Things Fall Apart Written by Chinua Achebe

Things Fall Apart, is a book written by Chinua Achebe and is about the lives of Nigerian Igbo people. The book is the life of a young man named Okonkwo who strives to be the greatest man in the village and in his clan. He had a horrible father as a child and he was the lowest in the village. Therefore Okonkwo is motivated to be nothing like his dead father and be the greatest warrior of his time. Okonkwo’s fame begins with a big bang when he becomes the greatest wrestler around. Religion in this book is very important, so you should probably study some of it. They have separate villages in Nigeria and most the time they all live in peace with each other. They also have clans that the men are joined in, this is where the warriors of the village come in. The women are basically maids to the men, and most men have three or more wives. The food there isn’t scarce, but they only have four main types of food. These foods are yams, kola nuts, coco beans, and locusts. Yams in the book are prepared in various ways, including mashed yams, yam fufu, and just yams. Locusts are only on days of celebration, as in festivals and ceremonies. The kola nut is a religious offering to friends, neighbors, and even enemies. It is a sign of friendship and neighborly disposition, in ceremonies it is shared among the living and dead ancestral spirits. In Things Fall Apart, all work is to be done seriously and with pride in what they do. When the Yam season is over there is, of course, time for fun. Wrestling tournaments occur in the festivals to determine who is the best of all, and the children who are too young for chores at the house run and play all day. Okonkwo’s life begins here and it will be a wild ride filled with fame and death.

Chinua Achebe, the author, was inspired by true events in his life to write this book. He was born in Nigeria which greatly affects the story. The Africans, because of when the book was written, are not one-bit modernized. When Achebe was in college, a bunch of white men from Europe were trying to take over Nigeria. When the white men thought that they would try and help the Igbo’s because they were so “uncivilized”, the Nigerians did not like what they were trying to do. They were changing the type of work that Chinua was doing in college and there were missionaries trying to convert the Igbo to the Christian way. In the book he talks of the missionaries telling the Igbo’s that their religion was false, it was but wood and stone. When the work in the college continued to change, Chinua decided if someone wasn’t going to stand up for themselves, then he would it. Then the others all followed him in the glorious path of freedom. When Chinua grew in age, he was one day traveling to a book signing in America when his car literally fell apart and part of it fell on him. After taken to the hospital he was paralyzed from his hips down. He had to have a wheelchair from then on. He had also written other various books: