Things Fall Apart: An Analysis :: essays research papers

Things Fall Apart An analytic thinkingThe culture of the Umuofia society before the colonial infiltration, may be badly to understand but we are forced by Achebe to realize it has traditions and tradition that make it work. Although, looking at it from our Judaeo-Christianpoint of view we may be appalled by some of their practices. We also get to torealize that they have strengths.Things Fall apart is the idea of balance and interdependence, commonwealth and sky,individual and community, worldly concern and woman or different perspectives on the samesituation. The central film of this balance is contained in the Ibo concept of"chi," which occurs throughout the novel. A persons "chi" is their destiny, his knowledgeable self, "you wouldnt challenge your "chi" to a wrestling match," as didOkonkwo when he assisted in the killing of Ikemefuna, whom he loved and whocalled him father. Okonkwo sins not only against the earth goddess, protectorof family r elations, but also against his inner most feelings or his "chi." allbad luck that occurs, people of this culture would say that you have a bad"chi."Okonkwos destiny is marked by bad luck, one rationalness may be that he is sodriven by the terror of resembling his father that he struggles to repress part ofhis personality with predictably untune results.This was a society where a man was judged by his own exercise and notthat of his fathers. Yams were the primary crop of Umuofia. A sign ofmanliness was if you could create yams to feed your family. Okonkwo is respectedbecause of his hard work.The complex patterns of Umuofias economic and social usage materializethroughout this novel as we see Okonkwo compelled to rid himself of eithersimilarities that his father had. Unoka had no titles, was lazy and when he diedwas greatly in debt. most may wonder how a society like the Ibos functioned, how they enforce