Achebe’s protagonist, Okonkwo, is far from being a likable character. In fact, he can be described as an asshole. I, for one, don't like him, and I doubt anyone really does. He is a ruthless and unsympathetic individual towards his fellow man. Growing up in a warrior’s culture, the only path to success was through complete uncompromising and remorseless behavior. According to him, his father was weak and worthless, which led him to approach life with an unshakable will to conquer it with his overbearing masculinity.

The quote “When Unoka died he had taken no title at all and he was heavy in debt. Any wonder then that his son Okonkwo was ashamed of him? Fortunately, among these people a man as judged according to his worth and not according to the worth of his father.” contains a hint of sarcasm. Achebe is suggesting that this is not the case for the white man. Despite their supposed superiority, they fail to get this simple concept right. The African tribe in the novel has a better merit-based promotion system. The warrior Okonkwo has the opportunity to prove himself regardless of what is happening in the more “civilised” part of the world. This is the essence of the novel. Achebe gives the black man a voice, along with culture and civilisation. These men are not unjustly represented. He is directly addressing the ignorant trend in Victorian literature that depicted the colonised as unintelligible and voiceless, as savages. Achebe presents us with the reality.

The quote “If you don't like my story, write your own” sums it up perfectly. And that is precisely what Achebe did himself. He makes no judgments. His protagonist is completely flawed. Okonkwo is without mercy and has earned his fame and respect. So, when an untitled youngster speaks out, he is immediately filled with anger. This is his hamartia, his tragic flaw. He must overcome this and treat his fellow tribesmen with a certain degree of dignity. However, he is a slow learner. And who can blame him? Despite his brutality and misogyny, this is still his culture. It is all he has ever known, and whether it is right or wrong doesn't matter. Granted, not all the men are as extreme as him. He uses his position to extract violence more than most. His wives often bear the brunt of his rage, much to their misfortune. He may sound like a bad man, but that's not the point. Achebe’s meaning and the power of this story are revealed at the end.

I found this to be very unusual yet highly effective. The novel aims to show how uncompromising the white man is. The Nigerian culture and the way of life of the tribe in the novel are forced to change; otherwise, they will be completely destroyed. The protagonist represents this struggle. He has a choice: either accept the white man’s way and be forever changed, or stick to his own customs and ultimately fail.

Language is the key. The Igbo people highly regard the art of conversation, and proverbs are like the palm-oil with which words are eaten. Africa does not have a silent culture. Conrad’s Heart of Darkness was incorrect. African language is formal, developed, and intelligent. In Nigeria, it is the conduit for the Igbo culture, rich in oral tradition. Achebe recognizes that accepting a new language means shunning the original culture. He shows that Igbo tradition depends on storytelling and language, and accepting English would destroy Igbo traditions. It would alienate Africans from their culture. Therefore, resistance, however futile, is the natural and just response. Okonkwo’s reactions are deeply symbolic of a culture on the verge of collapse.

I believe Achebe is trying to portray the silence of the African voice. It had no say. It didn't matter if the colonisers were kind or brutal, or what the Nigerian culture was like in terms of ethics. What mattered was that it was taken away or shaped into something else entirely. This was not progress but assimilation. All cultures have their flaws, which is true for any society. However, the white culture, for all its self-aggrandisement, was simply imposing. And for Achebe, this was the ruination of the voice he was trying to convey.

The quote “The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” encapsulates this idea.

By page 39 of this book, I was 99% certain that it would be getting just one star.

Oh, how I loathed the initial part of Things Fall Apart. It's rather ironic because the very reason I detested it so vehemently was the completely unsympathetic and unlikable nature of Okonkwo. There is a considerable amount of room for discussion regarding whether Okonkwo's actions are justifiable, but for me, the answer is a straightforward and uncomplicated no. The humorous aspect is that his violent and aggressive personality elicited a similar feeling in me, such that I wanted to maim and sever his limbs due to the way he treated his family - and yet, his extreme brutality was precisely what triggered my dislike for him in the first place. Hm.

As much as I desired to rate this book unfavorably, there is an undeniable lesson to be gleaned and the latter half of the book actually astounded me with its symbolic beauty. Clearly not the finest book I have read in school, but it did give me a great deal to ponder upon.

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Things Fall Apart is a remarkable and eye-opening historical fiction that delves deep into the complex and often tragic process of the colonization of Africa. It serves as a powerful voice for the countless traditional cultures around the world that fell victim to invasions during the 19th century. Written in 1958, it may seem a bit distant to the globalized millennials of today. However, it tells a captivating story of how a culture that held nature in high regard and was steeped in superstition had to face the onslaught of colonization and the accompanying spread of Christianity.

The protagonist, Okonkwo, is a self-made man whose personal accomplishments have earned him great respect among the members of his clan. But beneath his exterior success lies a troubled and angry man. He is a wife-beating chauvinist who resorts to acts of violence, such as human sacrifice, in an attempt to prove his strength and manliness to his tribesmen. He takes great pride in the close connection they share with their forefathers and the elaborate rituals in which masked elders, representing ancestral spirits, are venerated. However, when the colonizers establish a base in his village, bringing with them missionaries and weaponry, Okonkwo's son, along with many others, is lured away from the clan. This gradual erosion weakens the clan, and the old Gods begin to lose their significance.

Okonkwo,不屈不挠, puts up a fierce fight against the white men. He devotes himself wholeheartedly to a resistance movement, determined to restore order and faith within his clan. The author, Chinua Achebe, does not take sides or pass judgment on Animism, Christianity, or the different systems of justice in Europe and Africa. Instead, through this relatively short read of just over 200 pages, he manages to convey a wealth of emotions and ideas. It is an intense and thought-provoking novel that explores the valor and unwavering spirit of a warrior who stands his ground, uncompromisingly defending what he believes in.

I would gladly trade this book for a bucket of yams. This book, although it may hold some value and knowledge within its pages, seems to pale in comparison to the allure of a bucket of yams. Yams are a delicious and nutritious food source that can provide sustenance and satisfaction.

Perhaps the person who receives this book will find it useful and enjoy reading it. However, for me, the thought of having a bucket of yams is much more appealing. I can envision cooking them in various ways, such as roasting them in the oven or boiling them and making a delicious yam soup.

The trade would be a fair one in my eyes. I would be giving up something that I have, but in return, I would be receiving something that I desire even more. It's a simple exchange that could bring a lot of joy and satisfaction. So, if anyone is interested in trading a bucket of yams for this book, I would be more than happy to make the deal.

Here is the expanded article:

The "10/10 Best Book" is an extraordinary resource for a rather specific yet crucial purpose. It aims to help you figure out who among the people you know has read this particular book and might potentially hold racist views. In a world where understanding the beliefs and attitudes of those around us is of utmost importance, this book serves as a valuable tool. By carefully examining the reactions and comments of those who have read it, one can start to identify patterns and behaviors that may indicate racism. It provides a platform for discussions and self-reflection, allowing us to better understand the impact of our words and actions. Whether you are looking to have an open and honest conversation with a friend or simply gain a deeper understanding of the people in your life, this book is a must-read.

Oh boy, where do I even begin? This year, during Black History Month, I delved into "Things Fall Apart" (and actually the entire "African Trilogy"). However, quite a bit of time has elapsed since then, and I'm rather disappointed to report that the story hasn't left a profound and lasting impression on me. I've forgotten numerous plot points and had to rely on many secondary sources to pen this review. I'm determined to reread "Things Fall Apart" when I'm older. I firmly believe it's one of those books that, in Calvino's words, "has never exhausted what it has to say." It's undeniably a crucial document in the annals of African literature, and I'm convinced I'll hold it in even higher regard as I progress through life.

Before "Things Fall Apart" was published, the majority of novels about Africa were penned by European authors, who often depicted Africans as savages in desperate need of Western enlightenment. Achebe, having studied English literature at university, swiftly realized the "gap on his bookshelf" where African literature should have been. Up until that point, novels of the caliber of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" were the norm when it came to literary descriptions of Africa. And we're all well aware of what Achebe thought of Conrad and his perception of Africans as "rudimentary souls." So, I think we can all concur with Achebe that he and all the other African writers of that era were incredibly courageous and had to finally fill that void.

