Fate and free will:  According to an Igbo saying, a human’s chi or spirit is aligned to his free will. In other words, a person can control his free will as Okonkwo tries to do so. He ascends to his society and attains the position of chief. However, once things start getting astray, it appears that he is capable of using his free will but incapable of exercising the right choice as his fate directs him to perform heinous crimes like killing and committing suicide. His spectacular rise and tragic fall show that the Igbo society believes in the concept of free will.
• Justice :  Justice and its dispensation is a powerful preoccupation presented in the novel. The Igbo people have established their institutions and administration to administer justice in their social structure. Okonkwo’s exile and Ikemefuna’s death provide insight into their system. However, when white men arrive with their institutionalized religion and government, local culture and laws appear vicious to them. That is why Okonkwo’s death at the end leads to the fact that hypocritical and inhumane British law slaughters the sense of justice once seems rooted deep in the Igbo tradition.
• Ambition:  Ambition also plays a crucial role. Okonkwo’s strong determination along with his discontent with his father’s idle ways leads him to assume the leadership of his clan. However, his strict and narrow approach in life makes him rigid and ruthless ending with his tragic crimes and death.

 Major Characters in Things Fall Apart

• Okonkwo : The central figure and protagonist, Okonkwo, is a strong-headed man, wrestler, and leader, who attains greatness overshadowing his inherited laziness. Okonkwo believes that his father is unmanly or weak in nature. Therefore, he adopts opposite ideals and becomes brave, wealthy, violent, and tries to be productive. He marries three times and runs his family ruthlessly. However, he gets caught in the vicious circle of his own rules and goes against the norms. After killing Ezeudo’s son, he goes into exile for seven years. When he returns, he finds vast changes in his community, where most of the villagers have abandoned their old customs and converted to Christianity. He resists the arrival of the white people and even kills their messenger. Thus, his obsession with masculinity, anger, and the tragic flaw of his character makes him reach the point where he takes his own life with guilt and failure before being punished for his crimes by the British.
• Nwoye:   Okonkwo’s only son who shares his grandfather’s characteristics that often invite his father’s wrath, Nwoye receives a heavy thrashing to get rid of his flaws and weaknesses. When Ikemefuna comes to stay with Okonkwo’s family, he sometimes seems to align with his father’s desires. However, when he comes to know about the boy’s death and his father’s role in it, he hates his ruthlessness. This hatred leads him to accept the English civilization when the British arrive. This change brings comfort to his subjugated life.
• Ezinma:  Okonkwo’s daughter, Ezinma is from his second wife, Ekwefi. Okonkwo loves his daughter because of her fearlessness and bold character. Her courage and boldness win both his father’s appraisal and respect in that Okonkwo wish her to be a boy.
• Ikemefuna: Ikemefuna is the boy Mbaino clan hands over to Umuofia to settle a dispute. He becomes the adopted son of Okonkwo and wins his heart, showing the strong and courageous side of his character. Although the boy secures a special place in Okonkwo’s family, he kills the boy with his machete to prove his masculinity.
• Unoka:  Okonkwo’s father, Unoka’s cowardice and recklessness bring shame to his son, Okonkwo. He loves to spend time singing. Moreover, he remains under debt that even after his death, the family carries the burden. Thus, his idle ways of living and indifferent life choices downgrade his status in the tribe where traits like courage and masculinity automatically get an upper hand over the person.
• Brown:  Mr. Brown is another important character in the novel. He is the representative of the Christian religion, preaches Christianity to the locals, and motivates them to get educated. He is a kind and God-fearing man. Although he is set to change the local social fabric, he hates the use of unnecessary power or barbaric approach. He helps them establish their school and hospital and wins many hearts by adoring the ancient local system.
• Reverend James Smith:  Reverend James Smith comes to Umuofia when Mr. Brown is sent back home due to health issues. However, he proves his opposite. His arrival in Umuofia introduces people to the chaotic side of the new culture. He criticizes the old customs and wants the villagers to embrace the new laws. He also intends to establish the dominance of the colonial beliefs for which he suspends a local woman from the church. He soon faces the local wrath for his arrogance.
• Ogbuefi Ezeudu:  As one of the oldest men of Umuofia who visits Okonkwo and warns him not to participate in Ikemefuna’s killing, Ezeudu’s role is of a tribal elder who visits others to convey some important social message.

Writing Style of Things Fall Apart

The writing style of the novel, Things Fall Apart , shows the straightforward and simple approach of the writer, Chinua Achebe, in that he fictionalizes the historical narrative from an omniscient point of view . He tries to show the factual representation of the events and incidents that seem to have become the reason for the collapse and disintegration of the ancient Igbo society. The use of Igbo oral traditions such as proverbs, idioms , and folk stories show the reason for his use of the English language that he has adapted to reflect his culture. Although the diction is formal, the sentence structure is simple and the tone is serious and somber, Achebe has shown that local cultures can be reflected through the English language.

