Preview

Things Fall Apart Research Papers

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
763 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Things Fall Apart Research Papers
Things fall apart research paper On November 16 of 1930, the legendary Nigerian author Chinua Achebe was born. Little did the Igbo tribe know, they had just birthed one of the most famous authors in the world with so much as 83 books and collective stories to show. With Achebe being one of the first widely published African man, Things Fall Apart was groundbreaking for his culture. Things Fall Apart is a story about a man named Okonkwo who becomes mad with power and lost as a father. But what was Achebe’s connection and reasoning for writing this novel? Perhaps it was to clear the muddy water on African culture, or to show everybody that they were people too, not animals as white missionaries and colonists had once thought. Ironically Chinua, who was raised as a Christian, had not been raised as part of the Igbo tribe at the time. In fact, his real …show more content…
He doesn’t do anything worthy enough to earn respect from his father.. Nwoye is practically a failure to him. This is an opposite parallel to Chinua Achebe’s life. As far as research can tell, Achebe and his father had a pretty normal father-son relationship. He would also go on to become one of the first and best African authors of his time, which would earn him plenty of respect from his father. Another opposite that would coinsight the two together would be that Nwoye had been raised as a traditional Igbo tribe-member, however Achebe had been raised as a Christian. The both of them were intrigued of the opposite religions and beliefs. As Achebe wrote, Okonkwo was not supportive of Nwoye even looking at the Church, “...He went into the obi and saluted his father, but he did not answer”(Achebe 151). The importance of this quote would be that Okonkwo has just learned about Nwoye lurking around the red-thatched church and immediately jumping to his feet and attacking his son. As to stay with the trend, Achebe’s father approved of his change of name and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    His father fears raising a son like his own lazy father. As Nwoye grows up, Okonkwo tries to suppress any possible sign of this by “constant nagging and beating” (Achebe 14). From a young age, Nwoye internalizes that he is worthless. He only receives praise from his mother, who, as a woman, is supposedly insignificant. His greatest role model is constantly and violently ashamed of him. Nwoye feels like an outsider. He feels “a snapping inside him” after Okonkwo’s abuses. (Achebe 61). When the missionaries arrive, Nwoye visits the church out of curiosity and returns home to a harsh beating. As soon as Okonkwo lets him go, Nwoye “walk[s] away and never return[s],” leaving for a Christian school in another village (Achebe 152). To save himself, Nwoye has to escape his situation, but that means escaping everything. He cannot pick and choose and in the end has to leave everything that has made him who he is for a chance at…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel, “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe a Nigerian author, tells the history of a small village in Nigeria. The history is focused on the daily life of a man named Okonkwo. Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was a man known for his laziness, and cowardice. He was unoccupied, poor, libertine, gentle, interested in conversation and in music more than anything else. Unoka died in disrepute, leaving many village debts unsettled. In response, Okonkwo consciously adopted opposite ideals and becomes productive, wealthy, thrifty, brave, violent, and adamantly rejects everything for which he believes his father stood. Okonkwo always leaded in his own way, a way which made his wives and children afraid of him. With the arrival of white missionaries,…

    • 833 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 3934 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chinua Achebe’s novel “Things Fall Apart” is the story of the Igbo culture on the verge of a revolution; it shows the collision of the Igbo people’s traditional way of life and the “winds of change” that are introduced by British colonials who have recently moved to their region. Within all of the confusion and discomfort throughout the Igbo people who are unsure of how to react to these new cultural practices and beliefs, is one of the main characters, Okonknwo, whose soul possesses so much discontent with this idea of change, that he reacts in a harsh and violent manner in order to resist the conversion of culture, and to further prove that the traditional ways of the Igbo people were what has since established him as being a “real man”, and also because he is afraid of losing his supreme status within society. Okonkwo’s refusal to accept the colonial’s new way of life reflects upon the idea that internally Okonkwo is afraid of losing the power in which he had once possessed, and deals with the fact that his personal ego acts as a deterrent for the “winds of change” upon the Igbo’s cultural life throughout the novel.…

    • 640 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Of the many themes that appear in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, individuality versus nationality becomes a central topic as the story progresses and develops. With the invasion and colonization of the European missionaries, Okonkwo’s nationality and contributions to society are called into question. Achebe explains the idea of nationality over individuality by showing that society is the precursor to individuality. Examining the life of the protagonist, Okonkwo, before and after his resistance exemplifies this key idea in Things Fall Apart.…

