A haunting parable. The final chapter of this book still stings my western heart with every reading. Others have written eloquently on this work - and some reviews on here posit an alternative viewpoint on the apparently uppity and unreasonable, if not downright ungrateful aims of postcolonialist literature - so you can make up your own mind on that. But gosh I think this was an important novel 60 years ago, and it remains so. A challenge to its western readership, from the use of untranslated words to its matter-of-fact, quasi-Dickensian ironic descriptions of the local culture as seen through the protagonist, and sometimes his children - already questioning their own culture, as we all do.

A complex portrayal of colonialism that twists the knife very well indeed. ( )

Although the main theme of this novel is the colonialization of Africa by Great Britain in the late 19th century, it also exposes the folly of hubris, particularly of its protagonist, Okonkwo. The first part of the story centers on Okonkwo's life in his agriculture-centric society, Umuofia, and its kinship ties, superstitions, and rituals. Okonkwo has some reason to be proud: he pulled himself up by the bootstraps, so to speak, not having the same advantages as his Igbo clansmen because his father was considered lazy and contemptible, and he suffered an outcast's death. Okonkwo fear of failure haunts him throughout, and he becomes hard man with an inflexible will and a fiery temper that he blames on his personal god because of the shame his father brought to the family. Although he achieves great success in his fatherland, Okonkwo is ultimately banished for seven years and seeks shelter in his motherland, Mbanta, where he again prospers but still longs to return to his fatherland. Upon his return to Umuofia, he finds much has changed, largely as the result of the British missionaries and administrators who are trying to "civilize" the non-Christians. Achebe explores the impact of colonialism on different aspects of village life and the different categories of villagers. It was refreshing to see colonialism portrayed through the eyes of the colonized, not of the colonizers, as in Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad. To be, the real reason things fell apart was a failure of communication between the Western interlopers and the natives. ( )

An engaging story about an African man, his family and tribe. Achebe depicts the brutality of the animistic, pagan patriarchal, honour-shame culture before colonisation. When the colonisers arrive they bring their own form of brutalitiy coloaked beneath British law and order:

It is a story of contrasts: strong vs weak, masculine vs feminine, fortune vs failure, pagan animism vs Christianity, African tribal culture vs Western colonisation.

Achebe depicts the first missionary to the tribe in contradistiction to the colonisers. The Christianity that arrives is bold yet gentle, confident yet wiling to suffer. In contrast to the darkness of pagan animism, the missionaries bring freedom from the fear of evils spirits, curses and capricious gods. They welcome outcasts and adopt twin babies who have been left to die in the jungle. They speak of a Father God full of love in a culture where fathers were harsh and unyielding. The missionaries weren’t perfect (especially the second who arrives later in Achebe’s story), but Achebe makes the point that the Christianity the missionaries brought enriched the lives of the Africans.

The final sentance in the novel reveals what Achebe thinks his work is about:

"The Commissioner went away, taking three or four of the soldiers with him. In the many years in which he had toiled to bring civilization to different parts of Africa he had learned a number of things. One of them was that a District Commissioner should never attend to such undignified details as cutting a hanged man from a tree. Such attention would give the natives a poor opinion of him. In the book which he planned to write he would stress that point. As he walked back to the court he thought about that book. Every day brought him some new material. The story of this man who had killed a messenger and hanged himself would make interesting reading. One could almost write a whole chapter on him. Perhaps not a whole chapter but a reasonable paragraph, at any rate. There was so much else to include, and one must be firm in cutting out details. He had already chosen the title of the book, after much thought: The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger."

I found this review helpful: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/830031498 ( )

Things Fall Apart is fascinating as it depicts what it felt like living in a clan in the SE part of Nigeria on the cusp of British colonization during the late 19th century. Written from the point of view of of someone living then and there, it personalizes that part of the world in a way I hadn't before experienced in literature.
The plot follows the story of Okonkwo, a man who worked to rescue his family name from his father’s disgraceful failure, becomes successful in his Igbo Chinua Achebe details the clan’s parameters of rules, etiquette, beliefs and hierarchies and shows via internal monologues the difficulty of questioning the rules and going against the flow.
Okonkwo holds fast to his deeply held machismo ideal and derides any man who acts womanish, a trait he sees in his own son. He prides himself on his successes, and plans to become a great leader but he himself breaks a rule that changes the course of his life. Eventually the clan – who had never seen or dealt with white people – are confronted with the influx of Christian missionaries and British political envoys. The intercultural clash brought in by the colonists is psychologically and physically brutal.
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Katie lent this book to a friend at GMU 12/2023

The ending paragraph is absolutely incredible and sort of reflects on how the book treats colonialism. Like, treating this as fiction you have a normal story for 70% of it and then suddenly English people arrive and the story completely changes. Okonkwo stops being an active subject and becomes an acted-upon object. It's someone else's story now, one he is not allowed to understand. The final paragraph says this very explicitly, becoming a (small) part of the district commissioner's book. It's a clever metafictional device that provides a different way of looking at the impact of colonialism on the human psyche, by sort of changing the rules for the reader. There's a running theme of stories and using them to understand our lives - there are quite a lot of folktale type stories mentioned.

