Things Fall Apart Research Paper

Umuofia, Mabino, Mbanta, Abame; are you confused yet? Well, when you first start in this reading journey of a book called Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, you may or may not have background on the Igbo culture. While this book may seem like it's telling a story about events in history, it's doing way more than that, by teaching an important lesson. Once you open that book, you get thrown into a totally different world than we’re used to. All of the sudden you’re reading all these names and places that you have no idea how to pronounce; and you see how prevalent violence is. And how this one young man by the name of Okonkwo became successful by using violence. But what will happen to Okonkwo and his success? And how will his relationships

By noticing how colonialism changes Okonkwo’s relationships with his sons, seeing how that affect his image and his interactions with others. Readers of Things Fall Apart can learn that father/son relationships can affect your actions and personality. We begin the journey by learning about Okonkwo and all of his fame and success; but what caused him to gain all of it? And why does he want to have the most titles in the village? Well as we know it started with that one important relationship that every boy needs during his childhood years… a stable father/son relationship. But unfortunately, for Okonkwo, he didn’t have much of a relationship with his father or a childhood for that matter. Unoka, Okonkwo’s father, wasn’t a well liked man in the village due to all his debt and laziness. He was a failure and an Agbala [a women or weak man] as the people in Umuofia would call him. Okonkwo had to grow up fast and help take care of his mother and sisters because his father couldn’t even afford to feed his family. Okonkwo had then decided at a young

When Okonkwo accidentally kills a clansman, he’s shunned from his village and has to move from Umuofia to Mbanta, his mother’s homeland. Unfortunately, for him and his family they have to start over again; totally rebuilding their homes and lives. While at Mbanta, Okonkwo doesn’t know much of what is going on in the neighboring villages. But this isn’t even the worst of it. The British started to show up in neighboring villages; eventually wiping out a village by the name of Abame. By the time the seven years have passed and Okonkwo and his family go back to Umuofia, the British have started to colonize and have sent missionaries to convert people to christianity. As the days fly by, more and more people are converting; giving up everything they’ve ever know. For one young man, named Nwoye the missionaries are showing that there might be hope; something better than the life he’s currently living with his father. He tried to keep it a secret at first but eventually his father found out about his interest in christianity. When on page 151, Nwoye walked home from church and he “ turned round to walk into the inner compound when his father, suddenly overcome with fury, sprang to his feet and gripped him by the neck. ‘Where have you been?’ he stammered. Nwoye struggled to free himself from the choking grip. ‘Answer me,’ roared Okonkwo, ‘before I kill you!’ He