Research Based on Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart
Samantha L. Caramanoff
ENG130 – Introduction to Literature
Colorado State University – Global Campus
Dr. Olivia Burgess
January 28, 2018
Tradition and Identity in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart makes use of the imagery of rituals and traditions to provide motivations behind the characters. These rituals and traditional beliefs help shape the concept of identity that is linked to how Achebe presents the struggle between change and culture. (1) The narrative of Things Fall Apart is anchored on the idea of change and culture focused on the main character Okonkwo. According to Samatar, Things Fall Apart tries to rescue the past as it stands in the present by presenting the condition of modernity as a global reality (Samatar, 2011). The condition of modernity is a result of changing times and could never be avoided. It is taking place in the whole world and has become an acceptable fact. People must embrace change if progress is so desired. With this, the novel’s use of rituals and traditions becomes the anchor on how the past becomes different from the present.
Holding Beliefs Alive
Things Fall Apart, through Okonkwo, poses the challenge of holding on to cultural beliefs as waves of changes arrive. This is evident through how the missionaries entered the community with the purpose to alter its cultural landscape. These missionaries symbolize change in the midst of colonization and modernity. Their purpose lied in spreading religion different from what the Igbo people believed in. Okonkwo, as the story’s focal point, represents the resistance of the minorities in order to hold on to a culture that they call theirs (Nosek, 2008). The missionaries were foreigners; outsiders who were claiming that the beliefs they had were more important than what the Igbo people had. In specific scenes in the novel, it can be seen how traditions and customs helped people function. Their daily lives, at home and out in the marketplace are all influenced by their customary beliefs. This goes to show, not only what is represented in the novel that lives of people progress according to what they believe in. The things they do which are formed out of habit are rooted to rituals and beliefs. In other words, rituals and traditions are formed because they are constantly done. Some become inexplicable because they are done without any explanation. In the case of the novel, this is manifested in how Okonkwo needed to make the sacrifice. For readers who are outsiders of the culture presented in the novel, it’s easy to see how this becomes understandable. The same can be said when the missionaries arrived—many followed without question because they were no longer aware that they needed to ask.
Tradition and Identity
Throughout the novel, Achebe paints a colorful cultural landscape of the Igbo community in Umuofia. Traditions are alive and these are what define the Igbo people. Okonkwo, as an important figure in the community hold onto traditional practices and customs because these are part of his identity. His perseverance to hold onto his belief systems precedes anything else. This is also seen in how people interact within ...