Angeles, Ray Gerard D.

10-1719
July 2, 2014
Things Fall Apart- Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart is a thin book that is loaded with views that not many
of us see. For a thin book, it is loaded with scenes which are not exactly known to us. However,
after having a good view of these scenes, readers, both from and foreign to that area would be
able to understand the circumstances that they were in.
Things Fall Apart is a story of a tribe, located in a place called Umuofia as it was called
in the book. The main character is called Okonkwo who was a man of high regard in their clan.
He was a mighty warrior who lived prosperously in a compound with his three wives and their
children. As a person in general, Okonkwo is a strict man, wherein he lived by the thought of
being stern and being manly. He believed that that is the only way to live honourably and
prosperously. He would condemn any man who would show any sign of being gentle and weak
as effeminate. As the story progresses, Okonkwo and the people in this area would be exposed to
the missionaries from the west. They are exposed to the customs of the white men that opposed
most of the customs they currently had. It was a time of change.
This story of Okonkwo and his people gives readers a picture of their life in Umuofia.
The striking thing about this fact is that the story would disprove certain assumptions that people
from colonizing countries made. It showed the readers the complex system of society that these
people had.
The people of Umuofia have a domestic system of livelihood, seen through the fact that
they would have to tend a farm and take care of animals. They would plan the planting and

harvesting days. They have markets where they sell their crops and other products. They also
have a justice system where in the higher men of the society would have a council that would
decide on the course of action, as well as relying on divination to decide. They also have political
relationships with neighbouring tribes where in they would trade, or hear news on what was
happening at the other lands.
However, readers may notice that they have an established belief system that seems to
govern their activities. Included in their planting and harvesting routines, is the prayers and
offerings to the god of land. Their decision making and justice system also relied on divination
where a medium would translate the words of their gods and ancestors for them. They would also
have rules concerning how to please and respect their gods, in which, when broken would have
been equal to some sort of severe punishment. They have rituals and social gatherings that take
into consideration what they thought their gods wanted them to do. They would not dare
dishonour their gods for the fear of misfortune.
This belief system, however was challenged when missionaries arrived in the area,
attempting to evangelize the people. Many converted, many also stayed behind. Okonkwo
considers that this conversion is a sign of weakness and is a form of abomination to the gods
leading him to condemn it and stick to the status quo. However, in the end when he proposed to
fight of these foreign men, many chose to do what is against his wishes. Thinking that it is
hopeless and that this societys future was hopeless, Okonkwo took his life at the end of the
story.
It seems that in Okonkwos suicide, Achebe wanted the readers to see this suicide as a
symbol of the effect that colonization had to the colonized. For a person like Achebe, who is

grounded firmly on the status quo of his tribes belief system, he was forced into this entirely
different world where the word of the colonizers is the status quo. However, it seems ironic that
in the end, Okonkwo did what was against his fatherlands belief system and ended his life in a
dishonourable manner. Okonkwo, to me, is a character that bears a tragic flaw which can be
summed up in the following line:
"His whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.
It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious
gods and of magic, the fear of the forest and of the forces of nature,
malevolent, red in tooth and claw."

This flaw was not fully acknowledged by the person himself. This leads to the fact that
Okonkwo failed to achieve retribution concerning this matter.
Achebe presents us of a portrait of a land and of its men, unfamiliar to ours at first sight,
but bears a lot of similarity to our own. It gives us a sense that people of different lands or of
different skin colours would have similar traits and equally complex ways of living. He also lets
us see that although both are equally complex, they are also equally imperfect.
This story is written in a way that we can say it targets readers from inside and outside
Achebes native culture. He uses words, foreign to people outside his father land, to describe
certain things and to express certain traditions that may lose its meaning in translation. However,
the use of the English language is crafter beautifully enough for people outside his origin would
understand. It seems as if Achebe both wanted to strengthen the sense of identity to his people
and at the same time, show off this identity to the world.
I do believe that the message Achebe wanted to put across can be found exactly in a line
from the story, found near the end of the twenty second chapter:

"We cannot leave the matter in his hands because he does not
understand our customs, just as we do not understand his. We say
he is foolish because he does not know our ways, and perhaps he
says we are foolish because we do not know his. . .

This line gives us an idea of what Achebe observes is happening to his people at the time. He
gives the readers that sense of superiority which may govern the belief of a group of people
towards another. He attempts to show us that savage or similar terms seem to be used to
describe people who are not the same as everyone else, thus prolonging the battle for superiority.
Ultimately, this novel establishes an idea of Achebes people for the readers. It tells us
that we are more alike than any of us would have thought. It also told the readers of the effects of
oppression which may bloom further into hopelessness. Indeed, this novel, not reaching more
than two hundred pages, expressed Achebes spirit to be heard. It made us, the readers, hear his
voice that was silenced, it seemed, for a long time.