Things Fall Apart from Multicultural and International Perspectives

Chinua Achebe composed a trilogy consisting of Things Fall Apart (1958), No Longer at Ease (1960) and Arrow of God (1964). The common thread among them was the Ibo (fictionalized Igbo) culture of the African continent. Cultural conflict is the main issue of this trilogy. The conflict started in Things Fall Apart and reached its acne with Arrow of Gad. This paper will focus on the struggle of Okonkwo to maintain the ethnicity of Ibo culture of the village Umuofia under the powerful authority of British colonizers. At the same time, the women of this novel will also be studied regarding their instrumental role in the plot of the novel and how they get also affected by colonialism. However, the research question of this paper is a combined approach of colonialism and feminism to explore rightfully the purpose of this novel and how far Achebe had succeeded in it. The setting of this novel is 1890s in Nigeria. Civilization was not at all advanced in the African continent at that time resulting in the inhabitants to live in the darkness of superstition and illiteracy (Aggarwal, 2011). Their life was very simple, and they were very fervent about their religion and god. Achebe noticeably uses the mean of criticizing colonialism also to point out the shortfalls of Igbo people that finally caused their falling apart.
Ibo culture in the village Umuofia practices acutes patriarchy. However, they have a very organized and systematic administration and jurisdiction. Their religion is very …