"Things Fall Apart" was written in 1958 as the colonial system was crumbling in Africa. Its narrative chronicles pre-colonial life in the southeastern part of Nigeria and the arrival of the Europeans in the late nineteenth century. It's regarded as the archetypal modern African novel in English, one of the first to receive global critical acclaim. It's a staple in schools across Africa and is widely read and studied in English-speaking countries worldwide.

The novel follows the life of Okonkwo, an Igbo man and a local wrestling champion in the fictional Nigerian clan of Umuofia. The work is divided into three parts. The first part delineates his family, personal history, and the customs and society of the Igbo. The second and third sections introduce the influence of British colonialism and Christian missionaries on the Igbo community.

I must confess that initially, I found it extremely challenging to keep track of the events unfolding in the story. I might bear some responsibility for this as I perhaps didn't read it as attentively as I could have. However, in the first few chapters of this novel, the reader has to wade through a significant amount of information dumps and various introductions of characters. It's palpable that Achebe had a Western audience in mind when he wrote "Things Fall Apart." He explains certain festivities and traditions in a very straightforward manner. He acquaints us with the Ancestral religion and different gods, elucidates how a bride price is determined, how certain pieces of clothing are worn, and how certain instruments look and are played. Being from the West, those explanations were undoubtedly necessary and useful. Nevertheless, they disrupted the flow of the story and more often than not pulled me out of it. Having read the remainder of "The African Trilogy," I can attest that those information dumps became increasingly fewer as the books progressed, thus making the overall reading experience much more enjoyable for me, as most things became somewhat understandable through context.

I read this novel in an almost constant state of rage.

First of all, I disliked the main character for his behavior. In our modern society, his husband and parenting skills would be considered appalling. I know, I know, the guy was a member of a Nigerian tribe some time ago, but the abuse of women and the psychological scarring of children do not sit well with me. Later, the Christian missionaries appeared, and the rage scale went through the roof.

The novel is the story of Okonkwo and his tribe before and after the white people appeared. Okonkwo is a physically strong man in the village. He has many titles, land, and authority. He loses no opportunity to show he is a real man. Feelings and love are only weaknesses for him. He is domineering, sometimes beats his wives, and is constantly tormenting his sons, pushing them to be men like him. An unlucky event puts his ambitions to become the most important person in the village on hold, but the "falling apart" comes with the white people, God’s missionaries. Okonkwo is one of the few villagers who want to fight the new religion and to remove the menace. Here, knowing what came next, I was on his side.

A major part of the short novel can be read as a collection of African customs, traditions, and stories. Most of the time, there was no clear plot, and I was fine with it. The dramatic events, the clash between the two cultures, take place almost at the end, but that aspect does not diminish the power of the book.

I understand why the novel is a classic. Chinua Achebe is one of the first writers to show the brutal colonialism of the Western world and its disguise as religious liberation. His vivid descriptions and complex characters make the reader deeply engaged in the story and reflect on the historical and cultural issues. It is a powerful and thought-provoking work that should be read by everyone interested in African literature and history.

Perhaps the popularity that the novel achieved when it was published in the late 1950s of the last century is due to that hazy gap in Zangian literature at that time. And when this novel, crafted in a highly technical narrative style, came out, it was highly praised by critics around the world. The first edition was published in English by a British publisher with a wide reputation.

What the novel lacks in its pages is that following mixture of Africa, specifically Nigeria, where the rich cultural heritage of its tribes and their way of life were described, intertwined in successive chapters with that evangelical Christian campaign from which there were withdrawals and acceptance, and in which primitive peoples lived for years, with differences between contradictions or differences.