    • 831 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay” – Jiddu Krishnamurti. Things Fall Apart is an English-language novel written by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe that was published in 1958 by William Heinemann Ltd. In Things Fall Apart the Umuofia tribesmen refuse to change and show this through killing a fellow tribesmen, an English messenger, and eventually their own death. My arguments will show that Chinua Achebe uses the elements of a tragic hero to support the theme of the struggle between change and tradition in Things Fall Apart.…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    First and foremost, Achebe uses dialect to show those who read his novel how rash decisions can ruin relationships. Nwoye does not say a word in this whole passage. This probably because his is traumatized by the way Okonkwo was yelling at him. Okonkwo’s cousin, Amikwu, found out that Nwoye wanted to convert to christianity and…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Things Fall Apart is a novel written by Chinua Achebe. This novel explains how imperialism affects a country. It also helps the reader visualize the drastic changes the Igbo culture had to experience when another country decided to expand their reign into Umuofia and the surroundings clans. Characteristics such as Okonkwo, who was the fearless leader of Umuofia, were immensely afflicted. After all, Things Fall Apart is a work about loss of culture and tradition.…

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    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.…

    • 2094 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Things Fall Apart

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages

    He was a protagonist who didn’t want to be like his father ( The stereotypical drunk father), but in the end he kind of ended up just like him, “The depressed, miserable father who could not support his family”. “Despite all of Okonkwo’s showy manliness, he is ruled by fear – a profound fear of being deemed weak and feminine, like his father. Essentially, Okonkwo fears nothing but himself. ”(Achebe). “To show affection was a sign of weakness; the only thing worth demonstrating was strength.…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Things Fall Apart

    • 749 Words
    • 3 Pages

    As a reader reads deeper into the book Things Fall Apart they come to find out how strongly Okonkwo feels about being a very manly man. This is a major flaw of his, because wanting to seem masculine causes him to be blinded of want he is really doing and how it may affect others around him. For example, when Okonkwo’s adopted son Ikemefuna was set to be killed, Okonkwo heard him yell that some men were going to kill him, Okonkwo ran up and killed Ikemefuna himself. Okonkwo did this wretched act, so he would seem more masculine to the members of his clan. After he did this Nwoye disliked his father.…

    • 749 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe literary devices reveals the Igbo tradition and the challenges of continuing the tradition using symbolism, proverbs, details, and dialogue. Achebe in the text provides goes into detail on how the Igbo people get together in an “ummna” or clan to celebrate their tradition. The text also indicates that the younger generation will not understand the tradition; hence, when one of the oldest members shared how he “fear for you young people because you do not understand how strong is the bond of kinship.” Achebe uses these four devices to describe the Igbo tradition and its importance.…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In an effort to combat the immense misrepresentation of Africans expressed in European literary perspectives, Chinua Achebe works to truthfully portray the Ibo culture in the novel, Things Fall Apart. Achebe does this through the illustration of the traditions, laws, and customs of the Ibo people. In addition, Achebe explores and develops individual characters in order to humanize the African people. However, Achebe remains objective in his depiction of the Ibo people. By revealing the aspects of the culture which the Ibo people question, Achebe both demonstrates the dimensionality of the Ibo society and expresses the downfall of such a society. Rather than placing the blame for the downfall of the Ibo civilization on Europeans, Achebe analyzes…

    • 881 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    a.) Ikemefuna is Umuofia’s hostage from Mbaino who was put under Okonkwo’s care for three straight years. He lived with Okonkwo’s family and became close to Nwoye, Okonkwo’s eldest son. He calls and treats Okonkwo as his real father. Okonkwo is inwardly pleased with him and he even likes him more than his real son. After three years, the elders have decided on what to do to him. They came on the decision of killing him and Okonkwo joined in killing him due to his fear of becoming weak. But then, guilt haunts Okonkwo throughout the story.…

    • 1414 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Things Fall Apart Analysis

    • 1565 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The two became very close and when Ikemefuna died Nwoye was devastated but when Nwoye found out “something seemed to give way inside him, like the snapping of a tightened bow” (Pg 42). Nwoye afterwards had began to question his culture and religion thinking how could a god tell them to kill a human being who was innocent. He had only felt like this one other time when he had heard the twins who were left in the evil forest crying. Nwoye after having lost a loved one who was innocent began to question his village. After the white men came he began to question it even more. Nwoye from day one was captivated by the new religion which the white men talked about. “There was a young lad who had been captivated. His name was Nwoye … It was the poetry of the new religion” (Pg 104). He of course didn’t tell anyone and never went too close to the missionaries in fear of being seen by his father. Once the white men built their church Nwoye was very curious to see what they did and would pass by the church never going in until he would eventually go home. However, one day his father was told that Nwoye was seen around the Christians and was almost killed by Okonkwo. After almost being murdered, Nwoye was filled with fear and anger and decided to leave home and convert to Christianity. After Nwoye converted Okonkwo would say he only had two sons and Nwoye would say he had no father. “How is your father? I don’t know. He is not my father” (Pg 101). Nwoye used his anger and fear as strength to go against his father who he no longer loved and hated. Nwoye at first was a weak man who after having meet Ikemefuna became a masculine man and after he was fed up with his life at home used all his courage and converted, going against his father. Even though Nwoye didn’t become the man that his father wanted he became a man who was intelligent and…

    • 1565 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays