Things Fall Apart

by Chinua Achebe

book data

20,042 ratings, 3.62 average rating, 1,630 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		21%
4		36%
3		29%
2		9%
1		3%

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published

December 1st 1994 (first published 1958) by Anchor Books

binding

Paperback, 209 pages

characters

Okonkwo

setting

Nigeria

literary awards

Margaret Wong Memorial Prize

isbn

0385474547 (isbn13: 9780385474542)

description

One of Chinua Achebe's many achievements in his acclaimed first novel, Things Fall Apart, is his relentlessly unsentimental rendering of Nigerian trib...more

[close] One of Chinua Achebe's many achievements in his acclaimed first novel, Things Fall Apart, is his relentlessly unsentimental rendering of Nigerian tribal life before and after the coming of colonialism. First published in 1958, just two years before Nigeria declared independence from Great Britain, the book eschews the obvious temptation of depicting pre-colonial life as a kind of Eden. Instead, Achebe sketches a world in which violence, war, and suffering exist, but are balanced by a strong sense of tradition, ritual, and social coherence. His Ibo protagonist, Okonkwo, is a self-made man. The son of a charming ne'er-do-well, he has worked all his life to overcome his father's weakness and has arrived, finally, at great prosperity and even greater reputation among his fellows in the village of Umuofia. Okonkwo is a champion wrestler, a prosperous farmer, husband to three wives and father to several children. He is also a man who exhibits flaws well-known in Greek tragedy:

Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children. Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw. Okonkwo's fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.

And yet Achebe manages to make this cruel man deeply sympathetic. He is fond of his eldest daughter, and also of Ikemefuna, a young boy sent from another village as compensation for the wrongful death of a young woman from Umuofia. He even begins to feel pride in his eldest son, in whom he has too often seen his own father. Unfortunately, a series of tragic events tests the mettle of this strong man, and it is his fear of weakness that ultimately undoes him.

Achebe does not introduce the theme of colonialism until the last 50 pages or so. By then, Okonkwo has lost everything and been driven into exile. And yet, within the traditions of his culture, he still has hope of redemption. The arrival of missionaries in Umuofia, however, followed by representatives of the colonial government, completely disrupts Ibo culture, and in the chasm between old ways and new, Okonkwo is lost forever. Deceptively simple in its prose, Things Fall Apart packs a powerful punch as Achebe holds up the ruin of one proud man to stand for the destruction of an entire culture. --Alix Wilber [close]

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12/24/07

Skylar Burris rated it:

bookshelves: classics, general-fiction

Read in January, 1993

I read this many years ago as a teenager, before it was as well known as it is today, and then I read it again in college. Readers often expect imperialism to be dealt with in black and white. Either the author desires to see native ways preserved and consequently views any imperial attempts as immoral and threatening, or he's a Kipling-style "white man's burden" devotee who believes non-European cultures ought to be improved by supervision from their European "superiors." Y...more I read this many years ago as a teenager, before it was as well known as it is today, and then I read it again in college. Readers often expect imperialism to be dealt with in black and white. Either the author desires to see native ways preserved and consequently views any imperial attempts as immoral and threatening, or he's a Kipling-style "white man's burden" devotee who believes non-European cultures ought to be improved by supervision from their European "superiors." Yet Things Fall Apart is a novel that complicates both of those simplistic views. In it, a desire to preserve the native way of life coexists with an urge to admit improvements to it. A tension inevitably arises from the juxtaposition of these two goals. In Things Fall Apart, this tension courses through every page, and it is part of what makes the book so fascinating.

Achebe seems to despise the tendency to simplify complex human life. The events that occur in Things Fall Apart signify the destruction of an entire way of life, an obliteration of the ties that bind a people together. Yet it is not that Achebe unconditionally embraces the culture of the Ibo people. He makes the reader feel for Okonkwo's father, whose failure by Ibo standards is the source of Okonkwo's severity, and for his son, Nwoye, who does not fit into the strictly ordered masculine warrior society.

I appreciated, especially, Achebe's nuanced portrayl of both the positive and negative aspects of missionary activity. When the missionaries come to Nigeria, the church provides a haven for the discontent: for the woman who can not bear to leave her twins to die, for the outcasts who are shunned by the community, and for Nwoye, who can only fit into Ibo society by denying himself. I was moved by Achebe's depiction of how Christianity provides a place for the outcast: the hymn they sing about brothers "who sat in darkness and in fear seemed to answer a vague and persistent question that haunted [Nwoye's] young soul--the question of the twins crying in the bush and the question of Ikemefuna who was killed. He felt a relief within as the hymn poured into his parched soul."

