Khulan Davaadorj
The Identification of the main theme in “Things Fall Apart”
Chinua Achebe’s masterpiece Things Fall Apart, published in 1959, was sold over two million times in the United States and over eight million times worldwide. “Chinua Achebe is one of the great intellectual and ethical figures of our time,” says Leon Botstein, President of the Bard College. (Back of the Book) Certainly, the novel shows ethnical issues among tribes, which were evoked at the time of colonialism. Umuofia, an Ibo tribe in Africa, which had its unique language, its dignified culture and a value system that had continued for many years as they trace back into their ancestry. Okonkwo, the protagonist of the novel, represents the uniqueness of the culture; its best and worst with his own rises and falls, which unfortunately ends with death. Things Fall Apart deals with the social and psychological conflicts that were created by the invasion of the white men and their own culture. Achebe particularly shows the destruction of the African tribes and the negative aspects that were arising, due to the imposition of the western cultures.
The Ibo people had their own unique culture, in which they truly believed in. Every tribe in Africa had their own culture, their own beliefs and languages. The villages were never the same, for example Umuofia, the village of Okonkwo. Umuofia’s inhabitants believed in the chi, or personal god. It determined much of a person's destiny and character. "When a man says yes his chi says yes also" (page 27). But at the same time, one did not challenge his or her chi. The Ibo religion had a tendency to symbolize numerous gods. They had a god for every different natural phenomenon that occurred. They also valued greatness and courage. The main character Okonkwo, obsessed with greatness, was honoured by the tribe. He was a great wrestler and had gotten many titles at a young age, which reflected his power and his will to fight. Weak people were not welcomed.” They were mostly the kind of people that were called efulefu, worthless, empty men.” (p.143) The tribe hold tight to these beliefs and every man therefore tried to reach greatness, by getting titles. “Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten” (p.7). They also had the ilo, the place where all important ceremonies are held. This tribe was unique. It was pure, since no foreigner lived there. Most of them did not even see a white man.
