Things Fall Apart is a wonderful African Literature novel
that discusses the lifestyle of an African village, Umuofia and the struggles
of the main character Okonkwo. The novel also discusses the impact upon African
indigenous tribes and religion when the imperialists and missionaries moved
into Africa to “educate the savages.”
I really like this book, even though there are some really
screwed up parts, it is a brutally honest representation of what life was like.
The book centers on Okonkwo, a powerful man and warrior in
this village who has three wives, two titles, several children and a large
compound. Okonkwo is the kind of man who
rules his house with a heavy hand. He despises laziness and really anything
that reminds him of his father who died shamefully and in debt. (Okonkwo has
daddy issues.) However, his fatal character flaw is that he is so overly
masculine, he beats his wife when it isn’t “justified” by their culture, but
just because he is upset and he refuses to let himself show any emotion.
Following Okonkwo, you can see how he struggles with himself
and how he feels he must keep up this appearance of being overly masculine to
be everything his father isn’t. He has this whole struggle of man vs. self, man
vs. society and man vs. destiny. Okonkwo’s struggle is seen at many points
throughout the story and in the end I feel like it is what leads to his
downfall because he is so rigid and unable to adapt that he becomes obsolete
when the western culture moves in. So if you like historical fiction and
viewing other cultures then you should definitely give this book a try.
I did want to make one note, this book does include scenes
where Okonkwo beats his wife and there are traits of sexism, however I ask you
to keep in mind that this novel is set. The entire world was sexist towards
women so you have to take that with a grain of salt and realize that Achebe is
merely portraying the culture as it was.