Yet by providing an outlet for the discontent, the church begins to unravel the ties that bind the Ibo people together. Although the church gives dignity to the outcast and the misunderstood, the second missionary who comes fails to restrain his converts from injuring the dignity of other Ibos. Achebe makes us sympathize with Nwoye's dissatisfaction and acknowledges that Ibo culture was imperfect, but through Okonkwo he also shows us what was lost when the Ibos failed to preserve their culture from the onslaught of the Europeans. What was lost, Achebe has said elsewhere, was DIGNITY, "and it is this that they must now regain. The worst thing that can happen to any people is the loss of their dignity and self-respect. The writer's duty is to help them regain it by showing in human terms what happened to them." Achebe succeeds brilliantly. He painfully and tragically depicts the tragedy that can result when the only way of life a man has ever known begins to crumble. (less)

Like this review? yes (12 people liked it)

2 comments

04/06/09

Madeline rated it:

bookshelves: assigned-reading, the-list

How To Criticize Things Fall Apart Without Sounding Like A Racist Imperialist:

1. Focus on the plot and how nothing very interesting really happens. Stress that it was only your opinion that nothing interesting happens, so that everyone realizes that you just can't identify with any of the events described, and this is your fault only.
2. Explain (gently and with examples) that bestowing daddy issues on a flawed protagonist is not a sufficient excuse for all of the character's f...more

Like this review? yes (8 people liked it)

7 comments

02/01/08

Kelly rated it:

(review of isbn 0141023384)

bookshelves: fiction, truly-dreadful

I was so bored by this book I cannot even describe it to you. This is spare prose that breaks your heart in a bad, bad way. (Effing Hemingway, this is what people like you lead us to in the end!) I did not feel any sympathy for the characters involved. I tried to work myself up to wishing fiery deaths on them all (as I was obligated to finish this, since we read it for class in high school), but I just didn't even care that much.

I am sorry I wasted any minutes of my young, healthy bo...more

Like this review? yes (6 people liked it)

21 comments

09/15/08

booklady rated it:

bookshelves: 2008, adventure, classic, fiction, historical-fiction, literature, worth-reading-over-and-over------

Read in November, 2008

recommended to booklady by: Skylar

"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold” is from Yeats's poem "The Second Coming". Fifty years after Chinua Achebe wrote this deceptively simple Nigerian tragedy, Things Fall Apart has never been out of print. It's hailed as Africa's best known work of literature and I can easily see why.

At the heart of the story is a strong man, Okonkwo, with an overwhelming need to prove himself--to himself and his tribe; he must overcome the bad reputation of his drunkard ne'...more

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17 comments

03/23/08

Chin rated it:

bookshelves: advisory-10-2007-2008

Read in March, 2008

During the time period of 1967 to 1970 the Nigerian Civil War when Nigeria gain its independence, Achebe reflected back on his personal disappointment of this event. Although, this time should be a proud moment, his friend, Christopher Okigbo was killed during the Nigerian Civil War.
While this issue, this inspires him to write his first novel, Things Fall Apart in 1958. He portrayed the protagonist Okonkwo as a powerful leader in the Igbo society. He doesn’t have much troub...more

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02/20/08

Pa rated it:

I bought “Things Fall Apart” and was excited and eager to read it knowing that (1) it has sold millions and millions of copies since its debut in 1958, (2) has since stood as a symbol of a crown achievement of African literature, and (3) has sort of turned Chinua Achebe into a Hemingway of Africa. But as life has taught us many times before: great expectations come with greater disappointments. While “Things Fall Apart” never quite fell apart it never really took off either. But I sh...more

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02/11/08

Robert Beveridge rated it:

bookshelves: finished, owned-and-gave-away

Read in June, 2000

This is another classic example of "what in the world are you thinking assigning this to high school kids?" It's a pretty durned fine book, and there is much therein upon which to reflect, but I'm guessing the adolescent and recently-postadolescent crowd is going to feel a book like this is being rammed down their throats. And they're probably right.

Thankfully, I'm a year or so too old to have been assigned this in school, and I picked up a copy vaguely remembering classmates...more This is another classic example of "what in the world are you thinking assigning this to high school kids?" It's a pretty durned fine book, and there is much therein upon which to reflect, but I'm guessing the adolescent and recently-postadolescent crowd is going to feel a book like this is being rammed down their throats. And they're probably right.

