Chinua Achebes Impact On Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe’s insight into the mind and culture of the African man makes Things Fall Apart very real and even relatable to Western readers. Achebe was born into a Christian family in Ogidi, Igboland, a part of Easter Nigeria. He was born only a few generations after the events in Things Fall Apart occur. Chinua Achebe grew up listening to his parents’ and grandparents’ stories about the history of the Igbo people and what happened when the Europeans came into their region. Although Achebe was surrounded by the stories of his family, he was also influenced by his faith. Chinua Achebe could have chosen to write his book with extreme biases, either completely on the side of the evangelizing Christian missionaries or entirely sympathizing with
Like many of the events in this book, the relationship between a husband and wife was extremely complicated. In many ways, the patriarchal society highly favored men above women, as they were the leaders of both the clan and the family. Additionally, the more wives a man had, the more important he was in society, but there were both good and bad sides to the relationship between a man and his wife in this culture. Okonkwo kept his emotions mostly to himself. To express emotions was seen as feminine. However, it was acceptable for men to show their anger. The manifestation of Okonkwo’s anger was often him beating one of his wives or lashing out in another physical way, often without much of a reason. During a time called the Week of Peace, Okonkwo realizes that his youngest wife, Ojiugo, had gone out to her friend’s house to get her hair braided and did not return home in time to prepare him dinner. Even though the other wives did their best to cover up for Ojiugo’s negligence, Okonkwo became furious. When Ojiugo arrived at Okonkwo’s obi, the house where he lived, he beat her badly (Achebe 29). Because Okonkwo beat her during the Week of Peace, he was punished; however, he later beats his second wife, Ekwefi, for cutting leaves off of a tree to use for wrapping something and is not punished. The traditions of this culture are so important
Before this book, all of the history of Africa in regards to New Imperialism was told from the perspective of the West. Whoever tells a story has the power to shape the way others perceive the topic, and for this reason, Chinua Achebe’s book is all the more powerful. Suddenly, people are forced to look at New Imperialism in a new way, and it challenges the way they think. Nonetheless, Achebe does not simply call the Europeans “bad” and the Africans “good” or vice-versa. He weaves a very intricate story, in which both the Europeans and the Africans are simultaneously good and bad. Not everything in history is as black and white as it is portrayed, but the good, the bad, and the gray areas all contribute to