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sidharthvardhan's review against another edition
4.0
Called the father of modern African literature, Chinua Achebe is widely respected in Africa. Nelson Mandela, recalling his time as a political prisoner , once referred to him as a writer “in whose company the prison walls fell down”. He has inspired some big names in literature including Tony Morrison, Margret Atwood etc.
‘Things fall apart’ despite its ridiculously simple story is very aptly recognized. It involved breaking new grounds – the very choice of language of colonialists over any of domestic dialects was a major decision – Achebe thought English was the only language that can be used to communicate all over Nigeria; rather than country's multiple dialects. There was an effort at creating a common dialect but the common dialect ‘just didn’t sing’.
Set in Nigeria of 1890s, Things Fall Apart (Title is taken from a poem of W.B. Yeats) doesn’t wave any Tolstoyan worlds or tries to go into the depths of individual psyche like James Joyce. What TFA does is that it breaks new grounds; puts a dot of light in that undiscovered plane, which was so far summed up by colonial mentality as ‘dark continent’. The strange use of words and phrases, description of religious practices and marriages in TFA are an effort to extend boundaries of English language to create an African voice. They may fail on many of us, but they worked really well on me – may be because I have seen Indian writers openly using phrases from regional languages in English to accommodate local thought.
TFA is read in schools across Africa and being in English, it has gain popularity all over world, giving people a perspective to look at Africa that is different those colonialists (Joseph Conrad) or in present times, from Discovery-Channel-Men-in-wild way .
Masculinity
Set in Nigeria of 1890s, where people were entirely involved in Agriculture, with almost no division of labor except priests and farmers, the society is divided into small inter-fighting villages, no education to talk about, women being given as trophies for victors in wrestling matches; TFA points from very beginning to a society where physical strength is the sole virtue that can lead to success (wrestling and hunting are only sports mentioned). Thus being strong is good and manly; and being weak or so much as display a little emotion is being like a woman. A successful man can marry as many times he wishes to, a warrior takes pride in drinking from skull of the enemy he killed etc are common ways of recognizing honor.
Before we start judging this society, we must remember life was hard to these people. There is so much of talk of dying children - a few of women have lost multiple children. Add to that no education and the fact that lack of division of labour wouldn’t allow any art to prosper (except community songs and dances). It is almost imposible for these people to think in any way different from old ways.
An exemplary citizen
Okonwho, the protagonist, is one of best citizens of this society. Along with above mentioned socializing factors, there is also his repulsion from his considered-weak-and-not respected father to try to be more masculine.
He is the strongest in the village but also he has to maintain an appearance of being strong. He makes no display of emotions – not even in private to his family. The whole family is scared of him. He is too close minded to share any of his thoughts with his family. It is ironical that in effort to maintain his appearance of strength, he won’t protest against villagers’ decision to kill his adopted son. Again, carrying his masculinity to another extreme, he scolds himself for feeling sorry for loss of his son. However, after losing his honor due to a few tragedies he commits suicide – completing his tragedy. Too strong to live ,Uh!
Illiteracy and Oratory
One of effects of illiteracy, is that there is too much of superstation and religion in lives of people (Okonwho killed his son because of such superstations) ; another and more interesting thing is great stress given on oral language.
Proverbs and stories are widely used among people – as a kind of oral books. They are only way to remember anything wise, also only way to explain an otherwise inexplicable physical phenomena. It seems that art of oratory among masses suffers with an advance of education - you won’t see too many proverbs used in societies where literacy levels are high. Story telling must also had been a sort of entertainment – a beautiful skill killed by television. Of course even in oratory, there is no specialization, and thus these stories are so small. Bards like Homer and Valmiki can nourish only in larger civilization than a mere village.
Anyway here are some of proverbs:
sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them.
As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings
an old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb.
The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no one else did.
A child's fingers are not scalded by a piece of hot yam which its mother puts into its palm.
‘It is like Dimaragana, who would not lend his knife for cutting up dogmeat because the dog was taboo to him, but offered to use his teeth.’
‘As our people say, 'When mother-cow is chewing grass its young ones watch its mouth.'
…. as the dog said, 'If I fall down for you and you fall down for me, it is play'.
Looking at a king's mouth," said an old man, "one would think he never sucked at his mother's breast."
Eneke the bird says that since men have learned to shoot without missing, he has learned to fly without perching.
As our fathers said, you can tell a ripe corn by its look.
The white People
Why 1890s? Because that is when first western contact was made. Achebe fictionalizes the history of Nigeria from then on in his tri series. The first effect is that social outcasts (those not macho enough or those who are victim of some superstations) convert to Christianity. There is advent of schools (education and religion must go hand in hand) which offered great career opportunities. There is not enough opposition in beginning because there is a chance for local people to have a wider market. Later, when opposition is made – they are threatened by force. The book ends at point when these cultures are still clashing.
‘Things fall apart’ despite its ridiculously simple story is very aptly recognized. It involved breaking new grounds – the very choice of language of colonialists over any of domestic dialects was a major decision – Achebe thought English was the only language that can be used to communicate all over Nigeria; rather than country's multiple dialects. There was an effort at creating a common dialect but the common dialect ‘just didn’t sing’.