Thankfully, I'm a year or so too old to have been assigned this in school, and I picked up a copy vaguely remembering classmates below me had had to read it. Perhaps my lack of memory about much of my high school and college days is a good thing, because I went into this novel without any preconceptions. I also went into it having read a few books from Heinemann's African Writers Series over the past few months, so I have something of a grasp on what African novelists were doing in the late fifties. (Not a bad idea, actually, since the "storytelling" nature of such tales can be jarring to someone who's used to modern American lit-- for example, your typical high school student.) All this being the case, Things Fall Apart, considered by many western critics to be the premier work of African literature of this century, may be quite deserving of its laurels.

Okonkwo is a tribal elder in Umuofia, a large village in southern Nigeria. He's the very essence of a self-made man, having inherited nothing from his father. Of course, events can't just go on day to day as we want them to, and a series of stumbling blocks face Okonkwo after he is given the care of a teenager the village has taken as a spoil of war.

The book is compared to classical Greek tragedy, and there are certainly elements of it here. However (remembering recent reading in Abel), to cast this as a true Greek tragedy would force a reading that says the tribal gods sent Christian missionaries to Umuofia in order to punish Okonkwo for various transgressions. I'm about halfway to accepting that this is what Achebe was after, actually. Otherwise, one is forced to read this in kind of the same way as the old joke whose punchine is "Job, something about you just sporks me off."

One way or the other, the writing is fluid, easy, and captivating, and the storytelling style is one I've always been drawn to (as opposed to the missionaries-- one white person, at the very end of the book, thinks to himself that one of the most annoying things about the tribe is their "superfluity"). I liked this one, surely more than my schoolmates who were assigned it. Those of you who were, and hated it, might want to try cleansing your palates with something by, say, Cyprian Ekwensi, or a different, lesser-known book by Achebe (A Man of the People would be a good start). Then tackle this one again. It's worth it. (less)

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01/27/08

Deborah rated it:

Achebe's acclaimed novel explores what happens when two cultures collide. In this case, western colonialism under the veil of Christianity confronting an animistic tribal system in a rural village in Nigeria. The result is a fascinating exploration of how one man, Okonkwo, who has invested his whole life into attaining a position of authority within the tribe, finds his whole world forever altered and his quest for achievement meaningless in this new Africa.

Okonkwo is not a man wh...more Achebe's acclaimed novel explores what happens when two cultures collide. In this case, western colonialism under the veil of Christianity confronting an animistic tribal system in a rural village in Nigeria. The result is a fascinating exploration of how one man, Okonkwo, who has invested his whole life into attaining a position of authority within the tribe, finds his whole world forever altered and his quest for achievement meaningless in this new Africa.

Okonkwo is not a man who embraces change. His whole life he has struggled against a legacy of failure and shame left to him by his father. Unoka, his father, was a lazy man known for the "weakness of his machete" throughout the tribe. Okonkwo in contrast, clings to hard work and almost an obsessive drive to achieve success that is fueled by his hatred for his father. As a result, he lacks compassion and shows little joy or pleasure revealed in the "manly" expectations he forces on his sensitive son, Nwoye and the beatings he inflicts on his three dutiful wives. There is nothing worse in Okonkwo's world than being called a "woman".

Achebe's talent reveals itself in his ability to create complex, multi-dimensional characters. Okonkwo is hard and brutal. He even participates in the murder of a young boy, Ikemefuna, in spite of the fact that he has grown fond of the boy. But Okonkwo must be admired for rising from nothing and the wisdom he shows in his farming of his yams. In spite of his gruff appearance he waits all night by the cave, waiting for Chielo to return his daughter, whom he loves.

Achebe's treatment of the church and of the the animistic religion practiced by the tribe also shows a complexity that forces the reader to acknowledge good qualities in both cultures, while also seeing the atrocities and injustices that both systems seem to promote. The tribe is more than willing to mutilate the bodies of infants and leave healthy twins in the Evil Forest to die. Those who are sick are often seen as having offended the earth goddess and are therefore tied to trees and left to slowly die, painful miserable deaths. Yet the tribe also strives to avoid bloodshed with other tribes. Ikemefuna is sacrificed only to reduce the likelihood of a more violent war with Mbaino where many other lives might be lost.

