Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart: Theme Analysis

The definition of theme is a component of a story that combines together several other necessary elements of a narrative. It is a fact that displays universality and is accurate for people of all cultures. Theme provides readers better understanding of the main character’s struggles, experiences, sightings and feelings as they are derived from them. A writer tries to give his readers an insight into how the world works or how he or she views human life, through themes.

An important theme in Things Fall Apart is the struggle between change and tradition. In the novel many of the characters deal with change and it affects them throughout the plot. There is tension about if change is more important tradition

Okonkwo’s relationship with his late father is the reason he is so violent and ambitious. He wants to be better than his father’s legacy of his reckless lifestyle, implausible behavior, which he views as weak and feminine. Okonkwo’s idea of being manly is different than the clan’s. Okonkwo thinks being manly is aggression and that anger is the only emotion he should display in the public. This is the reason why he commits domestic abuse on his wives, threatening to kill them from time to time, and we see him act rashly and impetuously. Another example of Okonkwo trying to act vicious in front of his peers is when he volunteers to join a party that will kill his son; not only does Okonkwo kill the son but he pugnaciously stabs him with his machete due to the fright of being considered frail. When Okonkwo goes on a seven-year exile from his settlement it only proves the point that men are stronger than women. In the exile, he lives among the kinsmen of his homeland but hates the time entirely. The exile is his chance to get in touch with his feminine side and recognize his parental ancestors, but he reminds himself that his maternal kinsmen are not belligerent and brutal as he recalls from the villagers of Umofia to be. Okonkwo faults them for their fondness of negotiation, compliance, and evading over anger and bloodshed. From Okonkwo’s point of view his uncle Uchendu is in a pacifist and feminine

Achebe illustrates that Africa is not the inexplicable continent that books like Heart of Darkness makes it seem like it is. Achebe puts Igbo words in the novel, and displays that the Igbo language is too challenging for direct interpretation into English. Igbo culture can’t be understood within the agenda of European colonist values. Achebe also says that Africa has many different languages. For example the villagers of Umofia make fun of Mr. Brown’s translator because his language is marginally different from their own. Achebe writing the novel in English means it was intended for people in highly developed countries like in the West to read it more than his fellow Nigerians. Achebe claims his goal was to change the image of Africa that was drawn by so many authors during the Colonial Period. This could only be done by writing the novel in English, the first language of most of the writers in the West. This is similar to the article we read in class and how Achebe felt disrespected by Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Achebe included the measures, structures. Cadences, and loveliness of the Igbo