The novel "Atibou" is a novel that lingers in the minds as it was pioneering in its era at that time, crossing the horizons of boundaries and writing a distinct difference. Many African literary figures followed in its footsteps and removed the veil to uncover its mysterious ambiguities, as the region and the continent have a lot of rich heritage to tell... It is a beautiful novel.

**"Things Fall Apart": A Gateway to African Literature**

This has been the first reading of my Black History Month, which involves reading exclusively books written by black authors for a month to give them visibility. And I couldn't have chosen a better reading to start this marathon. Things Fall Apart was the first work of Chinua Achebe and it is none other than the most translated African book in the world. Somehow, it was the first novel that dared to explain to the world the history of the colonized, humiliated, ignored, dehumanized, and savaged Nigerians. The version of the nobodies, as Eduardo Galeano would say.

Things Fall Apart narrates the disintegration of a world, that of the Nigerians before the arrival of the white man, Christianity, and colonialism. This world was ruled by tradition, which, although far from being ideal or just, is what Okonkwo thrives on, rising from nothing to achieve the admiration and respect of his village. He is a strong, rich, severe warrior, self-made, who does not hesitate to sacrifice what the customs and laws of his village require him to sacrifice at every moment. The novel shows how Okonkwo, who actually represents an entire continent, experiences the arrival of the white man, the first missions, the growing power of the colonial administration, the progressive conversion to Christianity of his compatriots and even his own son. He helplessly witnesses the progressive disintegration of magic, his gods, his rituals; of his world.

Achebe's style is easy to read, direct, and full of proverbs and Igbo words (all properly defined at the end of the book, which is very much appreciated). Things Fall Apart is one of those novels for which you always find a free moment. Although the pace slows down a bit in the middle, the story regains its momentum to offer us an unforgettable ending.

Undoubtedly, this short novel is the best gateway to African literature, or at least it has been for me.

VÍDEORESEÑA COMPLETA AQUÍ

Chinua Achebe’s archetypal 1958 novel about the cultural life in Nigeria before and after western colonization is a profound study in contrasting themes.

Coming from my 20th - 21st century western perspective, where I consider Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness one of my favorite works and a template of western literature, I was eager to read Achebe’s work. I wanted to see the many same themes Conrad observed, but from the native’s viewpoint.

Set in the fictional Nigerian village of Umuofia, Achebe’s protagonist, Okonkwo, is a complex man. Naturally strong and prosperous, he is driven to achieve and thrive, as a way to distance himself from the memory of his father, who is described as lazy and shiftless. It is in this portrayal of Okonkwo that Achebe’s power shines through. Okonkwo can be seen as a Nigerian everyman, representing both the best and worst of tribal culture. Strong and respected, he is also inflexible, haughty, sexist, and brutally violent. Later, Okonkwo’s tribal conservatism is sharply contrasted with the sweeping changes, both good and bad, of colonial life. His rejection of colonial and religious changes is a crucial element in understanding and appreciating Achebe’s work.

One scene that particularly stood out to me was the murder of a western explorer and how it can be compared to a similar passage from Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. In Conrad’s book, mild-mannered Captain Fresleven was transformed by his service in the jungle into a hot-tempered and violent man and was killed in a senseless quarrel with natives in a riverside village. In Achebe’s scene, the missionary was killed not because of any specific act on his part, but rather as a reaction from the locals to this outsider invading their society and potentially bringing about a hostile change. The important contrast is that Conrad blames the result on the westerner, while Achebe’s murdered white man was a victim of the tribe’s fear of the changes he represented. This determinism lies at the heart of both authors’ keen observation of human nature.

Ultimately, this was a remarkable and important work. Achebe has crafted a story that not only defines traditional Nigerian culture but also shows how that same structure is altered, for better and for worse, by western imperialism. Interestingly, both writers, Achebe and Conrad, find fault with western imperialism, but from different perspectives.

There has been rarely a fictional work of such complexity when the focal point is colonisation.

Most books are either firmly convinced that the traditional ways were the best, or they firmly believe that colonisation was the best thing ever to happen, depending on the author's perspective. But Achebe goes far deeper than that, bringing out the nuances of the good and bad aspects of both sides.