Analysis of Literary Devices in Things Fall Apart

• Allegory : Achebe presents locusts as an allegorical representation of the colonial era who was invading the country to disrupt normal life and destroy the culture.
• Action: The main action of the novel comprises the tribal feud, the arrival of colonialism in Nigeria, and Okonkwo’s response. The rising action occurs when Okonkwo kills the messenger and invites the wrath of the colonizers. The falling action occurs when he commits suicide as nobody from his own tribe sides him against the British.
• Climax :  The climax occurs when Igbo leaders gather to discuss the issue of the crime of the missionaries and Okonkwo ends up killing one of the messengers. It leads Okonkwo to understand that things have turned worse and that he may not be spared anymore.
• Conflict :  There are various conflicts in the novel,  Things Fall Apart.  The first one is the internal conflict of Okonkwo, who tries to mask himself multiple times to maintain his position in the tribe. The second conflict involves the traditions of Umuofia and the new laws brought by the British; old culture versus new culture and tradition versus modernity.
• Characters:   Things Fall Apart presents both static as well as dynamic characters. Okonkwo is a major character, while Nwoye, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Smith are the minor characters. However, it is Nwoye who struggles to shape and reshape his beliefs and undergoes changes. Therefore, he is a dynamic character , while Okonkwo remains the same throughout, the reason that he is a static character along with various other characters.
• Foreshadowing : Foreshadowing in the novel begins with the title which indicates that there might be no happy ending. The second example of foreshadowing in the novel occurs when the first swarm of locusts arrives in the village, which prefigures the arrival of the missionaries.
• Imagery :   Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. For example, i. Just then the distant beating of drums began to reach them. It came from the direction of the ilo , the village playground. Every village had its own ilo which was as old as the village itself and where all the great ceremonies and dances took place. The drums beat the unmistakable wrestling dance – quick, light and gay, and it came floating on the wind. (Chapter-1) ii. In this way the moons and the seasons passed. And then the locusts came. It had not happened for many a long year. The elders said locusts came once in a generation, reappeared every year for seven years and then disappeared for another lifetime. (Chapter-7) iii. The crowd roared with laughter. Evil Forest rose to his feet and order was immediately restored. A steady cloud of smoke rose from his head. He sat down again and called two witnesses. They were both Uzowulu’s neighbors, and they agreed about the beating. Evil Forest then stood up, pulled out his staff and thrust it into the earth again. (Chapter-10) The first example shows the images used for sound, the second for seasons and colors, and the third again for sound and colors.
• Irony : Things Fall Apart shows tragic irony as the proud, arrogant, successful, and ambitious man, Okonkwo, ends up hanging himself.
• Metaphor : Things Fall Apart shows good use of various metaphors . For example, i. Their sound was no longer a separate thing from the living village. It was like the pulsation of its heart. It throbbed in the air, in the sunshine, and even in the trees , and filled the village with excitement. (Chapter-5). ii. Dusk was already approaching when their contest began. The drums went mad and the crowds also. They surged forward as the two young men danced into the circle. The palm fronds were helpless in keeping them back. (Chapter-6) The first metaphor compares the sound to a thing and the second drums to mad people.
• Mood : The novel shows a joyous and celebrating mood in the beginning but turns tragic and gloomy as soon as the Okonkwo faces an exile and white missionaries arrive to change the tribal beliefs.
• Motif :  The most important motifs of the novel are chi , animal images, fire, locusts, and yams.
• Personification : The novel shows the use of personifications at several places. For example, i. The night was very quiet. It was always quiet except on moonlight nights. Darkness held a vague terror for these people, even the bravest among them. (Chapter-1) ii. Okonkwo’s fame had grown like a bush-fire in the harmattan. (Chapter-1) iii. The sun breaking through their leaves and branches threw a pattern of light and shade on the sandy footway. (Chapter-5) These examples show that the night, darkness, fame, and sun as having human attributes.
• Point of View :  Things Fall Apart is narrated in a third-person or omniscient point of view that is the author’s own point of view.
• Protagonist : Okonkwo is the protagonist of the novel. The novel starts with his grand introduction and involves various tragic incidents that become the reason for his tragic death.
• Resolution : Resolution is when all the mysteries , conflicts, and problems reach a conclusion . Things Fall Apart ends with Commissioner’s plan who decides to write a book in which little importance will be given to Okonkwo’s tragedy.
• Rhetorical Question : A rhetorical question is a question that is not asked in order to receive an answer from the audience . Some of the rhetorical questions used in the text are, i. When Unoka died he had taken no title at all and he was heavily in debt. Any wonder then that his son Okonkwo was ashamed of him?  (Chapter-1) ii. Why should a man suffer so grievously for an offence he had committed inadvertently? But although he thought for a long time he found no answer. He was merely led into greater complexities. He remembered his wife’s twin children, whom he had thrown away. What crime had they committed? (Chapter 13) These two examples show that the rhetorical questions posed do not need answers. They only stress the main point.
• Setting : The setting of the novel is the Umuofia and Mbanta villages of the Igbo tribe in Nigeria.
• Simile : The novel shows good use of various similes. For example, i. Okonkwo was as slippery as a fish in water. (Chapter-1) ii. The earth burned like hot coals and roasted all the yams that had been sown. Like all good farmers, Okonkwo had begun to sow with the first rains . (Chapter-3) iii. You drove him to kill himself and now he will be buried like a dog. (Second Book, Chapter-25) The first simile compares Okonkwo with a fish, the second the earth with coals, and the third a corpse with a dog.
• Symbol :  Things Fall Apart shows that the symbols of fire, yams, and locusts. Whereas the fire represents Okonkwo’s rage, locusts show the white settlement, and yams represent masculinity.
• Theme :  The novel shows a clash of cultures along with human’s adaptive nature, their desire for change, and the influence of the new religion.

Related posts:

• Things Fall Apart Characters
• Things Fall Apart Quotes
• Things Fall Apart Themes
• Fall, Leaves, Fall
• You Will Never See Me Fall
• Spring and Fall
• Chinua Achebe

Post navigation

Things Fall Apart

Chinua achebe, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Things Fall Apart: Introduction

Things fall apart: plot summary, things fall apart: detailed summary & analysis, things fall apart: themes, things fall apart: quotes, things fall apart: characters, things fall apart: symbols, things fall apart: theme wheel, brief biography of chinua achebe.

Historical Context of Things Fall Apart

Other books related to things fall apart.

• Full Title: Things Fall Apart
• When Written: 1957
• Where Written: Nigeria
• When Published: 1958
• Literary Period: Post-colonialism
• Genre: Novel / Tragedy
• Setting: Pre-colonial Nigeria, 1890s
• Climax: Okonkwo's murder of a court messenger
• Antagonist: Missionaries and White Government Officials (Reverend Smith and the District Commissioner)
• Point of View: Third person omniscient

Extra Credit for Things Fall Apart

Joseph Conrad: “A Bloody Racist”. Chinua Achebe delivered a lecture and critique on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness , calling Conrad “a bloody racist” and provoking controversy among critics and readers. However, Achebe's criticism of Conrad has become a mainstream perspective on Conrad's work and was even included in the 1988 Norton critical edition of Heart of Darkness .

Achebe as Politician. Achebe expressed his political views often in writing, but he also involved himself actively in Nigerian politics when he became the People's Redemption Party's deputy national vice-president in the early 1980's. However, he soon resigned himself in frustration with the corruption he witnessed during the elections.

Things Fall Apart

By chinua achebe.

Chinua Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart' remains the single best piece of literature to come out of Africa.

Article written by Israel Njoku

Degree in M.C.M with focus on Literature from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

‘Things Fall Apart ‘ is an immensely important novel that shines not only because of the relevance of its themes but also the poignancy embedded within its simplicity, and the greatness lying behind a seemingly basic plot. It is the work with the greatest reputation in African literature. Here we find out what makes ‘Things Fall Apart’ so worthy of this gigantic reputation.

An Important Novel

Before Achebe wrote ‘Things Fall Apart ,’ students learning about Africa through fiction had to go through works like Joyce Cary’s ‘ Mister Johnson ,’ and Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness .’ These are supposedly serious literary works with a clean reputation that purported to accurately represent the African man. In truth, these works only served to advance the imperialist goals of the European colonizers by representing Africans as passionate simpletons at best or as primitive animals at worst. Joyce Cary’s work typecasted the African within a very limited and specific category- that of the passionate and emotional but simple individual. What ‘Things Fall Apart’ did was to present Africans with a wider range of attributes that marked them as fully human, with typical human strengths and weaknesses. So, we get individuals like Okonkwo and Nwoye occupying worldviews and temperaments that are poles apart. We also have the likes of Obierika, who straddles a middle ground between both character types.

Achebe constructs a Umuofia society with a fairly sophisticated way of life and institutions. The people of Umuofia judged disputes under an overarching need to preserve harmony and cohesion in society. They had elaborate marriage rituals that emphasized a wider sense of familyhood and community. They buried their dead with much respect and fanfare. However, it was also a very patriarchal society that marginalized women, killed off twins, and cast away people with certain debilitating illnesses. Although this is a society that could very much do with the sophistication in medicine and technology the West had to offer, it was by no means the primitive and cannibalistic society full of blood-thirsty savages that the likes of Conrad described in their books. Achebe’s book is important because it offers a truer image of Africa that is far more respectful to Africans, and far more acknowledging of their humanity.

