Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Book Analysis) E-Book

Bright Summaries

• Herausgeber: BrightSummaries.com
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: BrightSummaries.com
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 33

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Unlock the more straightforward side of Things Fall Apart with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!

This engaging summary presents an analysis of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, which centres on the great warrior and champion wrestler Okonkwo as he deals with the challenges resulting from disagreements in his clan, the arrival of white missionaries in his village and the mounting tension between tradition and modernity. The engaging narrative provides a compelling, immersive portrait of Igbo life in Achebe’s native Nigeria and a thoughtful exploration of the impact of colonialism and of themes such as masculinity, honour, pride and disobedience. Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian writer who sought to use his novels, short stories, essays and poetry to examine the struggles facing his country and expand popular conceptions of Africa and its people. He is widely considered to be the founding father of modern African literature.

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• A complete plot summary
• Character studies
• Key themes and symbols
• Questions for further reflection

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Leseprobe

CHINUA ACHEBE

NIGERIAN AUTHOR

Born in Ogidi (Nigeria) in 1930.Died in Boston in 2013.Literary awards:St. Louis Literary Award, 1999Man Booker International Prize, 2007Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, 2011Notable works:Things Fall Apart (1958), novelNo Longer at Ease (1960), novelArrow of God (1964), novelHome and Exile (2000), essays

Chinua Achebe was born in Ogidi, Nigeria, one of the first towns in the country to be visited by Anglican missionaries. His parents had converted to the Church Mission Society, a Protestant denomination, but continued to respect their ancestors’ traditions.

Achebe’s gift for reading and writing in English earned him entry to the prestigious Government College in Umuhaia, which was modelled on English public schools and funded by the colonial administration, and had been set up to educate Nigeria’s future elite. It was a very academically demanding school, and students were only allowed to talk to each other in English, the language of their colonisers.

In 1948, he was awarded a bursary to study medicine at University College in Ibadan, but during his time there he developed an interest in literature and became increasingly critical of the ways Africa and its people were depicted in European fiction. After reading Mister Johnson by Joyce Cary, in which all the Nigerian characters were portrayed as either savages or buffoons, Achebe was so disgusted that he decided to abandon his medical studies and become a writer in order to prevent such glaring cultural ignorance and change people’s perceptions of Africa.

After graduating, he began writing his first novel, which was a major challenge because very few African works of fiction had previously been published in English. However, on a trip to London he met the writer Gilbert Phelps, who introduced him to his agent in 1958. The agent sent Achebe’s manuscript to numerous publishing houses, and Heinemann decided to take a chance on it. The novel, Things Fall Apart, met with popular and critical enthusiasm in England, but the reception in Nigeria was more mixed. However, years later the Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka described it as the first English-language novel to describe Africa from a truly African perspective.

Achebe has been described as the father of African literature, not just because of his prolific literary career (he was the author of over 20 books, comprising novels, essays, short stories and poetry collections), but also because of his commitment to getting other African writers published. This, coupled with an impressive academic career that saw him teach in both African and American universities, enabled him to transform African literature and the reputation of its writers.

Achebe died in Boston in 2013, but was buried in his native town of Ogidi. Although he never won the Nobel Prize in Literature, he is widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, and the over 30 honorary doctorates and countless prestigious literary awards he has received attest to the esteem in which he is held.

Did you know?

Achebe was highly critical of classic authors such as Joseph Conrad. In his essay “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness”, he described the Polish-British writer as a “thoroughgoing racist” due to his dehumanisation of Africans and his depiction of Africa as a vast, dangerous battlefield devoid of humanity.

THINGS FALL APART

THE END OF AN ERA

Genre: novelReference edition: Achebe, C. (2001) Things Fall Apart. London: Penguin.1st edition: 1958Themes: masculinity and femininity, tradition versus modernity, pride, disobedience

Things Fall Apart