Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart: A Showcase an unflinching Exploration of Women, Colonization and Cultural Change

Abstract

Abstract

Things Fall Apart (1958) is a post-colonial novel written by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. It is one of the first African novels in English to receive global critical acclaim. The novel was written in reaction to European assessments of African culture. The novel is divided into three parts, the first describes the Igbo (?Ibo? in the novel) leader and local wrestling champion Okonkwo’s family and personal history, the customs and society of the Igbo, and the second and third parts introduce the influence of British colonialism and Christian missionaries on the Igbo community. In this novel the reader encounters the Igbo people at a landmark moment in their history and culture. The intrusion of the colonizing force is changing or impending to change almost every facet of their society: religion, family structure, gender roles and relations, and trade, etc. In this novel, one recognizes just how much the representation by Achebe of Igbo society is changing because women, who were traditionally restricted to the home and who possessed little decision-making power preceding to colonialism, unexpectedly find themselves agents of significant social exchanges through the roles they play in the trade that befalls in the market, as well as in the production of the crops that are sold at market.