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A review by becca_themoodreader
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
4.0
Long story short, this book displays what happens when a ritualistic and great African nation with cherished beliefs and norms is invaded without warning by the Christian "Oyinbos" also known as white Europeans.
To begin, this was a mandatory book to read in secondary school and at first glance I thought I would've hated it. But, as my Lit teacher delved into this book, opening my eyes and teaching me to read between the lines, I grew to love this book. It's main character, Okonkwo, is about as strong and impulsive as a man can be and this brought his great demise sadly. Readers would understand why Okonkwo had such passion and determination to not let his village convert to the "white man's way", but the way he went about at it, was shown to be unsound. In addition, I wholeheartedly sympathised with his many wives and children because Okonkwo was a strong man both inside and outside of his house and his family felt the wrath of it, especially his son, Nwoye and adopted son, Ikemefuna.
Also, I get that back then men were seen as the breadwinners and women were there to produce babies and look after them, but good gosh, it's never right to constantly wish your daughter was a boy just because she has "boy characteristics". Like no! In all honesty, this book would've been amazing to me if I didn't feel unnerved every time a gender stereotype was reinforced and pushed onto me.
I won't spoil the book, however, because I believe everyone, no matter the race, should read this book at least once to be enlightened to the African's perspective to what we know in the Western world as the "European imperialism era". However, this book is a pretty controversial book and not for the ones who don't analyse books in their entirety and only read them for fun.
Side note: As a Caribbean, the African names were an absolute joy to pronunciate without butchering them completely and I'm really sure I say all of their names wrong. Also, it felt nice to be reminded of the folklore tales that I grew up hearing as a kid be portrayed in the story as a foreshadowing mechanism.
To begin, this was a mandatory book to read in secondary school and at first glance I thought I would've hated it. But, as my Lit teacher delved into this book, opening my eyes and teaching me to read between the lines, I grew to love this book. It's main character, Okonkwo, is about as strong and impulsive as a man can be and this brought his great demise sadly. Readers would understand why Okonkwo had such passion and determination to not let his village convert to the "white man's way", but the way he went about at it, was shown to be unsound. In addition, I wholeheartedly sympathised with his many wives and children because Okonkwo was a strong man both inside and outside of his house and his family felt the wrath of it, especially his son, Nwoye and adopted son, Ikemefuna.
Also, I get that back then men were seen as the breadwinners and women were there to produce babies and look after them, but good gosh, it's never right to constantly wish your daughter was a boy just because she has "boy characteristics". Like no! In all honesty, this book would've been amazing to me if I didn't feel unnerved every time a gender stereotype was reinforced and pushed onto me.
I won't spoil the book, however, because I believe everyone, no matter the race, should read this book at least once to be enlightened to the African's perspective to what we know in the Western world as the "European imperialism era". However, this book is a pretty controversial book and not for the ones who don't analyse books in their entirety and only read them for fun.
Side note: As a Caribbean, the African names were an absolute joy to pronunciate without butchering them completely and I'm really sure I say all of their names wrong. Also, it felt nice to be reminded of the folklore tales that I grew up hearing as a kid be portrayed in the story as a foreshadowing mechanism.