- Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Ch. 11
"It was like beginning life anew without the vigor and enthusiasm of youth, like learning to become left-handed in old age."
- Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Ch. 14
"if one finger brought oil it soiled the others." Chapter 13, Pg. 111
"It was like beginning life anew without the vigor and enthusiasm of youth, like learning to become left-handed in old age." Chapter 14, Pg. 113
"'iron horse'" Chapter 15, Pg. 120
Quote 11: "'We have heard stories about white men who made the powerful guns and the strong drinks and took slaves away across the seas, but no one thought the stories were true.'" Chapter 15, Pg. 122 (NOT SURE)
LITERARY INFORMATION
The importance of this text can be seen in its worldwide distribution as an authentic narrative about the horrors of the colonialist experience from the eyes of the colonized. This daring perspective brought to the world the figure of Okonkwo, a powerful and respected village elder who cannot single-handedly repel the invasion of foreign culture into his village. The book has been taught in a variety of contexts from cultural history to anthropology to literature and world history classes. Its application to such a number of fields reveals its historical importance in the world.
Things Fall Apart is a tragic and moving story of Okonkwo and the destruction of the village of Umuofia by the colonialist enterprise. This novel reveals colonialism as a traumatic experience common to all former colonial territories. The administration that was implemented endeavored to shift the people away from the superstitious and what they saw as primitive practices of their culture to the supposedly more “civilized” precepts of Christianity. Achebe does not gloss over the cruelty and superstition that prevailed in Igbo culture; in fact, he even shows that it was