Things Fall Apart (Discussion Paper)
Roy Oliver Corvera Eng12
2014-89168 Things Fall Apart
Author Achebe was born Albert Chinualumogu Achebe in the Igbo village of Nneobi, on November 16, 1930. His parents stood at a crossroads of traditional culture and Christian influence; this made a significant impact on the children, especially Chinualumogu. After the youngest daughter was born, the family moved to Isaiah Achebe's ancestral village of Ogidi, in what is now the Nigerian state of Anambra.
In Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, he portrays the conflict between Nigeria’s white imposing governments and the habitual culture of the native Igbo people. Achebe’s novel shatters the stereotypical European portraits of native Africans. He also portrays the complex, advanced social institutions and artistic traditions of Igbo culture aforementioned to its contact with Europeans.
This novel can set out on a wide array of discussion. Plenty of interesting topics can be discussed. Cases in point of topics are the varying masculinity issue, the language as a sign of cultural divergence, personalities of the characters, the struggle between change and tradition. Having been reading this novel, there’s this interesting part of the story where there is an issue in terms of masculinity. In there, Unoka, father of Okonkwa shows effeminate and lazy acts― idle, poor, profligate, cowardly, gentle, and interested in music and conversation (which, in a way, Okonkwo avoided by himself because he believes that those acts show unmanliness). Unoka dies of disrepute, leaving the town many unsettled debts. Okonkwo then gets haunted by these actions of his dead father. In response to that, he became exactly opposite of his father. He has raised a big family, became the clansman, warrior, farmer. All these traits possessed by Okonkwo shows masculinity or manliness (according to their
2014-89168 Things Fall Apart
Author Achebe was born Albert Chinualumogu Achebe in the Igbo village of Nneobi, on November 16, 1930. His parents stood at a crossroads of traditional culture and Christian influence; this made a significant impact on the children, especially Chinualumogu. After the youngest daughter was born, the family moved to Isaiah Achebe's ancestral village of Ogidi, in what is now the Nigerian state of Anambra.
In Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, he portrays the conflict between Nigeria’s white imposing governments and the habitual culture of the native Igbo people. Achebe’s novel shatters the stereotypical European portraits of native Africans. He also portrays the complex, advanced social institutions and artistic traditions of Igbo culture aforementioned to its contact with Europeans.
This novel can set out on a wide array of discussion. Plenty of interesting topics can be discussed. Cases in point of topics are the varying masculinity issue, the language as a sign of cultural divergence, personalities of the characters, the struggle between change and tradition. Having been reading this novel, there’s this interesting part of the story where there is an issue in terms of masculinity. In there, Unoka, father of Okonkwa shows effeminate and lazy acts― idle, poor, profligate, cowardly, gentle, and interested in music and conversation (which, in a way, Okonkwo avoided by himself because he believes that those acts show unmanliness). Unoka dies of disrepute, leaving the town many unsettled debts. Okonkwo then gets haunted by these actions of his dead father. In response to that, he became exactly opposite of his father. He has raised a big family, became the clansman, warrior, farmer. All these traits possessed by Okonkwo shows masculinity or manliness (according to their