Thesis

The personal history of an author can have a significant influence on the way meaning is constructed in his/her writing. Comment on specific instances of such influence in Things Fall Apart.

Chinua Achebe’s innate cultural conflict caused him to channel himself in the novel; he portrayed his dilemma through selective representation of the Igbo culture, the characters and the structure of the novel in attempts to unravel his psychological discord.

1.  Chinua Achebe’s identity struggle led him to selectively portray aspects of both cultures in order to establish parallels between them throughout his novel and ultimately to unravel his psychological conflict.

a.     Achebe chose to explore the parts of the Igbo culture that caused him to doubt his culture, for example: the inhumane treatment of twins, the polygamous marriages, and the abuse women faced.

b.     Achebe chose to explore the parts of the Christianity culture that caused him to doubt his culture, for example: the inhumane treatment that the colonized Africans had encountered and the racial discrimination.

22. The manner in which Achebe structured the novel was strategic in that it was reflective of the approach, which he had taken to unravel his identity struggle.

33. Chinua Achebe channeled all of his different dilemmas through his characters in order to unravel them and ultimately find a solution to his skeptical doubts in regards to his contrasting cultures.

Essay Outline: Gender dynamics in the Igbo Society

Question: With reference to Things Fall Apart, discuss how an understanding of gender influences how the text may be understood.

Thesis: Upon gaining greater understanding of the Igbo society’s gender dynamics, the readers gain an ability to fathom the enigmatic Igbo culture in a manner that would amplify their appreciation for the novel’s content, symbolism and themes.

First topic sentence:  An understanding of the Igbo culture in relation to gender provides the readers with a solid contextual foundation that enables them to understand the content of the novel wholly, as it is heavily resides on contextual information.

Second topic sentence: The knowledge acquired pertaining to the Igbo gender dynamics equips the readers with the ability to recognize the abstruse symbolism hidden in the novel.

Third topic sentence: Upon comprehending the context, content and symbolism of the novel, the readers are then equipped with the ability to dissect the novel’s themes in order to gain a thorough understanding of the novels innate literary features.

Okonkwo, The Tragic Hero

Aristotle defined a Tragic Hero as “a [great] man who is neither a paragon of virtue and justice nor undergoes the change to misfortune through any real badness or wickedness but because of some mistake."

Has Chinua Achebe strategically crafted the character of Okonkwo to reflect the untold story of the fall of the Nigerian society?

Okonkwo, a tragic hero, not merely by coincidence but rather to mimic the story of the fall of the Nigerian society. Okonkwo was a man of great prestige, a hard working umofian. The flaws which ultimately led to his demise are ingrained within his personality. Okonkwo was psychologically incapable of amending his beliefs at the cost of his honor. The structure of his persona would have collapsed had the Igbo culture been eradicated from him. Later in the novel, when the British colonizers made their way through Nigeria, Okonkwo refused to accept change and his resistance led to his demise.

Henceforth, it is evident that there is a correlation between Okonkwo and the Nigerian society. As the British colonizers intruded into the Nigerian lands and began to expunge Nigerian culture and religion, the Nigerian society lost its structure and as a result it crumbled. A change in the dynamics of the Nigerian society caused things to fall apart.

Okonkwo was not place in this novel in order to portray an admirable protagonist. Okonkwo was placed in the novel in order to encompass the untold story of the demise of the authentic Nigerian culture at the hands of the British colonizers.