Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1) in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Sep 07, 2017 Astrid Lim rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, classic, tragedy, culture, africa, popsugar-2017

3.5 stars from me.

Thing is, the beginning of this book is so slow that I always fell asleep after several pages. But the second and third parts of the book are great. The plot is faster and the conflict is more engaging. Sadly, the ending is so quick and a bit of a rush. Just at the time where everything feels so interesting - the book ends. Meh.

Anyway, a very nice introduction to African literature since this is the first time I read literature from that continent.

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Dec 12, 2012 Jeff Scott rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, 1001books, post-colonial-africa, classics, re-read

This one's been on my to-read list for some time. It's only after reading How Children Succeed did I pick it up. In the book Paul Tough mentions how it is used in the student's curriculum as an example of someone having too much grit. Indeed, the character Okonkwo is a classic example of someone overcompensating for a perceived weakness. He spends so much time being tough, trying to be a powerful man that he fails to see anything else. His story seems innocent at the beginning, an ambitious man This one's been on my to-read list for some time. It's only after reading How Children Succeed did I pick it up. In the book Paul Tough mentions how it is used in the student's curriculum as an example of someone having too much grit. Indeed, the character Okonkwo is a classic example of someone overcompensating for a perceived weakness. He spends so much time being tough, trying to be a powerful man that he fails to see anything else. His story seems innocent at the beginning, an ambitious man who wants to disassociate from his lazy and indebted father. He goes too far, becoming a menace to his tribe and to his own family, with tragic results.

The story also parallels the introduction of the white man to Africa. The colonialism of the white man starts with Christians and their “sweet talk”, gaining tribesmen into their faith and taking apart old customs in the process. That perceived weakness becomes a strength that would subjugate both Okonkwo and the African people.

I was more interested in the first half of the book. Okonkwo’s wants power and respect, but he doesn’t understand what it takes to be a true community member and leader of the tribe. His perspective is always to show strength whereas if he showed weakness he would have been welcomed more in the tribe and better handled the missionaries in the second-half of the book. I also liked how the second half parallels Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Though it is not as thorough as that book, the same message is conveyed so brilliantly in the end of this book.

Favorite Parts:

"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 kids 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. Even as a little boy he had resented his father's failure and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a playmate had told him that his father was acjbala. That was how “Okonkwo first came to know that acfbala was not only another name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken no title. And so Okonkwo was ruled by one passion—to hate everything that his father Unoka had loved. One of those things was gentleness and another was idleness.” P. 23

“Then listen to me," he said and cleared his throat. "It's true that a child belongs to its father. But when a father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in its mother's hut. A man belongs to his fatherland when things are good and life is sweet. But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland. Your mother is there to protect you. She is buried there. And that is why we say that mother is supreme. Is it right that you, Okonkwo, should bring to your mother , a heavy face and refuse to be comforted? Be careful or you may displease the dead” P. 208

“He sighed heavily, and as if in sympathy the smoldering log also sighed. And immediately Okonkwo's eyes were opened and he saw the whole matter clearly. Living fire begets cold, impotent ash. He sighed again, deeply.” P.221

“Does the white man understand our custom about land?"
"How can he when he does not even speak our tongue? But he says that our customs are bad,- and our own brothers who have taken up his religion also say that our customs are bad. How do you think we can fight when our own brothers have turned against us? The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay.
Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” P. 272

“He condemned openly Mr. Brown's policy of compromise and accommodation. He saw things as black and white. And black was evil” P. 282
...more

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Nov 11, 2017 Tiqua Lovett rated it really liked it

This was a well-written novel. It provided inside into the heart and soul of an entire African population before white men took over with their religion and politics. It gave the reader a glimpse into a culture that fully adopted a natural, holistic way of living. it also showed how the culture handled the infiltration of another population encroaching on their territory.

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