Things Fall Apart
When it comes to the idea of change, some people try to ignore the prospect of it because they want to hold on to what they know. Chinua Achebe was an author who wrote about this in his novel, Things Fall Apart. He told this story of tradition versus change through the journey of the main character, Okonkwo, who was present during the European colonization of Nigeria. Through Achebe’s truthful and open way of writing in the novel, he gave readers a chance to view the beautiful and sometimes ugly sides to change. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, is a pragmatic and straightforward novel that showed the dangers of being ignorant to change, all while painting a candid picture of the lives of the Igbo people during European colonization.
The main conflict in Things Fall Apart began with the main character Okonkwo desperately
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One of the main themes in this novel was the fear of failure. This theme was shown through Okonkwo’s attempt to escape the image of his deceased father; “But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness... It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father” (Achebe). Okonkwo’s father was a kind man, but never paid back his debts, which lead to him being looked down upon by the members of his tribe. His reputation was passed on to Okonkwo, who decided to be everything his father was not, which led to his harsh and cruel character. Examples of this are the many times he beat his wives to maintain dominance. On the other hand, Okonkwo also became a very hard worker to prove himself worthy; “During the planting season Okonkwo worked daily on his farms from cock-crow until the chickens went to roost” (Achebe). Okonkwo was desperate to show others that he was not his father and succeeded, for he became well respected throughout his