Christianity under the first missionary is compassionate. It seeks to destroy the superstitious beliefs that led to the needless deaths of infants, the cruel treatment toward outcasts, and the embracing of women. But under Christianity, we also see the arrival of a brutal colonialism that puts one tribe member against the other, fuels the injust enslavement and humiliation of tribal leaders and the corruption of government officials.

Okonkwo struggles with the adjustment to this new world. His struggle represents the struggle of Africa under colonialism and the inability of the tribal system to survive in the "New Africa".(less)

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07/16/07

Jane rated it:

Read in July, 2007

This has been on my list for a while. I enjoyed the economy of style and Achebe's choice of a decidedly unlikable protagonist, which was brave and made for a powerful rendering of a fascinating period of history. Chinua made a clever decision not to fall prey to the temptation to embrace a phony dichotomy - Africa good - Europe bad. He tells the story of the missionary and colonial movement in Nigeria in an unflinchingly dispassionate way. Okonkwo is an anti-hero, proud, cruel, misanthrope, ...more

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06/05/07

Keely rated it:

bookshelves: contemporary-fiction, novel, reviewed

Like the bloom of Native American novels of the late seventies, this book does not come from another culture. It does not represent an original or alternate storytelling tradition. This is literature that has already been colonized. It has already moved from the oral to the written, even taking the form of the quentessential western novel.

It is a tragic form of the monomyth, taking its cues from the Greeks, and from Shakespeare. I don't mean to say that it fails to represent the Afri...more

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03/01/08

Mr. Brammer rated it:

Read in March, 2008

recommends it for: Everyone

The first three-quarters of Things Fall Apart is immersed in the clan culture of eastern Nigeria (we don't actually learn the specific setting - the events of the novel can presumably be transferred to any sub-Saharan pre- and post-colonial setting). The society that Achebe describes can be brutally violent and superstitious, and the protagonist, or anti-hero, Okonkwo is so single-minded and angry that it's difficult to sympathize with him. I think that Achebe chose to show the clan society wi...more

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11/08/08

Sabrina rated it:

This book was incredible and a great page-turner. It has relevance to a real tribe in Nigeria. Okonkwo, the protagonist of this novel, really brought the defintion of standing up for what you believe in. No matter how much his own people embraced the white man's culture, he stook to his beleifs. Okonkwo refused to show fear, for he feared becoming his father. I definitely recommend this book to anyone to anyone who enjoys history and controversy.

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03/03/09

Zaywex rated it:

It was good, but some things felt strange and inserted just for the author's purposes. Like inserting a rant; well, not exactly that since Chinua obviously doesn't rant besides about racism and ethnocentricism. It really did teach me about Ibo culture 'no hands barred,' at least, I think that's what you'd say. The characters were great. There were only two truly dislikeable characters, the later preist and the man who wanted to kill the snake. Perhaps it's because Chinua is part of both cultures...more

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4 comments

01/28/09

Chase rated it:

Very sad...that's about it. It's just a sad book.

I always wonder why authors have to write these types of books. I mean, after No Country for Old Men I had to lie down and take a breather. There are section of Blood Meridian that make me put the book down because it feels as though someone has been dragging me butt naked, at a snails pace, behind a gasy horse over sand in the scorching heat of the afternoon. I mean, yeah it's sand, it's soft, not to jaggedy, and it couldn't be ...more

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03/23/09

Shelley rated it:

bookshelves: novels

Read in April, 2009

I really love this book. It never gets old, even though I've taught it a few times now. The teens, however, are so resistant to it at first because the characters' names are difficult to pronounce, and they find it challenging to keep track of Okonkwo's many wives and children. The other day, though, I was reading an excerpt from it aloud in class, and I caught a teen boy loving it.

This particular teen, who is not such a fan of reading, made a comment under his breath about how h...more

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12/15/08

H rated it:

I don't know if it is my western requirements or the book that is flawed, but I found this book sometimes maddening in the way it would introduce a story and then just abandon it. The most irritating to me was the story of Ezinma going to see the god in the cave. WHAT HAPPENED IN THE CAVE????? It just drives me crazy that we never got to hear what the girl saw/felt/heard on that night. Why was that story introduced and then never resolved? Like I said, maybe to people from a less western cul...more

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05/18/08

Dorothea rated it:

What you're supposed to get out of this book is how Christian missionaries from Britain essentially destroyed dozens of small villages in Nigeria with their white Jesus teachings. But instead I came away from this book with a new understanding of why Christianity can be so appealing.

In these Nigerian villages there was a custom of regarding as evil, women who had given birth to twins. Any twins who were born were immediately taken out into the woods by the villagers and left to die...more

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02/18/08

SVK rated it:

Read in January, 2005

recommends it for: missionaries

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

First half tells story of Okonkwo and his village Umuofia, his fall from grace, exile, and return. The reader is introduced to various tribal customs and their rational. The patriarchal village has a clear code of moral conduct, but it’s clouded by superstition and pagan beliefs. Ancestors are held in high regard—elders dress in masks and impersonate ancestors in court proceedings. Children are valuable, but boys are better. Twins are thought to be evil and are cast into the evil forest...more First half tells story of Okonkwo and his village Umuofia, his fall from grace, exile, and return. The reader is introduced to various tribal customs and their rational. The patriarchal village has a clear code of moral conduct, but it’s clouded by superstition and pagan beliefs. Ancestors are held in high regard—elders dress in masks and impersonate ancestors in court proceedings. Children are valuable, but boys are better. Twins are thought to be evil and are cast into the evil forest to die. If a woman repeatedly loses her babies—the baby is believed to be an evil spirit which reincarnates itself again and again. Men own their many wives and children—but cannot beat them on holy days. Women leave their motherland to live among their husband’s village.

Okonkwo is a warrior, known for strength in wrestling and harsh control of his wives and children. He see his son Nwoye as weak.

After a neighbouring village rapes a daughter, the village Umuofia obtains a prisoner. The boy, Ikemefuna, is assigned to Okonkwo’s house and is raised as a son. Years later the elders decide to kill him. Even though Okonkwo is advised to have no hand in the death of a boy who calls him “father”, he is afraid to show weakness. When the injured child runs to him for help, he finishes him off with his machete.

Last half tells story of English missionaries who proseletize and trample on the people’s ancient customs. Mr. Brown is a rare man among them, respected even among the villagers because he values restraint among the converts. He does not aim to offend the people and their customs. He is known for having dialogue with men—learning about their religion as well.

After Mr. Brown leaves, Mr. Smith takes his place. Smith is heavy handed. He does not seek to understand the people’s customs or accommodate them in any way. Under his watch a convert desecrates an ancestor, during a sacred ceremony. The village leaders respond by burning down the church. Men from the “white government” come to sort this out, ask to meet with the village leaders. The white men come peaceably, but turn on the elders, shaving their heads, withholding food, and humiliating them. They fine the village and ask for payment in village food/currency. After the six elders are released, they hold meeting to decide whether to go to war. Okonkwo wants war, even if he must fight alone. When white court messengers come to break up the meeting, Okonkwo decapitates one.

The court messengers return for Okonkwo the next day. The elders lead the white men to Okonkwo’s body which hangs from a tree—driven by the white men to kill himself. They ask for help bringing the body down because it is against their custom to touch a man who has killed himself. The people’s great anguish at losing Okonkwo is lost on the main messenger who thinks only of the book he will write—how to “pacify” the “primitive” tribes. He orders the people and the body to be brought to court.

(less)

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02/07/08

Tara rated it:

Read in March, 2007

I love the simplicity of this book. It so simply describes the pangs of being human, and that in experiencing these pangs it is part of what makes us human. The truth is that things DO fall apart, or, in plain American-English, "shit happens".

It shows over a period of time a cycle in the exchange of good and bad.

There's also a snippet dealing with Christian missionaries coming upon Ibo communities in Nigeria. Achebe is of Ibo descent and offers some interesting...more

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02/02/08

Elizabeth rated it:

bookshelves: historical-fiction

Read in February, 2008

Things Fall Apart is a quick read and is packed with information about the Ibo culture, which I found very interesting. The main character, Okonkwo, has a tough exterior and is very well-respected in his clan, yet he constantly carries this internal fear of being thought weak and falling into the footsteps of his father - though he is far from it. He aspires to hate everything his father loved, from laziness to gentleness, which makes for a man who is quick to beat his wives and children and d...more

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"Ogbuef Ezedudu,who was the oldest man in the village, was telling two other men when they came to visit him that the punishment for breaking the Peace of Ani had become very mild in their clan. "It has not always been so," he said. "My father told me that he had been told that in the past a man who broke the peace was dragged on the ground through the village until he died. but after a while this custom was stopped because it spoiled the peace which it was meant to preserve."" More quotes...