Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, is a direct link to Achebe’s past seeing as he grew up in Nigeria as part of the Ibo tribe and was later educated in British schools. ... Whether or not Achebe is for or against British colonization in Africa is a question that has been raised many times since this book’s publication. ... Achebe writes this novel to promote a revolutionary way to understanding differences, to replace mastery and domination. ...
For Achebe to set up his conflicting sides as “different but equal”, he must portray both cultures as having good in them, and that is exactly what he does. ... The folk-lore style in which Achebe writes also adds an innocent, wholesome quality to the Ibo tribe. Achebe sets up the tribesmen as having a great deal of respect for the people of their tribe and the land that the live off of. ... For example, Okonkwo’s temper is easily flared and angered by women or womanly actions, but he will also do whatever he can to protect the women on his family. On one occasion he ventures out several times in the middle of the night to ensure a wife and daughter’s safety. ...
Just as Achebe portrays the good in the Ibo tribe, he acknowledges good with the British as well through Christianity. ... For many, including Onkonkwo’s son, Nwoye, Christian brings answers to questions about their own customs. ...
Achebe sets up the opposing parties as each having their own beneficial actions, posing the idea that the British and the Ibo could benefit from learning more about the other society. ... The greatest example of the District Commissioner’s authority is shown when he orders his men to cut Okonkwo’s dead body down from the tree:
In the many years in which he had toiled Africa he had learned a number of things. ... Even though they claim that the men are the superior sex, Chielo holds much respect in the Ibo tribe and it is Enzima, Okonkwo’s daughter that is given much attention in the novel. ... The fact that Achebe spends so much time focusing on the daughter before the climax of the novel shows that the women of the Ibo tribe are not simply objects of male exploitation. Enzima is the daughter that outlived all her siblings, she is strong, wise and beautiful; and although Achebe is not specific about the prophecies she witnessed in Chielo’s cave, it appears that she will go on to do great things for her tribe.
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