Set in Nigeria of 1890s, Things Fall Apart (Title is taken from a poem of W.B. Yeats) doesn’t wave any Tolstoyan worlds or tries to go into the depths of individual psyche like James Joyce. What TFA does is that it breaks new grounds; puts a dot of light in that undiscovered plane, which was so far summed up by colonial mentality as ‘dark continent’. The strange use of words and phrases, description of religious practices and marriages in TFA are an effort to extend boundaries of English language to create an African voice. They may fail on many of us, but they worked really well on me – may be because I have seen Indian writers openly using phrases from regional languages in English to accommodate local thought.
TFA is read in schools across Africa and being in English, it has gain popularity all over world, giving people a perspective to look at Africa that is different those colonialists (Joseph Conrad) or in present times, from Discovery-Channel-Men-in-wild way .
Masculinity
Set in Nigeria of 1890s, where people were entirely involved in Agriculture, with almost no division of labor except priests and farmers, the society is divided into small inter-fighting villages, no education to talk about, women being given as trophies for victors in wrestling matches; TFA points from very beginning to a society where physical strength is the sole virtue that can lead to success (wrestling and hunting are only sports mentioned). Thus being strong is good and manly; and being weak or so much as display a little emotion is being like a woman. A successful man can marry as many times he wishes to, a warrior takes pride in drinking from skull of the enemy he killed etc are common ways of recognizing honor.
Before we start judging this society, we must remember life was hard to these people. There is so much of talk of dying children - a few of women have lost multiple children. Add to that no education and the fact that lack of division of labour wouldn’t allow any art to prosper (except community songs and dances). It is almost imposible for these people to think in any way different from old ways.
An exemplary citizen
Okonwho, the protagonist, is one of best citizens of this society. Along with above mentioned socializing factors, there is also his repulsion from his considered-weak-and-not respected father to try to be more masculine.
He is the strongest in the village but also he has to maintain an appearance of being strong. He makes no display of emotions – not even in private to his family. The whole family is scared of him. He is too close minded to share any of his thoughts with his family. It is ironical that in effort to maintain his appearance of strength, he won’t protest against villagers’ decision to kill his adopted son. Again, carrying his masculinity to another extreme, he scolds himself for feeling sorry for loss of his son. However, after losing his honor due to a few tragedies he commits suicide – completing his tragedy. Too strong to live ,Uh!
Illiteracy and Oratory
One of effects of illiteracy, is that there is too much of superstation and religion in lives of people (Okonwho killed his son because of such superstations) ; another and more interesting thing is great stress given on oral language.
Proverbs and stories are widely used among people – as a kind of oral books. They are only way to remember anything wise, also only way to explain an otherwise inexplicable physical phenomena. It seems that art of oratory among masses suffers with an advance of education - you won’t see too many proverbs used in societies where literacy levels are high. Story telling must also had been a sort of entertainment – a beautiful skill killed by television. Of course even in oratory, there is no specialization, and thus these stories are so small. Bards like Homer and Valmiki can nourish only in larger civilization than a mere village.
Anyway here are some of proverbs:
sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them.
As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings
an old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb.
The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no one else did.
A child's fingers are not scalded by a piece of hot yam which its mother puts into its palm.
‘It is like Dimaragana, who would not lend his knife for cutting up dogmeat because the dog was taboo to him, but offered to use his teeth.’
‘As our people say, 'When mother-cow is chewing grass its young ones watch its mouth.'
…. as the dog said, 'If I fall down for you and you fall down for me, it is play'.
Looking at a king's mouth," said an old man, "one would think he never sucked at his mother's breast."
Eneke the bird says that since men have learned to shoot without missing, he has learned to fly without perching.
As our fathers said, you can tell a ripe corn by its look.
The white People
Why 1890s? Because that is when first western contact was made. Achebe fictionalizes the history of Nigeria from then on in his tri series. The first effect is that social outcasts (those not macho enough or those who are victim of some superstations) convert to Christianity. There is advent of schools (education and religion must go hand in hand) which offered great career opportunities. There is not enough opposition in beginning because there is a chance for local people to have a wider market. Later, when opposition is made – they are threatened by force. The book ends at point when these cultures are still clashing.
frankiepooh's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
eilisrowan's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
carolinekysela's review against another edition
3.0
the ending still has me shocked. i think plot twists were extremely effective in this book because achebe wrote everything very objectively and quickly, so you would have to reread the twists and ponder them.
it was almost like a brain teaser because it would be mentioned once and not elaborated on. you sit there rereading a single sentence being like "this is a big deal, right? i'm not being stupid?"
which is part of the message of the book: having strong feelings despite what the general people think. that's how okonkwo was.
it was almost like a brain teaser because it would be mentioned once and not elaborated on. you sit there rereading a single sentence being like "this is a big deal, right? i'm not being stupid?"
which is part of the message of the book: having strong feelings despite what the general people think. that's how okonkwo was.
qme5's review against another edition
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
treedc's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
tkamali's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
maddie_areadsalot's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
cloudwings's review against another edition
4.0
Overall, the book was fantastic, although what I didn't like was the abrupt and depressing ending.