Things Fall Apart
by Chinua AchebeOkankwo's father was Unoka, a man with much debt, lazy and without a title. Okankwo feared being like his father, and so he worked industrially, and came to have three wives, eight children, many yams, respect and a title. Okankwo feared weakness, and so when the oracle told the people of Umuofia to kill Ikemefuna, who was like a son to Okankwo, Okankwo helped to kill him, not wanting to be thought shy of blood. When the white missionaries came, Okankwo was in the land of his mother, having had to flee there on account of accidentally killing another. Nonetheless, Okankwo felt the sting, as his own son converted to Christianity, and was his son no longer. And when Okankwo returned to his own village, the land of his father, he found that Christianity had already taken a solid root there.
Okankwo and his family are depicted as being a member of the Igbo people of Nigeria.
Things Fall Apart is both the story of Okankwo and of his culture. It does not glorify the culture beyond credibility, but rather paints its flaws and strengths such that they seem to be dependant on each other. A glossary of Ibo words is included.
Do things fall apart? All things?
Thoughtful reading.