Before that point the story is of Okonkwo - he's hardly a sympathetic character, being abusive to his wives and children and seeing violence and physical strength as the answer to everything, but it's also clearly shown how it comes from struggling to place himself in a society where he understands the rules but striving to be the best at them means suppressing parts of himself. He can only understand life in terms of becoming the most recognised in his village/clan without ever softening. The depiction of life in the village is strong and evocative.

"Don't you see the pot is full of yams?" Ekwefi asked. "And you know how leaves become smaller after cooking."

"Yes," said Ezinma, "that was why the snake-lizard killed his mother."

"Very true," said Ekwefi.

"He gave his mother seven baskets of vegetables to cook and in the end there were only three. And so he killed her," said Ezinma.

"That is not the end of the story."

"Oho," said Ezinma. "I remember now. He brought another seven baskets and cooked them himself. And there were again only three. So he killed himself too."

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This is my second time reading Things Fall Apart, the first being nearly 25 years ago. I definitely tuned into different aspects this time around, but it still hits incredibly hard. There's a good reason this book should still be part of discussions we have today about culture, class and race.

I intend to read the other two books in the trilogy at some point soon (definitely before another 25 years pass!) ( )

Once again I was glad to reread this. The devastating changes to the African culture are only a footnote in the story of the European conquest of Africa. Nearly perfect. ( )

It reminded me of Roots in the way that description of tribal life takes more space than plot (although this book is much more exaggerated in this count). Was this a literary device to give the reader the feeling that ancient tribal ways were destroyed quickly and fairly easily by Europeans? Or did the author simply run out of steam? In either case I enjoyed the book but would have enjoyed a more balanced and active version. ( )

Yes things do fall apart, but the sad thing about this book is what caused things to fall apart. In this case it was Christian Ministers going into a Nigerian village and pretty much forcing the people to convert ; or else... ( )

A very interesting book, and I went into it without knowing what to expect.

The first 100 pages or so were very slow. Very little plot to drive the narrative forward, and a lack of strong/likable characters to care about. The narrative was mostly driven forward by the setting and world. The cultures and customs of the tribe were fascinating.

The main character, Okonkwo, was a character that was morally despicable. However so well written, that it was impossible not to empathize. Him realizing that his culture and traditions were being erased right out from under him was honestly heartbreaking. I knew African colonialism was terrible, but this definitely made it feel more real.

While initially I was put off by the pacing of this, I think it actually worked out really well. The beginning is slow, and you get to know, and understand the culture and customs of the tribe. The last 40 or so pages go by so fast, as the white man gets introduced to this tribe, and their (and thus, the reader's) world gets catapulted into an entirely new world at a breakneck speed. ( )

I think this is one of those books that people have to read in high school. It's interesting. I worry sometimes that books like this (short, easily taught, relatively well written, suitable for speculation about the author's "real" intent) are asked to support too much (e.g. lord of the flies, the great gatsby, the stranger, etc.). If the included notes are correct, and I am to suppose that a character in the story is a symbolic representation of Jesus, then I think I have misunderstood the Jesus story all these years. ( )

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 with all of its flaws to counter any nationalist or tribal tendency to romanticize an idyllic past. Despite these flaws, there is a well-defined system of ethics in place that is necessary to keeping the society intact. Things do indeed fall apart when the British colonial administrators and missionaries arrive on the scene.

Achebe doesn't place judgment on either culture; the point is that whenever two systems collide and contend for power, tragedy is unavoidable.

Revised 2.3.12

After another reading, what strikes me is the juxtaposition of the two cultures. The Western reader is shocked by some of the extremes of the tribal culture, but they make sense in context. They make no sense at all when confronted with British, imperial, Christian forces.

Revised 3/26/18

What makes this novel so brilliant is that it is unflinching. The animistic cultural traditions of the Igbo are treated matter-of-factly, with the contact with European Christians laying bare the internal tensions of the tribe. Achebe avoids value judgments here. In fact, it is Okonkwo's inability to really critique his own culture to be his downfall. He is a true believer; he cannot adapt. The Christians are just as rigid in their dogma - but they have the guns, germs and steel on their side. ( )

This is a very complicated book to review because it describes a civilization that existed in the 19th century and was very different from the way i was socialized. the protagonist is very psychologically injured by English colonizers who have no understanding of the lifestyle of their prey. however, the misogyny and violence of indigent people was not one i could agree with. there were really no people i could root for in this book, which took place in Nigeria. ( )

My initial rating of this book is 4 stars but I can already tell that it is a book that will linger inside me, so I may end up modifying that rating.

I don't know when this story is supposed to be set but it includes the first exposure of a Nigerian (Ibo?) society to white colonialists & missionaries. The way this impacted the people & the end of the book made me so sad and so angry at the same time.

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Things Fall Apart is a great book to read. It allows you to change perspectives between characters at different times. ( )

Things Fall Apart has my admiration, but I can't quite give it five stars because it just didn't grab me emotionally. Achebe does a masterful job of using simple language to create a tale that address complex themes. He uses language to really create a novel that feels authentic to its time and place. He addresses parenthood, religion, myth, and culture thematically, and I thought the book was quite thought provoking.