This is a brilliant book, written in the oral tradition of African stories and legends. I generally don't like that kind of narrative, but it really suits this book. Achebe is a great writer and I really enjoyed the very subtle sarcasm against malpractices by both African and European cultures. I also love the fact that he focused so strongly on the rampant sexism.

Okonkwo is the protagonist. He is arrogant, warmongering, sexist, and in short, a brute. He is not a sympathetic character. He considers no one else's dignity except his own. In the end, when colonisation happened, he too lost his dignity and his life. His contempt for women is deep-rooted and one of the questions I asked myself was whether if he had been "more like a woman", he might not have been a better person overall and avoided his ultimate fate.

One of the finest things about Things Fall Apart is how immersed I got into the book. It was a wonderful story and it was also beautifully detailed in all aspects of Igbo life. Every single page told a story, and deepened my understanding of this culture. Like with everything else, it had the bad and the good. The question remains, and will never be answered: What kind of progress would have been made with women's rights and eliminating superstition without the missionaries forcing a change in the culture? After all, all they did was to substitute one kind of misogyny and superstition with another.

As a depiction of colonisation, this is one of the best books I have read. The gradual changes to society, the flocking of the disenfranchised people to the church, and the government support offered to the church members against the tribes all contributed to the ultimate fallout. Before one knew it, things had changed and most people would be hard put to actually pinpoint the time when it happened. As Desmond Tutu so aptly put it: When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land. That is what happened in this story too. It shows the power dynamics and the impact of colonisation on the native people. The loss of their land, their culture, and their way of life is truly tragic. It makes one think about the consequences of imperialism and how it has shaped the world we live in today.

I found this to be a smooth and enjoyable read. It was absorbing, with a well-paced and engrossing narrative that wasn't overly long, being of novella length. Sadly, I don't usually expect good reads from books touted as modern classics, but this one pulled me in. Someone who saw me reading it said they found the style "Romper Room," and some reviews seem to echo that. However, I didn't feel that way. I would describe the style as "spare," which suits a writer who, when asked which writers he admired and who influenced him, named Hemingway along with Conrad and Graham Greene. I also loved how Achebe wove folk tales, sayings, and Ibo customs into the narrative.

"Things Fall Apart" is considered a classic in African literature. According to the introduction, Achebe wrote it to rehabilitate and counter what he called "the tarnished image of Africa," giving human dimension to the colonized.

The first part provides a nuanced and detailed picture of life in a pre-colonial Ibo village during the late Victorian era. To Achebe's credit, he doesn't present that life as idyllic. His central character, Okonkwu, who embodies the tribal values, is deeply flawed. Okonkwu equates manliness with violence and has used it on his own family. In an interview after the text, Achebe said his "sympathies were not entirely with Okonkwu." Achebe presents the ills that the colonists brought to the traditional village society, such as the division between families, the imposition of foreign rule, and the corruption and brutality endemic in the system, which even destroys an entire village in reprisal for the death of one white missionary.

But Achebe also depicts what attracted people to the Christian missionaries beyond the schools, hospitals, and trade. Among the first and most fervent converts are Okonkwu's own son Nwoye, bitter that his father killed his childhood friend who had tried to flee his fate as a human sacrifice, a pregnant woman who had lost several children because of the practice of twin infanticide, and two people from a taboo caste who find their first respect and equal treatment among the Christians. Frankly, and I know this is as un-PC as it can be, but given Achebe's depiction of the brutal, superstitious, misogynist tribal culture, I was finding it very hard to see its destruction as tragic. Although, given all the different iterations I've seen and read of the "Dances With Wolves" motif, I did appreciate Achebe's willingness to show the unattractive side of a traditional culture.

At the same time, Okonkwu's friend Obierika says, "the white man... has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart." And just as Okonkwu upheld that old center, when it falls apart, he does too. And whatever ambivalence I might have felt for his fate and the values he stood for, few contemporary readers can read that last paragraph from the point of view of the white colonizing District Commissioner without disquiet or miss Achebe's sharp and bitter irony.