Writing Tools of “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe Essay

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Introduction

Things Fall Apart is a story about the artistic effect on Okonkwo’s village. Chinua Achebe, the author of the book, uses Okonkwo as the main character to aid in telling the story. The writer put forward themes as well as a prediction to bring out the kind of community the village was. The village was in a way brought together by the social structure. Okonkwo was brought out as a character with strong terror as well as with much annoyance, he, in no time, wanted to be like his father. He longed to have a different personality and that was one of the reasons why he behaved in different ways to maintain the character as well as the good judgment the village had bestowed on him.

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Due to the fact that the conventional structure of the village was growing weaker with time, this resulted in Okonkwo shifting his center of interest as his personality was consequently weakening (Achebe 1994).

That was one of the reasons why things were emotionally falling apart. This was mostly brought about by the fact that the village was being intruded by the whites who were aiming at abolishing the kind of practices going on in the village by introducing new customs that some of the members in the community started adopting. This was because the whites regarded the practices as inhuman and, thus, they came up with different customs that people were expected to learn and go by them. To Okonkwo, this was against their traditions and, therefore, had deeply rejected this and spent a lot of time-fighting the whites who tried to invade the village.

Body

Achebe, in the story, advocated the significance of one the social order from the other. The book was written during the pre-colonial time and the author portrayed the western practices as of value to the people in the village. This is seen when he tries to bring out the main character as one who is weak in fighting the colonizers since the character died at the end. This indicated that Okonkwo died with the traditions and from the time of his death, the author shows us how the traditions died with him, and, from that time, people started interacting with the whites as well as changing their way of Christianity (Achebe 1994). For instance, the son of Okonkwo is revealed as one who had accepted the western way of life by the fact that he eventually became a priest something that was against the traditions.

The people in the village are also portrayed as having changed to Christian life and, as well, leaving behind their beliefs from superstition to believing in God. As well, the people did away with such practices as the killing of twins and people from other communities. Via this, Achebe greatly supported western society by illustrating the death of Okonkwo as the end of traditions. Achebe brought out Okonkwo’s village as one that had a lot of cultural practices that ought to be replaced by western cultures. This due to the reason that the western cultures were brought out to be more valuable to the people in the village. Some of the villagers had changed their religion a sign that they had accepted the changes that came along with the whites.

In his story, Achebe utilized various tools to put across the profound picture of the community. Some of the tools used by the author included death, foreshadowing as well as themes. The death of the main character is used to show the end of the tradition and introduction of western cultures (Achebe 1994).

The theme of foreshadowing is also brought out when the village was invaded by locusts indicating the coming of a more hazardous situation in the region where the place turned bare and the people suffered hunger. This indicated that the missionaries were coming introducing their cultures and the traditions would fade away, thus, replaced by the new customs. This was experienced when the people started converting to the missionary’s faith.

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The thing fell apart for the main character when he was sent into exile after accidentally killing a son of one of the elders during a burial. Thing changed from a smooth life when Okonkwo was freely doing anything in the community to where he had to vacate the village leaving behind his properties being destroyed as a way of purification.

In reference to the poem on the white man’s burden, Achebe brings into view suggestions that the whites had pressure to decree as well as heartening cultural modernism of individuals from their cultural settings to the world both socially as well as economically. This portrays the themes that Achebe brought out in the book (Achebe 1994). This was a clear indication of the perception by the people in the areas that were colonized since they adopted the colonizer’s way of living. This diminished most of the traditions that the various communities practiced.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Things Fall Apart introduces the western linguistic structure as well as traditions via proverbs, tale, and storytelling ethnicity in order to conserve the oral traditions from Africa and as well to undermine the cultures and the language of the colonists.

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. 1st ed. New York: Anchor Press, 1994.

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IvyPanda. (2020, December 31). Writing Tools of "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe. https://ivypanda.com/essays/writing-tools-of-things-fall-apart-by-chinua-achebe/

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"Writing Tools of "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe." IvyPanda, 31 Dec. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/writing-tools-of-things-fall-apart-by-chinua-achebe/.

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IvyPanda. (2020) 'Writing Tools of "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe'. 31 December.

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IvyPanda. 2020. "Writing Tools of "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe." December 31, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/writing-tools-of-things-fall-apart-by-chinua-achebe/.

1. IvyPanda. "Writing Tools of "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe." December 31, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/writing-tools-of-things-fall-apart-by-chinua-achebe/.


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IvyPanda. "Writing Tools of "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe." December 31, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/writing-tools-of-things-fall-apart-by-chinua-achebe/.

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