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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This paper examines Chinua Achebe's book Things Fall Apart and discusses the relationship of the main character, Okonkwo, and his concept of family and tribe. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_MTachebe.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
1800s and early 1900s. Missionaries were successful in rearranging the social order of the tribes in their efforts - and while doing so, also rearranged the familial order. While the
novel focuses on the changes that occur within the Ibo tribe upon arrival of the "white man," it also focuses how such an occurrence can cause a good "family man"
to go bad. Because Okonkwo, the "good" family man cannot change with his family or society as they change, he becomes angry and through his anger, destroys those whom he
loves as well as himself. One of the plot points of Things Fall Apart is how, as reviewer Lisa Rauschart writes ". .
. celebration and reverence for the environment exist hand-in-glove with infanticide and wife beating" (Rauschart D1). The family customs and traditions, particularly those embraced by Okonkwo, would be considered abhorrent
by 21st century Western society, yet these customs made up the backbone of many Nigerian tribes of the late 1800s. Furthermore, when the main character, Okonkwo, refuses to see another
way in which the tribe can move and instead clings to the old ways (of leadership through strength and brutality instead of through careful thinking and flexibility), he dies in
the end. What the story explains is that when a man leaves his community and the community changes while the man does not, the two will be at odds with
one another (Larson 298). The story itself is set in the village of Umuofia in Nigeria at the end of the 19th century
and centers around Okonkwo of the Ibo tribe, a man who is determined to succeed in life, mostly because he wants to erase the stigma and shame he experiences because
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