‘Things Fall Apart’ might seem a pretty easy read, with a style that does not appear to fulfill high Western stylistic standards, but it is no less powerful. Through the use of a structure and style that conforms to African oral tradition rather than that of the West, Achebe’s work demonstrates its authenticity and power. The work is structured in a manner that closely mimics traditional African forms. The novel is divided into three unequal parts, with the first part being as large as the second and third parts put together. The first part is only large because much time is spent on events that lay out the culture and traditions of the people of Umuofia, rather than on progressing the plot.

The narrative nostalgically goes over the community’s agricultural practices, religion, marriage, funeral customs, and judicial system, before returning to the plot at the end. This narrative structure is not consistent with Western literary forms but has its roots in the oral traditions of African storytelling. Igbo orators normally skirt around a subject by dwelling on side events before eventually hitting upon it. With the coming of the White man and his religion, the plot progresses at a rapid pace, as if to signal the rapid coming to an end of this Umuofia society that Achebe had spent so long describing.

‘Things Fall Apart’ is known not only for the originality and relevance of its themes but also its style. Achebe’s masterful use of the English language earned him praise from critics. The critic, Obumselu, praised Achebe for maintaining the literal fidelity of the Igbo words and contexts he was translating into English. He thought Achebe succeeded in preserving the local flavor of these words and contexts. His thoughts were echoed by the critic G. Adali Morty, who, writing in 1959, succinctly posited that Achebe’s use of language “has the ring and rhythm of poetry. In the background of the words can be heard the thrumming syncopation of the sound of Africa- the gongs, the drums, the castanets and the horns.”

The novel’s reputation as an authentic work is also helped by its seeming objectivity and freedom from bias and agenda. Achebe’s decision to not go to the other extreme and oppose racist portrayals of African society with idealized portrayals of the same society earned him plaudits from the likes of Gerald Moore. Moore contrasts Achebe’s intellectual honesty and realism with the chauvinistic idealism and African mythologizing, which he seems to detect in works of contemporaries of Achebe like Camara Laye. Moore believes that Achebe’s refusal to “justify, explain or condemn is responsible for a good deal of the book’s success. The novelist presents to us a picture of traditional Igbo life as just as he can make it. The final judgment of that life, as of the life which replaced it, is left to us.”

Nationalist Criticism

Another way in which critics have looked at Achebe’s ‘ Things Fall Apart ,’ and indeed most of his other works, was within the lens of the anti-colonial and pan-Africanist demand for African writers to throw away every vestige of western forms in their works. One such form is the use of the language of the colonizers, such as English. For the subscribers of this school of thought, African writers ought to write in indigenous African languages and not in English. These critics believed that the use of English by African writers would limit the ability of writers to do justice to the complexity and originality of the African imagination.

Several anti-colonial writers like Ngugi Wa Thiong’o have criticized Achebe for writing in English. To them, it was impossible to fully convey an authentic African experience while writing about it in a foreign language. But their criticisms ring hollow in the face of Achebe’s masterful use of the English language in such a way that it clearly and effectively transmits this authentic African experience. The original Igbo feeling, humor, and depths behind the dialogues are effectively conveyed.

Critics like Obiajunwa Wali believed that African writers writing in English were subjecting their work to European standards, with their novels being only a continuation of Western literary and philosophical traditions rather than being part of the evolution or maturation of a truly African one. For him, novels like ‘Things Fall Apart’ cannot be entirely African since they borrow from European stylistic and narrative strategies. Achebe’s response to this position was the argument that it is not actually about the language one uses but how one uses such language. In his essay, ‘ The African writer and the English language ,’ written in 1965, Achebe explained that there is nothing inherent about the English language that negatively restricts the originality and authenticity of the African novel. He maintained that the African writer could pass his message accurately and authentically convey the African experience through creative and masterful use of the English language. 

Feminist Criticism

Although Achebe locates ‘ Things Fall Apart’ within an obviously patriarchal Igbo society, one true to the times, he nevertheless came under fire for his portrayal of women in the novel. Critics like Ifi Amadiume and Florence Stratton argued that Achebe’s portrayal of women displays deep-seated prejudicial sentiments towards them. They argue that Achebe often went beyond what was obtainable in pre-colonial Igbo society to disempower and silence the voice of women. Stratton observed that Igbo women did have considerable influence and power in pre-colonial Igbo society and that Achebe’s failure to capture this sufficiently reveals his bias against women.

In conclusion, it is easy to see why ‘Things Fall Apart’ has sustained the reputation it has so far. It is easy to see why, despite the simplicity of narration and language, it continues to retain the reverence of some of the most prominent writers and critics, as well as readers from around the world. It is an important historical work, an important ammunition against racist literature, a successful representation of the possibilities of utilizing indigenous African forms, as well as a great demonstration of an authentic way to use the English language to accurately convey African thought, sentiments, and events.

Things Fall Apart Review

Book Title: Things Fall Apart

Book Description: 'Things Fall Apart' is the first novel by Chinua Achebe and also by far his most successful. Having sold over 20 million copies worldwide, it is the most widely read, studied, and translated piece of African literature.

Book Author: Chinua Achebe

Book Edition: First Edition

Book Format: Hardcover

Publisher - Organization: Heinemann Educational Books

Date published: October 17, 1958

ISBN: 978-0435904960

Number Of Pages: 209

‘ Things Fall Apart’ is not only an important novel that successfully counters racist portrayals of Africans in Western literature but is also a disarmingly rich work that incorporates traditional African forms in a revolutionary way. The structure might be unusual, but that is only because it is staying true to the African oral tradition, rather than Western standards. ‘ Things Fall Apart ‘ owes a lot of its success and acclaim to the nuance and maturity with which it carries out its task of rehabilitating the butchered image of Africa, refusing to go the other extreme, but to rather present things as they were.

• Quite accessible
• Great depiction of traditional African society
• Revolutionary use of traditional African styles and forms
• Ability to accurately translate the original Igbo contexts into English
• Very influential to subsequent African writers
• Needlessly stripped female characters of power

Join Our Community for Free!

Exclusive to Members

Create Your Personal Profile

Engage in Forums

Join or Create Groups

Save your favorites, beta access.

About Israel Njoku

Israel loves to delve into rigorous analysis of themes with broader implications. As a passionate book lover and reviewer, Israel aims to contribute meaningful insights into broader discussions.

About the Book

Discover literature and connect with others just like yourself!

Start the Conversation. Join the Chat.

There was a problem reporting this post.

Block Member?

Please confirm you want to block this member.

You will no longer be able to:

• See blocked member's posts
• Mention this member in posts
• Invite this member to groups

Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete.

Things Fall Apart

By chinua achebe, things fall apart study guide.