The story follows a prominent tribal man, Okonkwo. Okonkwo was born to a weak man, and as children often do, he rejects that weakness and is "self made" through hard work. He is also a warrior and sees strength as an important sign of masculinity, power, and control. The book focuses pretty exclusively on this one character and his interactions with his tribe, surrounding tribes, and ultimately with white missionaries who interfere with his way of life.

Achebe is surprisingly even handed in his storytelling which impressed me.

Unfortunately, that also meant that Okonkwo wasn't the most sympathetic character to hang your hat on, and because of that, the emotional impact wasn't there for me.

Wish I had studied this one in a literature class frankly.

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Eu não sei se choro ou se explodo de ira com esse final... E tudo fica ainda mais forte quando a gente sabe que o processo histórico seguiu exatamente os mesmos passos que Achebe explora aqui. QUE LIVRO!!! https://www.planocritico.com/critica-o-mundo-se-despedaca-de-chinua-achebe/ ( )

This is a great novel that highlights how colonialism changed the way of life for the clans in Africa. The novel also reveals how colonialism led to a new religion and system of government in Africa. Achebe was able to illustrate how the clans were changed by colonialism. Overall, this novel is interesting to read and highlights the many issues that colonialism had on Africa and its community. ( )

An unlikely love, I found the writing fluid and the subject manner more intriguing then I thought it would be. ( )

I wasn't aware this was the beginning of a trilogy when I purchased it, but this first novel has motivated me to seek out the next two. The glossary of Igbo words and phrases was a welcome addition. ( )

Achebe, in this book, gave me a feel for at least one kind of traditional African society, and a heightened awareness of the damage done by western colonial powers. It left me with understandings and emotions I still hold, which is the best thing a book can do. ( )

Perhaps the only time in recent memory a book has surpassed my initial expectations. Very complex, quite subtle (when one understands its intent), and unfortunately squandered in the common core curriculum ( )

In the era of Black Lives Matter, I was deeply humbled after reading this novel. I am also ashamed for everything the white man has done to other people of color and different cultures. Who do we think we are? At the end of the day, are we white vs. black or are we all earthlings, rolling around this 3rd rock from the sun? Okonkwo is a flawed hero if ever there was one. As much as his patriarchal warrior manliness perturbed me, I liked him because he was a true hero, fighting for the life of his people. Unfortunately, the title really does say it all. ( )

This book tells the tragic story of Okwonko, a member of the Ibo tribe (now called Igbo) in the fictional Nigerian village of Umuofio in the late 1800s. It examines tribal culture prior to and after the arrival of the British colonial representatives and Christian missionaries. Okwonko comes from a low station in life, which he attributes to his father’s laziness and lack of courage. His father died in poverty and disgrace, leaving Okwonko to support himself at an early age. Okwonko fears becoming like his father, so he relies on strength and hard work to attain prestige in his village. His self-image is tied to his need to affirm and protect his masculinity. He and his three wives live in a compound of multiple buildings with their numerous children. He is easily angered, beats his wives, and suppresses his and his sons’ emotions.

As Achebe describes him: “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.”

Achebe employs a third-person narrator, in the tradition of a storyteller. The narrator’s style is colloquial, employing proverbs, folklore, and songs to tell Okwonko’s story. It is if he is looking to the past, relating facts of what happened to Okwonko during his life, and how he reacted to the many changes introduced by the arrival of colonial agents. It is told in a straight-forward manner, using the type of language that would appear in stories promulgated through oral history. Ibo words and phrases are used liberally, and a glossary of terms is provided in the back of the book, though the meaning can usually be inferred from the context.

The book is divided into three sections. In the first, Okwonko is introduced and his major life events related. The village life is described in terms of its customs, ceremonies, rites of passage, music, tribal religion, relationship with nature, personal chi, laws, social hierarchy, methods of settling disputes, means of communication, relationship with nature, and gender-based roles. This section slowly lays the groundwork for the sections to come. The village clan lives in harmony with nature. They use peaceful methods of dealing with internal disputes and they obey the council’s decisions. Punishments, such as exile, are meted out for breaking the societal norms. The second part of the book describes one such period of exile. The third describes the clash of civilizations when the colonial powers arrive, and its impact on Okwonko.

The brilliance of this book lies in Achebe’s ability to show the tribal society in a way that is understandable to the reader. Though we may not agree with the practices of the Ibo society (where wife beating is acceptable and twin babies are discarded as evil spirits), we recognize how their society functions within its own parameters of rationality. We see the basis for the miscommunications that lead to hostility. For such a short work (just over 200 pages), it covers a lot of ground and provides an intimate portrait of tribal life. Be prepared for “woman” to be used as a derogatory term in this patriarchal society, though the feminine is also viewed as “Nneka – Mother is Supreme.” This is a quintessentially cultural work told from the perspective of those experiencing massive change, as they cling to traditions and struggle to adapt. Published in 1958, it is considered a modern classic. It is definitely worth reading and I wish I had read it sooner.
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