1/13/2024 0 Comments All things fall apart book![]() ![]() Thing about great literature is that no one has managed to totally figure it With the deluded idea that they have the book completely figured out. Myself talk." Every English major knows the scenario: The class circles upĪfter reading (or not reading) a beautifully crafted piece of literature, andĪn intellectually-indulged twenty-something decides to hijack the discussion "This in no way relates to the point you just made, but I really love to hear Which, when translated to normal human speak, actually means Achebe himself has invited strong moral judgements about his text by applying the same to Conrad's "Heart of Darkness."įive words you never want to hear in a comparative lit class? Why is it a "moral imperative" for the West to interfere in Kosovo but not in Rwanda? If these tensions are not confronted, the novel is a well-crafted folk tale about a tragic hero, and also another occasion for student apathy. intervening to bring an end to mass genocide (Rwanda), starvation (Ethiopia), and enslavement of children (Sudan). The other "tension" that is often overlooked is one outside the text: respecting the autonomy and identity of an African country by staying out of its affairs vs. Yet students are quick to overlook these tensions in the narrative, preferring to go for the "platitudes" about imperialism that they know are expected of them in the classroom devoted to assuring "diversity" is in the curriculum. Achebe does not gloss over the apparently savage, cruel, sexist practices of the Ibo people before the arrival of the white missionaries. Unfortunately, its current status as a "classic text" as well as a multicultural icon threatens to make it merely another institutional artifact rather than the genuinely provocative text it is capable of being. I will travel to Africa someday solely because of this book!īecause it's easy to read but hard to interpret, Achebe's masterwork has become a fixture thoughout secondary and higher education. ![]() This book really enlightens people and makes the world more aware of the great and slightly overlooked continent of Africa - and in particular, Nigeria. ![]() I am caucasian and this book has become my absolute favorite ever!Please buy this book and when you've read it pass it along to someone else. If you think this book is just for African Americans you're wrong. I have given my copy to my brother in hopes of educating one more person in this world on African culture. This book has the power to touch lives and I recommend it to absolutely everybody on the planet. He colors Africa in a magnificent yet somewhat tragic shade.I wrote an essay in college based on the Nigerian folktales in this book and received a 100% from my professor. After reading this book by the amazingly talented Chinua Achebe, I became more interested in Africa than I would have ever thought possible! Achebe has masterful skill in portraying African culture to the readers. I was required to read this book in a college literature class and actually dreaded reading it because I really had no interest in Africa. But more important than its relevance is its artistry: it is a deceptively simple epic tale somehow packed into just over 200 pages, and one of the most impressive first novels on record. Okonkwo's story is a relevant one even at a time when cultural and political imperialism has turned away from Africa toward the Middle East, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. He has only a slim hope of redemption, and that is shattered by the arrival of the settlers. By the time it actually happens in the last 50 or so pages of the book, Okonkwo has been driven into exile, his life a shambles. Most of the story is told before the actual appearance of the first white settlers, but their pending arrival hangs over the middle part of the book like a rain cloud. He is a complex and heavy-handed head of his household who is at once sympathetic and cruel. The story's protagonist is Okonkwo, who at first appears to be a model warrior and self-made man who slowly discovers that the attributes he believed would serve him well as an adult instead breed a fear of failure and profound frustration. The more the reader thinks about Things Fall Apart, the more he becomes aware that the heart of a story is about the struggles of an individual and less about what is a compelling and unsentimental survey of Nigeria's Ibo culture just before the arrival of white settlers.
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