Chinua Achebe 's college work sharpened his interest in indigenous Nigerian cultures. He had grown up in Ogidi, a large village in Nigeria. His father taught at the missionary school, and Achebe witnessed firsthand the complex mix of benefit and catastrophe that the Christian religion had brought to the Igbo people. In the 1950s, an exciting new literary movement grew in strength. Drawing on indigenous Nigerian oral traditions, this movement enriched European literary forms in hopes of creating a new literature, in English but unmistakably African. Published in 1958, Things Fall Apart is one of the masterpieces of 20th century African fiction.

Things Fall Apart is set in the 1890s, during the coming of the white man to Nigeria. In part, the novel is a response and antidote to a large tradition of European literature in which Africans are depicted as primitive and mindless savages. The attitudes present in colonial literature are so ingrained into our perception of Africa that the District Commissioner, who appears at the end of the novel, strikes a chord of familiarity with most readers. He is arrogant, dismissive of African "savages," and totally ignorant of the complexity and richness of Igbo life. Yet his attitude echoes so much of the depiction of Africa; this attitude, following Achebe's depiction of the Igbo, seems hollow and savage.

Digression is one of Achebe's most important tools. Although the novel's central story is the tragedy of Okonkwo , Achebe takes any opportunity he can to digress and relate anecdotes and tertiary incidents. The novel is part documentary, but the liveliness of Achebe's narrative protects the book from reading like an anthropology text. We are allowed to see the Igbo through their own eyes, as they celebrate the various rituals and holidays that mark important moments in the year and in the people's live.

Achebe depicts the Igbo as a people with great social institutions. Their culture is rich and impressively civilized, with traditions and laws that place great emphasis on justice and fairness. The people are ruled not by a king or chief but by a kind of simple democracy, in which all males gather and make decisions by consensus. Ironically, it is the Europeans, who often boast of bringing democratic institutions to the rest of the world, who try to suppress these clan meetings in Umuofia. The Igbo also boast a high degree of social mobility. Men are not judged by the wealth of their fathers, and Achebe emphasizes that high rank is attainable for all freeborn Igbo.

He does not shy from depicting the injustices of Igbo society. No more or less than Victorian England of the same era, the Igbo are deeply patriarchal. They also have a great fear of twins, who are abandoned immediately after birth to a death by exposure. Violence is not unknown to them, although warfare on a European scale is something of which they have no comprehension.

The novel attempts to repair some of the damage done by earlier European depictions of Africans. But this recuperation must necessarily come in the form of memory; by the time Achebe was born, the coming of the white man had already destroyed many aspects of indigenous culture.

Things Fall Apart Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Things Fall Apart is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Summary of the novel Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe

Check this out:

https://www.gradesaver.com/things-fall-apart/study-guide/summary

In Chapter 13, the village crier announces the death of Ezeudu, one of the great elders of the clan. It was Ezeudu who first told Okonkwo that Ikemefuna most die. It was also Ezeudu who advised Okonkwo to take no part in it. And yet, ironically it...

Find a present day newspaper article reporting on events out of Africa. Hypothesize how the events or people in the article would be different if Europe had not colonized the continent.

Sorry, this is only a short answer space.

Study Guide for Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart study guide contains a biography of Chinua Achebe, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Things Fall Apart
• Things Fall Apart Summary
• Character List
• Chapters 1-5 Summary and Analysis

Essays for Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

• Chinua Achebe's Portrayal of Pre-Colonial Africa:
• The Destructive Clash of Cultures
• The Role of Women
• The Comparison of One Hundred Years of Solitude with Things Fall Apart
• The Release of African Culture on the World

Lesson Plan for Things Fall Apart

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Things Fall Apart
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Things Fall Apart Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Things Fall Apart

• Introduction
• Literary significance and reception

• Lesson Plans
• Teacher's Guides
• Media Resources

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

A spiral stack of copies of the 1994 Anchor Books edition of Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart.

Wikimedia Commons

"The last four or five hundred years of European contact with Africa produced a body of literature that presented Africa in a very bad light and Africans in very lurid terms. The reason for this had to do with the need to justify the slave trade and slavery. … This continued until the Africans themselves, in the middle of the twentieth century, took into their own hands the telling of their story." —Chinua Achebe, "An African Voice" )

Nigerian Chinua Achebe is one of the world's most well-known and influential contemporary writers. His first novel, Things Fall Apart  (1958), is an early narrative about the European colonization of Africa told from the point of view of the colonized people. Published in 1958, the novel recounts the life of the warrior and village hero Okonkwo, and describes the arrival of white missionaries to his Igbo village and their impact on African life and society at the end of the nineteenth century. Through his writing, Achebe counters images of African societies and peoples as they are represented within the Western literary tradition and reclaims his own and his people's history.

This lesson introduces students to Achebe's first novel and to his views on the role of the writer in his or her society. It can be used alone or in conjunction with the related lesson Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart": Oral and Literary Strategies .

Guiding Questions

How does Achebe see the role of the writer/storyteller?

In what ways does Achebe use fiction to teach history?

To what extent is Things Fall Apart successful in communicating an alternative narrative to the dominant Western history of missionaries in Africa and other colonized societies?

Learning Objectives

Examine a piece of African literature to identify distinguishing literary features and traditions. 

Examine how Achebe discusses and differentiates cultures and languages with a change over time approach. 

Evaluate the effectiveness of presenting historical events and eras through fiction.

Differentiate between historical accounts and fictionalized accounts of history.

Assess narrative perspectives as culturally-positioned (i.e. Afrocentric and Eurocentric perspectives).

Lesson Plan Details

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

To gain background knowledge on the history and culture of the Igbo people and to help students understand Things Fall Apart within the historical context of the novel's events and the time of its writing and publication, you can refer to the following EDSITEment-reviewed resources:

• For information on Igbo traditions, Nigeria, and Africa, see the Igbo Information page from the People's Resources and the Nigeria Information page, which provides a map and general information, including descriptions of the four main ethnic groups  – Yoruba, Igbo, Fulani, and Hausa, both located on Art and Life in Africa Online .  See also the essay " The Berlin Conference " available through the Internet Archive.
• For maps of and information on the many languages spoken throughout Nigeria, see the Languages of Nigeria and Languages of Nigeria Map pages.
• Two interviews in which Achebe discusses the origins and purposes of his writing are " Chinua Achebe: The Art of Fiction CXXXVIV, " interviewed by Jerome Brooks in The Paris Review , Issue #133 (Winter 1994-5) and "An African Voice" Interview in The Atlantic Online (August 2, 2000). You may wish to assign students the interviews or excerpts to read online or in printed copies.

Lesson 1 uses maps to introduce students to the African continent and countries. Before teaching this lesson, view and/or download copies of the following maps from the periods before, during, and after the colonial period:

• Maps of Africa from 1688 and 1909, taken from the Map Collections 1500-1999 .
• Maps of the many languages spoken in African countries today from the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Ethnologue.

In Lesson 3, if you choose to assign Heart of Darkness to students to read and compare with Things Fall Apart , background information about Joseph Conrad can be found in the Biographical Essay on the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Victorian Web .

Activity 1. Mapping the Changing Face of Africa through History: Pre-Colonial, European Colonization, and Independent Nations

In his essay " Issues in African History " located on the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Art and Life in Africa Online , Professor James Giblin of the University of Iowa Department of History writes about the European "Scramble for Africa" (1880-1910) and the Berlin Act of 1885, which created a set of European-controlled nation-states that arbitrarily combined into one country diverse African ethnic groups, on one hand, and divided linguistic and ethnic communities, on the other:

"Africa's integration into a European-dominated economy has shaped its history since the 1880s. During the last quarter of the 19th century, Europe became increasing interested in exerting direct control over the Africa's raw materials and markets. European heads of state laid down ground rules for the colonial conquest of Africa at the Congress of Berlin in 1884-5. Over the next twenty years, all of Africa except Ethiopia and Liberia was violently conquered, despite many instances of African resistance. The British and French established the largest African empires, although the Portuguese, Belgians and Germans claimed major colonial possessions as well."

You might point out to the class that the cultural, religious, linguistic, and other historical divisions among ethnic groups have continued to challenge and blur the colonial borders of many African Nation-States, during colonization and especially after Independence.

Things Fall Apart takes place during Europe's violent partitioning of Africa at the end of the 19th century, and Achebe wrote and published the novel towards the end of the colonial period, during a time of burgeoning nationalism across Africa:

"African frustration was compounded by the inconsistency between, on the one hand, universalistic Christian ideals (for Christianity spread widely during the colonial period, as did Islam) and liberal political ideas which colonialism introduced into Africa, and, on the other hand, the discrimination and racism which marked colonialism everywhere. This discrepancy deepened during the Second World War, when the British and French exhorted their African subjects to provide military service and labor for a war effort which was intended, in part, to uphold the principle of national self-determination. Post-war Africans were well aware that they were being denied the very rights for which they and their colonial masters had fought. This deepening sense of frustration and injustice set in motion the events which would lead to national independence for most of Africa by the mid-1960s" ("Issues in African History").

To give students an idea of contemporary African geography as well as of the cultural and political changes that Africa has undergone as a continent over the past two centuries, provide the class with maps of Africa before, during, and after colonization, and assign the following activities:

Download and distribute to each student a copy of the African Continent Map.Gif located on the Multimedia Archive, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource African Studies WWW . This map indicates the outline of countries in Africa but is blank inside. Have students identify as many African countries as possible, filling in the names of the countries on the map. Ask them if they can identify any languages spoken in specific countries, and have them write these down on their maps as well. Write down the names of the countries that students were able to identify. Which countries are they? Where did they get their information, from school, their families or acquaintances, the news? Ask the class what they know about the countries they were able to identify on the map and from which sources they received their information.

Using a computer projection, individual or small group computer stations, or printed out copies, use the maps of Africa from 1688 and 1909, which you can find on the Map Collections 1500-1999 at the EDSITEment-reviewed resource American Memory Collection by conducting a Search by Keyword for "Africa."

For both of these maps, you can select the desired zoom level and window size to increase the detail of the displayed image and the size of the map, respectively. If you click in the Zoom View window and then click on the image, the display will be centered on the selected part of the map. You can select an area in the small Navigator View map so that the red box on the Navigator View will indicate the area of the image being viewed in the larger Zoom View.

Another pre-colonial map, The Continent of Africa from 1707 by Tobias Lotter, is located on Hemispheres, Antique Maps and Prints , available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Internet Public Library.

Show the class the Map of Africa 1688 or 1707, before colonization by Europe, and the Map of Africa 1909, which shows the continent divided up among British, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, and Spanish Colonies, the Belgian Congo, and Independent African States. Ask students to compare the maps: What differences do they notice? What similarities?

A map of post-colonial Africa showing the different countries, updated in 1998, is available on the Countries Resources page of the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Art and Life in Africa Online . A larger version of this map is available at Africa.gif , from CIA Maps , located on the Multimedia Archive, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource African Studies WWW .

Have the class compare the contemporary map with the two earlier maps and discuss the changes in the geopolitical divisions of the African continent. Then ask students to look over their original maps and fill in the names of the countries that they missed in their first mapping activity. You can note to students that African ethnic, religious, and linguistic groups have resisted the geopolitical boundaries of many Nation-States created under colonization; for instance, the borders of West Africa set in place under colonialism are often contrary to the area's cultural and political reality (See Robert Kaplan, " The Coming Anarchy " Atlantic Monthly Feb. 1994 Rpt. Atlantic Online , available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Internet Public Library.

To give students an overview of Nigerian history and cultural geography, locate Nigeria on a map of Africa from the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Art and Life in Africa Online: Countries' Resources . Then present a map of Nigeria itself on the Nigeria Information page, and point out the Igbo area. This page provides a map and general information about Nigeria, including descriptions of its four main ethnic groups: Yoruba, Igbo, Fulani, and Hausa, and the Igbo Information page from the Peoples Resources section of the site offers information about the ethnic group described in Things Fall Apart .

You can point out the vast ethnic (Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Fulani among many other peoples), religious (Muslim 50%, Christian 40%, African religion 10%), and linguistic diversity (515 listed languages, 505 of which are living languages) of present-day Nigeria using the Languages of Nigeria and Languages of Nigeria Map pages available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource African Studies WWW . The Languages of Africa map provides a graphic depiction the many different languages spoken across Nigeria, with individual dots representing the primary location of a living language.

In an August 2002 interview " An African Voice ", published in The Atlantic Online, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Internet Public Library, Achebe explains the fundamental and far-reaching disruption of African societies and social orders through European colonization:

"The society of Umuofia, the village in Things Fall Apart, was totally disrupted by the coming of the European government, missionary Christianity, and so on. That was not a temporary disturbance; it was a once and for all alteration of their society. To give you the example of Nigeria, where the novel is set, the Igbo people had organized themselves in small units, in small towns and villages, each self-governed. With the coming of the British, Igbo land as a whole was incorporated into a totally different polity, to be called Nigeria, with a whole lot of other people with whom the Igbo people had not had direct contact before. The result of that was not something from which you could recover, really. You had to learn a totally new reality, and accommodate yourself to the demands of this new reality, which is the state called Nigeria. Various nationalities, each of which had its own independent life, were forced by the British to live with people of different customs and habits and priorities and religions. And then at independence, fifty years later, they were suddenly on their own again. They began all over again to learn the rules of independence. The problems that Nigeria is having today could be seen as resulting from this effort that was initiated by colonial rule to create a new nation."

Ask students to note places in the text that foreshadow this disruption, this replacement of one reality with another, as they read the novel. For example, Achebe's first reference to the character Ikemefuna as "ill-fated," at the end of Chapter 1, foreshadows the boy's death and Okonkwo's son Nwoye's troubled response in Chapter 7, which in turn foreshadows Nwoye's conversion to Christianity and joining the missionaries in Chapter 16. In Chapters 16 through 18, Achebe indicates the ways in which the Europeans separated Nigerians of different clans and ethnic backgrounds and turned them against their own people and villages through their appeal to the village outcasts and by "teaching young Christians to read and write." Another example of how Achebe foreshadows the alteration of indigenous society is the replacement by "the white man's court" of the clan's customs with their own laws, discussed in Chapter 20. Obierika explains: "He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart."

Activity 2. Telling One's Own Story: Differing Perspectives

One theme that appears over and over in Achebe's writing is that our perceptions and the stories we tell are shaped by our social and cultural context, and he emphasizes that, "those that have been written about should also participate in the making of these stories" (" An African Voice ").

Achebe writes his own history of colonization in order to present a perspective different from those taught in the Western literary and historical tradtions. However, the text of Things Fall Apart provides a range of perspectives through its narrator and many characters. To create a framework for interpreting the conflict within and between values and cultures that Achebe addresses, engage students in a discussion of perspective/standpoint, and provide them an opportunity to analyze and then take on the perspective of one of the characters in the novel.

Ask the class, "Who is the narrator/speaker in the novel? Do the narrator's position, perspective, and identity remain constant or change throughout the narrative? What other characters' views are represented and used to convey the novel's insights and to give readers a certain viewpoint on Igbo society and the class with the British missionaries?"

Ask students to take up a character in the novel, such as Okonkwo, Obierika, Unoka, Ekwefi, Ezinma, Nwoye, or Ikemefuna, and rewrite a scene from his or her voice and position. To help students approach this activity, ask them why they chose a certain character, what role the character plays in the novel, and which scene would be appropriate to rewrite from this character's perspective. (The confrontations between the white men and the Igbo people are good incidents to use for the rewrite, as they can reinforce the colonialist/native point of view issue of the lesson.)

Use the character's actions, observations about the character made by other characters or by the character him- or herself within the text, narrative description, and your own impressions to describe the character and infer a point of view. To aid them in recognizing and adopting the point of view of one of the characters, have students fill out the Character Traits Chart , available in .pdf format.

Activity 3. Revising History Through Writing

In an interview in the 1994-95 issue of The Paris Review , Chinua Achebe states that he became a writer in order to tell his story and the story of his people from his own viewpoint. He explains the danger of having one's story told only by others through the following proverb: "until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." Critics and Achebe's own essays have portrayed Things Fall Apart as a response to the ideologies and discursive strategies of colonial texts such as Joyce Cary's Mister Johnson and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness .

While reading Things Fall Apart , students should reflect on the proverb and ask themselves in what ways Achebe's novel subverts the themes and techniques of colonial writing and constitutes a different story or counter-narrative to the European texts. Ask the class to note the ways in which Achebe represents African culture and the African landscape, and to give textual examples of ways in which he employs narrative techniques that contest colonialist discourse. (Some examples are Achebe's use of simple, ordinary prose and a restrained mode of narration; the omission of exotic descriptions; creation of a subjectivity for his major characters; inclusion of a specific cultural and temporal context of the Igbo and Umuofia; presentation of the complexities and the contradictions of a traditional Igbo community without idealizing; introduction of white Europeans into the story from the Igbo population's perspective.)

In order to introduce students to colonial writing and thought, assign one or both of the following texts for them to read and analyze in relation to Things Fall Apart :

You may choose to assign Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness (1899) , available online at the Electronic Text Center, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Center for the Liberal Arts , to your students to read. In conjunction with the novella, students can read the essay, " Achebe on Racism in Heart of Darkness ", available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Victorian Web .

After reading Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart , students can respond to the following questions about themes and literary techniques on the chart comparing Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart provided in .pdf format:

• What is the moral dilemma presented within each work?
• How do the two texts represent Christianity versus African religious belief and practice?
• How do they approach the relationship between the community and the individual?

As an alternate to Heart of Darkness , Rudyard Kipling's poem, " The White Man's Burden ," (Click 'Some Poems' then 'The White Man's Burden.') located on The Kipling Organization , available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource The Academy of American Poets , constitutes a brief but significant example of colonial literature. Note that Kipling is writing about India rather than African countries, but that both situations are examples of nineteenth-century British Empire and colonial relations.

A few months after Kipling's poem was published, H.T. wrote a response entitled "The Black Man's Burden" (1899). 

Ask students the following questions about the poem in comparison to Things Fall Apart : What is "the white man's burden" within the poem? What is "the black man's burden"? How does the poem portray non-white peoples? Why is Johnson's response important to understanding history and writing history? What is the narrator's attitude towards Empire and colonialism? How does this attitude compare with that of the narrator in Things Fall Apart ? How are the Europeans' views of Africans and the Africans' views of whites represented in the novel? What contemporary examples were written with a similar purpose as Johnson's poem?

• Debate the aims and outcomes of writing in African languages versus colonizers' languages.
• To extend the notion of rewriting history from previously excluded points of view, have students analyze the way Achebe represents women in Igbo society within Things Fall Apart , and ask them to and write a paper discussing women's roles and status in the novel.
• An interesting comparison to the women in Things Fall Apart read the essay by John N. Oriji, "Igbo Women from 1929-1960" in West Africa Review1 (2000), and write a paper comparing the role of women in the novel and the historical role that Igbo women played in the Aba Women's Revolt in Nigeria during colonialism.
• Have students complete an at-home project or an in-class essay on The Role of the Writer in Society. In addition to publishing many novels chronicling the history of colonial and post-colonial Nigeria through the lives of fictional protagonists and their communities, Chinua Achebe has spoken out and written several essays on the role of the writer/storyteller within his or her society.
• Write on the board or distribute to the class the following quotes that Achebe uses to describe his mission as a writer: "Here is an adequate revolution for me to espouse  – to help my society regain belief in itself and to put away the complexes of the years of denigration and self-abasement. And it is essentially a question of education, in the best sense of that word. Here, I think, my aims and the deepest aspirations of society meet" (Quoted by George P. Landow in "Achebe's Fiction and Contemporary Nigerian Politics", available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Internet Public Library). "The writer's duty is to help them regain it [dignity] by showing them in human terms what happened to them, what they lost.
• There is a saying in Ibo that a man who can't tell where the rain began to beat him cannot know where he dried his body. The writer can tell the people where the rain began to beat them. After all the novelist's duty is not to beat this morning's headline in topicality, it is to explore in depth the human condition. In Africa he cannot perform this task unless he has a proper sense of history" ("The Role of the Writer in a New Nation"). Have the class discuss what these statements say about Achebe's view of the role of the writer/storyteller in society. As a final project, ask students to write an essay that analyzes the ways in which Achebe fulfills his role as a writer according to his definition through Things Fall Apart. For additional information, see the essays "Africa and Her Writers" and "The Novelist as Teacher" in Chinua Achebe's Morning Yet on Creation Day : Essays. New York: Doubleday, 1975.
• An alternate assignment would be a comparison of Achebe's views on the role of the writer with those of the Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka in his Interview on writing, role of writer, and political activism, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Conversations with History.

Recommended Websites

African Studies WWW

K-12 Resources

• What Do We Know About Africa? Curriculum Guide
• African Continent Map.Gif
• Nigeria page
• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
• The Academy of American Poets
• "The White Man's Burden" (Click 'Some Poems' then 'The White Man's Burden.')
• Map Collections 1500-1999
• Issues in African History
• Countries' Resources
• Nigeria Information
• Igbo Information
• Heart of Darkness
• Chinua Achebe
• Achebe in His Own Words: Quotations, Interviews, Works
• Postimperial and Postcolonial Literature in English (George P.Landow at Brown University): Chinua Achebe
• " An African Voice "
• " Chinua Achebe: The Art of Fiction "
• Victorian Web
• " Achebe on Racism in Heart of Darkness "
• " Kipling's Imperialism "
• " The British Empire Kipling's Day "

Print Resources used in this Lesson Plan

Achebe, Chinua, "The African Writer and the English Language." In Achebe, Chinua, Morning Yet on Creation Day: Essays. New York: Doubleday, 1975. 91-103.

-----, Things Fall Apart . New York: Ballantine Books, 1959.

Materials & Media

Chinua achebe's things fall apart: teaching through the novel - character traits chart, chinua achebe's things fall apart: teaching through the novel - comparing heart of darkness and things fall apart, related on edsitement, chinua achebe’s things fall apart : oral and literary strategies, chinua achebe’s 'new english' in things fall apart, edsitement's recommended reading list for college-bound students.

Opinion Readers critique The Post: Remember the Jackson State killings

Here are this week's Free for All letters.

Every week, The Post runs a collection of letters of readers’ grievances — pointing out grammatical mistakes, missing coverage and inconsistencies. These letters tell us what we did wrong and, occasionally, offer praise. Here, we present this week’s Free for All letters.

Recent Post pieces, including the May 5 front-page article “ Applying the lessons of tragic legacy ” and Brian VanDeMark’s April 28 Opinion essay, “ At Kent State, a tragedy precipitated by politicians ,” have noted the May 4, 1970, Kent State massacre. It would be fitting to pay due attention to the May 15, 1970, Jackson State killings. In about 30 seconds, law enforcement fired about 400 bullets or pieces of buckshot on the campus in Jackson, Miss. Two Black students were killed, and 12 were injured. Memorable photographs captured a bullet-riddled campus building. It looked like a war zone. Jackson State should be remembered.

Steve Young , Arlington

Dehumanizing language had no place on this map

The May 9 Post contained a map elucidating the front-page article “ Border closure cuts off aid flow ,” on Israel’s seizure of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

The key accompanying the map used terms that were Orwellian. Referring to the entire northern and central regions of Gaza as areas “where Israel has conducted clearing operations” was so insensitive. Palestinians aren’t trees or rocks to be cleared from farmland. They’re human beings, and the Israel Defense Forces terrorized them out of their homes and then carpet-bombed entire neighborhoods to rubble.

The key also referred to Deir al-Balah refugee camp, the Mawasi area and parts of Khan Younis as “IDF … humanitarian zones.” That terminology is unacceptable. What’s “humanitarian” about designating areas to which Palestinian civilians must flee to escape being bombed or slaughtered?

James Zogby , Washington

The writer is president of the Arab American Institute.

Correct protest language

Regarding the May 15 news article “ Year’s end marked by smaller ceremonies at Columbia ”:

The Post’s use of the term “pro-Palestinian” can make people think protesters are anti-Israeli or anti-Jewish. That is not true.

Please describe these students as anti-genocide, because that is the truth.

Mary Kirby , Chicago

There’s no dearth of suffering, so acknowledge it

It is remarkable that the May 6 letters package, “ Four Columbia students reflect on campus life in the midst of protest ,” which was focused on the suffering of Gazans, contained not a mention of Hamas , the Oct. 7 slaughter of parents and children in front of each other, rape, hostages, human and hospital shields, underground tunnels, or Hamas’s bombardment by rocket fire of a humanitarian aid checkpoint the day before the letters were published.

Adam Cohen , Potomac

Another reason to be up in arms

Michael Ramirez’s May 7 editorial cartoon, “ A never-ending cycle ,” copied M.C. Escher’s artwork “Drawing Hands” (with “apologies” to Escher as a credit). Escher emphatically rejected a letter from the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger, requesting a drawing for an album cover. My opinion is he would not appreciate Ramirez’s use of his work, either. But what was Ramirez’s point?

I am unaware of President Biden making a dramatic increase in civil service employees. I guess Ramirez was satirizing aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. As most of that money buys weapons and ammunition made in the United States to send to foreign destinations, this circle provides profit for U.S. arms manufacturers and jobs for Americans, which I thought were conservative ideals. What’s not to like, Mr. Ramirez?

Bruce Krebs , Arlington

Leave partisanship out of voting reform

The May 4 news article “ Rift with Trump over election claims leads to top RNC lawyer’s resignation ” described former Republican Party attorney Charlie Spies as “fiercely critical of Democratic efforts to change voting rules in advance of the 2020 election.”

By calling efforts to change voting rules “Democratic,” The Post gave credence to the false claim by former president Donald Trump and others that Democrats stole the 2020 election. In truth, these efforts were focused on reducing the need for in-person voting amid the covid-19 pandemic.

Because of the timing of the primaries and the demographics of the pandemic’s hot spots, proposed changes to voting rules tended to focus on large polling places in urban centers, and as such were more likely to be enacted in “blue” states by Democratic politicians. This led Republicans to oppose the changes for partisan reasons.

However, by the time the general election took place, the pandemic’s hot spots had shifted to more rural areas, whose voters were less likely to have or take advantage of alternate voting options, and experts believe Republicans might have lost some rural votes because they followed Spies’s partisan response rather than the science.

David Kinyon , Minneapolis

Children are a gift. Know what they take.

Regarding the May 10 letters package, “ What’s the ‘ideal’ number of kids? Somewhere between zero and 10. ,” in response to Timothy P. Carney’s May 6 op-ed, “ The ideal number of kids in a family: Four (at a minimum) ”:

I was alarmed and disappointed by the number of letters advocating large families. All but one of these letters were based on emotional arguments. Only one pointed out that it takes time, energy and money to raise a child. It also takes a healthy adult, preferably more than one, and health includes mental and emotional health.

But more importantly, we live on a planet with finite resources, which are already stretched to the limit.

Rosemary Killen , Silver Spring

Not the right wing

I’m glad The Post published David I. Sommers’s May 11 Free for All letter, “ What’s the story? ,” which called out the silliness in publishing the May 2 Style article “ Trumpworld’s Loomering presence ,” a long profile of Laura Loomer. The Post has amplified a long string of noxious Donald Trump hangers-on; shall we expect Charlie Kirk or Tim Pool next? I don’t get why The Post focuses on right-wingers. Readers aren’t into them, and the left has influencers who are more interesting and more intelligent, and doing good things instead of trying to tear the country apart. As for people on the right, Tim Miller, Rick Wilson and others are trying to bring the world back to sanity, but The Post ignores them also.

Susan Wallace , Washington

France’s ‘Olympic movement’ is necessary and humane

The May 12 Sports article “ Olympic movement ” negatively described Paris’s efforts to remove homeless encampments in areas where the Olympics will be held this summer. It also criticized Vancouver, which “cracked down on jaywalking, street vending and public urination” before the 2010 Winter Olympics. What is wrong with a city enforcing laws against those actions, even if there is no Olympics pending? The article went on to reprimand France for moving many of the refugees in Paris’s encampments to apartment houses in other cities while their asylum claims are processed. It would be more appropriate to praise France for trying to help the refugees achieve legal immigration status.

