Chapter 2 Research Questions Directions: Use pages 30-62 to answer the following. All answers should be typed. Plagiarism of any kind will result in a zero on this assignment. Process the information from your textbook and the internet.
Based on the definition that a civilized society has “a well-developed culture, an effective government, and that it treats the people who live there fairly.” The Igbo and British cultures presented in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” both show how and what a civilized society looks like. One reason why both the Igbo and British cultures are successful is because they have a well-developed culture. The definition of a well-developed culture is “the process of enabling cultural activities, including the arts, towards the realization of a desired future, particularly of a culturally rich and vibrant community.” The Igbo’s have a well-developed culture because everybody has a certain role in the culture and they stick to that role and listen
Many stereotypes of African culture have emerged due to western literature and media and first hand accounts of explorers. Things Fall Apart offers a view into the truth and reality of African cultures, which are often misconceptualized by these stereotypes. Acebe shows how African society functions well without assistance from foreign travelers. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe counters the imperialist stereotypes of Africa by keeping certain words in the Igbo language, as opposed to translating them into English, to fight back against the spreading western culture and to embrace their own way of life. He also counters the imperialist stereotypes of Africa by using Igbo proverbs to show how their culture values many of the same things that western
The novel, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, defines an important literary example of the historical conflict of European colonialism in Nigeria during the
The critically acclaimed novella, titled “Things Fall Apart” written by Chinua Achebe is written from the perspective of the protagonist, Okonkwo; who holds a very traditional Ibo tribe cultural perspective on what masculinity is, which readers are exposed to repeatedly throughout the story. Although, different perspectives on the matter are observed through characters such as Nwoye, Okonkwo’s oldest son, who had a different idea about true masculinity in comparison to his more extreme father. Okonkwo shows his support for Both Okonkwo and Nwoye’s ideas on masculinity are compared to the European culture and norms towards the end of the book. Both Nwoye and Okonkwo weigh the European culture differently, and react to the conflicting ideologies in different manners;
The novel "Thing's fall apart" by Chinua Achebe is a complex work that masterfully establishes and develops characters through their experience with cultural collision. The way that Achebe accomplishes carefully weaving his implicit claim throughout the work is such a beautiful subtlety that it deserves to be analyzed. The Igbo's pride is constantly challenged by the colonizers as they gain increasingly more power in Africa. The idea of pride is constantly developed throughout the thoughts and actions of the novels protagonist Okonkwo. His response to the colonizers is influenced by his own views on pride and is used by Achebe to illustrate his own opinion on pride.
In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the novel is about the tragic diminish of Okonkwo and Igbo's culture. Using Okonkwo's violent tendencies, Achebe demonstrates how a person's sense of culture and identity can be challenged and eventually destroyed by the arrival of another.
The tripartite novel “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, published in 1958 focuses on the changes taking place in Nigeria, as a result of colonization during the 20th century. Chinua Achebe’s pragmatics when writing the novel focused on changing the perspective of Western readers with regard to African society. He mainly wanted to falsify the assertions in books such as “Heart of Darkness” which he claimed gave people of African descent a dull personality. Social status is one of the novels’ main themes. Chinua Achebe successfully incorporates the importance of social status, giving readers the impression that for the Ibo society, social structure consists mainly of a hierarchy of both skill and strength.
Throughout the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, the continent of Africa has dealt with several difficulties involving Europe, including European missionaries being sent over for the change of religion. This lead to a lot of conflict between Africans and Europeans, as both sides held their own beliefs and stuck with them. A great man named Chinua Achebe was born in Nigeria, 1930. He is a graduate of University College, Ibadan, and was a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, from 1972-1976, and again from 1987-1988. Chinua wrote and published a book called “Things Fall Apart” in 1959.
Although Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart shows traces of gender equality among the Igbo, the European audience views the culture as sexist. In Things Fall Apart sexism is shown in many ways like the abuse of women, social expectations and the power of males. The Igbo people don 't look at women the same way as Europeans do. Europeans treat women with respect and dignity while The Igbo dismiss the importances of
Chinua Achebe’s 1958 literary classic, Things Fall Apart (Achebe, 1958), is renowned for its authentic account of the black African experience. Set in post-colonial Nigeria, the fictional novel discusses the cultural roots of the Igbos and follows the life of the tragic hero, Okonkwo. This acclaimed novel deals with strong patriarchal ideals of masculinity within the Igbo culture and how Okonkwo is a direct manifestation of this. Achebe depicts the relationship between masculinity and both male and female characters, and how this, in turn, has an effect on Okonkwo’s relationships. The strongest relationship in the novel is between father (Okonkwo) and daughter (Ezinma); their bond is strong because Ezinma is everything Okonkwo would want in a son.
Have you ever read a novel about African cultures and traditions from African point of view? The novel Things Fall Apart, a tragedy by Chinua Achebe, centers on one tragic hero in Igbo village of Umuofia in Nigeria and the effects of European arrival on his life and Igbo clan. Throughout the novel, Achebe introduces Igbo customs to the reader by creating several occurrences and how they react on them to claim that the Igbo is civilized before the Europeans arrive. The significant difference between Igbo and Western cultures is the way wisdom is passed on: Igbo oral traditions transmit values and knowledge orally by allegorical tales, while Western literary traditions educate people through generations by written texts, just like the novel itself.
“Things Fall Apart”, a novel written by Chinua Achebe about Africa through the character Okonkwo, a man who Achebe uses to illustrate the complexity Igbo culture, contrary to what the Europeans portrayed Africa as. One main focus of the book is to counter the single story, which is the idea that an area is represented by one story, similar to a stereotype. However, differing from a stereotype a single story often completely misrepresents something, and in this case Africa. Europeans had been the only ones writing about Africa, describing all the culture as problematic for being different, rather than looking at what African culture really is. Achebe was one of the first to write about African culture for westerners to read about, making Things Fall Apart a true innovation in writing.
The novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe talks about the Igbo, an indigenous Nigerian people, and about a culture on the brink of change. Indeed, through the life of Okonkwo, an Igbo leader in the fictional Nigerian village of Umuofia, Achebe describes how the prospect and reality of change affect different characters. In the Igbo culture the family unit plays a fundamental role and the members of a family highly value the mutual respect for each other, a reverence for all past fathers, and unity. The father is considered not only as the head of the family and its provider, but the defender of its honor as well as the teacher of his sons.
S. Naipaul and J. M. Coetzee these Post-colonial writers have all dealt with Africa in their own individual and unique ways. Achebe does not treat the African culture and ways of life as something hybrid, complex, dependant for its significance on the Western style of perceiving things or neither has he shown Africa to be existing only in relation to its difference from or consonance with the Western form of religion, culture, identity, and discourse. The major theme of the novel ‘Things Fall Apart’ centers around the destruction of Africa’s intricate, almost incomprehensible but unique way of life and culture in the wake of British colonization and forced or maneuvered conversion to Christianity. The administrative as well as religious changes that the British tries to impose upon the native Africans has the disastrous effects of uprooting the indigenous people from their original root and tradition and can be seen as some instruments of subjugation, subordination and subservience which starts with creating distrust, doubts and insecurity in the minds of people for their Igbo tradition, and its cultural and religious practices and ends with making them internalize the Christian way of life and British administrative apparatuses. Another theme that is explored in this novel is the inherent fault of the central character Okonkwo, who is ambitious, industrious, honest, masculine but is rash, and unthinking and his sense of self and identity is wholly dependent on the approval of others in his community and he thinks of anything that intrudes into it as a threat and he tries hard to be a man though in a flawed manner.
