Things Fall Apart

Things fall apart, is a novel that keeps you interested. The story revolves around the life of Okonkwo and his trials in life. He has taken his fear and let it turn him into a great man within his clan at an early age, though it has also turned him into what seems to be almost a heartless husband and father. He has shows little emotions through out the story other than anger and disappointment. His actions through out the whole story shocked me repeatedly. I was surprised at the way that he treated his wife and his children. He was very cold hearted and there was not one time in the story where I can remember him expressing any honesty joy. He spent his whole life being more worried about how people saw him then anything else.

The only time where Okonkwo showed any emotion other than anger was when they village decided that Ikemefuna was to be killed. Ikemefuna was a young boy that was sent to live with Okonkwo for three years till the village could decide what to do with him. Sadly even after treating Ikemefuna as a son for those three years, he was till able to take part in his death which was a shock to me. Even though he Okonkwo was told not to. I could not imagine being that young boy, who turned to the man that he saw as a father for help before his death, only for Okonkwo to be the one to kill him.

One very interesting thing about this book to me was the Ibo people, who are from the southeastern part of Nigera. This book shows quite a bit of their culture and customs that I never knew of. One thing that interested me was their use of Yams and palm oil as parts of their main cuisine. They also had a large belief in mythology. They had many gods that they refereed to within the book such as Ani "the earth goddess" or Ifejioku "the god of yams".

The author of Things Fall Apart, Chinua Archebe did a great job of writing an informative novel. That not only told a story but gave the reader lots of information and insight into another culture that most people may not know about. It was definitely a book that I would recommend to anyone who is open to learning about new cultures.