He and other tribal leaders try to reclaim their hold on their native land by destroying a local Christian church. Okonkwo returns to his village after his exile to find it a changed place because of the presence of the white man. As the number of converts increases, the foothold of the white people grows beyond their religion and a new government is introduced. While Okonkwo is away in exile, white men begin coming to Umuofia and they peacefully introduce their religion. When he accidentally kills someone at a ritual funeral ceremony when his gun explodes, he and his family are sent into exile for seven years to appease the gods he has offended. Shortly after Ikemefuna's death, things begin to go wrong for Okonkwo. In fact, Okonkwo himself strikes the killing blow as Ikemefuna begs him for protection. Rather than seem weak and feminine to the other men of the village, Okonkwo participates in the murder of the boy despite the warning from the old man. The oldest man in the village warns Okonkwo, telling him to have nothing to do with the murder because it would be like killing his own child. Then the elders decide that the boy must be killed. The boy looks up to Okonkwo and considers him a second father. For three years the boy lives with Okonkwo's family and Okonkwo grows fond of him. Instructs the elders on what to do with the boy. Ikemefuna is to stay with Okonkwo until the Oracle Because of his great esteem in the village, Okonkwo is selected by the elders to be the guardian of Ikemefuna, a boy taken prisoner by the village as a peace settlement between two villages after his father killed an Umuofian woman. He is a leader of his village, and his place in that society is what he has striven for his entire life. Although brusque with his family and neighbors, he is wealthy, courageous, and powerful among the people of his village. He is known to be hard working and shows no weakness - emotional or otherwise - to anyone. Plot summary Okonkwo is a leader and wrestling champion in his village. Achebe states that his two later novels, A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987), while not featuring Okonkwo's descendants and set in fictional African countries, are spiritual successors to the previous novels in chronicling African history.Ĭontents ġ Plot summary 2 Culture 3 Characters 4 Themes and motifs 5 Literary significance and reception 6 Language 7 Aspects of gender 8 References to history 9 Political structures in the novel 10 Film, television, and theatrical adaptations 11 References in popular culture 12 See also 13 Footnotes 14 External links Things Fall Apart was followed by a sequel, No Longer at Ease (1960), originally written as the second part of a larger work together with Things Fall Apart, and Arrow of God (1964), on a similar subject. In addition it focuses on his three wives, his children, and the influences of British colonialism and Christian missionaries on his traditional Igbo (archaically "Ibo") community during the late nineteenth century. The novel depicts the life of Okonkwo, a leader and local wrestling champion in Umuofia-one of a fictional group of nine villages in Nigeria, inhabited by the Igbo ethnic group. In 2009, Newsweek ranked Things Fall Apart #14 on its list of Top 100 Books: The Meta-List. Novel comes from William Butler Yeats's poem "The Second Coming". It is seen as the archetypal modern African novel in English, and one of the first African novels written in English to receive global critical acclaim. It is a staple book in schools throughout Africa and widely read and studied in English-speaking countries around the world. Things Fall Apart is a 1958 English language novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. For other uses, see Things Fall Apart (disambiguation).
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Things Fall Apart From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the novel.