The Week Of Peace In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe is the talented writer of Things Fall Apart. During the colonial period the African people lost their dignity and self-respect, but luckily writers like Chinua Achebe sought out a way to regain their losses. It became Achebe’s aim to salvage these losses through writing. This novel successfully accomplishes Chinua Achebe’s aim to restore the dignity and self-respect of the African people. In my essay I will thoroughly discuss a number of episodes where the writer achieves his desired intend of regaining the dignity and self-respect that belongs to the African people. The first episode that I will refer to is the use of the kola nut in chapter one. There is an immense amount of tradition that surrounds the kola nut. The kola

During this week of peace the people that are part of Umuofia pay tribute to the earth goddess named Ani just before they get ready to plant for their farms. The villagers live in peace and stay away from violence for an entire week, hence the name ‘’The Week of Peace” (2006; 17). One of the villagers, Okonkwo breaks the tradition when he beats his wife for leaving the hut before having cooked dinner. He gets punished for breaking this ‘’Week of Peace’’ (2006; 17). Clearly the tradition is taking seriously because breaking a tradition doesn’t go unpunished. The villagers take great pride in ‘’The Week of Peace’’ (2006; 17) showing that the African people do not lack dignity in what they do. We also find out that the Africans aren’t just bad, violent or mindless people as they were made out to be by the Europeans, because they dedicated an entire week to being

This is another false statement made by the Europeans and plays a direct roll in stripping the African people of their self-respect and dignity. Okonkwo is a great example as to why the African people weren’t mindless at all. He is dedicated and a hard worker which shows that he has a mind filled with ambition and aspirations. He knew what it takes to be the best and works hard to get there. Okonkwo ‘’was the greatest wrestler in the nine village’’ (2006; 16), ‘’he was a wealthy farmer’’ (2006; 16) and ‘’he had two titles’’ (2006; 16). That isn’t even all his accomplishments. Okonkwo is clearly someone who isn’t mindless at all; he takes a lot of pride in what he does and therefore obtains an enormous amount of self-respect and dignity.

The African people are very familiar with poetry. This is proof that they have great depth and beauty. Some African people, like Unoka, use poetry in the shape of music. Unoka uses music as a form of expression. He expresses his happiness easier through music rather than speaking. When he plays music he is ‘’beaming with blessedness and peace’’ (2006; 5). The poetry and the beauty of it bring the African people together making them stronger and uniting them against the Europeans. They regain their self-respect once again just by proving the Europeans judgment as