Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apar (Essay Sample)

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Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart”
Introduction
Chinua Achebe's ‘Things fall apart' is one of the prolific pieces of literature originally written in English and published in the year 1958. Achebe claims that the book brings into light the Africa's spiritual history where it categorically explains how the rich and civilized life the Igbo lived before the coming of European and the challenging cultural and social consequences that the European missionaries came with. Actually, Achebe wrote this book as a concrete and outspoken criticism of the imperial masters especially on the rest of the world such as the African continent. It is quite vivid that the cultural conflict between the African tribesmen and European missionaries had a great impact on Okonkwo's life as an individual and the lives of the two tribes.
"And at last the locusts did descend. They settled on every tree and on every blade of grass; they settled on the roofs and covered the bare ground. Mighty tree branches broke away under them, and the whole country became the brown-earth color of the vast, hungry swarm." This paragraph from chapter seven categorically explains and states out clearly the aspect of conflict between the two societies especially upon the arrival of colonizers.
The locusts have been coming for quite a long period of time, but finally their arrival entailed of a symbolic significance of altering the psychology and general landscape of Igbo community irreparably. Equally, the branches that break under the weight of the locusts are purely a symbol of the cultural roots and traditions of the Igbo community which are no longer able to survive under the white settlement and all aspects of colonialism. In fact, the entire societies did suffer a bitter and strenuous ordeal that goes thousands of miles along generations. Ironically, the vast hungry swarm is rather brown like earth and not whit; this lay of emphasis still is based on the locust's inescapable presence and consumptive nature. These European missionaries really consumed Africa within a very short period of their stay. Tension was the order of the day during the era of colonialism, the life of the two tribes was unpredictable because of the harsh and brutal treatment on the Igbo society from the colonizers.
"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.”
Actually, this kind of exchange between Okonkwo and Obierika appears towards the end of chapter twenty of the book during which they shared a series of events that have come to pass since the arrival of the imperial masters. This came out clean as the white men disregarded the Igbo's sense of survival and justice. However, Obierika points out the difficulties of these colonialists getting deeper into the Umuofians without knowing the local language.
Unfamiliar customs were sunk in many people's minds trying to dilute the Igbo's traditions which have been under preservation since ever. Equally, the blame cannot be put on the European missionaries because Umuofians who converted to Christianity consciously turned their backs on their own society thus the aspect of betrayal. In fact, the aspect of togetherness was almost done away with because the Igbo people became divided based on the iss...