"Things Fall Apart"

Paper Summary:

The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the book, "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe. Specifically, it evaluates how the arrival of the Europeans in Nigeria transformed everyday life for the Nigerian villagers. It presents an argument about whether, overall, these changes improved society as a whole. It also looks at how the arrival of the white man in Nigeria spelled the end of a way of life for the Ibo and the other native tribes in the area and how the white men required strict control over the natives and wanted to make them "white" in almost every sense. In doing so, they took away the natives natural and simple way of life, and "things fell apart."

From the Paper:

"The natural world is primary in the Ibo's life, and the author subtly shows this repeatedly all through the story. He uses the elements of fiction, such as simile, to show how a corn cob is like the face of an old woman. "The name for a corn cob with only a few scattered grains was eze-agadi-nwayi, or the teeth of an old woman" (Achebe 36). This not only shows again, the Ibo's closeness to the natural world around them, it illustrates what they will lose as the white man changes their way of life. They will lose the ability to see the beauty of nature around them, and the ability to see beauty in the missing teeth of an old woman."

More papers on "Things Fall Apart":

• Essay # 137720 : "The End of Clan Unity – Things Fall Apart"
• Book Review # 73875 : "Characterization in Achebe's "Things Fall Apart"
• Book Review # 73851 : "Setting in Achebe's "Things Fall Apart"
• Book Review # 71173 : "Things Fall Apart"

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