Plot Summary. All Themes Tradition vs. Change Fate vs. Free Will Language Masculinity Religion. All Symbols Yams Fire. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts.
The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of every Shakespeare play. Sign Up. Already have an account? Sign in. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. Literature Poetry Lit Terms Shakescleare. Things fall apart essay The Earth is seen as something holy by the Igbo people, something so pure and majestic that it is bigger than all of them, and this is exactly what they believe in; the Gods of Nature.
But they also believe in themselves, in their own Chi and their own achievements. The themes in this book are mostly based on cultural aspects like religion, traditions and gender roles and give us a detailed insight in to the Igbo culture. Things fall apart is a cultural record, as we get. English oral presentation Cultural strengths of the Ibo society before the invasion of the colons.
The novel "Things fall apart" by Chinua Achebe describes the social and cultural traits of a culture based on the principles of labor and masculinity, conformity and kinship and finally on solid juridical system. The worth of a man was measured by his strength and the amount of work he could accomplish and how efficiently feed his family, the concepts of masculinity is strictly related with.
The authors draw strength from their backgrounds to validity the authenticity of their fictional novels. Conrad writes from his experiences in the British and French navies while Achebe uses his African heritage. The theme of culture is. He remarks the suicide act by saying it was possible to dedicate Okonkwo a paragraph in his book. This fact slightly contradicted the theme meant by Achebe since portraying Africans as primitive differed from what Achebe wanted to demonstrate.
His father always fought against feminine behavior. His conversion to Christianity was to strengthen the symbol created by Achebe. His decision to take up a new name, Isaac, with the importance it carried, confirms his loyalty to Christianity religion. Though the exact name that he picks implies significance beyond the immediate sense of personal salvation, it brings out memories of the Biblical story of Abraham, where an animal was substituted for his son, Isaac.
The adoption of this name by Nwoye portrays the complete meaning of his conversion, which was the critical sign of liberation from the limitation of the family creation.
Weather takes up a crucial role in the lives of Nigerians, especially the Igbos. The availability of rain or its unavailability illustrates that the tribe was dependent on weather for survival. Weather limits the extent to which their crops grow and the flow of the rivers, which in turn influence their water and food supply. On sunny days, the sun is utilized by the plants and in warming up things. Nevertheless, excess rain or sun is likely to cause damage Rand, Invasion by locusts symbolizes a grand attack with devastating destruction.
Two important events are considered to establish the locust link. He pointed out the first arrival of whites and others on the way. This link of events was done deliberately. The cognition gulf is linked up by the myth of locust through the establishment of the unknown and known. People were not aware of insects though it was the myth behind them and the danger of economic failure.
The author illustrates the locusts that invaded the village using allegorical phrases that foreshadowed the coming of white men in African land. They intended to exploit all the resources of the Igbo tribe.
Because Igbo consumed locust, it shows that they are not offensive. The language used by Achebe in describing the locust invasion depicts their symbolic reputation. It is noted that the insects were too heavy, and that was the reason they broke the branches of a tree.
This was a symbol of how the traditions and culture of the Igbo would fracture on the attack by colonialism as well as white settlement Oyekan, Because Okonkwo had received nothing from his father, he began his farming through share-cropping. To get help for his planting, he visited Nwakibie, a great man of the village, symbolized by his three barns, nine wives, and thirty children. After the proper greetings and rituals, Okonkwo asked Nwakibie for seed-yams and pledges his hard work in growing and harvesting them.
According to the share-cropping contract, Okonkwo would return two-thirds of what he grew to Nwakibie and receive only a third of the total crop for himself, his parents, and his sisters. Nwakibie had already turned down similar requests from other young men. But he acknowledged Okonkwo's earnestness and ambition and gave Okonkwo twice the number of seed-yams he'd hoped for. The growing season that followed was disastrous for Okonkwo as well as for most other farmers of the village.
The land suffered first a great drought and then unending rain and floods — a combination ruinous to the season's harvest. Okonkwo was deeply discouraged, but he knew that he would survive because of his determination to succeed. Achebe's use of storytelling further illustrates how Okonkwo's resentment of his father grew, as well as how his own determination to succeed was tested — the two sides of his characterization as tragic hero. The separation between the man's world and the woman's world in Umuofian culture is again emphasized in this chapter — first, in the roles of the women in the ritual wine-drinking and, later, in the classification of crops.
Coco-yams, beans, and cassava are considered women's crops; in contrast, the yam is identified as the "king of crops" — a man's crop. Chapter 3 also illustrates several traditional ideas and truths that shape day-to-day Igbo life.
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