The Olympics are for promoting friendly relations among the citizens of many countries, including countries that are otherwise hostile to one another. This goal should not be diminished by having the Olympic venue include homeless encampments.

Edward Tabor , Bethesda

The vast world of two-wheelers

As a reporter for 40 years myself (now retired from the Milwaukee Journal and its successor, the Journal Sentinel), I am an admirer of The Post for its customary accuracy. That’s why it’s so jarring to repeatedly read that editors there don’t get it when it comes to powered two-wheelers.

They are almost always described as “moped” or “mopeds,” as if the term were a generic for any motorized two-wheeler. But a moped is a very specific type of two-wheeler — a bicycle with its pedals and a small motor to provide an assist to the rider, hence the term “moped” for motorized with pedals. Other types are motorcycles, from small 50cc models all the way up to huge Harley-Davidson two- and three-wheelers; motorbikes, similar to mopeds but without the pedals, and motor scooters, which have smaller wheels and allow the operator to sit chair-like with feet on the floor and not astride as on motorcycles and horses.

These are very different vehicles. And when stories such as the May 1 Metro article “ D.C. bill would require registration for mopeds ” doesn’t make the distinction clear until the sixth paragraph, they do readers a disservice.

Frank A. Aukofer , Falls Church

Wording challenges

I read with great interest Adam Higginbotham’s May 5 Opinions essay, “ The space shuttle that never came home ,” which detailed that fateful day in January 1986 when Challenger exploded shortly after takeoff, taking the lives of seven crew. But nowhere in that excellent historical account did I find an opinion, unless one considers the use of the noun “mandarins” in reference to NASA’s senior managers to be opinionated. I had to research its etymology to appreciate that the word, coined by the Portuguese to describe public officials in Imperial China, has many meanings. Was the author insinuating that NASA managers were powerful bureaucrats who tend to make things complicated? Or perhaps respected cultural or academic figures? No definition of that word describes the NASA engineering management I’ve encountered in my four decades of service within NASA.

The risk assessment that cold day in 1986, culminating in the decision to launch, focused on the danger posed by the impact of ice, shaken from the launch vehicle and tower, on the fragile thermal tiles, as well as the compromised integrity of the O-ring seals in the segmented solid rocket boosters. The latter brought down Challenger. Seventeen years later, in February 2003, the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon reentry, again taking the lives of seven crew, because of damage to the thermal tiles sustained at launch by a falling chunk of insulation shaken from the spacecraft. In both cases, the failure modes were well known to the engineers as well as management. And in both cases, NASA’s formal accident investigation reports described the intense pressure brought to bear on management to maintain schedule. Challenger was lost because it was operated under environmental conditions well beyond those it was designed and tested to. Perhaps there was no saving Columbia after the damage it was suspected to have sustained at launch, but the management decision not to inspect the spacecraft for damage in flight was also driven by a desire to maintain schedule. That was the true root cause of both bad decisions.

Jack Connerney , Annapolis, Md.

Where were the skeptics?

I strongly object to the May 3 Style article “ The children who remember .” It is one thing to publish an article on belief in past lives and the people who promote it. That is news.

However, this article not only wandered into but totally immersed itself in a credulous endorsement of something that, frankly, is the stuff of tabloids. The headline alone was objectionable. It suggested that children really do remember their past lives, which presupposes that they really had past lives. In reality, there is absolutely no solid evidence for anything of the sort. To have it presented as if it were fact was jarring.

I am old enough to remember the repressed memory cases of the 1980s and ’90s, in which preschool teachers were hauled into court based on children’s descriptions of satanic rituals involving sex and witches flying on broomsticks. There is a very similar whiff of something ugly with the people encouraging very young children to recount horrific stories involving Holocaust victims, dead World War II pilots, etc.

A degree of skepticism is always appropriate in journalism, especially in extraordinary cases such as this.

Stacy Spencer , Alexandria

Long live The Post’s brilliant women

Robin Givhan’s May 11 The Critique column, “ With precision and simplicity, Stormy Daniels bruises Trump’s careful image ,” masterfully summarized what Daniels’s testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money trial accomplished: exposing the man for what he is.

It took a humble woman from Louisiana, armed with the truth of her story, to be the one to finally pierce the veneer of Bible huckster Teflon Don. I believe Jesus would have respected Daniels for her honesty, tenacity and courage. Kudos to Daniels and Givhan.

Bernadette Koontz , Whiting, N.J.

During World War II, U.S. submarines returning to port would sometimes display an inverted broom from the conning tower, advertising a successful mission. All engaged targets had been sunk.

In her May 12 op-ed, “ If you have nothing nice to say, let’s be friends ,” Kathleen Parker posted her own clean sweep. She fired from the hip, over the shoulder and between the legs into her “target-rich environment,” and my score sheet says they were all hits: campus protesters, a porn queen, everyone’s favorite piñata and his most pathetic wannabe-VP sycophants.

If you can’t be Parker’s friend, you don’t want to be her enemy.

William A. McCollam , Fairfax

As a longtime devotee of Post commentary, I’ve grieved when favorite columnists, such as Michael Gerson, have died. And I pray that Dana Milbank, Eugene Robinson and other men have enduring, happy careers. But, my God, long live the cranky women! Let’s petition the “frat bros” Kathleen Parker mentioned for some of their $500,000 kegger money. I’d use it on a massive, raucous soirée at a literary spot — say, the Library of Congress’s Main Reading Room — to honor Parker, Robin Givhan, Anne Lamott, Sally Jenkins, Monica Hesse and Alexandra Petri. For flowers, maybe Queen Anne’s lace, a pretty weed “blossomed into a field,” as Givhan described Stormy Daniels’s testimony. Laughter would blossom, too, “the Dippity-Do of the spiritual life, jiggly at first and then holding us firmly” [Lamott, “ Lifelong lessons in coping with fear and humiliation ,” Tuesday Opinion, May 7]. We’ll have no “clumsy third-rate comics, whose hammy punchlines” fall “like refrigerators hitting sidewalks” [Jenkins, “ Brady roast was misogynistic, cruel and unbearably unfunny ,” Sports, May 8]. No “throwing chairs at each other, like guests on Jerry Springer” [Hesse, “ In Congress, brawls not reserved for the men ,” Style, May 18]. And no brain worms invited, “currently under indictment” or not [Petri, “ I’m RFK Jr.’s brain worm, and I’m asking for your vote ,” op-ed, May 12].

Phyllis Windle , College Park

Tough buying a home now? Try being a woman in the ’70s.

I enjoyed reading the April 28 Business article “ Buying a house? ” about the struggles home shoppers face in the current economy.

It was interesting to see how differently each person did their research and evaluated what would be a good match for them at this time in their lives. These are success stories that many people can learn from and relate to.

The challenges the subjects of this article faced reminded me of how I worked to buy a first home and later, after a divorce, fought to keep my home as we divided our property. Try refinancing as a woman in the early 1970s when banks did not like giving loans to women!

Nanci Link , Washington